Page 25 of Late Nights

The race started, and we both sped off the starting line, trading first and second places throughout the race. It was our final lap, and I was keeping the lead with her close on my heels. I released a red shell hoping to slow her down, but she dodged it, keeping her pace with me. The finish line was now in sight, and there was no way she was going to beat me. Victory would be mine again.

Demi jumped into my lap, knocking my controller out of my hands and onto the floor. I sat there, stunned that she was now sitting on me. What had just happened?

“Woohoo! I won!” she shouted, throwing her arms up in the air, wiggling back and forth in my lap.

In. My. Lap.

I continued to sit there, frozen.

“Oh, yeah. I won. You lost,” she sang out, moving her body side to side.

She had no clue what she was doing to me, and to keep things playful instead of escalating to something we couldn’t come back from, I needed to do something quick.

Placing my hands on her waist, I grabbed her and pinned her down on the couch. The ease and speed with which I got her on her back had her looking up in shock. I hovered above her, pinning down her legs with my body and keeping hold of her arms with my hands. It wasn’t lost on me that two nights in a row of playing video games together had ended with me being on top of her. But I wasn’t complaining.

“You,” I said, trying not to smile, “are a little cheater.”

She wriggled beneath me, trying to get free. “It’s not my fault you dropped your controller and didn’t cross the finish line.”

I looked at her incredulously. “It wasn’t my fault I dropped my controller. I wasn’t expecting you to jump on me.”

She tried not to laugh, but it escaped in a loud burst. “There were no rules that said you couldn’t distract your opponent.”

I shook my head at her and chuckled. “I wasn’t aware that was even a question. But we both know you didn’t really win.”

“That’s not what the game said.” She flashed me a mischievous grin. “That big golden first place flashed on the screen for me.” She continued to try to free herself, but I wasn’t about to let her get out of this without fessing up.

“If you have any hope of getting out of this hold, you’ll admit to your cheating ways.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“Then you leave me no choice,” I warned.

I let go of her arms and started tickling her sides, knowing how ticklish she was and that she’d eventually give in. And it helped that it was an excuse to touch her, to hear her laugh, to see her happy.

“Cannon,” she exclaimed. “This is so not fair!” Her laugh came out in yelps and giggles.

“Neither is you cheating,” I smiled.

In a move I wasn’t expecting, she sat up and shot out her hand to tickle my side, causing my hold on her to slip. I was more ticklish than I liked to admit, and now she knew it too.

“Two can play at this game,” she taunted in between heavy breathing and laughing.

“Yeah, but one of us is a lot stronger than the other.”

She got a couple more swipes at my sides, both of us laughing until I eventually got her pinned again. “All you have to do is say you cheated.”

“What is going on down here?”

My body stilled, the blood draining from my face at the voice.

Crap. We must have been so loud that West could hear us upstairs.

I jumped off Demi as she scrambled back from me. West face was a mix of anger and horror.

Crap, crap, crap.

“Nothing,” I hurried to say, my breaths uneven from our tickle fight.

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