"Why are you shooting down the aliens anyway? What did they do to you?" Kris watched me over my shoulder as I jammed the button to shoot the ships down.

"Um..." I tried to form a coherent thought while still concentrating on the game. "Well... This game doesn't really have a plot. They shot at you and you shoot back." I swore under my breath when one of them hit me and I lost my last life. The screen flashed, “insert $0.25” at me in a mocking taunt. "This game is pretty old so it's more of an action based game then a plot based game. Wanna give it a go?" Surrendering with grace, I stepped away from the console and offer it to him.

"I'll pass." Kris looked at the game with distaste. I guess he really didn't like it. That made me feel a little guilty. I’m suppose to be showing him that this is a fun thing the locals do but I forced him watch me play a game he had no interest in. Maybe he was expecting us to do 2-player stuff?

"Hm..." I looked around at the surrounding games. What could we do?

"How about air hockey?" I point over to an open table. "We can play together."

"Okay, that sounds fun."

The air hockey tables at Fantasy Arcade are like nothing you've ever seen. They are massive, big enough for four players and every once in a while, twenty to thirty pucks are dropped onto the table and there is a frenzy to get them all in other player's goal. It's a dog eat dog game and it is ridiculously fun.

I slot a few quarters into the table and grab the two paddles on my side. "Ready?"

He scoffed at me with a crooked grin, his eyes alit with a competitive spark. "Are you ready?"

The table chirped and dropped the first puck. The game was on. I let out a loud battle cry and made a swipe for the puck. but Kris was faster and knocked it to the side board. My left paddle was in the perfect place to block the goal from it. I smacked it back against the boards with blinding speed and it zigzagged across the table. Kris tried to block it but it just missed, allowing it to slip into the goal.

"Yeah!" I punched the air and smiled cheekily at him. "What now?!"

Kris said nothing. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms before putting the puck on the table.

Faster than lightening, he slapped the puck across the table and it slide into the goal before I could even react.

"Whoa! That was some supernatural voodoo right there! I didn't know it was possible to move that fast." I looked at him in amazement.

"I couldn't have you beating me, could I?" He smirked at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that how you want to play it, pretty boy? You're on!"

Our game quickly descended into madness. The pack was a blur across the table as we smacked it back and forth. When the mini pucks were dropped, we practically flung ourselves across the table to try to get as many as we could in the other’s goal. Soon, I was breathing heavily and sweat was collecting on my forehead. Kris had been a bit shaky at first, like he wasn't quite sure what to do, but once he got the hang of it, I didn't stand a chance. He absolutely slaughtered me.

When the table chimed that the game was over after Kris scored again, I collapsed on the ground in an exhausted heap.

“Ah, man,” I whined as I wiped the sweat from my brow. “I have never been beaten so badly.”

“You leave your goal to open.” He was panting, too. Some of his hair was glued to his forehead by the sweat.

“Yours is too closed! You didn’t even give me a chance to score.”

Kris chuckled softly. It was a low pleasant sound and I found myself blushing faintly . It was my first time hearing him laugh.

“All’s fair in love and war, as they say. What do you want to do next?” He asked as he took my hand and pulled me up.

“Skeeball! I’ll beat you at that for sure!” I grabbed his arm and yanked him through the arcade.

It ended up being the same as it was with air hockey. Kris was a bit unsteady at first but once he got the hang of it, I was left in the dust. He beat me by 15,000 points. After that we played pinball, a fighting game, a race horse game, and pacman. He beat me everytime.

“Why?” I cried as I slumped into a seat at the snack bar. “How are you good at everything?”

“I’m not. You just .” He smirked and took sip of his chocolate shake.

“Oi!” I frowned at him. “I am not bad at air hockey! You’re just freakishly good!”

He raised an eyebrow at me as though I was all talk.

“That’s it!” I stood up and pointed at him. “Let’s go! Right here, right now! We are not leaving the arcade until I’ve beaten you at air hockey!”

“We just ordered food. At least wait until we’ve had our food.”

I collapsed on the table and groaned. I was all pumped and ready to go but there was nothing to be pumped about. Oh well. At least we were getting pizza. I lifted my head off the table and rested my chin on my hand. Kris was studying me, carefully considering something.

“You act differently when you’re not at work.”

“Of course. I have to be pleasant all the time to customers, otherwise they won’t come back.”

Kris snorted. “That’s probably for the best. If you run around challenging everyone at work to air hockey at the top of your lungs, you’d get fired.”

“Oi! You !” I reached across the table and shove him in hope of wiping off that cheeky grin of his off his face. He just laughed at me.

After talking and goofing off for a little while longer, the pizza finally came. We ordered a canadian bacon and olive pizza and it look amazing. I handed Kris one of the two plates the waitress had brought us and a slice. The cheese had been piled on and long strings of cheese dripped off my slice. I put it on my plate and broke them with my fingers.

When I looked up, I found that Kris had been watching me intently and hadn’t gotten any for himself.

“Hey, don’t hold back, Kris. There’s no way I can finish this myself.” I slide the pizza closer to him and took a big bite of my own slice.

Kris finally looked away from me and hesitantly served himself. He looked at it for a moment before raising it to his lips and taking a hesitant bite. As he slowly chewed it. His brows were furrowed and he seemed deep in thought.

I giggled at his peculiar expression, “You look like you’re trying to read what the olives say. Does it not taste good?”

“No, it’s better than I thought it would be.”

“What is it then?” I asked.

“Well… This is actually my first pizza.”

“Really? They don’t have pizza where you’re from?”

“Not really, no.”

“Wow.” My eyes widened. He’d really never had pizza before? That’s a strange thought. “Well, I’m glad I could be here for your first pizza! That’s a special occasion!”

“Is it really?” He asked, confused.

“Well, kinda. I mean, all firsts are important in their own way. Hey!” Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. “Let’s take a picture! That way we can look back and remember you first pizza!”

“...Sure?” Kris still seemed a little confused.

I jumped out of my side of the booth and sat next to him. I pulled out my phone and pulled up the camera app.

“Put the pizza in frame so we know what this picture is about.” He did what I requested and raised up the pizza. I quickly snapped a shot before going back to my booth. Kris ate more than half by himself. I swear he has to have at least four stomachs.

Then the air hockey match was back on. We played until I had only two dollars and zero pride left.

“Alright,” I sighed. “I admit defeat for now.”

“You were never going to win in the first place.”

I shushed him. “I have two dollars left. What should we do with it?”

Kris shrugged and looked off to the side.

“You know, sometimes I really hate your cool guy persona. I can never tell if you’re acting cool or you just don’t care.” I sighed. “Alright, how about a picture then? It’ll be a nice keepsake.”

He just shrugged. I gripped the edge of his sleeve and led him over to the photo booths. Most of them were occupied by couples or girls. I wondered in passing if people thought we were a couple. We entered an empty booth. Fitting in it was kind of awkward though. Kris has really long legs and I’m no pixy either. We had to sit very close, with our legs resting against each other. There weren’t a lot of good frames, most were balloons for birthdays or hearts for couples. In the end we picked one with stars along its edges.

“Smile!” I cried at Kris as the booth counted down to the first picture. The camera flashed, just in time to catch his miniscule smile. “Now a silly one! A silly one!”

The second one ended up being me making a ridiculous face and Kris looking at me with a confused and amused expression. The third was of me blushing and scolding him for not making a silly face with me with Kris laughing. The fourth was me covering my face to hide my reddening cheeks and him smiling fondly at me.

The pictures printed and we both took one.

“Aw...” I sighed. “These all turned out weird.”

“We’ll redo them next time we’re here.” He tucked away the pictures safely in his wallet.

“Next time?” I grinned cheekily to hide my leaping heart. “Does that mean you had fun?”

“When you weren’t yelling about air hockey.” I smacked his shoulder in response but smiled all the same. I had been really worried about whether or not he had fun and knowing for sure that he had enjoyed himself was a weight off my shoulders.

Together, we left Fantasy Arcade. In our time playing games, the sun had set and people had left the streets. A car drove passed us, illuminating everything the street lights couldn’t before turning the corner and letting the shadows return. We stood on the side walk silently for a moment, like there was something we both wanted to say but didn’t know how to say it.

Kris interrupted our silence. “It’s late. Want me to walk you home?”

 “Nah, I’m just around the corner. I’ll be fine.” I smiled. “Today was a lot of fun!”

 Kris’s lips curled up so slightly, I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been looking at him closely. “See you later.” He patted my head and started down the street.

 I bit my lip and subconsciously touched my hair where his hand had been. It felt warm.

 With one last grin aimed at his back, I turned around and began the short walk to my apartment. The sky was dark blue, empty of stars because of the city’s light. I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to go stargazing with Kris. Would he be the type to shrug it off and say it was lame? Or would he effortlessly know the name of every star and constellation? Now that I had done something with him outside of the occasional conversation at Earth Cafe, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I wanted to do with him next. Would he like the aquarium? Were there any movies in the theaters we could see together?

 Because I was lost in thought, I didn’t hear the footsteps that followed me.

 A hand wrapped around me and covered my mouth. Suddenly, every second was forever. I clawed at the hand. My own hands were forced together and bound. My heart raced. I struggled against the rope and tried to free my hands. I was forced towards a car. A tear ran down my cheeks.

 I  should have let Kris walk me home.