Taylor

Chapter Nineteen

The crowd inside the art gallery began to dwindle down to just a few stragglers. Luke and Will had already gone home, but Emily, Fynn and I were still conversing in front of Will's painting of Luke. The conversation had shifted from the greatness of the painting, to my decision to leave, to what school had been like for each of us. Listening to Fynn and Emily made me feel bad. I was well aware of the fact that I had sat at the top of the food chain as a football player and didn't have to deal with much. But both Emily and Fynn had a rough go at high school. Even if I didn't know either of them very well, I knew them enough to know they hadn't deserved that.

"We should go do something," Emily suddenly suggested, looking between Fynn and me with excitement. "Oh, let's go bowling!"

"Bowling?" Fynn and I said at the same time. We looked at each other, then at her.

"Yeah, there's this place that just opened up called Lanes. They have everything. Bowling, miniature golf, bumper cars, arcade games, laser tag."

When we still looked hesitant, she added, "Not to mention, they have a 21 and over bowling room."

"There's drinking? Well, count me in then." Fynn laughed before looking at me. "How about you? You in?"

"Of course." It really did sound like a good time and I hadn't gone to a place like that since I was a kid.

When we arrived, we found it overrun with people rushing around excitedly. I followed Emily toward the bowling area there was a register at a counter.

"Three for the twenty-one and up bowling," I said once I had gotten to the counter. The man nodded, told me the price, and I paid.

We got our shoes and headed into the neon-lit bowling room, which was completely full now that we got the last alley.

"I wasn't expecting you to pay. Thank you, Taylor."

"Yeah, thanks, man. The first round of drinks is on me."

"Oh, I get second!" Emily exclaimed.

A man came to take our orders and then scurried off to another table who had waved him over.

"Who wants to go first?" Emily asked us. We both looked pointedly at her and she blushed but put her name in.

On her first turn, Emily missed four pins, three of which she couldn't get on the second turn. She spun around and grinned at us, looking extremely proud of herself.

"Not bad," she teasingly boasted as she tried to act cool walking back to the table.

"Beginner's luck," Fynn taunted. The fact he got zero on both turns made his words even funnier.

Emily and I laughed at him as I took my turn. "Let me show you two how it's done."

The one thing I had done a lot of while in the military was bowling. So, it was unsurprising, but definitely satisfying, when I hit all the pins. I grinned at their surprised faces and finished my turn, missing one pin total. When our drinks came, things got a lot more fun as we all became terrible at bowling. Soon, I couldn't even get one pin, much less stay out of the gutter. Eventually, we gave up and left the bowling room, heading for the laser tag.

"We need another player."

"I'll play," I heard Luke's voice from behind me.

Turning around, I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Hey, Luke. What are you doing here?"

"Emily texted me."

I turned back to her, looking for an explanation.

"You said you were leaving for twelve weeks... I thought this could be kind of a going-away thing, you know?"