The Game of Seduction

Kia won against Ian in pool. She won the second game but it was a close call. Ian won the third game after realizing that he had to be more serious, but in the end, Kia won the fourth game.

“Aren’t you glad that you only have to pay for the bill and not do something embarrassing?” Kia asked, while they collected the balls so they can return them.

“Aeh,” Ian shrugged. “I’m not easily embarrassed.”

“Not even if you had to strip and around the whole place?”

“No, I have a great body. I wouldn’t mind showing it to everyone.”

Kia rolled her eyes. How conceited can one be? But he does have a great body... nicely toned arms, a 6 pack. She suddenly started to blush, realizing what she was thinking about.

Ian suddenly stood right next to her. “I’d be happy to give you a private showing, anytime,” he whispered in her ear.

A little chill went from her ear down to the middle of her back. She quickly tilted her head away from him. “No, thanks.” She lightly pushed his face away with her hand.

Ian just walked away, to the other side of the pool table to collect the other balls.

“So, would you be embarrassed if you have to go and hit on a guy at the bar?” Kia was really interested in knowing what embarrasses a guy like Ian.

“No, not really. It would come off to be big compliment for the guy though.”

“Oh my god,” Kia rolled her eyes and hung her head.This guy... “Let’s have you do that then, instead of paying for the whole bill.”

“Uh,” Ian laughed, a little awkwardly, “no.”

“Why? You’ll save like 10 bucks if you go and just hit on a guy. You’re not scared, are you?”

“I think you would enjoy that a little too much. Such a show would cost more than 5 bucks.”

“Whatever then,” Kia said. She turned around and headed for the front desk.

Ian followed, carried the tray of balls and the cues. The bill came up to 11 something for almost 2 hours of pool. “If you really want to see me hit on a guy, we can bet on something else,” Ian offered.

“Oh?” Kia was intrigued. “Like what?”

They walked over to the arcade area. There were only two couples there and a mother with her kid. That wasn’t too surprising; it was 7pm on a Wednesday night.

“How about air hockey?” Ian suggested with a smile.

Kia narrowed her eyes on him and glanced over to the air hockey table before a smirk appeared on her lips. “Sure.”

Ian got tokens and put some into the slots of the air hockey table. They each picked an end of the table.

“One game, 7 points?” He proposed.

“Sure,” Kia said with a half-shrug. This was another game that she was good at. She was feeling confident.

A smirk crept up on his face. “If I lose, I’ll go hit on a guy at the bar. What would you do if you lose?”

“Go hit on a girl?” Kia suggested, half jokingly.

“No,” Ian shook his head, “that’s too easy.”

“Wait. How is it easy for me to hit on a girl but hard for you to hit on a guy?” Kia glared at him.

“I don’t know,” Ian shrugged, looking like he was taken by surprise a little. “I heard it somewhere?” he said in question.

“Right,” she said sarcastically. “What would you like me to do if I lose?”

“Hmm,” Ian pondered.

Kia was realizing how much power she was giving him right now.

“Have sex with me?”

Kia immediately glared at him with surprise and disgust, but before she could say something, Ian continued. “Obviously I’m kidding.”

Kia just continued to glare at him. She didn’t believe that for a second.

“Getting you in bed should be more challenging than a game of air hockey.”

“That’s true,” Kia said, with eyes glaring at him like hate beams. “But I believe the words you’re looking are: ‘you’re not remotely so cheap that you would give up sex over a game of air hockey.’”

“I was going to say that next.”

Kia rolled her eyes, “Right.”

“How about a date?” Ian suggest with a smile.

“A date?”

“Yeah, you’ll owe me one date.” Ian continued to smile, but surprisingly, it wasn’t in some mischievous way or anything.

“What does Ian Foster consider as a date?” Kia asked, curious of what he might plan for a date with her.

“Food, a movie or perhaps a walk. What do you say? Five hours of your time if you lose?”

“Three hours,” Kia offered.

“Four hours.”

“Fine,” she settled. “It has to be a normal date though, no stupid, weird or freaky shit.”

Ian smiled, “Ok.”

They both started off relaxed, just hitting the puck back and forth, but once the first goal was made, everything went into hyper mode. It was an epic battle, but in the end Kia lost by 3 goals.

The 7th goal went in slot, making that distinct sound. “No...” Kia cried out. She really thought that she was good enough to beat him. Who knew that he would be so good at air hockey?

“Oh! Look at that.” Ian looked exhilarated. “Someone’s got a date,” he chimed.

--

Oh crap, Kia thought, rolling her eyes in the process. I still owe Ian a date. It’s odd that he hasn’t asked for it yet. He couldn’t have forgotten about it. He better not be planning some crazy shit.

“Kia.”

She looked up.

“It’s your turn,” Jess said.

Bowling... How do I suck at this so much? Kia grabbed the pink kiddy ball.

The game ended and Kia was so far in last place that it was just sad. They all played another game before they went over to the arcade area and played there for a while.

“Hey,” Devin came over. “You really suck at that.”

Kia was playing the Cyclone, the machine where you have to hit the button when a fast-moving light comes by. “No,” she glared at him with a pouty face.

“Let me show you how it’s done,” Devin went up to the other button. For a while, he just stared at the light going around and around.

“Hurry up,” she rushed.

“Shh, I’m concentrating.”

Kia rolled her eyes.

Devin finally hit the button. Apparently he got it close to the start of the light because a tone of tickets came out.

“Whoa,” Kia said excitedly. “So many tickets!”

“That’s how it’s done,” he said smugly.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Here,” he handed the tickets to her, “you have them.”

“Oh? You don’t want to get candy or something?”

“Nah, I don’t have as much of a sweet tooth as you.”

Kia beamed up at him, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, patting her on the head.

They walked over to the prize booth. “What to get...” Kia leaned on the glass case, looking down at the candy and tiny toys and stuff.

Oh, my keychain. There was bout dozen little Pikachu keychains next some other keychains. They still have those? Don’t they ever get new stuff? Kia got hers here. Oh yeah, it was that time with Ian, after I lost in air hockey. They had tokens left over and they played some of the arcade games. I was excited to get the Pikachu keychain, but Ian tried to persuade me to get the Snoopy one, saying that it was way better. Yeah, right. Like anything is better than Pikachu.

“Can I get the Snoopy keychain?” Kia asked the guy at the booth. This can be a cheap present for Ian’s birthday. Wait, he didn’t even invite me though... The guy placed the keychain on the glass counter. Kia counted the tickets and gave them to him. “Can I also get some mini Tootsie Rolls, for the rest of these,” Kia placed the rest of her tickets on the counter.

“Here,” Kia handed a couple of the Tootsie Rolls to Devin. She knew he liked them.

“Thanks.”

Kia just smiled and popped one into her mouth.

They were alone. The others were off playing games.

“So, what happened last night?” Devin asked.

Huh? Kia had expected this from the beginning but had forgotten about it after a while. “Uh...” Doesn’t he know? Didn’t Kyle or Greg tell him? Kia was panicking. Tell the truth or lie and run the risk of him actually knowing what happened? Kia couldn’t do that to him. No Devin. He was looking at her quiet intensity and for seconds all she did was open her mouth. “I... wasn’t feeling well, really drunk. Ian was going to take me home and I totally forgot that I was supposed to sleep over at Jess’. I actually passed out a bit,” she laughed awkwardly. “He saw my parents were home and you know, I can’t just go home looking like a drunk-ass, so he let me sleep over at his place. Surprising, Ian can be decent guy when he wants to be.” Kia laughed. “Who knew?”

“Oh.” He looked sad, disappointed even. “I heard from Greg that Ian texted Jess, saying that you were really drunk and he was taking you over to his place. The combination just didn’t sound like a good idea and then you were unreachable after that. We were all just really worried.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to have made you all worried.”

“It’s ok as long as you’re fine. It wasn’t you fault anyways. You were drunk and he shouldn’t have done that. He could have just left you with Jess.”

Well... Kia wanted to defend Ian, but she saw the hint of anger in his expression, so she just nodded.

“Hey, did you guys get stuff at the booth already?” Chelsea half-skipped over to them.

“Yeah,” Kia said.

“Oh, but come with me anyways.”

Thanks, Chelsea.