The last thing I expected to walk into was a laser tag arcade. The lights were dim, and we walked up to a small desk settled into the right hand corner. To the left was another door, this one wide and painted various colors. It smelled like pizza, and I could faintly hear screams of what I hoped were joy and excitement.

A nice lady with curly gray hair and glasses perched on top of her head checked us in. We each were given a purple armband. Mine felt loose against my small wrist while Dallas's sat extremely tight.

We headed towards the multicolor door. We stood there and waited silently, and I looked up to see a monitor above the door to the right-hand side. It had two colors at the top: green and blue. I assumed those to be team names because below them were named like 'terminator' and 'the great warrior', each having constantly changing numbers next to them, which I assumed were points. I looked straight ahead of the main doors and saw a small counter surrounded by stools. There sat three young girls and one older one, no older than sixteen, munching on pepperoni pizza. I guessed that was where the pizza smell was coming from. It made my stomach growl and I prayed that Dallas didn't hear.

"So, do you want to tell me why we're here?" I asked, glancing over at Dallas, who had pulled out his phone and was typing away.

He shrugged, putting the large phone back in his pocket. It stuck out slightly. "Well, I figured it would be better to get you out of your head, and no better way to do that than to have some fun."

"But why laser tag?"

"Because there's really nothing else to do in this city. It's this or bowling, or going out to eat."

He was right. Our small city was pretty boring. "I guess thank you." He had also paid, which I found to be very nice. I guess I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't know what he would want in return for being so nice to me, or if he was just doing this out of pity. I think the pity party hurt my pride the most. I knew that I was kind of a sad case, but I didn't want anyone else's pity. I didn't deserve it.

A man walked through the door then, the multicolored one to the side of the room, and motioned us forward.

"Welcome to Betty's Laser Tag! Do you have your arm bands?"

We both nodded and presented them. He inspected them for a moment as if we could've somehow forged them, then ushered us through the door. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, as this room had no lights on except for black lights that made Dallas's white shirt glow. In front of us was a large screen, and the man walked over to a computer at the front of the otherwise bare room. He pressed something and a video began to play on the screen. I flinched at the loudness of the volume as he hurriedly turned it down.

"Sorry," the man said. "I'm used to having a bunch of rowdy people in here who don't listen to a word I say. I like that you're both quiet."

I paid attention to the rules and regulations video, remembering things such as 'no running in the arena', and 'no food or drink', and 'no rough play'. All these rules seemed to apply to young children, as adults should know better. Then again, I had never played laser tag before. Maybe common sense wasn't so common, who knew?

Once the video ended, the man lead us through another door on the right side of the dark room that I hadn't seen before. In this room were rows and rows of long poles coming sideways out of the wall, and on them were vests. Dallas walked over to the ones glowing green, which probably indicated the green team. I walked over to the blue ones and attempted to lift one up. It was heavy.

I finally got the heavy vest on. Attached to it by a cord was what I assumed to be a laser gun. I left the gun to hang by the string, surprised it was lighter than the vest itself, while I attempted to secure the vest. This is when I remembered I still had my party clothes on, and the man running the laser tag game probably had some judgments about me. Let him judge, I decided.

"You need help?"

I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of Dallas's voice. I really needed to stay out of my head, it made me so easy to murder. He silently helped me secure the vest, very respectful in doing so. Then, we turned back to the burly man, who nodded and let us through yet another door. I was beginning to think this place was a maze instead of a laser tag game.

"Okay, your base is that way," he said, pointing to the left and nodding at me. "And yours is on the right. We usually have more players, so I guess we'll see how this works out."

I silently walked down the ramp and took a left. It looked like a futuristic space door with a glowing blue square above it. According to the video, this was my base, and if Dallas came over and shot it three times with the laser gun, he would get a bunch of points. If he shot me and one of the few sensors went off, then he would also get points that way. Same applied to me.

I held my laser gun in my hand, having to keep my second hand firmly under it or it would beep and not work. Weird design. Anyway, I crouched down behind a makeshift wall. There were quite a few obstacles you could hide behind, I noticed. The countdown sounded, and then it was me against him. I was definitely a competitive person,

I stayed crouched down until I heard footsteps. Peeking around the corner, I caught a glimpse of Dallas's shoes. He began shooting at the base, or the glowing square that would get him a bunch of points. Not on my watch. I brought myself to my full height, ran out, and began shooting at him. A sound followed, and his vest no longer lit up. He was deactivated for 5 seconds, meaning he couldn't shoot me back. I grinned, hid back behind my wall.

I heard the sound that meant he was back in action. Only, when I peeked around the wall, he was ok where to be seen. Hesitantly, I creeped around the dark arena, looking for signs of my opponent. Seeing none, I headed towards the opposite side of the room. I kept my grip on the laser gun firm, dodging obstacles, hiding behind them sometimes.

Suddenly, my vest buzzed and made a noise. I spun around, yet I couldn't see my opponent who had just shot me. Oh, so he was good at this.

My vest reactivated just to be shut off again. I groaned in frustration, hiding behind one of the makeshift walk obstacle things. My vest recharged, and I waited patiently. He had to come after me eventually, and when he did, he was going to lose. I kept my eyes wide open, alert, just to be shot again.

"Hey, that's not fair! I'm a rookie, take it easy on me!"

Laughter floated throughout the room in response. It also gave away his location. I spotted him and ran, shooting like crazy until I finally met my mark. He frowned, and it was my turn to laugh.

"I'm gonna win! You just watch!" I exclaimed, running blindly in the direction of his base. I finally arrived and began shooting at the glowing square, deciding to take a new approach.

"Attack on blue base!" Was announced robotically.

"No, now he got all the freaking points!" I said out loud.

"Attack on green base!"

I grinned, because so did I. You could only attack the base and win all those points once. Now, it was just a free for all. We had to shoot each other.

My vest deactivated again. I cursed. "It's not fair!"

More laughter.

"I see you!" I yelled, shooting him.

I ducked behind cover, and I stayed there until I counted to five. Springing up, I began shooting in his direction. I got shot first, of course.

"Why are you so good at this? What is this supposed to be, rocket science? I thought this would be easy!"

"It's all about strategy."

I got shot again. I refused to lose, ducked down, tried to come up with a game plan.

"I think you brought me here just so you could win!"

"You never know."

I scowled, then sprung up, bending my knees so that only my face was visible and not my vest. I used the wall for leverage and shot. I hit my target.

"You're cheating! I need to see your vest, not just your head, Kass!"

I laughed maniacally. "Too bad, I need some sort of advantage."

"Time's up!" A voice called overhead.

We both silently headed towards the door with 'exit' written above it. Once we took off our gear, , we came out a little further down than the door we entered through, but the monitor that displayed points was right there.

I glanced at it and sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine, good game."

Dallas stood beside me, and only then could I smell his cologne. "Good game, not bad for your first try. You need to work on your strategy."

I waved a hand. "Whatever." But then, I looked at him and said with the most sincerity I had possessed in a while, "Thank you. That really helped me feel better."

"Of course. But now you look like you need a nap."

I probably did. We exchanged goodbyes and I walked out to my car, wondering why I had just had my first genuine day of fun in a while with a boy I barely knew.

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Author's note: if you're enjoying the story, or made it this far, please vote and comment so I know to keep going! Or any feedback would be appreciated! Also, I had a lot of fun with this chapter.