Alive

“Luke! Time to wake up!”
Seven loud, continuous bangs followed afterwards.

I groaned into my pillow before tossing the sheets off of me, getting up and walking towards the door.

I didn’t bother to look into the peephole before I opened the door, already knowing who it was.

“Only a minute this time. New record.”

Platinum blonde hair, sticking up more than usual.

A cherry lollipop behind pink lips.
The metal bat in hand, resting casually over his right shoulder.

“Morning to you too, Tyler…”

He had become my alarm clock.
We leave – after it takes me ten minutes to get ready because he still refuses to leave the room when I get undressed.

We walk to the diner to get breakfast, and we do whatever he has planned – I’m still on edge from the glow-in-the-dark “fun” from last week, even though everything else that we’ve done after was relatively normal.

This has been an occurrence for the past week.

“I’m getting some pecan waffles this time. What about you?”
I yawned as a response, still sleepy – what time did he wake me up today?

He frowned slightly before taking a sip from his coffee.

“Sorry…”

Was it worth it to tell him that I had to stay up a couple of hours past my eleven o’clock bedtime to reassure my mom that I haven’t followed Dad’s advice?

Probably not.

“So, what do you have planned for today?”
“Well, I’m sure that you’ll actually enjoy it, so I’m keeping it a secret, for now.”

I pouted slightly.

“…Stop pouting.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why?”
He bit on his lip.

“…Just stop.”

I did what he told, knowing that he was being serious.

“Thank you.”

His expression was solemn.
I was so used to the smirks and the occasional smiles – this was unnerving.

Then again, I’ve only known him for a week, and there’s still so much I don’t know about him.

It was silent between us until Mrs. Robertson came to take our orders.

But then Tyler was silent again.

How do I fix this?

“Hey, Tyler.”
He looked up at me.

“…Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda?” – He raised an eyebrow – “…He was lucky it was a soft drink…!”

I gave him a nervous, open-mouthed smile.

A pun? Seriously? Nice going, Luke.

He snorted.

“Did you really just say that?”
“…I did, didn’t I?”

Yep. I sure did.

“Eh, I’ll give you a B- for effort.” – followed by a small smile.
I smiled back.

“So, another secret adventure?”
“You’ll love it. Trust me.”

✩ | ✩ | ✩

“Bucky’s Quarters…?”
I raised my eyebrow at the large sign that peered over the entrance.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What…?”

“You’ve never heard of this place?! Practically everyone at school has talked about it!”
“I…I mean I have…maybe…What’s in here?”

“Well…There’s a first time for everything. The point is that you’re going to love it.”
“What makes you say that?”

He opens the door and motions for me to walk in.

“After you, Princess.”
I couldn’t think of a comeback to that – have I ever thought of one? – so I just did what he told.

What drew my attention in a matter of seconds was the various arcade games and simulators that were everywhere.

To say that I was excited was an understatement – a huge understatement.

“Oh…My—”
“Before you run off, we have to get our quarters. Can’t play the games without them.”

He walked to the cashier and handed him fifteen dollars, getting a concerned look – because of the metal bat (who wouldn’t be concerned seeing that thing?) – and a bucket full of quarters in return before walking back to me.

“We have sixty quarters. Some games in here are free. The rest cost fifty cents each. I’ll let you pick first.”

I’m sure that I was smiling like a complete idiot, but I didn’t care – not one bit.

“Let’s start with Galaga!”

✩ | ✩ | ✩

“Tyler…! Hey…Don’t be like that.”

We were walking back towards the university – it was getting late; plus, I’ve never stayed out past nine before (but I’m not going to let Tyler know that yet).

But that was beside the point.

Guess who beat a certain individual in almost every game we played: this guy!
Guess who’s being a sore loser about it?

“Don’t talk to me…! You’re either a uber game nerd or a cheater! Either way, it wasn’t fair play.”

I smirked.

“Well, then I guess it pays off to be a ‘uber game nerd’,” I commented as I played with the yo-yo I won as a prize.

No response.

“…Thank you. For today. For the past week actually. I’d probably dislike admitting it, but…I’m having fun.”

And for a short moment, that genuine smile appeared.
He didn’t hesitate to change it, though.

“No need to thank me yet. We still have many more weeks to come.”

I pouted for a second, but corrected it, hoping that he didn’t see it.

“That reminds me: if I’m going to be doing this stuff, I should at least get to know you more. As far as I’m concerned, you haven’t fully convinced me that you’re not a murderer trying to lure me to my death.”

“Then tomorrow will be a chill out day. Your dorm room. We can order pizza, watch movies, and talk about our feelings and shit. Sound good?”

“Sounds slightly tempting, but…”
“What?”

I smirked again.

“I want you to tell me a fact about yourself. Something interesting to hold me over for tomorrow.”

He nervously scratched the back of his head.

“I…uh…I can sing.”

My smile widened.

“…No way.”
“What kind of response is that?! Either way, you won’t know for sure until tomorrow, will you?”

Before I could respond, he dashed towards his dorm section, leaving me to walk to mine alone.

“Great…See you tomorrow, I guess.”

Still, I couldn’t help but smile as I walked into my dorm room.

As soon as I closed and locked the door, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out and checked the screen – “1 new message from: Dad”

‘Hey, son! Hope your summer is going well so far. Keep me in the loop if anything interesting happens! Love you!’

My smile grew as I typed on the screen.

‘Nothing exciting yet. Love you too.’ – and I pressed SEND.

I’ll wait a week before actually telling him what’s happening.

This is only the beginning, right?