I opened the door to the bowling alley’s restroom only to discover the last thing I’d ever expect to be in a bowling alley restroom. There, with her head hanging out of the open ventilation shaft on the ceiling, and her long, brown hair swaying gently, was Marissa Colt. Now before I explain what happened next, I think it’s only fair that I give a bit of background on this Marissa.
Marissa Colt was a seventeen-year-old, high school junior, who got straight B’s in all her classes, went to every Friday night football game, was hated by few and liked by most. She was just about five-and-a-half feet tall with long brown hair, deep brown eyes, subtle curves that accentuated her thin figure, and a smile that could melt hearts. Basically, she was just an average teenager who everyone saw as nothing special, me included. Well, until I found her hanging from the ceiling.
“Sorry. Is this, um, occupied?” I stuttered, closing the door halfway.
She spun her head around and her eyes widened when she realized she had gotten caught doing whatever the hell she was doing.
“Nope! I was just leaving,” she replied as she gripped the grate of the vent and flipped out of the shaft, landing on her feet as agile as a cat. She stood up and smiled at me, and then pushed past me still standing in the doorway.
I had no idea what had just happened, but as I watched her walk away, I realized I really wanted to find out. I let my eyes wander over her backside, and then figured it was best to just leave it be. Whatever she had been doing was clearly not meant for anyone else to know about, and I wasn’t one to press things, so I stepped into the restroom and locked the door behind me.
I lifted the vent’s cover back to where it should be and tightened the screws so that no one would know it had been opened. I unzipped my jeans and relieved myself, all the while thinking about Marissa and what she could’ve possibly been doing in the vents of a bowling alley.
I zipped up, flushed, and washed my hands before leaving with one last glance at the vent.
“Weirdo,” I commented under my breath as I headed back to my friends who were sitting there waiting for me to take my turn.
“What took you so long, Cam?” Devin asked me as I slid my fingers into the bowling ball’s holes.
“Quick jerk break?” Garret prodded my bicep and laughed as I pulled away.
“Nah, your mom was in there,” I shot back, deciding immediately that I wouldn’t tell them about Marissa.
“Oh! Damn Cam,” Heath shouted as he slapped Garret’s arm.
“Take your turn, punk,” Garret glared at me, “And try to catch up.”
I glanced at the scoreboard to find just what I had expected. Garret was in the lead by a good margin, Heath was in a solid second, and Devin and I were fighting for last place. The scores were almost always the same, but we didn’t mind. We had gone bowling like this every Saturday since eighth grade, and it was still a blast every time.
I rolled the bowling ball down the lane and shot a finger gun at the first pin as I listened to the gentle rumble. The ball crashed into the side of the pins, knocking over the six leftmost ones, and leaving the other four untouched. I had never been good at bowling.
“Nice try!” Garret clapped twice, “Next time try to hit the pins!”
The others laughed and I grinned and flipped him off as I retrieved a second ball to send down the lane. I hit two more pins with the second ball and Garret continued to heckle me, but none of this was new. The only thing that was new was that half my thoughts were on Marissa the rest of the night.
We went back to Devin’s place after Garret inevitably won both games we played, dropping off Heath at his girlfriend’s place. Of the four of us, Heath was the only one who had a steady girlfriend, and had lost his virginity. But Heath was a heartthrob, over six feet tall, sharp features, and just enough stubble to make him ruggedly handsome. The rest of us didn’t stand a chance if Heath was around, and we all knew it.
“Coke or Mountain Dew?” Devin asked from inside his fridge.
“Coke!” I shouted, flopping down onto the big recliner in the den. A second later a can of Coke came over the seat and almost flew over my head, but I caught it before it crashed into the glass coffee table.
Garret and Devin joined me in the den, both of them sipping Mountain Dews. They sat down on the couch and tossed me a controller as they turned on three of the four Xbox-TV combos that were set up.
If it’s not apparent by this point, Devin’s family was richer than Bill Gates and liked to pamper Devin and his friends as much as possible. His mother was a highly regarded surgeon and his father worked for the CIA (although we weren’t supposed to know that). So not only were they uber-rich, but they were also away every weekend. Which meant we all had an adult free place to stay every weekend, and we loved it. We would stay up until the early hours of the morning, crash around four AM, and then sleep till Sunday afternoon. It was paradise for a few juniors who didn’t appreciate getting wasted or high, but that Saturday night I could only think about one thing.
Marissa Colt flooded my thoughts the entire night, greatly hindering my ability to shoot virtual soldiers which was normally spot on.
“You alright, Cam? You’re failing hardcore with that sniper,” Garret pointed out as he chucked a grenade over a barricade the other team had built up.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I lied as Marissa’s head hanging out of the vent shaft flashed in my mind for the millionth time.
“At least give me the sniper, man,” Devin said, moving his character next to mine so we could switch weapons. He gave me an assault rifle and then climbed onto the roof for a vantage point.
I glanced over at Devin as he fired the sniper right through a poor guy’s skull, and laughed to myself as he smirked at his own shot. His tan skin was mostly covered by his long sleeved shirt and jeans, but it was still apparent that he was a quarter Latino. His maternal grandmother was from an island near Panama, and somehow all her genes went right into Devin. He wasn’t tall and muscular like Heath was, but he still had that Latino fire in his blood and that dark hair that could make girls swoon. The only thing that kept him from having equal footing with Heath towards girls was his height. Poor Devin was only a few inches over five feet, and although some girls could overlook that, a lot of them could only overlook him. So he mostly stayed single and promised that his time would come in college when girls weren’t so picky and cared more about the guy than his height.
I had no doubt that he was right about his luck, I just hoped that Garret and I would have the same experience. Garret was only a few inches taller than Devin, but he didn’t have the same Latino heat or romantic tendencies. Instead, Garret had acne and small bones that made his small muscle mass look even smaller. His blonde hair and round face made him look more like a middle school student than a high school student, and his lack of facial hair only hurt him in that department. I hoped for his sake that he wasn’t done with puberty yet, but it was very possible he had been for a while.
Then there was me. I was just under six feet tall, broad shoulders and dark hair, blue eyes and a strong stature, but I was as pale as a snowflake, and I learned very quickly that being tan was a must in high school. The problem was that I was part Irish, and, well, I didn’t tan. A faded cream color was my golden tan, and that didn’t tend to go far with the girls who were looking for someone more like Heath or Devin. I didn’t mind though. Girls were more a distraction and a hassle than anything else a lot of time, and I had Devin, Garret, and Heath to hang out with.
Now I’m not gay, but I was a virgin, and I didn’t mind using leftie instead of going through all the trouble of getting a girl in bed with me. At that point in my life, I didn’t need or particularly desire to have anything with any girl.
Except Marissa Colt.
As I fell asleep just after five in the morning, I wondered what Marissa Colt was doing in that moment, and, for some strange reason, my mind made me imagine her wrapped around me in the same bed and under the same covers with her lips to my ear as she breathed steadily.
My heart skipped a beat as my imagined scenario developed into a dream and I felt her around me. I held her tightly as she made soft sleeping noises in my ear.
Marissa Colt had gone from an invisible nobody to my mysterious crush in one single night, and we had only said nine words to each other.