We Came Alone but Left Together

Finally it was time for bowling. I absolutely suck at bowling and don’t really like the stupid game, but I agreed to it because the guys really wanted to go. So here I was, with Kyle by my side, leading the way to the nearest bowling alley. I had no idea of where the damn place was, and I don’t have the best sense of direction, but for some reason they were following me. Not a very smart idea in my opinion.

“Kyyyyyle,” I exclaimed, stretching out the ‘i’ syllable in his name. After he nodded his head at me, signaling me to continue, I asked, “Why am I the leader? And why are we bowling? And why are you wearing Jonathan’s for shizzle shirt?”

“Did you just say ‘for shizzle’?” Kyle’s face held a look of amusement. “You’re such a cracker. I love it!” I laughed at that, and when I settled down, Kyle answered my questions. “Well you’re the leader because you’re our jewel. That’s reason enough. We’re bowling because it’s the cliché thing to do and we want to throw some unoriginality into our lives, to spice things up a bit. And I’m wearing his shirt because I’m an oh-jeez-awesome-thief, so I decided to snag it. Plus, it adds to my sex appeal.”

“Oh I’m sure,” I commented with an eye-roll. “Hey, somehow we managed to get here! Wow... My leading skills are better than I thought,” I mused, as we slowed to a stop in front of some bowling alley.

“My wife is absolutely great!” Sophii exclaimed, running up to me and hugging me, forcing Kyle out of the way. She threw some type of look his way, one that was probably apologetic. Although I don’t really see why. People don’t usually get upset if I’m stolen away, since I’m not much. But anyways, before I get into a rant fueled by my excruciatingly low self-esteem, I’ll continue on with the tale that I was telling.

“Not at all Sophii,” I replied, laughing a bit. “You’re the absolutely great one!” I gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek, before linking our arms and leading the way into the building.

Once we arrived at the paying booth area, Jonathan stepped up and started talking to the person behind the booth. Finally, after waiting however long it took for Jonathan to get things settled, we were allowed to go to our lane and start the games.

“It should be girls versus boys. That means Austin and Kyle are with us,” I announced, using a teasing tone at the end.

“What?! Why are we girls?!” Kyle shouted in mock outrage. I could tell he was holding in a laugh.

“Because Austin’s hair is as long as mine, and Kyle; you spend as much time on your hair as a girl would,” I explained, still using my playful tone.

Sophii clapped her hands together before announcing the teams. “So it’s settled; the teams are Kent, Caleb, Jonathan, and Marc versus Alyssa, Kyle, Austin, and I. It works out perfectly!”

“Get ready to be owned!” Kyle shouted at the other team, bringing out a laugh from me.

“Oh bring it on! I’ll Caleb Turmin-ate you!” Caleb yelled right back, posing in an ‘Ima-beat-your-arse’ way.

“You loser, that’s such a bad pun!” Austin scoffed, joining in the trash talk. “Either way, you’re going to be destroyed. We’ve got the best team around, since we have our jewel and our precious. So take that and eat it.”

“Uch I’d rather not eat anymore,” I complained, hugging my arms to my stomach. You could say I had a tad too much food (at least for me) when we were at the restaurant

“It’s just an expression...” Austin chuckled, before saying, “We’d better get the game started, since we’re due back at the buses before 10:00. Right now it’s like... 8:00.”

“Thank you Father Time!” Jonathan retorted, bringing some more trash talk up as we walked to where the bowling shoes could be rented. They’re pretty disgusting and all, but at least all of us were wearing socks. It’d be gross if we weren’t.

Once our shoes were on and we arrived at our appointed lanes, we started to bowl. The bowling orders were as follows; on our team it went Sophii, Austin, Kyle, and then me, while on the other team it went Jonathan, Marc, Kent, and then Caleb.

“Fuck yeah, that’s a strike!” Jonathan shouted from his lane, after knocking down all ten pins.

Sophii looked at him from our lane, a playfully competitive look on her face, before throwing the bowling ball down the lane. “Almost a strike!” she exclaimed, before knocking down the remaining pins, earning our team a spare.

Pretty soon, it was my turn. My bowling arm was shaking slightly, from the weight, but I managed to throw it down the lane. Somehow, I managed to hit a pin or two instead of rolling a gutter.

“I take it that bowling isn’t your thing?” Kyle asked me with a laugh, after I rolled a second time.

“Not at all. At least I didn’t roll any gutters.” I laughed along, before watching Sophii go. On the other team, they were racking up the points big time.

“You mofos!” Austin shouted over at them, realizing that we were being beaten, by a lot.

“Say whatever you want, we’re still beating you,” Kent pointed out.

Soon, after everyone had bowled ten times (I think that’s how many times per person...), I earning quite a low score, we tallied up to see who won. Of course the boys team beat us, seeing as they had all of those talented bowlers on their team.

“Whatever. Pick any other game and we’ll crush you!” Kyle exclaimed, still not over the game. You could say that our team is a whole bunch of sore losers.

“Dude, we’re obviously the better team. Give it up, man.” Caleb looked smug, probably from winning.

“You know what? Let’s stop this fighting and head back to the buses, alright?” I was trying to mediate, being the pacifist I am. I hate when there are arguments or fights, unless it’s short-lived and playful. This seemed to be getting a bit too competitive. “On the way we’ll stop by an ice cream shop and buy something there.”

At the prospect of ice cream, everybody stopped arguing and went back to the friendly atmosphere we had before. There was more joking and less trash talking, which was what I was hoping for. One more crisis averted, thanks to me.

“Awh my wifey’s not only good with directions, but she’s also a peace maker!” Sophii exclaimed. I smiled, wrapping one of my arms around her shoulders and the other around Austin’s shoulders.

“Cold Stone Creamery!” Kyle shouted, pointing at the store like a child would.

“Yum! Let’s go!” Sophii said in a sing-song voice, her lovely accent audible.

Inside the store, we all stood around looking at what we could order, before getting into the line. I don’t know about you, but people who stand there for twenty minutes, thinking of a choice, really piss me off.

Finally, once every one of us had our choice picked, we got on the end of the line, playing childish hand games while we waited.

Tunes like ‘Miss Mary Mack-Mack-Mack, all dressed in black-black-black...’, ‘Concentration 64; no repeats, no hesitations...’, and ‘Bo bo, skee wha-tin ta-tin... were being sung by our immature group, while loud clapping and slapping noises from our hands were heard. I’d bet my ass that almost every person in the place was giving us odd looks and/or getting annoyed.

As soon as we reached the front, Caleb ordered for us and we began to wait for the ice cream to be prepared. This time we were more or less silent, deciding to have little staring contests instead of hand game tournaments. Not looking at what anyone else had ordered, I dug into my medium sized cup of ice cream. It was vanilla ice cream, with caramel and cookie dough mixed into it. Delicious.

“We’re off to get to the buses! The wonderful buses of Warped!” I sang loudly, as we made our way back onto the streets of San Francisco. “They’re our ride to the next venue, so we cannot be late.”

“So we need to be there by nine o’clock, in the eve-eh-ning. Or else, or else, or else, or else, or else! The other bands will leave without us,” Kyle joined in, improvising words using the tune of the well known song from the old movie, The Wizard of Oz.

“So we’re off to get to the buses! The wonderful buses of Warped!” everybody finished together, causing a round of hearty laughter. You could say that the group of us are a bunch of... amusing people.

Minutes later, we arrived at today’s venue, running to the line of parked buses. Finding our own, we boarded just as the clock struck 9:53 P.M. Yes, a very random time. At least it wasn’t a cliché where we got there at exactly 10:00. That would be lame and not interesting.

Soon the buses started to move and we were off to the next city, chatting away. Today had been a really great bonding day, and I was sure that when the end of the tour came, I would be in tears because I’d have to say ‘good-bye’ to these great friends I’d made.