January 17, Thursday
“Behold!” Denny exclaimed uneasily, entering the building he had chosen for the ‘date’ and starting to reconsider every life choice that had led him to be so uncomfortable.
Sure, Mathi was grinning toothily, and gawking around like a kid in a candy store, but his expression could still be misunderstood.
“Are you for real!?” he asked in fact, incredulous, after a few seconds of stunned silence.
There it is, he had the place completely wrong. Denny knew he should have stuck to the classic date spots, and an arcade was silly!
“We can always go somewhere else, you don't have to…” he began to surrender, already ready to go out, escape to Mexico, change his name, open a law firm to defend the drug dealers by playing a double game for the police and then being tragically killed by a gang who had discovered his plans.
“What are you talking about? It's the best place in the world! I was expecting a pizza place, or the cinema. An arcade is the most beautiful place on earth!!” Mathi's enthusiasm, as he started jumping from side to side looking at as many games as possible, interrupted Denny's suicidal plans, and the guy breathed a deep sigh of relief, and tried to keep up with his friend.
“I had thought of both the pizza place and the cinema, but the best pizza place today is hosting the children's evening, so it would have been very chaotic, and I didn't know which movie you might like. This arcade is the best in town and I know you like games, so…” Denny began to explain his decision-making process.
Mathi stopped looking around and gave him an almost moved look.
“Wow, no one had ever worked so hard for a date with me” he admitted, looking him straight in the eyes. Denny's stomach did a somersault.
“No one has ever made me feel so appreciated before" would have been the first response Denny wanted to give, but he was restrained enough to cut himself short and make a less misunderstandable comment.
“Oh, well… you agreed to this thing… I wanted you to at least enjoy yourself. As friends” he then underlined, almost to himself, but hoping that Mathi would hear him. He didn't want the boy to get the wrong idea.
Mathi looked away, but didn't lose his smile.
“Of course, as friends. So, what do you want to do? Let's start with…wait…they have the first Donkey Kong! I have to play it! And take a selfie” Mathi eyed the oldest and most historic game in the arcade and walked towards it excitedly, dragging Denny with him.
“You know, no one has broken the record for fifteen years. It belongs to a certain ‘Flo’” said Denny, who had spent a lot of time in middle school in that place, and knew every secret, mystery and legend of every game. In high school, when Amabelle had started the Corona Crew, he started to go less and less, because he didn't have a lot of change to spend, and also he didn’t want to be perceived as a total nerd.
“Now I understand why you advised me to bring coins. I couldn't figure out what they could be used for. Luckily I have several! Ready to break Flo's record!” Mathi looked determined, and took a purse full of coins.
“Pretty!” commented Denny, pointing to the handmade bag, with pink and purple embroidery, with lots of flowers and butterflies.
Perhaps a little too feminine for a big boy like Mathi, but of exceptional quality.
“My sister made it, she loves doing these things a lot” Mathi explained, proud, taking a few coins and starting to play.
“I didn't know you had a sister. Are you close?” Denny asked, eyeing the game next to Donkey Kong, one of his favorites, and getting into position.
Mathi jumped as if Denny had just said something wrong, but answered without his voice showing anything but nostalgia and the usual everlasting cheerfulness.
“Aggie. She’s fantastic. She has just started high school” he explained in a few words, smiling and playing with speed and skill.
Denny decided not to investigate. It seemed like a touchy subject, for some reason.
“I met your brother during the blackout. He looks like a nice guy” Mathi commented, shifting the subject.
“Were you at the Corona during the blackout?” Denny inquired, surprised.
“Yes, it's the closest bar to the university and it makes excellent coffee. Oh, geez!” he exclaimed abruptly, making Denny jump and risking making him lose the game. He managed to recover and put himself in a corner, and took a look in the direction of his friend, who had just lost.
He didn't hold back a chuckle.
“You're the one who distracted me” Mathi accused Denny, in a tone too emphatic that not even Denny, in his constant anxiety, took him seriously.
“You can always continue” Denny encouraged him patiently, pointing to the coin slot and then returning to his game.
But Mathi had no intention of continuing, and went over to Denny to watch him play, not speaking so as not to distract him, but still distracting him with his mere presence.
“Jump!” he yelled at one point, making him jump both in the game and in real life, and making Mathi burst out laughing.
“I meant only in the game, that monster was about to attack you from behind” Mathi explained to him.
Indeed it was true, Denny would have died if Mathi hadn't given him the hint.
Sure, he'd nearly died for real because he'd nearly had a heart attack, but which of the two deaths would have been worse?
…yes, probably the one in real life, but with Denny you could never tell.
They played until Denny was killed, then Mathi took the famous selfie in front of Donkey Kong, and they played some other solo games, always close to each other and suggesting each other. They were a really good team.
After a little over an hour, they started looking around for two-players-games.
“So, Rampage, Street Fighter or the classic foosball?” Mathi proposed, indicating the most interesting games for two players.
“You decide” Denny shrugged. Everything suited him, even if he was really bad at foosball.
Mathi wasn’t, and in fact he picked that one and beat him 20-0.
After the match they settled on Street Fighter, and Denny won almost exclusively because Mathi was laughing too much to be a real opponent.
“20 to 0. I'm ready to be elected foosball world champion and participate in professional tournaments” he was commenting as they reached some other machine.
“Just because I self-goaled six times” Denny muttered to himself, making his friend laugh even more.
“Touché. But better to think that I'm an expert than to agree that you're pretty bad” he provoked him, giving him a friendly nudge, and making him roll his eyes.
“Uff, but I demolished you in Street Fighter” Denny kept underlining.
“I admit that I didn't expect you to be so skilled. And this date is getting better and better. Do they also serve food around here?” he then asked, looking around and eyeing the main counter, which also served various menus to be consumed away from the games.
“The pizza here is pretty good” Denny informed him “Do you want to take a break and eat something?” he asked.
“I’d like to. Do they do cheap menus? All these games are cleaning me up” he started fumbling in his pink purse counting the money left.
“No, food’s on m…” but before Denny could offer to pay for the food, since it seemed to him the less he could have done to repay him for the help, he was interrupted by a girl from the staff, who rushed at them with great enthusiasm.
“‘First date’ menu ready in five minutes!” she informed them, eyeing them with a tremendous ‘Amabelle look’ that made Denny's skin crawl.
“Eh… no, you must have got confused… we didn't order… we're just friends” Denny tried to object, in an embarrassed chirp, turning red as a tomato.
“Of cooourse….” the girl gave him an accomplice wink, probably misunderstanding the situation, and then turned to Mathi “Order already paid, and you better hurry because the tournament starts in half an hour! You don’t want to miss it”
“Tournament?” Mathi arched an eyebrow, confused but interested.
“The half past six tournament. Three games in pairs and the winners will get two free tickets to the national fair held in April in…” the girl began to explain.
“New Malfair?!” Mathi and Denny asked together, their mouths open.
“Yes, you signed up earlier, didn't you?” the girl pointed to a poster that neither of them had noticed before.
The two boys exchanged an inquisitive look, but neither of them knew anything.
“Oh, well, I'm going to prepare the menu for couples. You are adorable” with a toothy smile, the girl went back behind the counter and started preparing the menu.
“I swear I had nothing to do with it” Denny insisted, in a low voice and turned towards Mathi.
“I know, it was probably your friends. But the idea of the tournament is not bad. I've always wanted to go to the ‘New Malfair Comics and Games’” Mathi smiled, looking bright-eyed at the poster.
“Yes, me too, but the ticket costs too much and it's also quite far away” Denny sighed, and then jumped.
“Wait, did you say ‘my friends’? What friends?” he started looking around, worried by the idea of having some stalker.
“The redhead in the raincoat and the brunette in a leather jacket. They've been following us since we met each other in front of the university dormitory” Mathi explained, not at all impressed, accepting the couple's menu with a smile, which despite the too many hearts looked too attractive to be refused. It was also free, after all.
Denny gaped at him. Surprised by the news.
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