10. Laser Tag
TEN
“Click this thing for me,”Isaac said, pointing over his shoulder to the buckle on the back of his laser tag vest. “Where do we get our weapons, and are we seriously the only ones here?”
“We’re at a roller rink at nine p.m. on a school night,” Avery pointed out. “I guess no skaters means no one here to plays laser tag on their breaks, so it looks like just us.”
“Then you’re toast, my friend. Burnt toast. Tiny crumbs.”
“Isaac. Before we go shoot each other, I need to talk to you about something a little awkward.”
He nudged her to the counter where a bored employee waited. “Seems like a good time to pick up guns, then.”
“Saturday was not the first time I met Cameron. I mean, it was, but I didn’t even know his name. We see each other every day in this lounge we always go to at the same time, but we never talked.”
Isaac held up two fingers to the counter worker and nodded. “So now you know him, and from your face, I’m guessing that’s a problem.”
“Don’t laugh.”
He handed her a bright green laser pistol. “I dare not.”
“I had a weird little crush on him even though he was kind of a jerk and ignored me, and today when I saw him, he was super apologetic and friendly.”
“Weird little crush notwithstanding, that seems good.”
She pulled him into the laser tag maze and checked their weapons. “Except…”
“Except?”
“Except he said he was being nice because I’m his friend’s girlfriend, and I kind of didn’t correct him about that.”
She ran.
“Avery!”
She ducked through a low entrance into a room with narrow windows.
“Wait, he thought we were together just because we were talking?” he asked.
“I guess we looked kind of cozy,” she said, firing through a window. “I don’t know. I’m a cozy person.”
He fired back. “I’m a cozy person, too. Why didn’t you tell him?”
Once he passed the entrance to the room, she scooted back into the hallway. “Because he seemed happy for once,” she said, and caught him on the shoulder. “I’ve never seen him happy. And he said—hey!”
“Boom,” he said, striking a hero pose as she inspected the glowing dot on her side.
“He said if I was with you, I was one of the good guys.” She darted up a short flight of steps.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means he talks to me now since he thinks I’m in his safe space when the rest of his life is stress.” Firing over her shoulder, she looked for the entrance to a catwalk strung overhead.
“Being Justin’s sister wasn’t enough?”
“He didn’t know.”
She jumped a fake creek and her footsteps caught his attention.
“I’ve never had a girlfriend, and this is how I land one?”
She stopped. “You’ve never had a girlfriend? Ever?”
Her vest lit up on her other side, and she followed the burst of his laughter.
“I haven’t,” he said, his voice taunting her from higher ground. “I have three brothers and they all had or have girlfriends, and I can see it’s not worth the trouble at this age.”
Avery scanned the room and ducked behind a rock. “Well, do you want a girlfriend, anyway?”
“Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”
She fired, and a blue light lit up between his shoulder blades as she ran up the entrance to the catwalk. “I’m asking if we can just be cozy again another time or two.”
“If you like him, why do you want him to think you and I are a couple?” His footsteps receded.
“Because then I’m still one of the good guys while he gets to know me a little and sees how amazing I am.”
“That sounds a little dishonest.” He leapt from a room out of nowhere and grabbed her arm, then aimed his pistol at her heart. “Gotcha.”
She pointed her gun at his stomach. “Yeah, but it gets you out of having to talk to people you don’t know at parties. You get to hang with your friends, and no girl is going to try and get cozy with you if I don’t leave my seat.”
He startled, but didn’t relax his grip on her arm. “We agreed you were my protection, anyway.”
“So, maybe we let people make their assumptions.”
She met his eyes in the neon green light, and he nudged her with the barrel of the gun. “You want him to be jealous?”
“No. I want him to keep talking to me.”
“Where’s Justin in all this?”
“Justin will have to know we’re faking it, or he’d start picking out my wedding dress. Look, I haven’t lied to Cam. I don’t want to. I just won’t correct him thinking we’re together, and then at some point in the very near future, I’ll tell him we aren’t.”
“And never were?”
“Do I have to say that part?”
The neon light shifted to purple, and he dropped her arm. “He’s my friend.”
“Then don’t you think it’s good for the guy who’s been so miserable since training camp to snap out of it to talk to someone? There is something between us waiting to happen. I can’t let that slip away. I think he just needs a little cushion to be sure I’m not just more trouble.”
He smiled. “I might argue that last point.”
“My motives are entirely pure.”
“Crushes are never entirely pure.”
She aimed at his ribs. “You know what I mean. Look, if I was going to be your cozy buddy at parties anyway, can we still just do that? Then if anyone asks point-blank if we’re together, we’ll say no. But if that happens, I’ll expedite my personal timeline, flirt with him like a normal girl, and leave you to your own devices.”
“No,” he whined. “You’re the one who told me how good it was for me to get out and conquer a little anxiety by meeting people in a safe environment. You’re my safe environment. Why is Cam the only one who gets a safe space with you?”
She drew back from him and raised her pistol. “Good sir, we are at an impasse.”
He raised his in return with a theatrical laugh. “All right. I propose we’ll stay cozy for four weeks and let people think what they think, but we won’t lie about it.”
“Did you just propose to me? Isaac. I didn’t mean that cozy.”
“Do not make me fire this gun. One more hit, and you’re toast.”
“So are you. What happens at the end of four weeks?”
“We stage a breakup and declare our undying friendship. Then you seduce Cam, but I get to hang with both of you if we are at the same parties, and I reserve the right to be a little clingy about it.”
“I appreciate your faith in my powers of speedy seduction.”
“I’m immune, though.” He lowered his gun.
She waited to speak until he met her eyes. “You’re immune because you’ll find the one, and that will be it for you. Toast. And when that happens, you can tell the future Mrs. Isaac Fields you’ve never been attracted to your dear, cozy friend who brings popsicles to every holiday.”
“I appreciate things like this about you, Avery. A lot of girls would have taken that statement as a challenge.”
“A lot of girls would have lowered their guns when you did.”
He inspected the glowing red cross on his chest. “Oops.”