{4} ✔️

Dahlia's POV

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"If I see one kid pull out a vape I am leaving." I grumbled as I put my seatbelt on. Caden smirked as he adjusted his mirror and then pulled out of my driveway. "In who's car?"

"I'll hitch hike." I pouted.

I was only going bowling with him and his crazy ass friends for three reasons.

1. My siblings and even my dad had plans this Saturday and I didn't wanna be the only loser stuck home alone on a Saturday night. I wouldn't hear the end of it.

2. I promised myself I'd get out more and make more friends this year.

3. Billie.

If was mostly the third reason that made me pull myself out of bed and get ready to go out with them.

"You'll get murdered if you do and I won't have that shit," Cadence interjected. "You look cute, babe. Billie's gonna love it."

My outfit was pretty simple. A long black graphic tee paired with chunky blue boots that matched the color in the shirt. It looked nice and I was lucky because I'd just put on the first thing I saw in my closet.

"You have shorts on under that? You better." Caden treats me like he treats Cadence. Like a two year old child. He's overprotective as shit, but I love him anyway.

"Sure." I said before looking down at my phone. I texted back some of the people that'd asked me some questions about the clubs and then got on Instagram, scrolling through it until we finally made it to the bowling alley.

When we got inside, we were immediately surrounded by what must've been twenty musty jocks, all yelling at the top of their lungs as they greeted Caden with bro hugs and ass slaps and all that dude shit. I rolled my eyes as I walked toward the counter to get myself some bowling shoes. Cadence stayed behind, basking in any and all attention she managed to get from the guys.

"Size seven." I smiled at the guy behind the counter as I took my wallet out of my purse.

"Size nine." I looked over at her, a small smile playing at my lips as I did. I didn't feel any less nervous around her, but I was hiding my nerves pretty well so far...Even though we hadn't even officially said hello to each other.

"You look dope." I laughed as I eyed her outfit. A big, tan colored designer Gucci outfit. Her family really was loaded.

"You look sexy," She licked her lips. "Dress up for anyone in particular?"

"Myself." I laughed nervously. Keeping my cool around her had lasted for about twenty seconds, but I could tell that I was already about to lose my shit. Who gave this bitch the right to look and act and be like this?

She didn't break eye contact as she took out her card and handed it to the guy behind the counter.

"You don't have to—"

"I guess you owe me one." She cut me off, winking before taking her shoes and card and walking away.

I stared at the back of her head in awe as she walked toward one of the bowling aisles. I quickly grabbed my shoes and muttered a quiet 'thank you' to the guy before jogging after her, hoping to avoid the crowd of boys that were making their way toward the counter.

I slid down next to her on the seat and stared at the side of her face for a second. "Thanks for that." I mumbled.

"You any good at bowling?" She questioned, tilting her head at me. I shrugged. "Depends. Sometimes I'm great at it and sometimes I can't get a single pin."

"We can play against each other. If I win, you owe me two." She laughed. "And if I win?" I asked.

"I'll do whatever the fuck you want, Doe."

I tried to ignore how sexy her voice sounded as she said that to me, tried to ignore the goosebumps covering my skin as she reached over to squeeze my thigh and then pulled away quickly, and tried to ignore the disappointment I felt when she got up and walked away from me to grab a ball.

I sighed as I slid my shoes on and put my phone in my purse. This was going to be a long night.

***

Billie was fucking ass at bowling and it was hilarious. I'm thankful for the fact that she could barely roll the ball without it flying backwards because it made me see that she's actually a human being. Before, I thought she was some majestic ass creature sent here to earth for the sole purpose of making me sweat and get wet, but as it turns out, that's not true.

She huffed as she bent over, placing her hands over her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "It's the fucking ball." She yelled.

"You've changed balls six times, Bil." I smirked.

Billie rolled her eyes before looking at me. "You're not doing too good yourself, you know?"

And she was right. I'd only gotten a few pins this whole night and we'd already been here for three hours. Still, I was doing better than her.

"Still beating you. What is it you said earlier? If I win you'll do whatever the fuck I want?"

"I don't remember that." She shook her head.

"Bad bowler and bad memory. Noted."

Billie was usually so smooth all the time, but now? Not so much. God, I was thankful for that.

"I could beat you at literally anything else, Doe eyes." She came to stand directly in front of me, putting one of her knuckles under my chin before removing it quickly. The sudden closeness brought my sudden bout of confidence to an end pretty quickly.

"Am I hearing an air hockey challenge?" I questioned weakly. She laughed loudly as my voice cracked and I blushed yet again.

She turned me around and wrapped an arm around my shoulder as she slowly walked us out of the bowling area and toward the private room where they kept the pool table and the air hockey table. "Baby, my brother Finneas has his own air hockey table at home. He always needs someone to play with and I'm always the unlucky one stuck babysitting him and making sure he gets to play his little game."

I was too distracted by the feeling of her body so close to mine and the fact that she'd called me 'baby.' to listen to what she was saying.

I know she didn't mean anything by it, but oh my fuck, I wonder if she'd be willing to fuck me on the pool table?

Get it the fuck together, Dahlia.

"Maybe we could try foosball instead?" I mumbled after a while.

"Yeah, babe. I can kick your ass at foosball before or after I kick your ass at air hockey. Whatever you want."

***

She wasn't fucking bluffing. She beat me at foosball, air hockey, pool, and even that fucking stupid ass game where you have to punch the thing and see how hard your punch was.

"You gotta be hungry after getting your ass whooped so much tonight. Lets go get something." She sighed after letting out another loud laugh. An adorable laugh at that.

I crinkled my nose and shook my head. "Bowling alley food is so overpriced. I refuse."

"Duh." She rolled her eyes before pushing my shoulder. "We can go get something from a restaurant. Or a gas station. I like gas station food, actually."

Me too. "What about everyone else?" I asked.

"You didn't come here to hang out with them. You haven't said a word to any of them since you got here."  The smug look on her face made me look away from her quickly, not sure what to say.

I cleared my throat after a moment of thinking. "What, so I came to hang out with you?" I laughed awkwardly, dragging my foot around the carpeted floor slowly.

"I came to hang out with you." She said it so matter of factly. I looked up quickly, trying to see if she was joking but she definitely wasn't. My heart fluttered as I thought about what she'd said.

Was this actually fucking happening? Somebody I liked seemingly liked me back and that shit was astounding. Unbelievable.

"Gas station. I want nachos and a slushie."

She walked out of the room silently with me following closely behind. Once we'd gotten our own shoes back on, gathered up all of our stuff and then returned the shoes we'd borrowed, we headed out. She lead me to her car, which happened to be a nice, black, expensive looking Jeep that I hated to even sit in because I feared I'd ruin the seats with my sweat or something.

"We can go in and get some snacks and then eat in here if you want?"

She'd let me eat in here? Seriously? I'm not allowed to eat in my brother's car and it's a fucking Impala.

"Nachos are messy..." I mumbled, looking at her. She leaned in closer to my face, a lazy smile on her own face. "Seats can be cleaned."

She leaned away and buckled her seatbelt.

The drive to the nearest gas station was only ten minutes long and I spent that ten minutes texting Caden and Cadence to let them both know I was gone and not to worry about me and pretending I was busy on my phone so I wouldn't have to talk to Billie because what the fuck could I say to her?

"Salty or sweet?" She asked randomly when we were almost there. I thought about it for a moment before saying "Sour."

She hummed and nodded before glancing at me quickly. "I love anything that tastes sweet." She mumbled, her eyes flicking downward before she looked back at the road ahead.

Keeping my mouth from flying open as dirty thoughts filled my head was a hard fucking task, but I managed.

I practically sprinted into the store when we got there, both starving like hell and hoping to distance myself from Billie for at least a few seconds so I could collect my thoughts.

I absentmindedly grabbed myself a few chocolate snacks and some sour worms before making my way over to the nachos.

By the time I had fixed my nachos and cheese and my slushie, Billie was already leaning against the counter, waiting for me as she chatted with the young looking guy behind it.

I put all my stuff on the counter and smiled at her. "I'll pay. I owe you."

She shook her head before handing him her card. "I beat your ass in all those games...This is my 'I'm sorry you suck at almost everything' treat."

When we got back in the car she put all her snacks on the back seat and started to drive again. I didn't question where she was going, just stared out the window as I watched the night sky.

She didn't drive for long until she pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned football stadium. She unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her snacks before leaning her seat back and putting her feet up over the steering wheel.

"Get comfortable, baby."

I let my own seat back just a little and readjusted my position before opening up my nachos. "So..." I started, not knowing what to say. I didn't wanna just sit here in complete silence. I mean, I totally could've just sat there, ate my food and gawked at her the whole time, but I figured that'd be awkward.

"Your girlfriend. She nice to you?"

I choked on the first nacho I'd put into my mouth. "Girl— I don't have a girlfriend I'm like...straight...and shit?"

Now see, this was the problem. Here I was allowing this girl to flirt with me all night long, blushing like fuck every time she said something to me, and staring at her for way too long every chance I got, and yet here I was pretending I wasn't into girls. Mixed signals? Yes. And the only signal I really wanted to send her was that I wanted her to fuck me.

It was a habit, though, to deny that I was into girls.

She raised her brow and tilted her head at me before letting out a small laugh. "You're like, straight and shit?" She mocked. "I won't tell your secret, baby."

"I'm not really out to anyone besides Caden and Cadence and my family."

"And that girl. Kelly?"

"Kai."

"Yeah, okay."

I stared at her for a moment as I ate some more of my nachos. "Do you like girls?"

"If they like me."

I nodded and looked away from her.

There wasn't much I could say to her after that. I was too busy processing everything that'd happened tonight. Her voice broke me from my thoughts quickly though.

"So you're not with her? You must be with Cadence then?"

"No," I shook my head quickly. "We're just best friends. I'm um—I mean we are actually a thing, actually. Kinda. Not me and Cadence! Me and Kai. I kinda forgot...We're not girlfriends we just ugh...Hook up?"

Why the fuck did I say that? Why did I feel the need to tell Billie that me and Kai were on some friends with benefits type shit?

I guess I just figured that me telling her there was nothing going on between me and Kai was a lie and I didn't wanna lie to her. But why the hell not? Why did I care?

"Dope." She rolled her eyes as she shoved some takis in her mouth. "How's that going for you?"

"I guess good? We're just experimenting."

"And what have you found out from that experimenting?" She asked.

I didn't know how to reply to that. Was she asking if I was sure I was into girls? Was she asking what I liked when I was...having sex? Was she asking if I had more feelings for Kai?

"I like girls."

That's the only response I could come up with in a timely manner.

"We've been over that." She laughed.

Her phone rang, thankfully. She sighed and licked her fingers before picking it up.

"What, Fin?" She was silent for a moment before she rolled her eyes. "It's only ten."

Was it ten already? Wow.

"So what? Is it my fault you forgot your stupid wallet? There's nothing in there anyways honestly, I've been using your card all night."

I almost laughed at that but I shoved some nachos into my mouth to prevent the noise from escaping it. I heard a faint 'What the fuck, Billie?' Before she replied. "Don't yell at me...Yeah, I had my fucking card but—No I used your card because you didn't have cash...Because I didn't wanna use mine...nothings wrong with it! No—NO, Finneas, why would I use my own card when I could use yours? I told you about leaving your shit in my—Yeah, okay, what the fuck ever I'll be home in less than an hour. Yeah, shut the fuck up I love you too, bye." She hung up quickly and sighed before looking at me. I couldn't hold my laughter in anymore as she made a funny face.

"So that's why you were so eager to pay for all my shit." I cackled.

"I would've paid for it anyway, but yeah. Look, I'm sorry to cut this short but I've gotta take you home. Finneas wants his wallet, probably because it's got a condom in it and I'm pretty sure it's his last one."

I laughed harder at that and nodded before opening a bag of kisses and popping some in my mouth. "That's okay, it's getting late anyway. Thanks for this. It was fun."

"Yeah, no problem." She smirked before putting her seatbelt back on and adjusting her seat again.

The drive to my house was twenty minutes long and we didn't speak at all, just listened to the radio. It was peaceful and nice and I was actually relaxed.

Billie was intimidating as fuck, but she seemed to be a real dork at heart. I'm glad I got to hang out with her tonight.

When she pulled into my driveway, I sighed a little before gathering all my stuff and hopping out of the car. "Thanks again." I smiled before closing the door and turning to walk into my house. I heard the window rolling down and she shouted "Hey!" Causing me to turn back around.

"Yes?" I raised a brow.

"I let you beat me at bowling and buy you a fuck ton of snacks and you can't even offer to give me your number?"

I laughed and shook my head at her, slowly walking back toward the car. "Why on earth would you need my number?" I teased.

"Well, if I don't have your number then who the fuck else am I supposed to send my booty hole pics to?"

I laughed loudly at that, covering my mouth as I did. Billie has no filter and it's great. I wish I could have even just half the personality she has.

"Give me your phone, dumbass." I held my hand out and waited patiently for her to hand me the phone. She pretended to be hurt before handing me the phone and I quickly put my number in.

"I don't accept asshole pics unless we've been talking for at least a month."

"Deal."