Sandy started walking around towards the front counter of the arcade to receive prizes for the tickets we earned telling me, “C-come on, the kids will probably be done in a minute, and I want to have plenty of time to decide on a prize.”
I sped up to her side as I boasted, “Yeah, but not to flex but a hundred of those tickets are mine.”
Sandy stopped and held out her hand to me and said, “Lemme see the tickets.”
I reached down into my pockets and brought out the wads of folded tickets I had accumulated over the time we were in the arcade. I didn’t realize how many tickets I had actually collected in my pockets. I kept dragging more and more tickets out of my pockets because I had to separate some as they were too thick. Most of these were Sandy’s granted, but I got a lot from the jump rope game I thought. I think my sense of a lot of tickets has been skewed now that I actually see all of Sandy’s tickets in one place. She got hundreds from getting the record in the basketball game.
Sandy counted off one hundred tickets in her hand and handed them to me, “There you go. Actually, not bad haha! You can get a key chain and some candy with these!”
I held my one hundred tickets up and compared them to her stacks of tickets. It wasn’t even as thick as her smallest stack of tickets. I depressingly went, “Mhmm” in response as I held out my tickets looking down at hers. I expected to lose but not this bad. I look so lame! I can’t follow up what just happened with this!
“Hey.” She said comfortingly as she bent down to meet my eyes that were looking at her hand holding the tickets, “I’m not exactly a normal person to compare how many tickets you got. I’ve had wayyy too much practice.”
I smiled back at her as I continued the walk towards the counter. I sarcastically called back to her, “True.”
“Hey! Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Sandy asked aghast by my sudden sarcastic remark.
I laughed at her reaction as we finally got to the best lit part of the arcade, the prize counter. The way the arcade was lit made it seem like the prize counter was heaven to the metaphorical light and sound polluted earth of the arcade. We went to the end of the line that moved parallel to the counter, and we observed our choices as we slowly moved down the line.
I looked around at the various plushies and toys lining the walls that Sandy could choose from then down into the glass counter at the key chains and candy that I had choice over. “What you thinking about getting?” I asked Sandy while still looking at my choices. I didn’t really care what I got. I don’t really like key chains or candy that much.
Sandy looked around at the plushies for a minute, then down at the key chains. Her face scrunched up in contemplation. “Hmmm, I don’t know.” She told me, “I want to get that cute penguin plushy, but I also want the penguin key chain. I don’t have enough tickets to get both, the plushie is so damn expensive! I only have enough money to choose one of the two and get candy on top of it.”
I looked at the stout, blue, penguin plushie and smiled to myself. “What a first world problem to have hahaha!” I teased her.
“Well, I would’ve gotten the jackpot on the last game and had enough if I wasn’t distracted at the end there.” She playfully complained as she elbowed me.
“I see. Getting a little too cocky there thinking you would’ve got the jackpot though.” I said before playfully elbowing her back. “And that hurt!”
She threw may sarcasm back at me saying, “Excuseee me for being a skilled competitor hehe!” and elbowed me back a little harder than I elbowed her.
I laughed along with her as we moved up the line to the register to tell the clerk what we wanted to get with our tickets. Sandy had her fiery eyes locked in on the glass case before us, completely entranced by the treasure trove of goods. I followed her gaze into the cases to start doing some math on what I was able to get with a measly 100 tickets, and I heard her curiously asked me “What are you planning on getting.”
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I continued to peer into the illuminated case as I told her sarcastically, “I don’t know. I have sooo many options here.”
While I responded with sarcasm, I really did think I had a lot of choices in terms of what specific kind of candy I wanted to get. I never really eaten that much candy before, so I don’t really know what good and not. Sandy looked down at the counter with me and pointed towards a pack of Rolos on the counter. “You should get like five packs of those. Those are honestly the best candy.”
I looked at the unfamiliar candy she was pointing to, “Never had those.”
“Whattt?! How have you not had those before? It’s chocolate with caramel heaven stuffed inside of it!”
“I don’t like candy that much.”
Stunned, Sandy looked at me wide-eyed and asked, “Are you human?”
“I just never liked it that much haha.”
Candy in a way depresses me now. I’ve only ever gotten candy from my parents. No friends past middle school have given me candy. No girls have given me candy obviously. At school on Valentine’s Day, whenever people got called to the office to receive candy from their “secret lover”, I always stayed in the class alone. If I did get any, it would have been obligatory sweet tarts from the teacher or other people passing them out to everyone. It didn’t really matter to me that much in the moment but looking back it’s just a sad reminder of my high school life.
So why would I like candy? It just reminds me of how alone I really am. Plus, it’s bad for your health. As a distance runner, that actually does mean something to me as bad as it sounds. But I should probably start overwriting those bad memories and feelings with candy with newer and happier ones, and I think today could be the start. I’ve already accepted (Not really of my own accord) that it’s fine to let my emotions go today and feel things about Sandy that I shouldn’t for my own mental health, so might as well include candy in that letting go too.
Sandy and I finally made our way to the clerk and started to exchange our tickets for prizes. “Will you be combining your tickets today?” He asked us in a monotone voice that sounded like he really wanted to be here.
“No…” I started to quickly tell him. I hate myself for having gotten used to people assuming that we’re a couple. Its not good for my future mental health.
Sandy quickly butted in before I could finish my sentence, “NOooooOO!! This is my reward for winning against his challenge he foolishly put me up to this morning!”
I smirked when the clerk rolled his eyes at her. He clearly didn’t appreciate her enthusiasm, but that’s just part of her charm that makes her cute. She didn’t notice his reaction either, which was nice. Sandy was too focused on the prizes she was going to get.
She eventually settled on the penguin plushie and only a couple of pieces of candy instead of the key chain and a boatload of candy. She happily received her candy and plushie from the melancholic clerk and gave the penguin a squeeze. “Oh, to be a penguin…” I thought to myself while basking in the cute scene of her rosy-tanned cheeks sinking into the medium sized plushie.
She looked at me with pleasant life in her eyes that she had when I first saw her at the waterpark. I went up to exchange my measly one hundred tickets. I thought she was going to command me to get the rolos to try them, but to my surprise she held out her free hand that wasn’t carrying candy or the plushie in the arm. I looked down to see a small pack of rolos in her hand. “What are those for?” I inquired.
Sandy held them up to my face with a devilish smirk and a sparkle in her eyes. She said, “For you to eat. Now I can say I took your rolo virginity haha!” before sticking her tongue out and winking at me goofily.
Blush
Blood immediately travelled to my cheeks among other places, and I quickly grabbed the rolos in front of my eyes quickly and stuttered out a, “T-thanks.” Before regaining my composure and chastised her, “And don’t ever say that again.”
“Hmmm?” She leaned down closer to my face to tease me, “Is it because you want to be the only one to hear me say that?”
“I-I”
Ahem!
Luckily, the clerk swooped in to save me from embarrassing myself even further even though it was moreso for his sake and not mine. “To be continued…” Sandy said before backing off from the counter a couple of feet to give me some space to choose my prizes without her influence.
I exchanged a really uncomfortable glance with the clerk, and I had the perfect gift in my mind to get revenge for making me so embarrassed just now. Plus, that last comment she mentioned kind of got to me. I instinctively imagined her doing and saying that to someone else, and it already really hurt to picture. I definitely don’t want that to happen. I let out a frustrated huff. So much for not catching feelings. I’m so stupid! “Why am I so easy?” I asked myself.
“What do you want man?” The clerk impatiently asked to cut off my self-loathing. I looked back at the “line” to see no one there, and I sarcastically told him, “My bad, I can see you’re pretty busy right now.”
“Hey, if you got a prob—”
“Okay, okay!” I said to calm him down.
“Well, no point in denying it now.” I told myself. I imagined Sandy’s beautiful smile, that only she in the world can show and look that cute. I mumbled out loud, “In for a penny…”
I looked back around the counter to where the keychains were, and I pointed at the penguin one. I only had enough to get the keychain and a little wrap of sweet tarts, but my fateful decision had been made.