Page 78 of The Chemistry Coach
Lover was giving him a warning.Fuck.He hadn’t been sneaky enough.
“Do you need help, or?”he gave Lover the green light.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a bright light illuminated the space.Connor’s hands flew to cover his eyes.“Jesus Christ, that’s bright.”
When he opened his eyes, Daisy was straightening her clothes and hair, staring at him with crimson cheeks and swollen lips.A sense of pride filled his chest, and he smirked at her.
With the lights on, they easily escaped the room.A quick search revealed numbers on the bottom of a few objects, which unlocked a safe containing a puzzle box that, once solved, gave them the key to get out.
“That seemed too easy,” Lover said when they unlocked the door.
“It was supposed to be easy.It was just the entrance to the rest of our afternoon.”Daisy walked through the door first and gave a sweeping motion of her arm to the actual bowling alley.On the outside, the building seemed dilapidated, but inside, it was the fanciest bowling alley Connor had ever seen.
One side of the massive open space had a variety of vintage arcade games, and the remaining area had ten lanes separated from the shoe rentals by a bar that ran the length of the room.Most bowling alleys he’d been to were made up of grimy, threadbare carpet tiles and garish decorations, and they smelled like dirty shoes and cigarettes.This place boasted elaborate molding on the walls and a chandelier right at the entrance.They rented black shoes, a far cry from the clownish blue and red ones he’d grown up wearing.The arcade seemed well maintained with no out-of-order machines.
While Hazy typed their names into a fancy computer, Connor, Lover, and Daisy walked the bar, trying to find the perfect ball.Daisy picked up a blue and purple, sparkling ball, bouncing it in her hand a few times, slipping her fingers in and out of the holes.It must have passed muster because she added it to the rack by their lanes.
Connor and Lover followed her lead and placed their own balls on the rack
Daisy hip-checked Hazy out of her way and pressed some buttons on the computer, turning the screen a different color.“Go pick a ball.I’m ready to kick your asses.”
Daisy did in fact kick their asses.By the tenth frame Connor came in dead last, his score barely breaking 60 points.Lover and Hazy’s were more respectable, around 110.Daisy’s was over 200.
She’d bowled mostly strikes, and Connor had bowled mostly gutter balls.“Why is it,” he asked her, “that every activity you plan is something you’re phenomenal at?”
She stood by the ball return, holding her ball at her hip and placing her toes around dots on the floor.He had no idea how that helped, but she played an incredible game, so there must have been some sort of method to her madness.She took a few steps and flung her ball down the lane.When it crashed into the pins, it left two standing, on opposite sides of the lane.Daisy threw her head back and groaned.
“Fuck.”
She stomped over to wait for her ball.“The better question is, why are you so bad at this?Did you never go bowling as a kid?”
Connor grabbed her hips and pulled her into him.“I spent time at the bowling alley.But it was more about spending time with pretty girls than the actual game.”
She laughed.“You probably could have impressed them if you had been good.”
“I had hockey for that.Besides.Bowling is like.The least sexy sport.”
Hazy and Lover were quick to agree with him, and Daisy took offense.“Hey!I did bowling.And look at me now.Impressing you dummies, years later.”
Daisy’s ball popped onto the rack, and she reset at the starting dots.
Hazy could never let her have a win.“You won’t get this spare.You played a great game, but you’ll be going out on a nine.Maybe.”
Daisy let the sparkling ball dangle from her fingers as she glared at him.
“Wanna bet?”
“No!”Connor yelled, remembering the last time she’d hustled them.
Hazy was unfazed.“Yes.I do.Name your terms.I’ve never seen someone get that spare.It’s impossible.”
“For the love of God,” Lover said.“Have you not learned that if Daisy says she can do something, she absolutely can?”
“I’m not singing again.”Connor promised, and Daisy laughed.
“Don’t worry.This one will be friendlier.If I win, you have to admit bowling is cool.”
Hazy smirked at her.“We won the bet last time, and I didn’t say anything about friendlier.If you win, I’m fine with your terms.But if I win, you have to explain in explicit detail how you got the massive hickey on your thigh.”
