Page 25

Junior

I was back in the old neighborhood again, my feet walking the well-remembered path behind the arcade. This was where I’d smoked my first blunt as a teen, where I’d gotten my ass kicked by some older kids for talking too much shit.

It was darker at night than it used to be, without the carnival lights of the pinball machines shining out of the windows.

Trash sat piled in the corners of the alley.

It smelled like rotting food and stale piss.

A lot had changed since I’d last been here, but I remembered when this was the place to meet with friends, flirt with girls.

It was silent now. Kids didn’t need an arcade when they had easy access to endless games on their tablets and phones.

Still, the owners had kept it going for as long as they could, longer than they probably should have, closing the doors only when the pandemic finally forced them to. It had been up for sale ever since, but so far, there hadn’t been any offers.

Gino, the owner’s son, was an old friend, and when I’d asked him if I could use the building for the night, he passed me a key with no questions asked. Gino was good people.

I tucked my motorcycle helmet under one arm and got the back door open.

Inside was like a mausoleum. All the machines were still in their places, standing sentinel along the walls.

A thin layer of dust gathered on them, and the air held the stale note of abandonment.

Moving deeper into the building, I saw that the front windows were boarded up, but at least the cracks between them were wide enough to let a little light in.

Just enough for me to wonder if I’d made a mistake inviting Lauren here.

I thought it’d be nostalgic, fun to sneak around our old stomping grounds, but so far, it was just depressing.

Fuck it. It was too late to turn back now.

She’d be here soon, and I might as well spend that time making the place more presentable.

The photo booth was still where I remembered, tucked in a corner near the back, and the same layer of dust that coated everything else sat like a film over the buttons and curtain.

I found some rags in a storage closet and quickly cleaned the booth off, stepping back to take it in once I was done.

It looked better, less like something you’d find in a haunted museum, but the thought of pulling Lauren inside it didn’t make me especially excited.

We wouldn’t be able to see shit in there, even with the curtain open.

Hoping I wasn’t about to charbroil myself, I grabbed the cord and plugged it in. The photo booth immediately flared to life, light spilling out of it, buttons flashing electric blue in the darkness.

Overhead, I noticed something sparkling along the seam where the walls met the ceiling.

Fairy lights. Jackpot. Only once they were on, bathing the space in a soft glow that made it look more cozy than spooky, did I realize I’d just spent over twenty minutes giving a makeover to a derelict arcade because I wanted to impress a girl.

And to think, just last week, I’d burned a man’s house to the ground and nearly beaten him to death afterward.

I contained multitudes.

My phone chimed. I pulled it from my pocket to see a message from Lauren.

I’m outside , it read. And I brought two friends with me who are going to post up near the door. If I scream, they barge inside, and you have a very bad night.

Threats. I liked it.

The door is unlocked , I wrote back. You know where to find me.

This was a test. The last time I saw her, I had to chase her down. I needed to know she wanted this, or at least the cash, bad enough to make the first move on her own. If she couldn’t work up the courage to walk in here by herself, then she probably didn’t have what it took to put up with me.

The door opened with a loud creak.

“That’s not creepy or anything,” she muttered.

Another creak, and then the sound of the door closing.

I strained my ears, trying to figure out whether she was walking farther into the arcade or if she’d taken one look inside and decided to bail.

A soft footfall reached me, and then she was there, rounding the corner into the main room, her face turned up as she took in the fairy lights.

Her hair was curled into loose waves, and she wore shorts and a cropped tank top.

This was the first time I’d seen her up close without heels, and she looked so small without them.

Delicate. Breakable. Right until she lowered her gaze to mine and pulled the taser out from behind her back.

“Am I going to need this?” she asked, electricity arcing between the two probes.

I cocked my head sideways, unable to help myself. “Only if you have a pain kink.”

Her grin turned diabolical. “Let’s find out.”

She took a step forward, and I moved sideways, putting a pool table between us. The thing about weirdos like Lauren was you never knew how far they’d be willing to take the bit, and I’d already risked electrocution once tonight.

Her expression was triumphant as she slipped the weapon into her purse, where it was no doubt primed and ready to go. Smart woman.

“So,” she said. “NT95?”

I nodded, bracing myself.

The humor fled from her face. “This whole time, Junior?”

“I needed to know you were okay, Lo.”

Her mouth opened, only for her to close it again like she didn’t know what to say to that.

“I have your diary with me,” I told her. “To give back to you.”

“You took it from Kelly, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t want it. Too many bad memories. You should burn it.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She nodded, and we fell quiet for a moment. A much larger discussion loomed, but I didn’t feel ready for it yet, and I could tell from the way Lauren glanced around us, as if looking for a distraction, that she wasn’t either.

“This place is bigger than I remember,” she said. “But that’s probably because there aren’t a hundred screaming Italian kids crammed in here with us.”

Thank god.

She turned and headed toward a machine along the back wall. My gaze dropped to her ass and the way her denim shorts clung to it, and then down over her toned legs. Fuck, what I would give to feel those thighs squeezing either side of my head while I tasted her.

She stopped at a bright pink machine labeled “Powder Mountain” and turned to look at me over her shoulder. “This one was my favorite.”

“I remember,” I said, rounding the pool table.

She frowned. “You do?”

I nodded; I remembered everything about Lauren. Stepping past her, I plugged the machine in. “You should play a round.”

She smiled, her eyes wide as they fell to the control panel. “I don’t have any quarters.”

I slipped my fingers into my front pocket and pulled out a handful.

I was nothing if not prepared. The game cost fifty cents to play, so I popped two in and hit go, leaning back on the next machine over to watch her have her fun.

Oddly enough, as impatient as I’d been earlier, I felt no need to rush things now.

Watching her in real life was just as mesmerizing as it was online.

Her dark eyes creased at the corners as she concentrated, and she bit her lower lip every time she had to perform a particularly difficult move.

“I swear I used to be better at this,” she said when she died a short time later.

“Maybe I can help.” I stepped behind her, bracing my hands on either side of the machine, where the paddles were, forming a cage with my body. “You work the attacks. I’ll work the defense.”

She sucked in a breath and nodded. “Okay.”

We died almost immediately.

“Well,” I said.

She turned in my arms. “That was your fault.”

“How so?”

She waved in my general direction. “The standing.”

I leaned closer, grinned. “Are you saying I’m distracting you?”

“No,” she said.

“The way you’re staring at my mouth says otherwise.”

She huffed and turned back around. “Let’s go again.”

I produced two more quarters, and she restarted the game.

“You can do it, Lo,” I said. “Show those aliens who the queen of Powder Mountain is.”

She died instantaneously.

“That one had to be intentional,” I said. “You jumped right into the raptor’s open mouth.”

“I was trying to kick it in the head,” she whined. “Fine. You’re distracting me.”

I stepped closer, our bodies flush from my thighs to chest. This time when I spoke, my voice came out lower, the careful hold I had on my control slipping. “I haven’t even started trying to distract you.”

She turned again, her game forgotten.

I grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto the edge of the machine, putting us face-to -face . Her hands landed on my shoulders, steadying herself, and I reached down and hooked mine beneath her knees, guiding her legs around me, reveling in the feel of her smooth skin beneath my fingertips.

“You’re fucking beautiful, you know that?” I said, watching the neon lights dance in her dark eyes.

“ You’re fucking beautiful,” she shot back, sounding disgruntled about it.

I smiled and leaned in, brushing my lips against hers, our gazes locked from an inch away. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be,” she said.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

I scooped her off the game and strode toward the photo booth, one arm braced beneath her ass, the other around her back.

She clung to my shoulders, face buried in my neck, tongue hot against my skin as she tasted me.

Fuck, I wanted her. Wanted to be buried in her.

With a yank, I got the photo booth curtain open and set Lauren down inside.

Her hands immediately dropped to my belt, a hungry look on her face.