by Magan Vernon
"If you'd rather go back to the ranch, we can do that too. I found some more albums up in the attic," he whispered, his lips vibrating on my ear.
I clenched my legs closed, trying not to think about what Sonny said. About what Jay wanted from me. I had to play it cool.
"No. Rock and bowl is totally fine."
The bowling alley was about a twenty-minute drive from my house. You could practically see the neon signs from the highway that advertised every single beer known to man. Scotty circled the parking lot until he found a spot near the back of the old brick building and hopped enthusiastically out of the car like he was running into the summer sun instead of the cold night air.
"Do you really think we're going to be able to just walk into a bowling alley without getting mobbed by a bunch of fans and reporters?" I asked as Jay took my hand to help me out of the Navigator.
His hands were so soft yet so rough at the same time. They were mainly hands. Manly large hands. I wondered if what people said about big hands were true. I'd never actually seen a penis in person except for when I babysat or watched really bad scrambled porn at Sofie’s.
Yes, I get it. Loser.
Now I was holding hands with one of the hottest men alive and thinking about penises.
He tilted his head, letting his eyes scan the parking lot. "I think you overestimate the power of swimmers. No one is going to be following us unless we're at the pool and it's usually just swim bloggers. Nothing too exciting. Well most of the time."
I didn't want to mention how much I'd seen of him on TNC, especially now since Jay had resurfaced on their radar. I just chewed on my bottom lip and kept my mouth shut.
"Come on, Lia, do you think anyone cares if Jay Morningstar is around? He's the least attractive of us. Now me on the other hand..." Scotty poked his head in between Jay and me. He smelled like a mixture of expensive cologne and Oregano. The scent was enough to defrost my nose.
I arched an eyebrow looking over at Scotty as he slid out in front of us, a cock-eyed smirk on his face before he opened the glass door to the bowling alley.
We stopped at a small desk where a bored looking teenager barely looked up for us to pay. I wasn't expecting Jay to pay, so I brought my wallet but he moved too fast for me to even offer. Before I knew it, his hand was back on mine and we were making our way through the bowling alley.
A few older guys with long white beards and leather jackets stared at us as we entered, but quickly went back to their drinks as if we weren't interesting enough. Beyond the bar, the bowling alley was only lit by black lights with the fluorescent signs on the walls glowing against the lanes that hadn't been updated since the 1970s. I'm pretty sure they weren't exactly up to code with the squeaky ball returns and peeled wooden lanes.
"I get the pink ball!" Scotty yelled, making a beeline for the last lane with Johnny following close behind. Most of the other people bowling were at the other end of the bowling alley. Aka a lot of middle school kids who were too busy grinding up on the person next to them to some screaming dance music and didn't even notice us between the flashes of strobe lights.
Sofie couldn't take her eyes off of the boys as she followed them like a small puppy toward the lane.
"Looks like she's enjoying herself." Jay leaned in toward me.
"I hope she's not the only one," I whispered, trying to be seductive and rubbing my side against his, but tripped over my own feet and almost face planted right into a rack of bowling balls.
"Whoa." Jay put his arm out in front of me, stopping my body before I fell to the floor.
Scotty and Johnny looked up from the ball rack, their eyes widening.
"Didn't know you were that excited about bowling." Scotty laughed, rolling a bright pink ball between his palms.
"Oh yeah, all Sicilian girls are really into knocking things down with huge balls." I rolled my eyes and stepped down to the lane.
"That's what she said," Sofie piped up from the other end of the rack. The comment made Scotty and Johnny crack up as they high-fived her.
I turned toward Jay. "Is it bad that I think my best friend is on the same brain waves as Scotty and Johnny?"
Jay glanced at the three of them over my shoulder while I sat down next to him and shrugged my coat off and onto the chair. "Well, that depends."
He slid his arm around my waist pulling me closer, the barely-there stubble of his chin brushing against my face. "Do you want our friends to be distracted by each other so we can have more alone time or would you rather have them by our side all night?"
"Touché." I leaned in to kiss him when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I groaned, somehow Jay and I were always getting interrupted. I turned around to see Sofie staring down at me as she fidgeted from one side of her body to the other.
"Yes, Sofie?" I looked up and gave her a look that said, this better be important or I I’m going to kill you later.
"Um, I was just hoping you’d go to the snack bar with me and get a drink before we started playing." She wiggled her eyebrows motioning her head in the direction of the other two guys.
"Either your friend has some kind of a disorder, or she's trying to give you a hint at something." Jay laughed and slid his arm out from around me before squeezing my shoulder.
I rolled my eyes and stood up next to Sofie, staring right at her to answer Jay. "I think it's a little bit of both."
"Oh, come on." She let out a huge breath of air through her braces as she linked her arms with mine and dragged me toward the snack bar.
"Are we really getting drinks?" I leaned in, almost whispering as we exited the lane.
Sofie shrugged, "Maybe, but I just had to get out of there to ask you the game plan, so the guys wouldn't hear."
"Game plan?"
She rolled her eyes as her boots clanked on the linoleum floor. I had only seen Sofie wear heels about twice in our life. Once at our confirmation and the other time at our freshman homecoming. It showed since she wobbled on her tippy toes toward the concession stand. "Are we actually staying here all night? Aren't you worried about someone seeing you?"
I shrugged, looking around the bowling alley. I couldn't recognize anyone through the fog machine and our lane was all the way at the other end from where most of Rock and Bowl was going on. "I don't think anyone can really see us…"
Sofie pushed a stray curl out of her face as we approached the snack bar. "I mean I don't care if I get recognized with some of the hottest guys on the planet, but I could just imagine what your mom would say if she saw us on TV or something."
“It's fine. No one even knows we're here."
"Oh em gee!"
And with that high-pitched squeal I knew I spoke too soon. My body tensed as I slowly turned around to see Christy standing there with Abbey, a girl who went to college with us. I liked Abbey well enough; her biggest flaw was that she was always in Christy's shadow.
Shouldn't Christy have been at school or something? Though, she did come home for the weekend a lot. She said it was to see the ranch, but I always wondered if there was another motive.
"I knew it was too good to be true. There was no way a hottie like Jay Morningstar would stay with dough girl." She smirked, her lips that were practically sticking together from large amounts of lip gloss. "So instead you bring Tweedle Dumb with you, knowing this is the place we all used to go in high school when we didn't want to get carded. Still trying to be a cool kid, I see."
"Actually…" Sofie tried to speak, but her words were drowned out by Christy's witch-like cackle as Abbey whispered something in her ear.
"Come on Sofie, let's just go back to our lane…" I muttered, tugging at her shirt.
Sofie nodded with a look of defeat on her face as she put her head down and started toward the lane. But before we could even get two feet we were stopped by a familiar voice.
"There you two are!" Johnny came bolting toward us, almost crashing right into us. He stuck part of a licorice rope behind his ear and looked right at Sofie. "I was hoping
you didn't ditch me for another guy or something."
Sofie looked up from the floor, her face almost as red as Johnny's licorice rope. I glanced over at Christy and Abbey who had their mouths wide open.
"Uh, yeah we were just about to get a drink," Sofie stammered.
Johnny put his arms out, interlocking his fingers with the loops of her skirt to pull her closer until their foreheads were touching. "Well, next time, tell me when you're leaving."
She barely got out a response when Johnny sealed her lips with his, bringing her into a kiss that I had to look away from, because it was way too passionate and really loud.
"Hey, Lia." Jay pounced from behind Johnny and ran up next to me, before doing a double take and staring in Sofie and Johnny's tongue-tied direction.
"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" he whispered.
I looked over in Christy's direction, but she had already stomped off with Abbey in tow
"Yeah…" I smiled, pulling him closer to my side and walked back toward the lane. "I don't think we're going to have to worry about them for awhile."
I was pretty sure we were free and clear of the Dolce drones and actually began to enjoy myself as we bowled. Even though it was Scotty's idea to go bowling, he was really terrible at it. He used the granny shot and didn't get a score that was higher than five each time he rolled the ball. That didn't stop him from smack talking everyone else when it was their turn.
"You got nothing, Morningstar!" he yelled crouching down right next to Jay as he got in position to throw his ball.
I watched the muscles tighten in Jay's back, his gray sweater molding into the curves of his shoulders. I bit my lip, and looked down at my already chipped nail polish, trying not to stare at his flawless body. But who could really help it? Jay Morningstar had been the guy of my dreams since I first saw him on TV and now he was really here. Not just standing in front of me but with me at the bowling alley.
I glanced over at Sofie to try and keep my attention elsewhere, but she seemed pretty busy with Johnny. They hadn't stopped making out since our run-in with Christy and I was wondering how much her braces had to hurt after that much tongue action.
"Hey." I was knocked out of my trance when Jay plopped down next to me, his body brushing against mine. His sleeves were rolled up and his skin felt hot against me, or maybe I was just burning from his touch.
I wanted to trace every line of the Olympic rings tattoo on his arm. He had another tattoo that was right underneath his left hipbone of a tribal shark. I knew about this because of all of the pictures of it on the internet, but I hadn’t seen it in person. But boy did I want to.
I looked up at his smiling face, trying not to think of his amazing hip bones."Did you win?"
"Psh." He leaned back."Do you really think Mr. Granny bowler could beat me?"
"Oh, you want a rematch, Mr. Show Off?" Scotty yelled hopping over a row of chairs and sliding his hand between Johnny and Sofie to break apart their make out session, all while still staring at Jay. I couldn't even chew gum and walk at the same time, yet these guys could multi-task with anything.
"Hey, watch where you're putting your hands. I don't know where they've been." Johnny leaned back in his seat, Sofie cuddling up next to him.
"Oh you know exactly where they've been. Wanna smell them?" Scotty looked over at Johnny.
"Get that shit away from me." Johnny swatted his hand.
"Oh, you wanna fight now, Romeo?" Scotty stepped closer, putting his hands out in front of him like a boxer with the cock-eyed smirk painted on his face.
"Alright…" Jay stood up, pushing his way in the middle of them. "As much as I love a good brawl, I'm starving and I say we get a burger before we bring the girls home."
"Oh, dude!" Scotty kicked off his bowling shoes "Can we stop at that awesome pizza joint where they put eggplant on the pizza instead?"
"Yeah," Johnny added, standing up with Sofie close at his side. "That place is the tits."
Jay shook his head. "Are you two really that stupid?"
"What?" Scotty slid into his shoes, hopping toward the stairs. "Johnny's right, for once, that place really is the tits."
"Well for starters, Lia's parents own that place.”
"So that totally means free breadsticks?" Johnny followed behind Scotty, shrugging on his coat.
Jay started to speak, but I grabbed onto his arm, letting my fingers linger longer than I intended to. "Forget about it. You guys can stop there after you drop us off or something."
"You sure?" He turned toward me, the low lighting of the bowling alley couldn’t even dim the brilliant blue of his eyes and I wished at that moment I could just stay lost in them instead of spending the rest of the night probably listening to Sofie talk about Johnny.
I leaned in lightly letting my lips trail against his. "Positive."
"So are we getting noms or are you two just going to stare at each other all night?" Scotty yelled.
"Bro, I think you've had one too many concussions." Jay smiled and followed them out of the lane.
"Just because I don't have a mop of unwashed hair protecting my head," Scotty remarked.
Jay just shook his head, interlacing our fingers as we headed toward the door. "Sometimes I don't know how I do it…" he whispered, squeezing my hand.
It was a little past midnight and most of the kids bowling had cleared out of the place, so it just left the locals at the bar, who seemed to look at us differently as we passed. Like this time they might have actually realized that they were staring at three guys who had been on national TV and broke some world records. I wondered if they knew the whole time, or how they actually figured it out. I shrugged the idea off as I zipped up my coat, preparing to meet the cold night air. But as we stepped out of the door, I was greeted by more than fresh falling snow and found myself staring right at a few camera's and the cheesy grin of Saul Parker from TNC.
"Jay Morningstar, you come to my city and don't give me a call?" he asked.
Jay kept his head down and a close lock on my hand, pulling me forward to the car. "Sorry, Saul, didn't know you were keeping tabs."
Saul and the camera guy followed our group as we made our way to the Navigator. Jay opened the back door for us and Sofie slid in first.
"And is this the new girlfriend? Will we be seeing more of her? Is she keeping you on the straight and narrow or will we see some more mug shots?" Saul asked.
Jay just smiled, putting his hand on my back and helping me in the car. "Goodnight, Saul."
With that, he got in after me and shut the door.
I watched Saul's eyes widen and the camera stay on the car.
Jay didn't speak until we were out of the parking lot. "Sorry about that. I didn't know that douche found out we were here."
"Maybe if Scotty didn't tag himself at the bowling alley," Johnny said, punching Scotty's arm.
"What? How was I supposed to know anyone would care where we were?" Scotty asked defensively.
Jay shook his head, staring out the window. "It doesn't matter. He'll come up with whatever story he wants anyway."
I squeezed Jay's hand, not sure what I was supposed to say. All I knew was that eventually the spotlight would be off him. Of us. At least I hoped it would.
Chapter 8
Sofie went inside, claiming she was getting ready for bed, and the other boys waited in the car. It was the first time that Jay and I had any alone time that night. I wanted to know what was going on in that beautiful head of his, but he was quiet.
"You know, Saul wont post that stuff for a couple of days, when he edits the footage, so you don't have to worry about your parents or anyone seeing it," Jay said, looking at the sidewalk instead of at me.
TNC was based out of Dallas and from what little I knew about video editing, I was pretty sure he could have it done in a couple of hours if he wanted to. But I wasn't as concerned about my parents as I was about Jay.
"Are you okay? You've been kind of going off in your own world," I
asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged.
"Jay...don't lie to me. Come on. Just tell me what's up."
He sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "I know he shouldn't, but the guy gets to me. You would think growing up in So Cal and having a sister that has been the butt of every Hollywood rumor would’ve made me a little more adaptable to these things. But it doesn't. I was stupid. I just wanted to swim and then I let everything get to my head. Now I have to deal with the consequences of being an ass."
I shook my head. "You're not an ass. I mean if I was talented at something and got in the spotlight, I'm sure I'd do much worse."
"No. You wouldn't. That's just not you."
I raised an eyebrow.
He put his hands up. "That's not a bad thing. You're a good person, almost too good for me. It's probably why I keep chasing you. I like the normalcy. I like having a girl around with rules and boundaries, who doesn't take my shit."
"I'm far from normal."
Jay took his gloved hand, cupping my chin in his fingers and moving my head up until my eyes met his. "You're real and I like it."
He leaned in, his breath just a whisper from mine. My lips were eagerly waiting his kiss, when, of course, we were interrupted.
“Will you hurry it up, I’m freaking starving!" Scotty yelled, laying down on the horn.
Jay reluctantly pulled away from me, putting his arms out to the side. “Dude, come on!”
Sofie’s front door opened as she poked her head outside. “Tell him to quit it! I don’t want my cranky neighbors to call the cops!" She looked at Jay, her overgrown brows furrowed.
He sighed. “All right…I guess that’s my cue to leave." He slowly turned back toward me, placing a quick peck on my cheek.
“I’ll text you in the morning. And, or, FaceTime you tonight. Probably both,” he said before he jogged toward the Navigator, grabbing a fist full of snow and throwing it in the open window at Scotty on the way there.
I followed Sofie inside as her stocking feet slid across the floor while we moved to her bedroom. Sofie’s house was very tiny. I think the whole house could’ve fit into my parents’ living room, but that didn’t stop her dad from piling it with stuff. She never liked to admit it, but he’d become sort of a furniture hoarder since her mom passed away a few years ago. I had to press myself against the wall just to get past the three couches and two recliners in their living room and down the narrow hallway to Sofie’s bedroom.