“You ditched the LAN party, man.”
“How late were you up?”
“Still haven’t gone to bed yet,” Dan replied as he opened a bottle of Dr. Pepper, and I mean a two-liter, and took several gulps.
“Who won the death match?”
“One does not just ‘win’ a death match. You have to have the drive, the direction, and to not fall asleep and lay your head on the keyboard.”
“Who was the first to go down?”
“Tom. He bragged about stomping us all into the ground with some cheating tool he had. We ganged up on him until he turned it off.” Dan took another drink. He was down to half the bottle. “So what happened?”
“Didn’t feel very well. I grabbed some coffee and came home.”
“Coffee? I thought that would be terrible to drink when you feel sick.”
“It helped to calm my stomach,” I replied with a shrug.
Dan sat the bottle on the table and sat down at the kitchen table. I stood next to the coffee maker with my body kind of turned away from Dan, lest I had to expose who I was thinking about at that moment. I took a deep breath, poured the coffee into the cup and felt the raging subside.
“What’s your plan for today?’ Dan asked as he screwed the cap back onto the bottle.
“Eh, a little AIM and then work.” I replied as I poured an immense amount of sugar into the cup that Wilford Brimley could feel across the country, and then sat down on one of the end chairs. The one my dad usually sat in if he wasn’t out that morning for work.,
“You work at noon today?”
I nodded.
“Oh hey, do you know who I saw last night at the store?”
“Who?”
“Anna.”
“Did she see you?”
“No, tragically. I mean, I know she’s a bitch…Check that, she’s Tony’s bitch, but…”
“But?”
“She’s still hot. Can’t deny that. Brains and beauty, but she’s been totally slapped into submission by Tony. I’ll bet there’s more to her than just the stories.”
“Probably so. Have you ever thought of asking her out?”
Dan broke out in hysterical laughter and shook his head. “She’s on whole other level. She’s more on your plain. You could ask her out and I could live out my dream vicariously through you.”
“She’s cute, yes, but, she doesn’t like me. So, you have a better chance with her than I do.”
“Yeah, well, Tom and the guys, we all talked enough about every girl in the school, and we created a godhood of the top girls.”
“Mmm-hmm,” I replied before I took a sip.
“Let me preference everything by saying we did not write out Penthouse stories about them…well, Marty did, but you know Marty.”
I actually knew very little about Marty except he worked at Best Buy. He always had a way to procure expensive pieces of PC equipment and sell them to others at half price.
“He could tell some pretty wild stories and one of them was about a dream date with Anna.”
“Like the stories at school?”
“Marty claims he started a few of those.”
“I can believe it.”
“Well, you know, simple stories of wishful thinking.”
“You should try anyway. You may have something in common if you ask her.”
“It’s a friggin death sentence if I just wave in her general direction,” Dan muttered as he opened the bottle again. “Can you keep Tony from killing me?”
“He won’t try to kill you. Anna might, but Tony won’t.”
“Do you mean she will try to ‘kill me’, kill me or?”
“You’re going to have to romance her a little and leave your Game Boy Pocket at home.”
“You mean, be more of the ‘cool guy’?”
“No, be more of yourself, but pay attention to her.”
“I don’t see it happening,” he replied as he took another long swig.
“Well, not with that way of thinking. Sometimes you just have to trust in the unknown, even if it scares you to death.”
Dan looked at me for a second and then put the bottle down. “I know what happened last night.”
“You do?” I tried to hide any fear I had.
“You hit it off with someone. What’s her name. Does she go to Roosevelt or Jefferson?”
“I didn’t meet any girls, I just got coffee, came home and went to bed.”
“But you’re sounding different.”
“That may just be from you being up for more than twenty-four hours and drinking that.”
“Yeah, yeah, maybe I guess. Yeah, I guess I’ll go home and rest. I’m going to use the restroom before I go.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied as Dan stood up and walked down the hallway.

I drove across town to the address Tony gave me to a mini golf “family fun center”. I was not being true to the words I said to Dan. I was still terrified of the unknown. Should I treat this as two friends spending the afternoon at what was essentially a large arcade encased by eighteen weird courses that looked like M.C. Escher personally designed them? Or was something else going to happen? Sinister? Embarrassing? Emotional?
I turned the engine off and sat in the car for a moment of two. Pondering what I was about to do and again what could occur. What did I want? If I did what I wanted then we would be thrown out of there in seconds and, maybe, become the next urban legends whispered down the hallways of schools across the country. If not that, maybe I could gaze into his eyes for, well, forever and hope he would reciprocate.
“Calm your hormones, Chris,” I lamented as I opened the door and walked across the parking lot to the building. The inside was like a Showbiz Pizza Place that had been allowed to cross breed with a traveling carnival midway. The crowds were unbearable, and the noise was annoying, but all of that faded from my mind with the joy I felt when I saw Tony stand in the middle of the sea of families and other teens. I gaze a slight smile that brightened with every step I took closer to him. I was about to go to the “yeah, so, hey, bro, ‘sup?’ attitude I was supposed to have but my smile remained as he reached hands out and took a hold of mine.
“You made it. I was kind of thinking…”
“No, no, I wouldn’t miss this!” I kind of shouted as three babies decided to scream at six steps above G10.
Tony gave me a smile and then nodded his head toward the counter. He let go of one of my hands but held steadfast onto the other and I I held onto it in return. We checked out a set of clubs and matching golf balls and started our round.
We had to wait a few minutes on the first hole.
“How are you doing today?” Tony asked as a member of a family of eight in front of us decided to “Happy Gilmore” his ball into the exosphere and then promptly scream about it being lost.
“I’m good. It’s been a good day so far.”
“I was nervous about this.”
“That I wouldn’t come?”
“Yeah, I mean, let me know if I’m being too direct about things. Like, our hands.”
“You will have to pry my hand off of yours, or at least ask me so you can play the round.”
Tony smiled for a moment, and we turned our attention back to the Brady Bunch.
Ten minutes later, we were on the green with several people behind us. I could see a few scowls as I let go of Tony’s hand and he took his shot. The ball zig-zagged a little and plunked into the hole.
“I am not really good at this, really,” he replied as he looked back at me and then to the eyes behind us. “You’re up, Chris.”
He walked over to me, stood behind me and whispered into my ear. “No is behind us. No one who matters anyway. Take your shot.” While they were not the most sentimental or romantic words ever spoken I still felt the hairs on my neck and arms stand up. I also felt protected, like body armor on a lone marine trapped in a Martian Research facility. My putt bounced off several walls and landed near the hole, but not enough to get away from the watchful eyes behind us.
“Sink it in, Chris,” Tony shouted over the din of the Eight is Enough reunion. I tried to ignore my fear as I walked to the ball, lightly tapped it snd watched as it sunk in with a slight “clunk”. Tony skipped up to the cup, scooped the ball up and led me onto the next hole.
“People are looking at us,” I whispered.
“Let them.”
“You’re serious?”
“They don’t know us, we don’t know them, so what does it matter?”
“You’re braver than me, Tony.”
“No, this isn’t me being brave,” he replied as he reached behind me and squeezed me rear. “That, that was bravery.”
“Anthony!” I screeched but then smiled at his attempt. “Are you going to keep doing that?”
“Every time you get the ball in the cup, yes.”
“Really? So, what do I get to do?”
“Surprise me,” he replied with a wink.
“Excuse me?” An annoyed voice from behind us grumbled. There are children present.
“Yep, sure are,” Tony replied as he bowed us down into a low kiss.