Long time no see. Life has been in charge recently. Thanks to Sophie (and Maddie) making it all possible. Two chapters at once *thumbs up*

Enjoy!

In between customers, Sophie thought about what had happened yesterday. Every time she told a customer to have a good day before they left the little shop, she would sit down on the stall behind the counter and pull out her phone from her pocket and tap the dark screen like it would write the words for her before putting it away again and look at the piece of crumbled paper that held all means of contact with Louise Kane.

There were pros and cons about not working in the afternoon. A pro was that Sophie could change into comfy clothes and not have to worry about anyone seeing her, nor did she have to deal with difficult costumers for a second longer. A con was she spent more time alone with her thoughts. And going by past experiences, that was never a good thing.

She sat quietly in her front room, looking at the family photos around the room as she tapped her thumbs nervously on the side of her phone, narrowly avoiding one or two that sat on a cabinet. She kept looking back at the front door, there was strange sense in her body that her dad was going to walk in any minute and catch her. Then she realised she wasn't going anything bad—she wasn't doing anything at all really.

Sophie pondered on how she should write the message. Her thumbs hovered over the possible sentences she could form if her brain had the courage to actually do it. She wanted to sound causal. She didn't want to sound mean. That's the problem with texting, Sophie realised. The person on the other side can't see your face or hear the tone of your voice, what you're written could be read in a different way to intended. Sure emojis helped but she didn't want to have to use them because she lacked in using the right words.

Hi, Lou, she typed.

Thanks for the other night...

No. That sounded like it was planned and that she enjoyed it—well, that last part wasn't a lie, but she couldn't let Louise know that. Not yet. Then she realised, she didn't even have to mention that night. This message was about Louise offering her a free drink.

She deleted her previous sentence and started again.

Thanks for the invitation but drinking isn't really my thing.

Sophie x—

No, scrap the kiss on the end. Casual, remember?

She reread her text before, with a shaking hand, hit send. There was no going back now.

Instantly, she locked her phone and threw it down beside her. That way she couldn't see when the other girl was writing back.

Two minutes later, her phone vibrated.

Okay. What is your thing, then, Sophie?

Lou

Sophie nervously bit her lip. Now she had to reply. She didn't think that far ahead.

Something more laid back. I like watching films, she wrote back.

Me, too but it's not fun! What about bowling?

Yeah..., Sophie wasn't sure what else to say.

Perfect! I'll be round in ten. X

Sophie dropped her phone in her lap. What? She thought. All colour on her face had drained and she stared blankly ahead at the front opposite before glancing down at her outfit. She wasn't dressed to go out somewhere public. Lazy day or day off, Sophie happily spend it in jumpers and jeans—or joggers, depending on her mood, paired with her favourite pair of slippers that were the heads of a cow.

She darted towards the stairs and to her bedroom. She needed to make herself look presentable and she only had ten minutes. It was when she got to her door that she remembered Louise had put a kiss on the end of her text and Sophie cursed silently under her breath.

Louise came round and picked Sophie up in the time she had said and they went to the nearest leisure centre. Sophie left a note for her Dad on the table to say she was out in case he wondered where she was. Although as she thought about it, she didn't understand why. She was twenty-one now, she didn't need to tell her parents about where she was going, but after the other night, she did it just in case.

The centre was quiet for the time of day but neither of them minded because it meant they didn't have to worry about anyone around and they could have as many games as they wanted. Typical music played like Eye of the Tiger to motivate players and anything that was in the music charts as well as music for kids. The lanes were lit different colours and although it had been a while since Sophie had played the game, it always remembered her of the birthday parties she'd been to when she was little.

"So, when was the last time you went bowling, Webster?" Louise asked as she typed their names to the screen above them.

Sophie finished re-tying her shoelaces on the ugly bowling shoes the activity made everyone wear before answering. "I don't remember actually."

"Not even on the Wii?"

"No," Sophie shook her head.

Louise double checked she wrote their names in correctly before hitting enter, and then she walked over to Sophie and gave the brunette a helping hand standing up.

"Well, prepare to get your butt kicked," she smirked playfully. "My family love bowling. We used to play regularly in the summer holidays when I was younger. Don't worry, though, I'll go easy on you."

Sophie laughed nervously. Still, she smiled as Louise turned to pick up a ball. She wasn't sure if the laughter was due to anxiety or if Louise standing so close to her made her feel something she was trying to avoid.

Louise lined up to bowl. Happy with her position, she took a few steps forward towards the line before pulling her arm back and letting the ball go as it came forward again.

Sophie watched as the ball rolled down the lane at high speed. It hit down the pins one by one and Sophie's face turned to shook as Louise scored the perfect strike on her first go.

Louise didn't say anything. She turned to sit down but not before shooting Sophie a wink. "Your turn."

Sophie knew it was only a friendly game but if there was any way she was going to impress her new friend, bowling was not going to be the thing to do it.

Sophie stood with her ball to her chest. She took a quick glance up at the scoreboard and sighed.

"Come on, Sophie! This is your last chance to redeem yourself," Louise chanted. "You can do it!"

There's a fat chance of that happening, Sophie thought. She needed to get eight pins down for a spare. Taking a step back before hand, she bowled her final ball.

Steadily, it rolled down. It was like a magnet but, like always, as the ball approached the middle of the lane, it began to drift to a side. Resulting in knocking down two pins before the ball disappeared behind the bar.

By the end of their first game it was clear who the winner was. Sophie was grateful Louise had allowed her to have the bars up or she would have got a gutter ball on her every go or she would be left embarrassed and Louise wouldn't want to know her anymore.

If there was anything Louise had learned about Sophie after today it was that sport isn't her thing.

Sophie slowly turned to see Louise sat down smug, knowing what was coming next.

Louise's face turned into a grin. She bit down on her tongue to stop herself from laughing. She looked Sophie up and down. The brunette's body language showed her defeat and Louise stood to be beside her.

"Hey, there's always game two," she said as she pulled Sophie into a side hug. "Let's take a break. Didn't we agree the loser buys the drinks?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. They headed towards the mini bar in the corner of the bowling centre.

There was something about walking with Louise's arm around her waist that Sophie didn't want to lose. It felt comfortable. It made her feel more comfortable about being out.

"So if you don't like clubbing, what brought you to Hurricanes?"

Louise and Sophie had ordered their drinks and where sat in a booth. They had talked about Sophie's bowling technique and now, Louise wanted to know more about the shy companion she had picked up.

"It was my birthday. My friends wanted me to do something different," Sophie shrugged. She kept her eyes on her beverage, stirring the ice around with her straw.

"It was your birthday? Happy birthday!" Louise clapped once. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one," Sophie mumbled.

"Same age as me," Louise gasped. "Do you not normally do much for your birthday?"

"No," Sophie shook her head. "It's usually a small get together at home. I like it that way."

"Understandable," Louise smiled. She wasn't going to tell Sophie, but she liked quiet birthdays, too. Something always went wrong when there were lots of people about and with the best night for birthdays being a weekend and there were a lot of young adults going out to clubs to get wasted or laid, she understood why Sophie would prefer to stay in. Louise had seen it a lot at Hurricanes.

"You don't regret coming to where I work, though, do you?"

"No," Sophie bit her lip. "I had fun."

Louise wasn't sure what part of the night Sophie was talking about but she smiled. "Me, too."

Sophie's knee shook nervously under the table. She tapped her fingertips against her glass as she braced herself. "I've had fun today."

"Would you come out somewhere with me again?" Louise asked.

Sophie nodded.

"It's a date then."