EIGHTEEN

★Kiara★

I'm driving Lucille to Dave & Buster's. It's a little after 6 PM, and we just had some Burger King. Lucille doesn't actually know where we're going. Not yet anyway.

I hope she's fine with this. I'm not sure how she feels about arcades, but she's definitely a competitive person. At least from what I've seen from when we've played any board or card games together.

Sometimes arcades make me dissociate because of the dimmed main lighting and the bright colored lights on the games. Also the noise. But I really think Lucille will like it. Besides, I'm okay with pushing myself a bit. And even if I do end up dissociating, I can still have fun.

We're a few minutes away now. Lucille keeps throwing out guesses on where she thinks we might be headed. She guessed "arcade" within two attempts, but I never technically say whether that was correct or not.

"It better not be something boring, because—no offense—but I will fall asleep if I get bored."

"I can assure you, it's quite the opposite." I hint.

We pull into the plaza, the blaring Dave & Buster's sign clear out the windshield.

"Oh my god—are you actually taking me to Dave & Buster's!?" She sounds excited. I don't confirm nor deny, just pull us into a parking spot close to the entrance. "Holy shit you are... I haven't been here since I was like 12! It was so fun, but my mom didn't talk to me for like two weeks after that."

"Why..?" I ask hesitantly.

"I got more tickets than her. She's very competitive." Lucille explains. "Dad banned us from going ever again because she very much caused a scene inside, but I've been dying to go! I've been to other arcades since, but it's not the same..."

"Well, good." I smile over at her, seeing the excitement on her face.

We get out of the car, and I'm pretty sure if jumping for joy was socially acceptable, Lucille would quite literally be doing that. Good. This is a good sign.

When we get inside I need to buy a card to put my "chips" on. It's a stupid concept. It's all completely digital. No long strips of tickets to lug around—which I always loved oddly enough—or actual quarters to use for the games. It's also very expensive. Lucille ends up paying for her own before I can even offer to pay. She pulls her old Dave & Buster's card from her wallet and puts more on that.

"I thought you said you haven't been here since you were 12?"

"I haven't." She says, confused.

"But you have your old card..."

"You never know when you'll need it." She counters.

"You haven't been here since you were twelve."

"You never know when you'll need it." She repeats.

"So you just carry that in your wallet?" I ask in clarification.

"Yes. Yes I do. And now this whole date has been cheaper!"

"I would've paid for you."

"So?" She shrugs me off, and then starts speed-walking into the actual arcade area.

So far so good. She likes the location, and I'm not dissociating that bad. I'm still in check with my emotions and am fully aware of what's happening around me. I just need it to stay that way. Though the odds are pretty shitty. It's so dark—yet blinding—in here. So stupid. It's the same or similar thing for bowling alleys, and Hot Topic, and that casino my dad brought me to when I was 8.

"Okay, we need to do the fun shit first because most of it is more expensive, then we'll spend our leftovers just absolutely grinding." Lucille tells me this plan, and I'm totally in favor of it.

"So where first?" I ask.

"Basketball."

"What—" And then she's dragging me by the arm trying to find the basketball shooting machine-game-thing. Not what I was expecting...

She finds it, immediately putting her card in, starting up the game.

"You are very excited about this..." I note.

"I've been waiting 6 years for this moment..." She mutters, picking up the first ball. I laugh.

"Lets see your skills, shortie." Look, I had to jab at her height if she was going to play a basketball game.

"We will see my skills... As long as they are still here." She grins over at me. Adorable.

She shoots the first ball and gets it in. Then she keeps shooting rapid fire. She only misses twice out of the 38 shots. I am in awe.

"Whoo!" She throws her hands in the air, watching the ticket balance go up on her card. Jesus.

"Your turn." She nudges me, waiting for me to have a go.

"Nope. I have literally never been good at this one." I deny.

"Alright... Lead the way to the next one then, Bella."

I pivot on my heels from where I'd started walking. "Did you just call me Bella?"

She grimaces. "Yeah... Yeah, no you are way better at pop culture references than me."

"And the reference was..?"

"Twilight. I was referencing Twilight." She admits, clearly embarrassed.

"I don't know why I'm not surprised." I shake my head at her, smirking. We start walking again. "May I ask how you came to this conclusion though?"

"Well you're supposedly Marceline the Vampire Queen, and Twilight is about vampires so..."

"Ohhh. Yup, got it. Still awful, but I gotcha." Yeah, she really needs to come up with better nicknames and moment's to reference whatever, but it's cute seeing her try to match my wit.

I'm glancing around looking for the right game, and then I spot it.

"Listen, I know you said we should wait to grind for tickets, but I need an opportunity to show off..." I lead her over to a Cyclone game. The highest jackpot is listed at a solid 248 tickets. Good. This is good.

There's some kid watching a man, who I'm assuming is his dad, try to hit the jackpot and fail miserably. The man see's us approaching. "Pretty sure this is actually rigged." He says to me, letting out a loud laugh.

"We'll see." I crack my knuckles, only afterward realizing how cringy that was when Lucille snorts.

"Yeah right. My Dad has flawless reaction time, my sister too, and neither of them have gotten jackpot on one of these." Lucille is clearly trying to lower my ego, I think, but I will not fret.

The kid and the older man hang around to watch as I insert my card. I've gotta say, the audience isn't exactly great for my confidence.

The light changes direction as it collects the chips from my card, signifying for me to start. I watch the light pass. Hold... It passes again... Then again.

The music classes my mother forced me to take didn't help me with much in the real world. But my god am I a beast at timing beats now. All those hours hearing a metronome knock, knock, knock...

The trick to this game is to move your hand when the light enters the jackpot zone, but don't press the button yet. Get used to the beat. Then, when it's time for the next beat, you just press. I have a good 60/40 record of getting it right on the jackpot. The times I don't get it, I usually only get a 9, which is the next best.

Anyway, on that fourth beat, I press the button.

The machine's lights make a pattern all around, and I hear the kid gasp. Jackpot.

"No fucking shot." Lucille says, then covering her mouth and apologizing quietly after remembering there's a child right there.

"Easy." I say overly confident. Lucille shoves me in the arm, shaking her head disbelievingly.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." The man says, then he and the kid go off to some other game.

"Do it again." Lucille says, smirking. "I won't be impressed until you manage to do it again."

"Pretty sure you're already impressed, but alright..." I shrug it off. I move over to a different machine to get another high jackpot. This one is only at a max of 152 right now, but still good.

Lucille pulls out her phone, wanting to record this moment. "If you get this, I'm going to send it to my dad to make fun of him."

I sigh, though simultaneously biting back a smile. "Alrighty..."

I insert my card and the game starts up. I let it go around four times, and on the fifth I press the button. I only get the nine. Dammit.

"Wow. So it was just luck..." She teases.

"No! Lemme do it one more time."

"Fine..."

She starts another recording, and I start another game. The jackpot is 154 now.

I take a breath, counting each and every beat. Fourth beat, I press, and yup. Too easy. The lights do their little dance, though it's less exciting this time.

"Yeah this is way more impressive then me throwing balls." Lucille admits with another snort. I love when she does that.

"Thank you." I flash a grin at her, chuckling as she rolls her eyes. "It would be much more exciting with actual, real tickets... But we can't all be winners."

"Totally. I always feel so cool walking around with like three million tickets in hand."

I laugh. "Yeah... Deven and I used to go to an arcade near our apartment complex all the time. We were practically infamous for causing the machines to need ticket refills." I share. The owners were an elderly couple, and had owned the place since the 80s. They were sweet. I wonder if they miss us. Or even remember us. Terrance developed dementia a couple years ago. I hope he's still alive. I haven't been since this past May.

"Yeah, I've caused my fair share of ticket refills... My family at least." Lucille laughs too.

I decide to be a little bold. It's a very rash decision, but it's clearly a good one. I sling an arm around Lucille's shoulders as we walk off to find another game. She steps over a little closer to me. Success.

★★★

"I already told you—I suck at claw machines." I groan as Lucille drags me over to one. We only have around 9 or 10 chips left each. It's been a very successful time though. Genuinely thousands of tickets.

"Even so, I expect you to at least try and win me a prize." Lucille grins.

I sigh. "Fine." I begrudgingly put in my card and let the machine start up. All the prizes are plushies, ranging from brightly colored cats, to aliens, to a succulent for some reason. I go for a turquoise cat, since it's body seems to be at a good angle for grabbing.

As it turns out, however, it was not a good angle for grabbing.

I go through all three attempts, and fail. Lucille laughs. "You didn't even get the slightest grip. Wow."

"Hush! Now you go win me something." I'm praying for her to fail as well, just so I'll feel less embarrassed.

"Perhaps I will..." She approaches a machine with a bunch of morbidly obese farm animals. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, you name it. All of which have extremely large and round torsos with tiny heads and limbs.

She puts in her own card. She moves the claw over an obese yellow chick, and to my surprise gets it on the first try. You know, I'm realizing this whole date has just been us one-upping each other.

She reaches into the compartment the plush was dropped into, and presents me with the chick. "You're welcome."

We make our way over to the prize area, the chick tucked under my arm. I love it. I shall protect it with my life.

We get our ticket totals. I got a solid 3279, but Lucille managed to beat me by just over a hundred with 3387. It is a lot, mostly because we ended up refilling our cards halfway through.

"I win." Lucille gives me that shit-eating grin. It's cute.

"While that may be true, shouldn't we combine our tickets for that thing?" I point to one of the top shelves, on which a giant black cat stuffed animal sits.

"Um, yes."

We have the cashier person combine our totals, granting us 6666 tickets to spend.

"Four 6's. Yeah, we're fucked." I joke.

"While I do know you're joking, it's worth noting that number is often a symbol of love, especially with it repeating four times." Lucille explains.

"And you know this... how?"

"Dakota has been getting me into numerology. Now let's buy that giant cat."

We end up spending 5000 tickets on the cat, and the other 1666 on "friendship" bracelets, which are actually super cute, a deformed dinosaur key-chain that will definitely be displayed on my desk, lots of candy and snacks, and yet we still have 346 left. Though, we see that man and the kid again, also about to total their tickets. We give them the remaining and lug everything back to the car.

We also decide that we can bring the dozens of treats to the get-together at Deven's place tomorrow, which I'm sure everyone'll appreciate.

"You know, this is the best date I've been on." I say, my voice slightly muffled by the giant cat in my arms.

"This is my first real date... so..." Lucille admits, surprising me.

"Oh, really?"

"Not including middle school, because I don't think movie trips with parent's chaperoning is much of a date... So yeah."

"Well, I am honored to be your first."

We put everything in the backseat and hop in my car.

"I think we should name the fat chicken I won you Lucy, and the cat should be Kiera." She suggests as we start the drive home.

"Right... And they can be a couple of besties." I tease.

"Of course. Historians will really put emphasis on that part. Two close besties."

"Like us, yeah? A couple of gal pals who lived together." I deadpan.

"Definitely, bestie."

"Do not call me bestie."

"Mk, babe."

"Better..." I suppose.

"Well bitch would be my next one, so let's leave it at babe."

"Fine by me." I laugh softly. It's almost 10 PM. I am exhausted, but we'll be home soon. I am going to sleep amazing tonight.