Page 43 of How We Loved

This is not going to be fun.

“Ignore him. He’ll get over me being here soon. Come on.” Trevor holds out his hand to me with a smile, acting unfazed by Ben’s actions.

I grab it and walk with him to the entrance.

Dalton is standing at the counter, checking us in, with everyone else grouped up behind him. I release Trevor’s hand to give Natalie and Ashley hugs.

“Hey, you two!” I say in my chipper voice.

To my surprise, even Susie, their other friend, is here, and I chuckle at the thought of her and Ben being the only non-couple here. Ben’s not going to be happy that it looks like they’re trying to set him up with her.

“Susie!” I say louder than I should so Ben can hear me. I glance in his direction and see he’s rolling his eyes. Yep, I knew it. “Glad you came too!” I step back and grab Trevor’s hand again. “Everyone, this is Trevor. Trevor, this is everyone.”

They all say their hellos, and then Dalton yells out, “Give the guy your shoe sizes. We’re on lanes three and four.”

Trevor walks up to Dalton. “Here, man, let me give you some cash.”

“Hey, bro, it’s all good. I got it for everyone.”

Trevor puts his money back in his wallet and walks back to me, wearing an expression I can’t read.

We all get our shoes and head to the lanes.

Dalton stands at the machine where you enter the names. “Guys against girls?”

Natalie swats him away. “Now, how would that be fair? It’s not always about winning.”

He swoops in and picks her up, bringing her body to his. “You know I don’t like to lose.”

Even though she’s inches from his chest, she slaps her hands there and pushes him away. “Too bad. The teams have to be more even.”

He kisses her, puts her down, then slaps her ass. “Fine. Then, separate it so it’s more even,” he says jokingly, taunting her.

I laugh when I look up and see that she put her, me, Trevor, and Ben on one team and Dalton, Marcus, Susie, and Ashley on the other. Natalie and Dalton are both super competitive, so where most couples would want to be on the same team, Natalie purposefully put them on opposing teams so they could play against each other. I guess it’s just their nature and shows how people like them, who were sworn enemies, could possibly fall in love with each other.

Trevor leans over and whispers in my ear, “Isn’t there another guy in your group?”

“Oh yeah.” I yell out so everyone can hear, “Where the hell is Eli?”

Ben shakes his head. “Who knows? He’s working some chick, for sure, because we hardly see his ass anymore.”

I shake my head with a sigh. That’s so Eli.

I turn back to Trevor. “Eli is super quiet and keeps a lot to himself. We never know what’s going on with him until after the fact really.”

“Hey, I can appreciate wanting to keep your life private. I live in a small town too,” Trevor says. “The rumors already flying around Springstown about me dating you are unreal!”

I look at him in question. “Really? Why?”

He holds out his hands in front of him and motions to me. “Because you’re you.” He then points at himself. “And I’m me. We’re not really a likely match.”

I blow him off. “People can think all they want. I’m still just as normal of a person as you are.”

“Keep telling yourself that, sweetie.” Trevor slaps my leg, then gets up to try out the ball sitting in the ball return that no one has claimed yet.

“You a good bowler?” Ben asks Trevor. “Because we need to win, and with us being the only dudes, you’d better step up.”

Trevor nods. “I got you. It’s been a while, but I’ll hold my own.”

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