“What do we get when we win?” Mace asked.
“When you lose, you will pay for the winner’s dinner,” Luke said.
“And?” Amy prompted.
“And what?”
“The losers have to take their girlfriend or boyfriend out for a date. And no going-to-the-diner date, something fun and unique,” she said with a grin. I went to open my mouth, but Dylan said something first.
“But I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Then you’ll have to ask a girl out and take her on a date.” Amy shrugged. I couldn’t help but laugh softly at Dylan’s expression.
“Don’t worry, Dyl, any girl would be lucky to go on a date with you.” I reached over and patted his arm with a smile.
“So do we have a deal?” Ethan asked glancing around at everyone, including Gage, who hadn’t said a word. Us girls looked at each other for a minute and communicated through meaningful glances. Macey shrugged and Amy nodded. I had a feeling we were going to lose, but a chance for Gage to take me out or for me to take him out? Hell yes.
“Okay, we are in,” I voiced our agreement.
“Are you two?” Ethan turned to Dylan and Gage. I looked over at Gage silently hoping he would say yes.
“Why not?” Dylan agreed. Gage glanced over at me as I waited for his answer.
“Sure,” he said not taking his eyes off of me. I grinned, glad he said yes.
“Let’s all shake on it,” Luke said holding his hand out for his girlfriend. With all of us rolling our eyes, we went and shook hands with everyone. When I got to Gage, he had a small smirk on his face.
“Get ready to take me on a date, Princess,” he said softly so only us two could hear it.
“You better start thinking of a date place,” I shot back. I was going to try and win so Gage would be the one to take me out.
“We’ll see about that,” Gage said dropping my hand and crossing his own over his chest. I just shook my head at him and turned to the screen to see who was up.
Luke was up and out of his seat, his name up first. When I started to read the names, my mouth flew open.
“Wait, why am I Belle from Beauty and the Beast?” I asked.
“Amy and I decided on doing Disney princess theme, so Luke and I are Mulan and Shang. Amy and Ethan are Rapunzel and Flynn. You and Gage are Belle and Beast. And lastly, Dylan is Mushu.”
“Beast, seriously?” I raised an eyebrow at that.
“What? You two match it perfectly!” Amy said. “All of us fit the princesses.”
“Macey doesn’t!” I pointed out.
“Yeah, well, Mulan is her favorite princess and there were no other ones she fit.”
“I for one am fine with Mushu. He is the best!” Dylan interrupted.
“He has a thing for Mulan,” Gage whispered in my ear. I giggled at that. Never would have thought Dylan liked Disney movies.
“Plus, Car, you kind of are Belle. You love books and you have brown hair,” Ethan said.
“Wow, like fifty percent of the population.” I gasped dramatically. But it was true. If I had to be a princess, Belle would be my number one. Hello, she gets to use a huge library in the Beast’s home. Who wouldn’t want that?
“Well, so is Flynn Rider, but you don’t see me complaining.”
“But Flynn Rider is hot,” I said. What? He was, for an animated character.
“You know he is not real,” Gage said looking at me like a weirdo.
“Doesn’t make him any less hot.”
They didn’t say anything else, as it was Ethan’s turn to bowl. Macey and Amy had made it so every couple went right after one another. So Luke and Macey first, then Amy and Ethan, then Gage and I, followed lastly by Dylan.
When it was Gage’s turn to go, I bit back a loud laugh as I watched him walk to get his ball. His bright shoes looked ridiculous on him, and never before would I ever picture Gage in bowling shoes. He didn’t seem like the type to just go bowling on a Saturday night.
All of us were silent as Gage bowled and hit every pin but one. It was only our first turn and he already got a higher score than the rest of us. Hell, even Luke and Ethan didn’t knock down that many. When he went back for his second time, he hit the last pin easily. Gage turned and walked back to our table like he didn’t just do great. We all stared at him, not expecting him to be good at this.
I kept staring at him while Dylan got up for his turn. All Gage did was send me a wink and looked ahead at Dyl. Okay, maybe he was right; I should get ready to take him out. If he played that well for both games, the guys would do pretty well.
The sound of Dylan’s ball hitting the ground made me turn to look at him. His ball spun and hit the pins, knocking all but three down. Luke and Ethan sat up straighter to watch if he would get the rest. If he got this, us girls had a lot of making up to do. Just like Gage, he easily hit the rest down and came back to take a seat.
The three of us girls looked at each other, silently asking what the hell did we just did. The guys smacked hands with Dylan and Gage, wide grins plastered on their faces. Yup, we were screwed.
***
Surprisingly, us girls did really well in the first two games. All three of us scored at least one strike or more, although we did end up in the gutter more often than not. We tried to get bumpers, but the boys wouldn’t let us and there was apparently a rule that if you were over a certain age, you couldn’t get them. Stupid, right?
We were on our final turn of the second game and the boys were in the lead. It wasn’t fair because it was four against three. And let’s be honest: guys have better arms to bowl with, especially these four who worked out on a regular basis. Us girls were seriously outmatched and were now regretting making the bet with the boys.
Shang, aka Luke, was up currently, and Macey was trying everything to distract him. His first ball, she did pretty well at distracting him by coming up and wrapping her arms around his waist. She whispered something in his ear before backing off with a wide grin. His ball went right into the gutter. He caught on quickly to what she was doing and got back in gear for his final bowl. Because he messed up on his first, he didn’t get his third try, much to our pleasure.
When it was Macey’s turn, Amy and I cheered her on and kept Luke back from trying anything on her. We weren’t successful because on her final bowl, Luke got around us and grabbed her from the waist just as she let the ball go. She only hit one pin.
The same thing happened for Ethan and Amy’s turn. We were even less successful because Ethan knew what we were doing. Nothing Amy did fazed him, and he rolled a perfect strike, probably his sixth one of the night. He easily got to do a third bowl and managed to knock most of the pins down, upping his score even more. Thankfully Amy was a little better than Mace and was able to get all her pins down on the second try. Her third wasn’t much help to us.
When Gage got up to go, the boys clapped and cheered him on. They all clearly found common ground—beating us at bowling—and they had bonded pretty well. No harsh words were thrown around and the awkwardness faded pretty fast. I even felt like they might have changed their attitude toward Gage a little bit; even if it was just a little bit, it was fine by me. It was progress in my book.
Gage was definitely the reason the boys were winning. Sure, all four were good and put up their share of points, but Gage dominated. Right off the bat he got a strike on the second game and got five more afterwards. Dylan of course was helping out as well. It was like they were both secretly on a bowling team no one knew about. Gage was a natural and bowled so easily, never once getting in the gutter, much to my displeasure. I wanted to find something he wasn’t good at.
Just as he picked up his ball, I got an idea: I might as well try and distract him as well. It couldn’t hurt us anymore. I was the last of the girls to go, so it was basically up to me. Yeah, no pressure there. With Amy and Macey talking to their boyfriends, I snuck up behind Gage, ready to pounce on him.
As he pulled his arm back, I took my sho
t. I ran the few feet between us and jumped on his back, hoping to throw him off. Of course it didn’t work out like I had planned it would; nothing ever did when it came to Gage. I did nothing to deter his motion. His arm let the ball go perfectly, and it rolled down the lane before it hit straight on, making the pins slam back with a loud bang, all falling down. With my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck, I sighed, placing my forehead on his hard shoulder.
“Damn, that didn’t work out like I hoped,” I muttered against him before sliding off his back. Why did I think that would even work? When Gage turned around and stared down at me, his chest was inches from mine. I gulped as I tilted my head up to look at him.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I tried to smile up at him, but it didn’t work. I could feel everyone’s eyes on us but with Gage’s eyes on me, that was all I could think about.
“Looks like you are taking me out on a date, Princess,” was all he said before he bent down and suddenly I was in the air. My body was flung over a hard shoulder and it stuck into my gut hard. My head hung down his back and my butt was in the air. I didn’t even know what he was doing until it was too late.
“Gage, put me down!” I yelled leaning up and trying to see Gage’s face.
“No can do, Princess,” he said, looking over at me. I noticed his lips were twitching as he held back a grin.
“Gage,” I warned, but a smack on my butt made me stop. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you just smack my butt?” Gage just smirked before he looked away and started moving.
Every step he took, his shoulder poked into my stomach, almost knocking the wind out of me. I tried to move out of his hold, but again it didn’t work.
My face was turning red as I felt everyone in the bowling alley looking over at us. Being someone who didn’t like attention, this wasn’t for me. I put my head into the back of Gage’s shirt trying to hide my face.
“What are you doing?” I heard Ethan ask as Gage led us back to the table. Gage turned around so I was facing our group.
“Oh, you know…just hanging,” I said, lifting my head up to see Macey and Amy grinning and Ethan and Luke narrowing their eyes at me. Dylan looked like he could not care less.
“I can tell.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you going to go so us guys can win already?”
“Of course that is what you are more concerned about,” I commented. I tapped Gage’s back before directing my next words at him. “Can I get down now?” With another tap to my butt, he grabbed my waist and pulled me off his hard shoulder. When he set me on my feet, I held on to his arms as the blood rushed back to my head.
“Nice ass,” he whispered before he let me go and took a step back. I stared at him with a wide mouth. Did he really just say that? I wondered. Sending me a sly smile, he went and took a seat at the table.
Flustered, I made myself turn to grab my ball. I wasn’t even thinking straight as I grabbed it and headed for the lane. It wasn’t until my ball flew from my hand and smacked against the wooden floor of the lane, did I come back to earth.
Just as I thought I had messed up my final bowl, I watched as my ball went straight down the lane and hit the first pin with enough speed to knock the rest down. My first strike of this whole game. I jumped up and turned around to face the group.
Grinning like an idiot, I cheered with Macey and Amy. It would do nothing to help us out of losing, but it didn’t matter.
“Yes!” I cheered coming to the table, pointing at all the guys. “In your face!” It seemed Gage’s little move made me do better. Who would have thought?
“And you thought you would mess me up,” I accused Gage, who had a soft smile on his face. Sticking my tongue out, I pivoted on my heel to bowl again.
My little streak died fast because my next ball wasn’t great at all. I only hit a few pins and then the ball went in the gutter. Well, that lasted, I thought sarcastically. When I got to the table, I held a hand up to stop any comments from the guys. We all knew who won.
As we all thought, the guys won, at us girls’ displeasure. The deal wasn’t terrible, though: paying for dinner and taking our boyfriends on a date. It would have been better if we won, though.
“You girls better pay up,” Luke said, grinning. Next to him, Mace just rolled her eyes, as did the rest of us.
“Yeah, yeah.” Amy waved him off.
The guys celebrated before we started the final game. At least this game we didn’t have to care about our score. We played a few turns before Macey started gesturing toward Gage. I knew what she was trying to say, but I didn’t want to bring it up yet. I shook my head at her trying to get her to stop, but she didn’t.
I knew she wouldn’t give up, which meant I had to ask Gage if he’d come to meet my parents. Sighing inwardly, I looked away from her to Gage.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” I whispered to him, tapping his arm. He raised an eyebrow but nodded. With Ethan barely going, we had time to talk. I led him over to a corner where no one could hear us.
I fiddled with my fingers trying to figure out how to start this off. Apparently I couldn’t avoid this conversation.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Gage asked first.
“I, uh, well…” He gave me a look as if to tell me to just spit it out. “At our family dinner last Saturday, Amy kind of told my parents about me dating you, and now they want to meet you,” I said in a rush. I stared at his face waiting for his reaction.
“Wait. Your parents want to meet me?” he asked.
“My parents think we are dating, so they want to meet the guy. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, and I don’t blame you. I mean, we aren’t really dating so it is okay.”
“I’ll go.” His words stopped me.
“What?”
“I’ll meet your parents.”
“Seriously?” I was shocked he said yes. He didn’t have to go at all, but here he was saying yes.
“Yeah.” Gage shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was for me. There had only ever been one guy who I had taken home to meet my parents and look how that turned out. With my parents having an idea of Gage in their mind, I was just hoping they would like him. If my father didn’t, he showed it. And let’s be real here: he wouldn’t let me see him again if he didn’t like him.
“Okay, uh, good. Thank you.” I didn’t know what to say. I was beyond happy that he said yes. There would no more nagging from my mom through text.
“Just let me know when.” He gave me a small nod and moved back to our table. He literally made it sound like it we were just going to dinner, not meeting my parents. While I was here trying not to freak out about it.
“Yeah,” I muttered when he moved away. Okay, now we just had to set it up.
Wait, Gage was going to meet my parents. Well, shit.
Chapter Two
Gage
Why did I do that? I thought angrily as I swung my fist toward the punching bag. Why did I agree to meet Carter’s parents? I didn’t meet people’s parents, let alone a girl’s. Seeing how nervous Carter was asking me at the bowling alley yesterday and with her big blue doe eyes on me, I found myself saying yes.
It had been a fun day, something I didn’t expect when Carter asked us to come. I was very tempted not to show up, but thinking about Carter’s face if I didn’t show made me rethink that decision. I couldn’t bear to see her sad.
But as I stood here thinking about what I had agreed to yesterday, a part of me was mad that I’d even gone. If not, I wouldn’t have to meet Carter’s parents. Never in my life had I met a girl’s parents before.
There was something about Carter that just made me say yes and made me do different things than I normally would. Never would I have gone bowling, especially with her brother and the “golden boy.” Now this.
I couldn’t deny that Carter had wiggled her way into my life. Ever since the fight in front of the gym and when she got hurt, I wanted to protect her undeniably. I was still mad that
she didn’t tell me about getting hurt during the whole thing, and I blamed myself. She shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and I was pissed that the guy went after her. She was a girl, for crying out loud. You didn’t hit a girl. Even though she reassured me plenty of times this past week that she was fine, I still couldn’t help but be upset about it.
Since that day, the need to protect her and make sure she was okay had grown. There was something about her that just made you want to stay near her and keep her safe. Her innocence probably didn’t help.
“Dude, why are you punching the bag so hard?” Dylan asked as he suddenly appeared. He moved around the bag and held it still while looking at me.
“Nothing.” I grunted.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing. Is it Carter?” I looked at him, surprised that he hit it right on the mark. He gave me a look. “Dude, it is clear that you like her. It’s so obvious.”
“I don’t like her,” I said, although something inside of me told me otherwise.
“Yes, you do. You can’t deny it. I mean, I never have seen you like this before, and I’ve known you since we were kids. You’ve never done anything you don’t want to do, and you’ve never been so touchy-feely with someone,” Dylan said.
“I am not touchy-feely with her,” I replied defensively.
“Oh yeah? Than why did you throw her over your shoulder yesterday? Or why do you always reach out to touch her?” My mouth opened and closed. I didn’t have a response. “I like that she is changing you. You are a lot more fun to be around.”
Changing me. Was that a good or bad thing?
“Anyway, what did you do now?” Dylan asked. I sighed and hit the bag a few more times before I answered.
“I agreed to meet her parents. Apparently they found out we are dating and want to meet me.”
“That’s not terrible. I mean, you guys are dating.” He shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”
“Dylan, we are fake dating. It isn’t real. That is the problem.”
“What did you think would happen when you offered to ‘fake’ date her?”
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