17

B: "Happy 30th birthday, oldie!"

L: "Haha, thank you."

B: "What are your plans for today."

L: "Just drinking home alone."

B: "Why don't you come along to Dave and Buster's with my family and me. My mom wanted to invite you since you did a lot for our family recently and for my birthday party and it's your birthday today and they wanted to celebrate if you are free. So what do you think?"

L: "I don't know... There isn't any beer."

B: Have you not been there? They all sorts of alcohol."

L: "Okay, I am in!"

B: "Good! My mom will send you the details."

My parents and I are waiting for Lucas to show up. We are in the game room where the bar and seats are. My mom and dad got a booth so we can come and go as we please.

My mom gets up from the booth. "Good, you're here! Happy birthday!"

"Thanks for having me," Lucas says, hugging her.

My dad gets up. "Happy birthday, bud." He says, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thank you."

"I will be at the bar." My dad answers, shifting to my mom.

"Honey, can you get me a strawberry mango margarita."

"Of course, sweetheart. Do you want anything, Lucas?" My dad askes him.

"Yeah, but I will meet you at the bar in one second."

"Will do, son." He says, stepping away.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom before drinking the margarita. You know what happens when I drink..." My mom says, kissing me on the cheek.

"You do that mom," I say, smiling. I turn to Lucas. "Sucks that I can't drink with you guys."

"You can... in about four years." He says, sliding into the booth.

I slide in across from him. "That is sooo long though."

"There's nothing special about it." He says, shrugging off the fact that he is lying.

"Then why do you drink like my father," I question him.

"How am I supposed to answer that? I assume I shouldn't take that as a compliment "

"Well, duh, it's not a compliment. My dad drinks like he is a part-time alcoholic, and I'm thankful he doesn't get angry."

"Drinking gets rid of the problems. It relaxes some people."

"What do you have to be stressed about?"

"Uh... Let's change the subject." He says nervously.

There is a silence between us. I think I was too harsh and triggered something from his past.

He slightly leans over the table. "You have a little something." He says, licking his thumb and wiping the side of my cheek.

"What was that for?" I say, wiping his salvia off my cheek.

"You had a lipstick stain on your cheek from your mom."

"Oh, haha, thanks." I place my hands on my lap. "Well, anyway I know you are here for the beer and obviously me of course, but I got you a power card so you can join me in games. There are 135 chips on the card."

"Okay, cool. I can't wait!"

"You're not going to fight me on this?"

"No, I'm too excited about the booze, and when I play games with you, I'll be all relaxed like I said earlier about being intoxicated.

I roll my eyes. "alcoholic."

"Not a chance. I don't drink every day. Just on special events, with friends or some random days that I feel like it. You know that."

I look over to my dad at the bar. "My dad is waiting for you."

"Alright, see you later, sweetcheeks."

I roam around, looking for my first game. I found one of my favorites, the pirate wheel. You spin the wheel, and when it lands on a specific number, that's the tickets you receive. I spin the wheel a couple of times and went to search for another one. I'm now shooting basketballs into the net.

I mutter to myself. "Ugh, what cant I make one."

A pair of hands intervenes in my game and they take a ball and make a hoop.

I look over. "Lucas? What are you doing?"

"Shooting hoops with you."

"You took my last ball before the time ended."

"At least you made one."

I look over to the scoreboard and laugh. "I suck."

"Yeah, you do." He says weirdly.

"Was I suppose to take that the other way."

"Someone has a dirty mind."

I lick my lips. "It does not help that you are around."

He leans to my ear. "What are you trying to do to me?"

I smirk. "What do you mean?"

He squints his eyes in silence. "Let's find a game we can both play together."

I look around. "Let's go play The Walking Dead game!"

"I didn't take you as a zombie girl."

"I'm a lot of things. Let's go." I say, grabbing his hands and leading him to the game.

We slide back the curtains and left the game seat and let different people play. We were in there for a while. I overspent more chips on there than I desired too but this game is addictive.

"Should we go back to the booth for food?"

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I am hungry." He responds.

"You guys having fun?" My mom asks us both.

"Yeah, but we are starving," I say, speaking for us both.

"Go ahead and order, we were about to anyway."

I ordered a grilled chicken alfredo, Lucas ordered the buster's cheeseburger, my mom ordered grilled chicken avocado ranch sandwich, and for my dad, he ordered boneless buffalo wings with fries. We ate our delicious food and now our bellies are full. Mine feels like I'm going to explode.

"So, mom, are you going to join me in a few games before we head out?"

"Sure! Let's get cleaned up and we can go." She says, putting her napkin and silverware on her empty plate.

My mom and I played a couple of games that she liked. It was Deal or No Deal, The Price Is Right, and skee ball. Lucas and I are now in the gift shop searching for something to take our tickets away.

"As your boyfriend, I'm giving you this adorable pink bear."

"Hehe, thank you, boyfriend. This will be our kid."

"Mm... I'm a daddy now. What should we name our daughter?"

"Avery," I say, looking at it.

"I like that name a lot." He says, smiling.

"You guys ready?" My mom says, waiting outside of the shop.

"Yep," I say, walking out with my non-biological daughter.

We said our goodbyes outside.

"Thank you all for inviting me."

"No problem! Don't be a stranger. Come by when you like. You remind me of my son."

I look over at my mom. She has never mentioned my brother since the accident. We hardly talk about him. Well never. No one knows except for close family members.

"I will come by soon. Bye Frank, thanks for being my drinking partner."

"I could say the same to you bud."

"Lord, we are sounding like we are saying goodbye forever."

We all laugh.

"We should get going." My mom says, pulling her purse over her shoulder.

He pulls his keys out of his pocket. "Drive safe," Lucas says, walking away to his car.