“Here’s how this is going to work.” Sandy explained when we arrived at the game. “Everyone gets one life, and the person with the highest score at the end of that one life wins. I’ll be the referee.”

“W-why can’t I be the referee?” I asked her.

She retorted in a sarcastic tone, “What? Afraid you’re going to lose on the first game?”

Pretending to be flabbergasted by her question, I returned her sarcasm by saying, “No! I just thought you were a record holder at arcades, so you’d want to flex real quick.”

“I can’t reveal my hand right away!”

Rom squeezed her way in between Sandy and I, making me realize how close we actually were, and interjected, “I want to play Mark first.”

Sandy looked down at Rom then back up at me triumphantly, “See she wants to play you.”

I sighed in defeat. I was hoping I could make my way through this adventure without playing that much so my ineptitude in the arcade would be hidden, but here I am playing the first game of the day. Luckily, it’s a shooting game which I can’t imagine it being too different or hard from computer shooter games, so I won’t hopefully be completely trash at it.

The game seemed to be pretty fast paced; it takes four tokens for each player to play though. Rom deliberately put her tokens into the slot and picked up one of green guns and waited in ready position. Her raven hair reflected the flashing lights of the arcade and the screen in front of her. I nervously put my tokens in and prepared for the embarrassment to come. “Alright I want a good clean fight, no funny business between either of you.” Sandy explained in a funny voice like she was a boxing referee.

I rolled my eyes. I just wanted to get going.

“Okay player 2?” She asked me aggressively in my face.

I kept my eyes on the screen, trying to get used to the aiming, and answered her in a tired voice, “Are you going to do that this whole time we play?”

Ignoring my response Sandy pointed to Rom and asked, “Player one, are you ready?”

Rom nodded her head yes with a look of determination plastered on her face. Sandy held out her hand in between Rom and I and slammed it down as she exclaimed, “Go!”

Rom immediately hit start, and the game went into action. The first bit of the game was easy enough since it was just a cut scene giving a back story to the events of the game that no one really cared about. Then the game went straight into the action, with having us fight off piranhas on the back of a boat. I was holding up pretty well all things considered. And Rom even seemed to be doing worse than I was.

A feeling of relief rushed over my body as I realized I might not lose this game as we entered the second stage of the game. Leeches started to jump at the screen as our characters traversed through a lush jungle swamp on the boat. Who knew that you got rid of leeches by shooting them with an AK? Rom seemed to be struggling with the smaller targets though, and I was doing okay. I guess playing Valorant all day during the pandemic like a degenerate is paying off. “Come on Rom, you got this!” Sandy shouted, encouraging Rom behind us.

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“I thought a referee was supposed to be unbiased?” I commented jokingly to her.

“Focus on the game, or you’ll lose.”

She isn’t wrong, but I’m feeling pretty confident now. I feel like I hit my groove, and Rom is almost dead. It only took a couple more leeches and she died. She let out a frustrated sigh as she hung the dark green gun at her waist. I continued to carry on with the game by myself as a countdown began for Player one to put more tokens in for another life. It’s smooth sailing from here. I don’t have to worry about losing now. I’ve unknowingly grown progressively more competitive since we entered the arcade. Maybe its Sandy’s competitive energy rubbing off on me.

Before the respawn counter hit zero, the left side of the screen shifted from greyscale back to the lush colors of the jungle. Still concentrating on the game, I commented, “Hey ref. I thought you said only one life for each of us?”

To my surprise, Sandy’s voice came from beside me rather than behind me saying, “I did. It’s my turn now.”

Sandy breezed through the leeches like they weren’t even there, and she was smiling gleefully while doing it too. I managed to outlast the leeches, but right after that was the first boss fight. A giant anaconda slithered its way through the muddy water and wrapped its way around the boat.

The difference in experience became abundantly clear during this fight. My shots were frantic and wild, whereas Sandy’s were precise and controlled. It wasn’t long before I was on low health while Sandy was in cruise control. The snake just had so much goddamn health!

When I was inevitably killed near the beginning of the boss battle, I was initially peeved off from the overflowing competitive energy inside of me. Even though I had no expectations for myself, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at losing, but when I looked over to see Sandy, my feelings of annoyance washed away.

I smiled as a sense of accomplishment filled me as I saw her smiling and enjoying the game. That positive light has come back into her eyes. “Aww you couldn’t last for one boss fight haha. I thought you were good at these things.”

“I decided to take it easy on you for the first round.” I responded while admiring her performance on the game. “How long did she spend playing at arcades when she was little?” I thought to myself, amazed at her skill level.

Rom and I sat back and watched in awe as Sandy mowed through the enemies in the jungle. She seemed so natural playing the game that it was hard to take your eyes off of the display in front of you.

“Hey Rom! Wanna go on the bumper cars with Danny and me? It only takes 3 tokens!” Gia asked while she ran up on us, breaking our trance on Sandy’s performance. Shaking her head away from the screen, Rom looked at Gia and back at Sandy and me. “I…umm…I don’t know…”

Gia looked at her confusedly, and she told her, “Come onnn. We need more people to make it fun!” Gia started to drag Rom to the bumper cars in the middle of the arcade with all the varying games around it.

Rom looked back at Sandy and I as she was being drug, almost to say that she was sorry she had to leave. I gave her a reassuring smile as I waved at her. Behind me, I could hear Sandy taking damage in the game. I turned around to see Sandy had died. How did that happen when she was doing so well?

I shifted my way to her side and joined her looking at the greyscaled screen of the once lush green jungle. “Almost beat it.” I commented.

Kneeling down to pick up the tickets spewing out of the bottom of the machine, I heard Sandy say in a depressed tone, “Yeah, almost.”

I looked up to see the fire in her eyes gone again. “What exactly happened at the house when Rom and I was gone?” I asked myself again.

Well, it’s just us two now, “C’mon!” I told myself. “You got this! Just don’t be lame! Can’t be that hard right?”

I got up, and it was my turn to nudge her arm as she put the dark green gun back in the slot on the machine. “C’mon, we’re supposed to be worry free today right? What game you want me to win next?”