arcade

chapter 1

I tap my foot to the beat as my fingers press on the various colored buttons on the guitar neck. Guitar hero has always been one of my favorite games, my mom first bought it for me when I was 8. I would sit in the basement for hours practicing, and practicing. I slowly became better, and better, and now, here I am. I play the expert level as if it were easy. Sometimes I even entertain crowds at my local arcade; I even get challenged to 'duels', as the local arcade nerds call it. I usually win, which sends the competitor walking out the door seconds later. I'm currently playing 'Baracuda' by Heart, it was the first song that I learned at the easy level, it's always been a favorite.

     I finish that song and start searching for new songs to play. The arcade that I play at is located in our local abandoned mall. It's not technically abandoned but there's only three stories in here, one of them being the arcade. The arcade itself is full of old, vintage arcade games and then some modern games. I personally, don't use any of the vintage games. I usually drift towards Guitar Hero or Mortal Kombat. As I look for the next song that I want to play, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I drift my attention to the mystrey person and see the most beautiful man ever to exist on planet earth. His chestnut colored hair is gelled into a perfect quif, he has a jaw line so sharp that it could kill. His muscles prominent against his skin-tight black shirt.

"Some other people would like to play today too." He said with a sarcastic attitude. Wow, I did not expect that attitude.

"You can play with me?" I suggested, ignoring his statement. It would be interesting how good this man-god is at Guitar Hero.

"I prefer to play alone." He said with a straight face, his brown eyes practically bore holes into mine.

"Come on, just one round?" I said, still ignoring his crap attitude. This guy may look like a god but definitely doesn't have a god-like demeanor.

"No thanks." He said taking the second guitar placed next to me, he took a seat in the chair next to mine and threw the guitar strap over his shoulder. I just stared at him in disbelief, how can one person be so rude?

"Come on, play one round and if I lose I have to leave." I said trying to bribe him. 

"Or you can just leave now." He said staring at the screen in front of him. He restarted the game back to the home page. I stay quiet, and decided to not play and just watch.

"Bye." he said, almost command-like, so he won't even let me watch him play?

"Bye." I mumbled back.

I set my guitar down on my seat, grabbed my bag and began walking away. I stop by the exit of the arcade and look back at the Guitar Hero station. I see that he chose the expert level, I didn't expect him to be that good. He then selects the song 'Cherry Bomb' by The Runaways. Its not the eastist song on the setlist but it's not the hardest either. The song begins and he hits almost every note perfectly. His foot taps to the beat and his head nods along.He slays the fast-paced guitar solo with ease, and slides back into the beat after his solo is over. When the song is over it flashes on the screen that he got a 99% and 560 note streak, which means that he almost tied my high score on that song . I can't help but feel a pang of jealousy towards this mystery man. He just waltzes in here, treats me like crap, then almost ties with my high score of 100%. I just hope that he won't come to this arcade again. To make the situation worse, he exits off the main screen, gets up, turns around and looks straight at me. He walks over to me, checking me out, leather jacket in hand. He stops directly in front of me.

"Think you can do better?" He questions with confidence. He's challenging me.

"I've done better." I reply simply. He stares me in the eyes for a couple of seconds, almost as if he's trying to figure out what to say. He steps around me and begins walking away.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." He says, turning around, " I really like this arcade, I think I'm going to start coming here more often. It was nice meeting you...?" He asks with a breathtaking smile.

" Grace, Grace Wilson." I say back.

"It was nice meeting you Grace Wilson." He said turning away and walked out of the arcade, leaving me awe-struck.

It's crazy how his whole demeanor changes in the time range of five minutes. He was rude one second and then another telling me that it was 'nice to meet me'. Who does he think he is? He's so full of himself, I can already tell and I almost had two conversations with him. I'm so fascinated by this man and I barely said more than twenty words to him. He said that he is probably going to come back to this arcade again and I come here out three times a week. I'll probably see him, I'm going to try to talk to him. I want to know why he acts the way he does, I'm curious about this guy. I want to get to know him. And i dont even know is name.