Page 28 of The List of Things

“What? You have a problem with my pizza preference?” I challenge him, and he looks at the man instead of me.

“I’ll have pepperoni and black olives. A normal choice, unlike my date here,” He nods to me, standing close behind me.

My back presses to his hard chest only slightly, and he looks down at me, a light smirk forming on his lips as his eyes glaze over my features. This is what butterflies feel like, exactly how he just looked at me.

“You're pretty,” He tips his chin up at the compliment, and I smirk at him, wanting nothing more than to cover my face because I know how much I’m blushing right now.

I hate PDA but I completely forgot we were even in public for a second.

“You two are adorable,” Both of us snap our attention to the old short Italian man behind the counter.

“It’s her, not me... Here,” Bellamy reaches into his pocket, pulling out cash, far more than what he owes. He puts his empty hand on my upper arm as he leans over me, handing the older man the cash. “Keep the change, thank you, sir,” He smiles his famous, pearly white grin, and then walks away, turning me with him.

We sit, we wait, and then our pizza comes out.

The two of us don’t take long to finish our food, and he’s sure to help me from the booth afterward. He holds out not one but both of his hands for me. I look at his face, not his hands, and place mine in his. He lifts me out of the deep seat and pulls me toward him. Once I’m standing he lets me go first, his hand soon finding my back again, guiding me carefully until we’re out of the restaurant. He nods his head, and I look back toward where the ferry boat was docked.

“Are we not going back yet?” I ask him.

“I figured we could knock two birds with one stone tonight...” He nods his head, and I look where he’s nodding.

There’s a bright neon sign, an arcade, and I find myself smirking.

“We’re not really dressed for an arcade are we?” I ask.

“Outfits don’t matter, let's go,” He nods his head to the arcade, and pulls me with him, his hand grasping mine again.

He holds my hand as we walk into the arcade. He brings us to one of those machines that converts real money to a card so we can play games. His head is truly in it because we go straight to the games without a second to spare once the card is in his hand.

“You know I’d be fine with you just buying me a silly stuffed animal and-” I watch and shut my mouth as Bellamy lets go of my hand, and turns to me slowly.

His jaw is dropped as he looks at me with disapproving eyes.

“That is the most unromantic thing I have ever heard of. Do you even hear yourself right now?” His hands are now on his hips as he looks at me like I just killed a puppy.

“That’s kind of the whole point.”

He scoffs so loud I’m sure everyone around heard.

“No, the whole point is to be cheesy and romantic with you... I’m winning this fair and square. If you’re bad at arcade games just say that,” He walks off without me now, ready to prove his point.

I follow behind him as he finds the basketball games, all lined up next to each other. I feel like I might have unlocked the inner child in him by putting this on the list. Though this is all for me, I can see now he’ll get a lot of joy from this too.

“I’m not bad at this one,” I stand directly next to him, my shoulder touching his arm right above his elbow.

“Not as good as me. I’m the quarterback,” He boasts.

“Like that matters, this is basketball, not football. Though, I know it might be easy for you to get your sports mixed up...”

He swipes the game card, ignoring my insults. We start, our bodies brushing as we shoot hoops. We both get so into the game, we forget that it has to end. The timer goes off, and he looks down with a triumphant look until he sees that I scored more than him.

“Impossible,” He furrows his brows, and I smirk.

“Hate to break it to you, but I spent almost every afternoon on the court this semester. I won fair and square,” I swipe my hands together, dusting them off from my win.

There’s no hiding the smile on my face now.

“So you’d be up for a rematch then?”

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