Chapter Seven
It was 9:20 at night, Wolf was patiently waiting outside the entrance to his apartment for Serena to arrive for their first date. He felt a bit guilty not being able to pick her up, but he didn't have much of a choice because she never gave him her address and he had no car to pick her up in. But he needed to get out more often after being cramped in a ship for so long, so it was a blessing in disguise.
Suddenly, there she was. Serena strode down the street in a white sheath with flower designs covering the background. Compared to Wolf, who still had on what he did this morning save for his old flight vest to keep the nippy wind out, she looked stunning.
"Well now I look overdressed!" She said, snickering.
"Well that's okay, you won't need to worry about looks where we're going."
"Oh?"
"It's a surprise…"
"Ugh, why must you make me suffer on a first date? Damn all men to hell!" They both let out a hearty laugh.
Wolf went to the edge of the road and hailed for a taxi, which took him less than thirty seconds to get a response. He opened the car door for Serena which caused her to blush. "Such a gentleman." she mouthed.
"I'll be right back."
He went over to the drivers side door and motioned for him to lower the window. A black avian sat in the drivers seat.
"Hey, I'm on a date with that fine lady in the back, and I wanted to surprise her on where we are going, so I just want to tell you where we're going over here so she doesn't hear."
"Sure…so where to Romeo?" He replied with a grin.
"The corner of Jules and Potport."
"All right then."
He rolled the window back up and the lupine stepped into the car.
"Ready for some fun?"
'Absolutely!" She said, landing a kiss on Wolf's cheek.
A short ride later, they arrived at their destination. Up the street was a large neon sign that was labeled: "Lylat Lanes". It took Serena a moment to realize were.
"Now I know I'm overdressed!" She said, planting another kiss on Wolf.
" Well nobody will see it anyway…"
"How?"
"Read the sign again."
She looked closer at the sign.
Cosmic Bowling
"This is already turning out to be the best first date I've ever had!"
When they got inside, the normal lights were already down and were replaced by the vibrant colors of the fluorescent lights. The pins had a alien-green tone to them, while the balls had a bright neon look to them. Loud music played ranging from techno to rock. They got themselves a lane and prepared themselves for a night of bowling.
Suddenly, a teenage frog with trays of some finger food put some of them down at their table behind the lane. He also put down a pitcher of beer on the table as well.
"Oh…we didn't order those." Wolf exclaimed to the teen.
"It's on us! Finger Food Friday! Appetizers are free, and all adult groups get a free pitcher of beer after nine."
Wolf was shocked. So that's why they wanted our ID…
"Wow, thanks." He threw the kid a few credits.
"The pleasures mine."
Wolf looked back at Serena, her flower patterns let off a green hue. He chuckled at the patterns dancing around. She responded by twirling around.
"So, you want to eat first?"
"Well, that's all I was expecting us to do anyway so yeah." Everything she said made her laugh, Wolf could tell she was enjoying herself.
They approached the table and checked out what they had. It was the usual stuff like wings, cheese fries, mozzarella sticks, and some onion rings. Nothing entirely special but it was more than enough to fill them up. Not to mention the pitcher of beer would not only fill them up faster, but make their scores drop by the second.
They immediately began to chow down, Wolf went for the onion rings and cheese sticks, while Serena ate the wings and mozzarella sticks. Neither of them seemed to mind that they were eating like slobs, but isn't that how you're supposed to eat stuff like this?
After eating and drinking, they decided to actually get to the main event. Wolf set up the scoring monitor (Giving Serena and himself the names HWL and FNG respectively), while Serena picked up a ball. She got into position and let it go, it curved from the right side of the lane, over toward the left, hitting the pins right in the middle. All of them collapsed in a chaotic "explosion".
"Well, well, well… Ms. Bowling Queen."
"Ten years of playing kind of helps you out." She said as she playfully stuck her tongue out at him.
"Oh I'll show you how its done."
He grabbed a ball and prepared himself. But just as he was about to let the ball go…
"GUTTERBALL!" Serena shouted.
The lupine stopped where he stood, and slowly turned around and gave his date the most sly look ever. She put on the most innocent face she could make, causing Wolf to make one of those "No-no-no" motions with his finger.
"No heckling the bowler!" He said in a high pitched voice.
The game was an exciting match, but as expected, the drinks made their scores get lower and lower with each frame, but not to the extent that they expected. Both of them could hold their liquor quite well without getting entirely drunk. It all came down to one frame, "HWL" led by three pins over her relentless opponent "FNG"! Her drunkenness showed in this final frame, only scoring a seven. Up came "FNG", as he approached the lane, things were beginning to go fuzzy, as you'd expect after a few drinks. He positioned himself, wobbling a little as he let go of the ball. It rolled down the lane and hit the…
Wolf woke up, he had a nasty hangover. It took a moment for the room to stop spinning, and that was when he realized he was not in his apartment. In his attempt to find a clock, he noticed that to his right was Serena, sleeping peacefully.
Oh no…did we do it?
He noticed that he had on only his shirt and boxers from last night, which was a relief to him. His vest and jeans were sprawled on a chair across the room. Serena began to stir, letting out a yawn.
"Good morning." She said in a still tired voice.
"Oh…hi…"
"Man, last night was awesome. I hope we can do something like that again."
Uh oh…
"Umm…what happened to me? Last thing I remember was our second to last frame where you totally missed the pins."
"You must have blacked out. You had a lot of beer there. Well, I won the match, and you were totally out of it so I thought I'd let you stay over at my place for the night. It was the least I could do for you giving me the best time I've had in a while."
"I'm sorry."
"No, its fine, you weren't too much of a hassle."
Wolf stared at Serena for the longest time before asking the question he dreaded.
"Did we…you know?"
"No." Wolf let out a large sigh of relief. He was glad he wasn't falling back into his old ways. Overall, he considered the date a success.
"Do you want some tea or something? It'll help with our hangovers."
"Sure." Serena jumped out of bed and left the room.
AUTHORS NOTES: This is my favorite chapter so far, but at the same time, I hated how it ended. I might come back to this one again.
