Wow. Everytime I see her, she gets more and more beautiful. With her long black hair with the yellow highlights. A smile that can shake the heavens. Eyes that can pierce through the soul. Tell me how can someone like me be so lucky to be Suzy's friend. Right now it's just me and her. Waiting here in the park for the rest of the guys to show up. We've been here for a few minutes now and haven't even started any conversation with her. This could be the moment I finally work up the courage to say something to her before the others show up. We've been friends for a few years now. I think it's time I step up and confess. But what if she says no. What if it ruins the friendship we have with each other. I mean. Look at her. Then look at me. Well. You actually look at me because this is just a book. But damn it. No. I can't keep thinking like this. I have to do something. I have to say something. Oh god. She's looking at me now. I can feel my heart beating twenty miles per hour. I think I'm about to go under cardiac arrest. She's smiling at me now. My hearts about to explode. I have to say something. Now. I open my mouth to speak.
"HEY. I"M HERE." Shouted Jon as he showed up.
God damn it.
"Hey, Jon." Suzy's smiled turn toward Jon "Where are the others?"
"Hmmmm, I texted everyone telling them I was almost here." Jon Said
"I know. I got you're text." Suzy said taking out her phone "Yeah, right here. It reads 'Yo Douche-Nuggets. I'm on my way. Don't leave without me or I'll beat you all off.' At first I thought that was a typo, but you didn't even try to fix it."
"Well I guess we'll never know since you've decided to wait up?" Jon had a big goofy grin on his face. This guy is just to lovable.
"Yo. What's up? Sorry I'm late. It's hard to get women out of the house when they're just so in love with you, you know?" Dan said as he showed up along with Barry and Ross.
"Hey, Jon." Ross said showing Jon his text "You sent this message, and I think there was a bit of a typo." Jon busted out laughing confusing Ross a little bit. "What's so funny? Did I miss something?"
"Don't worry about it." I said smirking a little. "Just Jon being Jon."
"So are we ready to head to the arcade now?" Barry asked "It's not going to stay open forever."
"Hold on." Suzy said "We're missing someone."
I knew exactly who she was talking about. The one reason it's difficult for me to actually tell her how I feel. That guy she has feelings for. It's no secret. Everyone knows. Except for the guy. He's more oblivious than some generic anime protagonist.
"Forget that guy, Suzy." Dan said "He's a loser. Nothing special. Don't even know why you like someone like him."
"I have to agree with Dan," Barry said "I think we're better off leaving him behind."
"Yeah. I think so, too," Ross added "I mean, I don't hate the guy, but you can do so much better."
I saw Suzy's smile slightly fade, then turned her head away from us. "Yeah. Sure. I guess so."
I'm not sure if the others can tell, but she's looking agitated. Well, I would be too if they talked talked about someone I liked. I'm probably about to regret this.
"Hey guys," I spoke up "Maybe we shouldn't talk about him that way. He's a good guy if you get to know him a little bit better." From the corner of my eye, I could see Suzy glance at me.
"What?" Dan responded "You got a crush on him, too?"
"No. That's not what I'm saying. I just..."
"Hey, guys. I actually got a message from him earlier." Jon said "Said he won't be able to make it. He has to do some shopping, because someone keeps drinking all his milk."
"Then it's settled, we're leaving without him." Barry said. "Let's hurry up to the arcade."
"You guys go ahead." I said "I'll catch up a little later."
"Alright then, we'll see you later." Barry said as he, Ross and Dan began heading off toward the arcade.
"Don't take too long." Suzy smiled at me as she followed the others
As soon as they left a let out a huge sigh. Standing up for that guy is hard. Him, Suzy and I are childhood friends. We met the others at least five years ago. He was never the type to be a leader. Leading us three to do cool stuff and what we should play. We all had fun then. I thought that would at least be enough to get Suzy's attention. But no. It was always about him. He's god damn boring though. He barely ever did hang out with us when we were kids and when he did, he'd never do anything interesting. I've made Suzy laugh, she's confided in me about everything. I don't get it. What's about him that's so interesting? I mean. I can't say he's never been around when things were tough for all of us. He's good at being motivational for someone who's boring. Dammit. I don't know how to feel about this guy.
"YO, ARIN!" Jon yelled out right next to my ear, startling me.
"Jesus," I said holding my chest, "Jon, I thought you left with the others."
"Did you see anywhere in your little monologue that I went anywhere? But anyway. Listen. Are you sure it was such a good idea to be helping out your rival in love."
I suddenly become nervous. Does he know how I feel about Suzy? "Um. What are you talking about?"
"Listen, bro. I know you have the hots for Suzy. The other's don't, but I can see the signs that you have a deep affection for that girl, and you're too jealous of the guy that you're willing to give up the girl of your dreams so she can be happy with a guy that doesn't even feel the same way about the girl that your crushing on. You feel as if Suzy confesses to that guy and gets her heart broken, you'll feel as though if was you're fault. But you won't tell her how you feel but you're too afraid you'll get reject yourself,
"How do you know all that stuff?"
"It's in the title of the story."
"Oh." Well he's not completely wrong about the situation.
"So if she confesses to this guy and he says yes, you'll lose your chances with her, but if she get's rejected by this guy you'll still lose your chances with her, because you've all been friends since childhood, and if you try to tell her how you felt then, you could tear the friendship you three had apart. And you don't want that because you think of the guy's as a good friend too."
"So then what do I do?" That question just flowed out of my mouth. Jon seems to know what he's talking about though. That's a side of him I've never seen before. And also, I don't want my friendship with Suzy to end. Hell. Even with the guy she likes, no matter how much I'm jealous of him, he's still a really good friend to me.
"Well it's simple." Jon said "All you have to do is confess to her before she confesses to him."
"But what if she says no to me. And also I wouldn't know what to say or how to say it or what to wear when I say it or..."
"Buddy, calm down." Jon said grabbing my shoulders "We're not going to ask her out right away."
We?
"We've gotta build up to it, make her see you're a guy worth being with."
"Um, you've said 'We' twice now. What do you mean by that?"
A big smile appeared on Jon's face. "We'll work to those details later. But right now. We've got to get to that arcade. You're dream girl is waiting for you."
"Oh, yeah sure. Alright."
Well, Jon is planning something. I'm not sure what it is, but it could change everything Suzy, her crush, and I are together. I don't know if I should go along with it or back out now. I mean. I've never seen Jon with a girl before, so I don't know if he can really help. If anything, Dan has been with plenty of them. He would seem to be the best choice for this. Even though his approach may be a little too straight-forward. Maybe I should just wait and see what happens. How bad can it be? Of course I say that now.
Well we've made a way to the entrance to the arcade. I could see Suzy through the window. Going at it hard with some shooting game. Barry and Dan are by her. It looks like that they're cheering her on.
"OK, bud." Jon said. "This is it. We're going to try to get the girl to notice you."
"Alright." I responded "So what should I do?"
"I don't know. Do what you usually do. Be around Suzy, and bumble like an idiot."
"That's not what I usually do."
Jon just laughed "Okay. If you say so, bud." Jon pushed me inside "Just don't act too nervous around her."
I took a deep breath. Okay. All I have to do is just act like any other human being. I began walking closer to the arcade machine Suzy's at. As Jon walked off to another game.
"Die, you damn bastards!" Suzy yelled out. She's really into it.
"Game Over" the machine said as soon as I was walking up.
"Oh, crap. I died." Suzy said hanging the gun back up.
"Well look on the bright side." Barry said patting her shoulder "At least you got a higher score than Dan.
"Come on, man." Dan said "The gun I was using wouldn't work for me."
"Whatever you say, John."
"Oh. Arin, Hey." Suzy said as she noticed me standing there "You wanna play since I know how good you are at video games."
I began to laugh nervously "Yeah, I'll try out this game. I play video games all the time. It's like second nature to me. So of course I'll be good at video games. Hell, I'm not good at anything else." Oh god. Is that what Jon meant. "Just hand the controller."
Suzy passed me the pistol shaped controller. The name of the game was Zombacolpics. Cool title. It looks like a Doom knockoff. A good one at that. And this is an arcade game? I put fifty cents in the machine and the game started.
Yeah. This game seems pretty simple. There's a little joystick on the gun so I can move my character around. But the joystick doesn't help me turn. To turn, all I have to do is move the gun to the sides. I can even look up and down doing the same thing. It's great that it taught me all of that without even telling me. I really love games like that.
It says "Room Zero" at the top. So I'm guessing moving through the door in front of me will take me to "Room One", obviously. So that's what I do, and holy crap is this room big. Hell, it's not even a room. I'm outside. But it still says "Room One" at the top. They're building that are in ruin, burnt grass everywhere, craters in the ground. This place looks like a war happened. "Wave One" just appeared under "Room One." So the zombies will come at me in waves. Alright. I've got this. I take a look around. I don't see any zombies yet. I walk to the buildings. There are no doors on them so I can just walk through them. I can even go upstairs. Makes me wonder why the even put a Room system in if I can go inside buildings and actually rooms. I think I'm in what use to be a hotel. There's pieces of a mattress all over the floor. I look out the window. There's half a mattress on the ground down there. No Zombies, though.
I walk back down stairs and left the building and took one more good look around. Suddenly I heard a grunting noise. I turn to the sound and see one zombie limping slowly toward me. I pointed my gun to it and blasted it's head off, killing it with one shot. On the screen it said "End of Wave 1." That's it? So what then? Is Wave 2 going to have two zombies.
I was about to walk around more to see if I can find more zombies. Until I heard some coming up from behind. I flicked the gun controller to the left to make a full 180 and holy crap. Ten zombies are rushing at me two times faster than the first one. I aimed my gun at them. I took a shot at the first one but I missed. Feeling worried I began to walk backgrounds, away from the oncoming zombies. I started shooting more. I took out four of them out of six shots. One of them managed to get close to me and damage me twice. I pointed the gun to it's head and blasted it off. I've got eleven more rounds before I have to reload. Another zombie got close to me. I managed to kill it before it could touch me. I turned around and started to run from the remaining four zombies, just so I can distance myself. It seems even though those zombies are fast, the character I'm playing as is faster. I turned around and carefully aimed my gun and pelted one of the zombies in the head. I aimed at another and got it as well. I'm feeling pretty lucky so I aimed at another one. I missed. Damn it. The last two got close and hit me at the same time. Dealing major damage.
I shot both of them in the head, as I backed up from them. "End of Wave 2" Appeared on the screen. That took me for surprise. My health slowly come back. Then Wave 3 started. All of a sudden zombies started running from all sorts of directions. I even saw some of them jumping off the roofs. There's so many, I can't even count them. I began shooting at them, but they swarm me, and before I know it, I'm dead.
"Game Over" the machine said.
"Damn it." I say lowering my controller from the screen. "That seemed a bit much for the first room. But I think I get it now. I'll probably do better on the next try." I pull out two more quarters to put in the machine.
"ACE!" Suzy excitedly ran out the arcade and to a guy wearing a fedora.
Did he actually decide to show? ACE is guy Suzy likes. Wearing his trademark fedora and green shirt.
"It's that guy." Dan said "I thought he wasn't coming."
"Here. I'll go see what's going on." I said as I made my way toward the exit.
I walked outside and immediately I'm greeted by ACE's plain boy smile. He had grocery bags filled with different foods, and milk in his arms. I guess he's still shopping.
"Oh. Hey, Arin." He says "Is the rest of the gang here, too?"
"Yeah. They're all in there playing some games. I mean, that's what arcades are made for right?" I laugh nervously.
ACE laughs too, "Yeah. It seems like you're all having fun."
"ACE," Suzy said pulling on his arm "Why don't come inside and play some games with us?"
"Yeah, ACE." Barry said as he stepped outside "Why don't you come inside and play games with us? It'll be so fun." He sounds condescending.
ACE let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head "Well, I'd love to, but I still have some more shopping to do. So I'm afraid I can't. Sorry about that."
"Suit yourself then, ACE." Barry went back inside.
You can tell how much Barry hates ACE just by looking at his dialogue.
"Well, why don't you let Arin and I come with you?" Suzy smiled "It'll be much faster if it get's done together."
Wait. Why did she say my name too?
"No. It's okay." ACE said "I wouldn't want to ruin your fun here. Who would rather go shopping than play video games anyway."
Apparently you would.
"Alright then." Suzy said softly.
"I'll see you guys some other time, though." ACE said walking away. "So have fun and play safe."
Suzy and I wave him goodbye.
Suzy then let out a sigh.
"Are you alright?" I ask her.
She looks up at me and smiles. "Yeah. Of course. If ACE is busy then there's nothing I can do about it."
I didn't ask if it had anything to do with ACE, but okay.
"Why don't we go back inside? Those games aren't going to play themselves. Besides the demo that plays when no one else is playing it."
Suzy laughed, "Alright. Let's go then."
I looked toward the arcade window. Jon was sticking his ear to the glass. Was he trying to listen in on us?
As we walked in, Jon put his arm around my shoulder. "Mind if I borrow the guy?" he asked
"Sure." Suzy responded confused.
Jon took me into the bathroom, arm still around me.
"So what was that all about?" Jon asked.
"ACE was just passing by and Suzy just happened to notice him." I answered.
"Oh. That must have been rough on you."
"How come?"
"How come? That was your romantic rival. Talking to your girl right in front of you."
"First off, Suzy isn't my girl. And second, we were just having a friendly conversation."
"Of course that's how it starts. But friendly conversation after friendly conversation, something is bound to happen between them."
"Well, there's nothing I can do about that. We're all good friends so friendly conversations are going to happen."
"Well, sure. But you should be having more friendlier conversations with her. You're the one that actually likes her. He doesn't even notice. So it's you're chance to make her notice you before he notices her. You know what'll happen if that happens."
"I get it, I get it. I'll try to be more careful with how I go about this. Can we just go back out there and play some games."
"Alright, bro. But just don't waste your chances."
I gave him a thumbs up then walked out of the bathroom.
Suzy, the gang and I all stayed at the arcade until it closed. Suzy and I live right next door to each other so we walk back together after saying goodbye to the guys.
"That was so much fun," Suzy said as she stretched her arms over her head "Now I'm super pooped."
"Yeah, me too." I said " I'm ready to lay down and do nothing else for the rest of the day."
"By the way... what did you and Jon do in the bathroom."
"Oh. Uh. Nothing really. Just personal stuff. Nothing to be concerned about."
"Okee Dokee then. If you say it's nothing then I would stick my little ol' nose in it."
Suzy and I live right next to each other. ACE also use to live next to us, right next to Suzy. But do to certain circumstances, he had to move away. He's still in town. Just farther away from us. When we were younger, Suzy would always insist on bringing him along when we went out to play. Most of the times he wouldn't. Don't know what was holding him back. He's never had anything go on. He's always by himself. We'd sometimes had to force him to come play with us. Even his babysitter would make him go outside. But those days are over now.
We made it in front of our houses.
"Well I'll see you tomorrow," Suzy smiled and waved me goodbye.
I waved back and turned to go back to my house.
Until suddenly I heard "Arin, wait."
I turned around and before I know it, Suzy's arms were around me.
"Thanks." she said in my ear before letting go and running back to her house.
I can feel myself smiling awkwardly as she walks inside. Am I blushing? My face feels really hot right now. I shouldn't be, she was thanking me for defending her crush. But gosh damn did she smell nice. Just like lemons. I'll defend ACE anytime if it means being able to embrace with Suzy like that. Is that weird. Yeah, I think that's weird. Let's move the story along.
Now we're on a school day. Yep. You heard right. This is a school fan fiction. Let's just deal with it for a moment, and try to endure.
I headed to the first class that ACE, Suzy and I had together. As soon as I walked in Suzy was holding on to ACE's, arm as he sat down on the desk, shaking him. It's something I'm use to. She's always like that with him.
"ACE." Suzy said "You should have been there at the arcade with us. We had so much fun."
"I'm sorry about that. I just so many chores do, too."
I took my seat behind ACE.
"Would you mind not doing that so early in the morning?" A girl in a pony tail walked about to ACE and Suzy. It's the school president, Rachael. She used to be one of our friends that would hang out with us sometimes when we were little. It wasn't much. But we still had fun at the time. Being the school president, she tries to do everything by the book. And for whatever reason, she hates Suzy now. Maybe she also has a thing for ACE.
"Sorry, Pres." ACE said as he turned to a book.
Suzy let go of ACE's arm and stood up to face Rachael. "Why can't you just get off our cases? We're just goofing off."
"Well you're goofing off is starting to turn into a public display of affection. It can make some people feel uncomfortable."
"Who the hell is it making uncomfortable? I don't see anyone in here eyeballing us just because I'm giving my friend's arm a little tug. Or could it be that you're the uncomfortable one because you have a little crush on him."
Rachael let out a sarcastic laugh "Tell me. Why would I like a dweeb like him?"
"Um... I'm right here." ACE said. He then stood up from his seat "Can't we all just get along and be friends." He put his hand on Suzy and Rachael's shoulder
Rachael's eyes widen in disgust as she backed up away from ACE. "Don't you dare touch me with your filthy hands!" She yelled out.
Everyone who was in the class doing their own thing stopped and looked over at us. It was silent for a moment. Rachael glanced at me who was also a bit surprised by her sudden outburst.
"Um..." she let out a nervous cough "Just make sure you're careful about PDA." She said nothing else as she went to her desk on the other side of the room and sat down. She tried to hide her face in her book, but it was clear that she was red from embarrassment.
ACE sat down and turned to me and whispered "I forgot she get's freaked out when a guy touches her."
"It's alright, man." I whispered back. "You were just trying to calm them down before a fight broke loose. You did the right thing."
"I just wish she'd quit trying to start crap with me." Suzy said as she sat down in the desk next ACE.
The bell rang so everyone took their seat. As soon as they did, the old man teacher walked in. He greeted everyone then began the class.
Time skip to lunch. ACE and Suzy were already outside in the court yard eating, but today I decided to take my time getting my lunch. I was looking up at the menu then back at my wallet to see if I had enough. Chicken Teriyaki is three freakin dollars? What kind of economy is this school trying to run? I'm better off just buying the dollar rice cracker. That should fill me up for a few hours... or minutes.
"Yo, bud-bone!!!!" Jon yelled out right next to my ear.
I sighed "I wish you really wouldn't do that."
"So how'd it go yesterday when you walked Suzy home? Did she give you any of that sugar you've been begging for?"
"Not exactly. She did give me a hug though."
"Oooo, buddy. You're finally stepping up in the world."
"The hug didn't even mean anything though. She was just thanking me for standing up for her and her crush that's all it was."
"Yeah, Arin. But you have to think about it like this. A hug is a hug. That means eventually she's going to realize that you're the one who truly get's her and what she's feeling. Sooner or later that hug is going to turn into a kiss on the cheek, then that kiss on the cheek is going to turn into a little bit more. Know what I'm saying?"
"I'm unsure where you're getting that logic from, but..." Behind Jon I could see Rachael sitting alone at a table eating her food. "Jon, I got to go for a moment."
"Yeah, sure. I gonna get me some tasty Chicken Teriyaki."
I walked past Jon and to sit at the table Rachael is sitting at.
She looked up for the soup she was eating so delicately "What do you want?" She said in a rude type of way.
"I'm sorry about bothering you." I said "I was just checking to see if you were okay."
She looked away from me "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"No reason. I just thought I'd check up on an old friend." I'd smiled.
"Well don't. It's creepy." she sipped a bit more from her soup.
I let out a sigh. "What happened, Rachael? We all use to be good friends."
"Emphases on Use To." She responded as she looked me dead in the eyes "Look, I'm the school president now. I'm a leader. It's my job to make sure everything is done by school code. I don't have time to goof off or listen to those two goof off. That's just how it is now." She turned her head back away from me.
"But is that how you want it to be?" I asked "We could all still be friends. Just like when we were kids. There doesn't have to be any more arguing, just us laughing and having a good time like we use to."
She turned back to me with a more sad expression "But how would that help you?"
"What?" I asked confused "What do you mean?"
She turned away again "I'm done talking now. Let me eat my soup."
"Oh, sure." I stood up from the table wondering what she meant by what she said.
When I could back to the food, all the rice cracker's were gone.
Damn it. You try to be a nice person and this is what it gets you. I checked my wallet. There's still a five dollar bill in there. It was suppose to last me until the end of the week, but I need something to eat, the only thing that looks edible is that damn three dollar Chicken Teriyaki sandwich. Damn. Compromises. I ended up buying it.
Disappointed in myself, I walk outside to the bench that ACE, Suzy and I usually sit at.
"Hey, Arin." ACE said, "I bought to many honey buns. I thought i could handle them all, but two was all I can muster. You want one?"
I turn to Suzy, who was nibbling on a honey bun like a rabbit. I looked down at my sandwich, then looked at the honey bun ACE had held out in his hand to give me.
I tried my best to crack a smile "It's okay, man." I said gritting my teeth "I could something to eat right here."
"Alright then." ACE said "I guess I'll try my best to eat it. Don't want to waste it. It cost me a whole dollar.
"Well at least you didn't have to pay three dollars for this piece of sh... I mean, this tasteful sandwich that I'm so grateful to have."
"It looks tasty," Suzy said. "Mind if I had a bite of it?"
"Yeah, sure." I said as i tore a piece of being careful not to drop any of the chicken.
I held out the piece to give to Suzy, but she grabbed the arm with the whole sandwich and chomped down on it.
"Yum." Suzy said with a big smile "It really is tasty."
Did I just feel my heart stop. Suzy just took a bite from my sandwich. The sandwich that I was going to eat from. I'm breathing heavily.
"That was a bit much, don't you think?" ACE asked
"What? Are you feeling a bit jealous?" Suzy asked "Would you like me to take a bite from your honey bun?"
"No it's alright. Eating a honey bun is a one person job."
I could hear them talking but I couldn't contribute to the conversation. I was to busy thinking about the part she ate from. If I eat it right now in front of her, would that be weird? It be like an indirect kiss. But how would she feel about that. I mean, I'm still hungry and I still want to eat it. But her teeth marks are visible in my sandwich. Crap I really am a creep. All I have to do is act like nothing's wrong. That's it. Yeah. Just take a bit out of it and act as if it's the most normal thing to do.
Okay. I take the sandwich and I slowly move it to my mouth to take a bite. Before my teeth could even touch the sandwich, it was knocked out of my hand by a fast moving object.
My mouth still open I turn to see my sandwich on the ground, swarmed by birds.
I said nothing as I look at them devour my sandwich like the cannibals they are.
"...Son of of a bit..."