Page 161 of The First Taste
He stands up, stretching. “I’m E-Male. Get it, cause I’m the only guy?”
“Does that make me Old Yella?” Ella asks. “I do not get your sense of humor, my dude.”
Eric rolls his eyes. “Can we just bowl?”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Let me pick out a ball really quickly.”
His lips twitch. “I already put a couple of twelve pound balls in the ball return thing.”
I arch my eyebrows. “For me?”
He squints at me. “For both of you. The last time we did this, you both used twelve pound balls. Since I had nothing but time while I was waiting on you, I went ahead and grabbed four balls that size. Plus a sixteen pounder for myself.”
I blink. “Oh. Well… thanks. That was really nice of you.”
Ella points up at the scoreboard. “According to that, you’re up first, Eric.”
He stands up, brushing imaginary dust off of his dark t-shirt. “Watch and learn, ladies.”
I smile, rolling my eyes. Ella wrinkles her nose.
“In your dreams, white boy,” she calls after him. “I’m going to whoop you.”
As I watch him select his ball, I reach into my back pocket for my phone. I check the screen but there are no notifications.
Heaving a silent sigh, I return the phone to my jeans. Ella arches a questioning eyebrow at me. “Who is keeping you from being present right now?”
I flush. “No one. I’m just… checking my Insta.”
The lie sounds phony coming out of my mouth. “You are a terrible liar.” Crossing her arms, she turns to watch Eric bowl.
I bite my lip and do the same. Eric knocks some pins down, trotting back towards us.
“Just getting warmed up,” he says, bridging his hands and turning them inside out. “I’m telling you guys, I’m a great bowler.”
I giggle. “We have bowled with you before. There is no reason to lie.”
“Yeah, E-Male,” Ella says, laughing.
Eric’s face flushes. “You can both go to hell.”
“Hmm.” Ella shakes her head and looks at the scoreboard. “Hey, I’m going to grab one of every kind of junk food from the commissary. Any special requests?”
I turn and look at the restaurant, if you can call a popcorn machine and one of those hot dog rollers that. Wrinkling my nose, I pull out some cash. “Get me whatever is the best bang for my buck.”
She eyes me. “Look at you, Miss Got Money To Burn All The Sudden. Keep your dough. This is my treat. Just be prepared to eat your own weight in salty, sticky, sweet goodness.”
She wiggles her eyebrows and dashes off toward the food counter. Her dress barely covers her ass as she goes but I figure she already knows all about that.
“Your turn,” Eric says quietly. He’s close behind me and that gives me a start.
I whirl around, my eyes wide. “What?”
He points up at the scoreboard, where Kaia Papaya is flashing insistently. “It’s your turn to bowl.”
I give him a wobbly smile. “Right. Duh.”
I walk past him. He leans into my path, bumping my shoulder with his. I scrunch my nose up and shoot him a joking glare.
