Nathan didn’t let go of me the whole time we were watching my ball roll down the lane. It seemed to be rolling in slow motion and seemed to take forever to get to the end of the lane where the pins were. Surprisingly, it didn’t head for the gutter; it rolled perfectly down the middle of the lane. Eventually it hit the pins at the other end, hitting the front pin, square in the middle. My eyes widened as every single one of the pins toppled over in a domino effect. I couldn’t believe it; I’d got a strike, and it was all thanks to Nathan’s help.
“Yay! I did it!” I squealed, jumping up and down excitedly.
“See, I knew you could do it.” Nathan smiled.
“Thank you!!” I said, running up to Nathan and hugging him tightly.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and literally jumped on him. He laughed as I hugged him as tightly as possible and I was giggling with excitement after scoring my first ever strike in bowling. Nathan held his arms around my waist and picked me up off the ground a few inches. As he put me down, I realised something. What was I doing? I’d only just broken up with someone and I was already throwing myself at Nathan, who I’d only known since this morning. Realising what I was doing, I quickly pulled away from Nathan and blushed.
“Sh.it..” I muttered, rushing over to the seating area.
“Are you alright?” Nathan asked, coming over to sit next to me.
“Yeah I think so..” I nodded, even though deep down I was so confused with all these feeling going round in my head.
“Good good.” Nathan said. “Now, let’s keep bowling.”
We got back to our bowling game, and I managed to score a few strikes and spares without Nathan’s help. It didn’t take me long to get the hang of things. We finished our first game, but Nathan beat me narrowly. After our first game, we went over to the drinks counter to get a Coke each. As we were stood there, I looked around the bowling alley to see who was here. I recognised a few people from college and some others I used to go to school with. However, my eyes froze on the group walking in through the door.
It was Matt, closely followed by his gang of idiots. None of his friends ever liked me. Whenever I was with Matt and they came along, they’d just spend the whole time insulting me and making me feel like crap. The worst thing was Matt didn’t even bother sticking up for me. He just sat there and let them get on with their bullying. That was one of the reasons we were arguing towards the end of the relationship.
“Oh no..” I said to myself as I saw them walk in.
“What?” Nathan turned to face the door, “Oh, is that who I think it is?”
I nodded. “Come on, let’s go back to our lane before they see us.”
Both of us went back to the bowling lane to continue our game, taking our drinks with us and trying our best to avoid being seen by Matt and his friends. In this second game, I went first and was able to score a spare on my first go. As Nathan took his go and I sat in the seat, someone approached me from behind and spoke right in my ear.
“Fancy seeing you here.” a cold voice said. It was Matt.
“Matt, go away.” I said, “I don’t need you here.”
“Who’s your friend?” he pointed at Nathan.
“His name’s Nathan. And he’s just a friend who was there when I needed someone after what you did to me.”
Matt came around to my side of the seat and sat next to me. He was uncomfortably close to me and was making me feel really awkward. I refused to look up at him, even though he was literally breathing down my neck. Nathan finished his shot in the bowling game and came over to stand in front of us. I looked up at Nathan with fearful eyes, hoping he’d be able to get rid of Matt for me.
“I think Grace wants you to leave.” he told Matt.
“You gonna make me?” Matt stood up and squared up to Nathan.
“You’ve got 10 seconds or I will make you leave.”
“I’m not scared of you..” Matt spat.
“10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..” Nathan counted down the seconds from 10. When he reached zero he tried to grab Matt and force him to leave me alone, but Matt retaliated by shoving Nathan and pushing him onto the floor.
“What the f.uck Matt?” I screamed. I ran over to where Nathan was and helped him stand up. Matt was just looking at us with a devilish grin. “Come on Nath, let’s get out of here.”
“Good plan.” Nathan agreed with me.
We took our bowling shoes back to the counter and got our regular ones back, before leaving the bowling alley and making our way home. Nathan walked me home as I didn’t live that far from the bowling alley. I sobbed a little as we walked home as I was so upset over what Matt had done. He had no right to push Nathan like that. He knew he was being a d.ick and he was bothering me deliberately. What had started off as the perfect night out with Nathan had been ruined just like that thanks to Matt.
Nathan and I got to my house and were stood on the step outside my front door, just looking at each other. I wiped the few tears from my eyes and looked down at my feet, trying to think of something to say. There was silence between us; none of us was sure what to say. Still nervous, I looked at Nathan and smiled slightly, for the first time since Matt bothered us.
“Well, apart from the little interruption, I had fun tonight.” Nathan smiled.
“Me too.” I replied, “I’m glad we got to spend some time together.”
Silence again. We still looked into each other’s eyes, but were each waiting for the other to say something next. Nathan sighed, and suddenly he began to lean towards me. Oh my god. He’s gonna kiss me. What do I do? I can’t kiss him! Not yet anyway; I’m not ready to move on so fast. Do I stop him or just let him do it? No, I need to stop him before this goes any further than it needs to.
“Nathan, what are you doing.” I said quickly just before his lips touched mine.
“Sorry.” he blushed, moving away. “I forgot what you said earlier.”
“It’s alright I guess.” I shrugged.
“I really am sorry, I didn’t think.”
“Honestly, it’s fine.” I reassured him, “Look, I’m not saying we won’t ever get together. I mean, I do like you a bit, but I’m just not ready yet. I’ve only just finished with one person, remember?”
“It’s cool.” he smiled, “I understand.”
“Thanks.”
“Goodnight then..” he said.
“Goodnight.”
And then he left.
