Life One-Shots

A/N: I had the idea one night, and I've been contemplating it. This will be a series of Life One-Shots, where I take events that actually happened to me, and write them in a slightly exaggerated way, and with different names of people as I don't want to put names out there. Anyways, let me know what you think, and if I should continue it.

First: Friend Zoned

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I was about to spend a day in a bowling alley for my friend Ron's birthday. I sat in my car for a few minutes, waiting for them, as I was an early bird when it came to stuff like this. I sighed.

"Might as well go in and wait, it's hot out here." I told myself, grabbing the cheap card and gift card I had bought my friend. His name wasn't written on it, as I just bought it ten minutes prior to going to the place. I looked across the parking lot, and saw my friend, Kam walking with his family towards the alley. I waved, and he waved back. We shook hands, and had the usual, 'how are you doing?' conversation. It was a good start. But, when we looked towards the doors, there was another guy looking at his phone.

"Coby? What are you doing here?" I asked, secretly already knowing why.

"I'm here for a party."

"Oh, whose?"

"Ron's."

"What a coincidence!" I said, as he looked at me like I was crazy.

"Wait…" He put his face in his hands. I chuckled. There was another man standing next to him, but I didn't bother to introduce myself to him right away.

"Oh, Anthony, did you know Jen's coming today?" Kam said. I looked to him shocked.

"No, I didn't." I said, clearing my throat.

We waited outside in silence for a moment, and suddenly, the birthday boy, Ron, walked up.

We had met through an after school club, and he had invited me to this party. I gave him his card, and his mom and dad greeted everybody.

We all walked in, knowing we were short one person.

The alley was nice. There was an arcade, with lazer tag to the right, and a VIP section to the left. I smiled, as I hadn't been to the place for almost a year. I was ready to have a blast.

We picked up our shoes, and I introduced myself to the new guy.

"Mark." He introduced.

"Nice to meet you Mark, I'm Anthony." We shook hands, and looked to Ron's dad.

"Take them to the lanes." His mom said. He nodded, and we walked towards the lanes at the end. But Ron's dad kept walking, into the VIP area.

"No way." I said a few times, realizing we were going to bowl in style!

It was very nice, there were eight lanes lined up, and we were playing on two in the middle. I got my shoes on, and went to a bowling ball rack, where there were pool balls the size of bowling balls.

"This is awesome!" I said quite a few times. I put an 11 pound ball on the ball automater, and tightened my shoes. Everyone else did the same.

A few minutes later, Kam spoke.

"Hey, Jen's here!" I looked up anxiously.

Jen is a beautiful brown haired girl that I have had a crush on for years! We lost contact nine years ago, and became reacquainted four years after that, and I was just trying to get back to friend status, as much as I liked her.

"Hi Jen." I said, trying not to blush.

"Hey." She didn't say my name, which I frowned upon, but I kept my cool, and my distance.

We set up our lane, six people on one.

"This is going to take awhile." I thought.

Halfway through the long first game, Jen finally spoke to me.

"How are you doing Anthony?" She acknowledged my name.

"I'm doing okay, how about you Jen?" I said with a smile.

"I'm good, just AP testing." She said, referring to her advanced placement tests she had taken.

"I'll bet."

"Yeah, I had to take four." I jumped at that.

"That's crazy, I can't believe that!" I said, impressed.

"Yeah." Our conversation was interrupted by her turn coming, and she went to bowl.

I contemplated all day what I should say to her, because I had liked her for SO LONG, and I had basically just gotten back into her life, I didn't want to screw up by saying something stupid.

We ate pizza and cake while we ate, and we got called for Lazer Tag. That was somewhat eventful, just people telling you how you should play the game, but that was it.

Jen of course finished with the top score overall out of 16 people. I came 13th, despite thinking I was doing good.

"Oh well…" I chuckled, and tried taking a picture of the scoreboard, but failing.

"Alright everybody, group picture." Ron's mom said. I was catching my breath, but I stood with the group in a full picture.

Ron's mom finally handed out arcade cards, which had five dollars. I walked up to the first thing that caught my attention, which was Giant Pacman! I played, praying someone would help, but I played alone, and failed.

I shrugged off my pitiful attempt at Pacman, and walked up to my newest favorite thing, The Walking Dead (An Arcade shooter style game!) I waited in line, but it was crowded, so I played a solo game of Skee Ball, and failed. Jen was at one of those roulette machines trying to win tickets. She was swiping her card, but it wasn't working for her. I walked up behind her.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, this thing isn't working." She said, frowning.

"Lemme try." I said, extending my hand out. She gave me a look, and handed it over. I got it on the first go. She laughed, and I handed her card back. She spun the wheel.

We stood there, as Cam walked behind us. The machine landed on the 500 tickets space (A very small space FYI), and we all laughed as the number went up slowly to 500.

I saw Air Hockey right in front of us, and challenged Kam to it. He accepted, and while tickets were given, I demolished him. He took the loss like a man, and challenged Jen to a round. Jen demolished him as well. I smiled realizing the situation.

"Jen, we're tied here, we need to settle this." I said.

"Okay then." She said, laughing.

The game was lopsided, as I got demolished. I was laughing, and I presented her with a fake crown. She laughed as well.

Kam left shortly after, and we noticed Coby, Mark, and Ron were playing a Pirate themed shooter. One was in the middle steering, and two were shooting. It was a good trio, as they were somewhere I hadn't seen before.

"Doing good guys?" I said, as Jen leaned against one side of the machine.

They failed shortly after. Jen and I walked away.

"I'm going to spin the wheel one more time." She said.

"Okay." I stuck with her.

There was a little girl having the exact same problem as Jen was. She started to walk away.

"Allow me, I got this to work once." I said. She hesitated. The girl's mom was standing there, and gave me permission. The girl handed me her card, and I swiped it a few times, and finally got it to work. The girl spun it, and it landed on 40. The mom thanked me, and Jen tried swiping it again.

"Alright, three is the magic number." I said, swiping her card again. I handed it to her, and she smiled. She spun it again. I stared in disbelief, as she bursted into laughter. It landed on 250!" I laughed slowly, and she and I walked away wondering what happened.

We stood in front of the prize room. She stopped and looked into my eyes.

"Anthony, can I ask you a question?" She asked.

"Um, sure…" I answered, wondering what the question was.

"Has Kam told you yet?"

"Told me, what…" She mumbled something in response.

"Well, he and I are…" She made hand movements, and I caught on. My heart sank.

"Dating?" I said, praying.

"Yeah, we've been keeping it quiet, and he was supposed to tell me." My heart sank even more, but I didn't let it show.

"I'm happy for you guys." I lied, putting on a smile. She looked at me, I couldn't tell if she knew I was lying or not.

"Oh no." She said.

"What?"

"My bag, I left it at the lane."

"Oh, I'll go with you."

"You don't have to." She tried playing that card.

"No, I never get to hang out with you outside of school."

"That's true." She said as she continued to walk.

"We should do this more often, if you're getting that lucky with those ticket games." I said, smiling. Instead of responding she laughed.

We found her bag, and walked back to the prize room.

We looked for a bit, trying to see what one could get with the 750+ tickets she had won, but everything was ridiculously priced.

"Alright, I think I'm going to go." She said.

"Okay."

"Well, lemme say bye to Ron's parents." She and I went to find his parents.

We found them and goodbyes were exchanged. I wanted to hug her in that moment, but I didn't.

I left shortly after, and before I walked outside into the sun, I checked my phone. There was a text.

This was the actual Conversation

"Thanks for hanging out with me"

"I should be thanking you, but you're welcome. We should do this more often."

"Why thank me?"

"Because that's what a friend does :)"

"Your welcome on my part,

You're very nice and I'm happy things aren't weird between us."

I smiled on the outside, but I cried on the inside, as I sent the last text.

"Me too."

A/N: This is based on true events, but the characters are renamed for reasons. Lemme know what you thought, and if you'd be interested in reading any more. Peace!