Stay With Them Tonight

“Why didn’t you tell me Katie was your sister!” I asked Greg as he came back. “You lied!” I joked, pointing.

His brow furrowed. “You didn’t know? How could you not know?” He asked. He looked around at everybody, as if asking, and everyone shrugged.

“She’s blonde.” Tyler brushed it off, ruffling my hair. I grabbed his hand and ruffled his hair back, more vigorously. I stood on my knees on the bench in order to be taller than him.

“Who’s blonde? Hm?” I asked.

“You,” he said, fending me off. I looked over his head at the other bowlers as they glanced over at us, and my eyes landed on a brown pair across the room. Rachel stared back at me as my hand paused on Tyler’s head. She suddenly broke our gaze and turned to walk out the door.

Jason walked in the same door, glancing at her. Wasn’t he supposed to be in the bathroom?

“What are you staring at?” he asked (why did he sound irritated?) as he walked up to me. He looked at my hand, which suddenly felt out of place still resting on Tyler’s head. I turned and sat back down, my hand slipping onto my lap.

“What were you doing outside?” I asked curiously.

“I just needed some air.” He sat down at the end of the bench, a little away from everyone.

We all continued to play, Jason slipping closer and closer to me in score as I got better and he seemed to get worse. Tyler kept on pointing out what I needed to change, while everyone else called out useless things.

“Maybe I’m a leftie, and have just never known it,” I contemplated as I held the bowling ball in my hands. Tyler was off to my left, a little behind me, and was watching me prepare to throw the ball.

“I don’t think so,” I heard the grin in his voice.

“You never know. What if I’m a leftie just in bowling?” I was trying to explain away my horribleness. The most I had gotten thus far was six pins, and I thought even that was a fluke.

“That’s likely,” he said sarcastically. I wrinkled my nose at him and threw the ball down the lane. I watched as the pins crashed to the floor, leaving three standing. All in the corner. Easy, right? I took a deep breath and threw the ball again, watching as the ball dropped two right away, and the third tottered before finally falling.

“Spare!” I threw my hands up in the air victoriously, watching as the machine swept the pins back and new ones were put in place.

“I got a spare!” I told everyone excitedly. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Will you stop that?” I snapped. He had been moody since he came back from outside, and I couldn’t get a word out of him- trust me, I had tried. Now that I didn’t hate him, I found myself actually wanting to understand him since he was obviously angry about something. I glared at him.

He just stared off in space and I threw my hands up, this time in defeat, looking up at the scoreboard.

“You’re the best, Tyler!” I grinned and high-fived him enthusiastically. Greg was now the worst, and I was a lot further than I ever could have imagined possible. I frowned when I saw there was only one more turn for everyone left. I didn’t want it to be over already.

“Hey, we can play again,” Tyler assured me, seeing my frown. He looked over at Jason for some reason I couldn’t fathom.

“Tomorrow?” I asked hopefully as he thought.

“Sure.” I grinned and gave him a hug. I went over to where the balls were rolling out and picked up Greg’s blue one, handing it to him.

“I’m walking back,” Jason called as he stood up.

“Really?” Kelly asked, annoyed that he would leave so close to the end of the game. He shrugged on his jacket and walked out the door.

We all stared after him, and I took a step towards the door, not knowing why.

“Uh,” I said stupidly. “I think I’ll go, too; I’m feeling a little tired. Greg, throw my last hand for me.” I waved quickly as I grabbed my own jacket and left, pretending not to hear offers to drive me home from my friends.

“Why did I do that?” I asked myself as I pushed open the door, hurrying when I saw Jason was already at the end of the street.

“Wait up!” I called. He looked surprised as he stopped and turned around. I caught my breath and started walking as he fell in step beside me, him taking longer strides. It was silent for a minute, neither of us saying much. He was walking quickly, like he was pissed off.

“Why’d you decide to leave?” I asked when we stopped at a street as a car drove closer.

I hadn’t thought at all when I just ran out of the bowling place, but I was glad I had. The fireflies flickered with life around us, and there weren’t many buildings on this street, so it was a quiet walk. It was just about a mile and a half back home, and with the way Jason was walking, we would be there in twenty minutes.

“Bored,” he claimed, watching as the car passed by on the street in front of us. We crossed the road and continued on.

“You were just upset ‘cause you weren’t winning,” I teased. He looked down at me and smirked, but not as much as he usually did. He looked back ahead of us. For some reason, I didn't find his smirk irksome anymore. It was more like something I just expected of him, and I didn't see any maliciousness or negativeness from Jason in his smirks recently. I was beginning to think I had just imagined that he was such a horrible person.

“Says the girl who was excited over four pins.” He finally said back. I laughed, and the sound seemed to echo in the night. We started going towards a residential section, and houses started to border us.

“Sure, sure. Pick on the one who’s bad at bowling. Oh hey, look, the playground!” I yelled. There was a little school with a playground on the right side, illuminated under two streetlights. There were three main jumgle gyms, varying in size and structure. I ran to the largest gym, sand flying up behind my feet. I had forgotten it was even there.

I went and climbed the little ladder to the top of the slide. I sat down, and my hips were just small enough to fit. I slid down, disappointed when it was only a couple feet to the bottom.

“This slide sucks. They seemed so much bigger when I was little.” I told Jason.

He sat on one of the swings in the middle of the playground, and ran past him to get to the giant bubble gym. It was made of little triangles of metal like monkey bars, in the shape of a hemisphere coming out of the ground. I slipped into the center of the spherical cage through one of the triangles and walked to the middle.

It was only about six feet wide and just barely taller than me, and it was no trouble to reach up, just an inch or two higher than my head. I tried to pulled myself up through the bars, failing miserably. I heard Jason chuckle at my attempt, and I cursed my lack of upper body strength.

I failed a few more times, once falling straight on my back, and another time spending a minute hanging upside down by my legs, my hair brushing against the sand, not knowing what to do. Finally, I climbed back out of the gym and got onto the top the easy way. I climbed easily up the side, finally sitting on the top and moving to laying across the bars.

It was a little uncomfortable, but also nice. I had a perfect view of the sky, and trees bordered it like a pleasant picture frame, only their silhouettes discernable in the darkness. The frame shook a little as Jason climbed up beside me.

“Move over,” he commanded. I stuck my tongue out at him before I moved out from the middle, still able to lay across the top. He lay down next to me, our arms touching from where they were both up and supporting our heads. The bars were cold beneath me, but I could feel heat radiating from Jason.

“When did I get so comfortable with you?” The question popped out of my mouth, straight from my head, and I turned to study his reaction in the semi-darkness. He shrugged, still being slightly aloof with me. I wondered what I had possibly done to bring on his earlier bad mood.

“Why did you leave the bowling alley just now?” He turned his head to face me, catching me staring at him.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Really?” he asked. I thought about what I knew about him and what I didn’t. I didn’t know if I believed he was such a player anymore or not. I knew he was a good older brother, and obviously was used to taking care of Danny. I did know laying there, I was comfortable at that moment.

I decided to tell him the truth, no matter how much it unsettled me. I couldn’t lie, not when he was looking at me so intently.

“I think I was worried about you.” He continued staring, like it hadn’t even fazed him. I expected a smirk, or a grin, or a chuckle, or maybe even a frown. I did not expect not response at all. I sighed, getting up and climbing down the jungle gym.

“Allie?” I turned my head to look in his general direction, not looking at him. In truth, I was kind of disappointed- my chest felt odd in my chest, too heavy. I didn’t know why he hadn’t reacted at all to the fact I was worried about him, and I regretted my decision to tell him the truth.

“Do you like Tyler?” He asked. . . . Why is he asking?

“Maybe,” I said, in a way I knew sounded like I did like Tyler. I just wanted to disappoint Jason in the way he had me. It seemed to work, because I heard him climb to the ground and he walked quickly past me, his shoulders set and his stride large. I smirked to myself and ran to catch up.

“Why? Why would you care if I like Tyler or not, hm?” I asked, looking up at him and smirking. He rolled his eyes. I felt a little bit better now that he was in the same bad mood I was.

“I don’t. Why would I like someone flat-chested?” he asked. I hit him.

“I am not!” I crossed my arms and walked silently, frowning.

*****

“Hey. Where’s Jason, anyway? I haven’t seen him since we got back.” Ryan commented later that night, when we were downstairs in the living room talking. I rolled my eyes and stood up, curious myself on why Jason hadn’t come down to annoy all of us.

I climbed the stairs three at a time to see if I could, having to almost leap. I wasn’t even that short. I made it to the top and took a few breathes, feeling like an idiot. Jason’s door was closed, and I went to pound on it.

“Jason!? Open your door!” I called, receiving no response. I glanced down at the doorknob, wondering if it was locked. I hadn’t ever seen Jason’s room. I turned away, thinking I wouldn’t just barge in, and took a step towards the stairs before my curiosity got the best of me. I turned back around and opened the door quickly. It was unlocked.

I walked into the room, seeing that it was a mess. He wasn’t in here. I looked around, even looking under the bed and in the closet. Where did he go?

I walked over to the window. The bastard left it open, after he had sneaked out.

“This is childish!” I called out the window, knowing he was probably long gone.

I walked back out of the room, grumbling. “How did he get down from the second floor, anyway? Oh, great! The tree! He climbed down the tree like a thirteen-year-old girl! What happened to doors!? And telling people where you're going!?”