Jaime: So, I’ll pick you up at 7pm then.
Naira: Yes, see you then :)
Naira: Wait, what should I wear? I don’t even know what we’re doing.
Jaime: Something comfortable ;) I was thinking of going bowling.
Naira: Ok, cool. Can’t wait.
Jaime: By the way, can you wait with telling Maya or anybody else about this? I’ll explain later.

Naira’s POV

I was pretty happy that Jaime agreed so quickly to still go on a date with me. Honestly, I thought I blew it by saying no at first. I thought that he would think I was being stupid and that if I really did want to go out with him, I would have said yes in the first place whatever the circumstances were. But things didn’t go that way; it didn’t even go close to what I thought would happen. He just said he would still love to, and that got me feeling so great. Maybe I hadn’t screwed up after all.

But now there was one more problem. You see, this was going to be my first date in ages. Either guys weren’t interested in me, or I just didn’t do it. My last date was probably 2 years ago. I tried dating after my college boyfriend broke up with me, but it just didn’t work out. So there was that. However, here I was, getting back in the game, with a guy I actually honestly liked. I know, I didn’t really get along well with him in the beginning, but over time I got to know him so much better. He was a genuinely nice guy and he was really fun to hang out with. Somehow he managed to make me laugh more often than I usually would, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think he was pretty good looking. So, I actually wanted to look good, but I really didn’t know what to wear. I would have asked Maya, but apparently Jaime wanted to keep it secret for now, which I really didn’t understand. He had been trying to get with me since I arrived here, so I would expect him to show off that he actually got me to say yes. But no. He wanted to go on the date, but not tell anybody. Weird, if you ask me.

Oh, and no, there was not just one problem, there was one more. I really couldn’t bowl for shit. I wasn’t strong, I couldn’t throw, and I was the worst at aiming. So this was going to be pretty embarrassing. He would probably be really good and hit more than one pin at a time, and I’d just throw it in the gutter every single time. But I couldn’t just reject his idea for our date. I already said no once, I wasn’t going to do it again. Not just because I didn’t want to be rude or hurt his feelings, but also because I really did want to go out with him.

So, back to my clothes. I didn’t know what I wanted to wear, but I did know what I did want to wear. So, why not just go through the list and take stuff out that I didn’t want to wear? I’d just put on what was left over. Ok, first of all, no dresses. Bending over in them was going to be a nightmare… unless I wanted to tease Jaime a bit… No, Naira, you’re not that type of girl. But maybe-- no. I wasn’t going to do it. So, that was all the dresses gone. I also did want to seem to conserved and covered up, so I wasn’t going to go for a sweater, as much as I wanted to. Maya did say that I looked good in crop tops, so maybe that was a good idea. Plus, it would be nice if it got warm. Oh, and I didn’t have many crop tops, so that was going to be easy. Ok, that was a lie, I only had one, and it was just simply black. But it was going to have to do. So, I threw it on, added some ripped shorts I only wore once in my life before, and wrapped a red flannel around my waist before putting on my makeup and shoes. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I was pretty impressed, I had never managed to dress myself like this before, so you could say I was pretty proud of myself.

After getting a text from Jaime saying that he was here I quickly rushed downstairs. What I didn’t know, though, was that Maya was sitting in the living room, watching me zoom past. And there was no way she was going to let me go without knowing what I was up to. Of course, me being me, I totally forgot to make up an excuse in case Maya would ask me, so I literally had to improvise on the spot, and I wasn’t such a good liar.

“Hold on,” Maya followed me, causing me to stop in my tracks, “where are you going?”

I sucked in a breath and slowly turned around, hoping I would not screw this up, “out?”

“Yes, I can see. But where and with whom?” Maya looked me up and down, silently approving of the clothes I was wearing.

“Nowhere?” I tried, hoping she would accept that as an answer since I really couldn’t make up a story.

“Yeah, no,” she shook her head disapprovingly, “you haven’t asked me to help you with what you’re wearing, which looks pretty good anyway, but I think I deserve to know who you’re going out with.”

“Fine,” I groaned, knowing that Maya would not drop it until I told her every detail, “so, I’m going out with a guy I met. I really like him, and he actually likes me. And I haven’t said anything because I’m just so excited that I’ve just been trying to get ready since he asked me.”

That technically wasn’t lying, right? I mean, I did like Jaime, and he did like me. I was also pretty excited and had been busy getting ready for ages. But it wasn’t really the reason why I told her… Let’s just say it was a white lie.

“Ok, you can go,” Maya gave in, “but I want to know all the details later.”

“We’ll see,” I winked like I was teasing her, but in reality I didn’t know whether Jaime would want to let our friends know after this date or not. So it was better to just keep my answer vague.

“Do you need to use my car?”

I shook my head, itching to go outside already, “nope, he’s coming here to pick me up.”

“Ok, well, have fun then,” she smiled and walked me to the front door. I sighed in relief when I noticed Jaime hadn’t parked right outside the house. Maya would have been able to recognize the car in no time, and would have totally called me out on it. Maybe Jaime had actually thought this out quite well.

I walked out to the side walk and look left and right to see if I could find the car. It was parked a couple of houses down, so I happily ran over to it, knocking on the window so I wouldn’t freak Jaime out by just randomly opening the door. He turned his head and smiled when he saw me, but only rolled the window down.

I leaned in and grinned at him, “so, for my services I am expecting you to pay me. I don’t usually do this for free.”

“Oh, starting a hooker business, are we now?” he smirked and got out his wallet, “I could do 100 dollars?”

I thought for a while, humming while I was doing so, “I was actually thinking of you taking me out on a nice date, but one hundred dollars also works.”

“Well, in that case,” he reached over the console and managed to open my door, “come in.”

I giggled and stepped in the black car. Somehow I could already sense that Jaime was liking what I was wearing. He was totally checking me out with a big grin on his face. And it actually made me feel good about myself, like having that nearly mental breakdown about my clothes was totally worth it. It also made me wonder what he would have done if I actually had worn a dress.

“You really look astonishing,” he gasped while he looked at me for another while.

“Well,” I shrugged and played like it was no big deal, “I actually tried and nearly wanted to burn all my other clothes, so it really isn’t much.”

“Now I feel bad for what I’m wearing,” Jaime laughed and looked down at his own clothes, “I literally threw on the second thing I found in my closet.”

“Ah,” I pointed out, “but it was the second thing, so there is some effort going on. Plus, you still look really good. You see, your fashion style always looks good, while mine does not work like that.”

He chuckled and started the car, “I see you’re not wearing your usual sweaters, or something of the like.”

“Hey! I love my sweaters, ok!” I acted offended, but couldn’t help but break out into a smile myself.

Jaime continued driving while we were making small talk and joking around with each other. Once again, I laughed way more than I normally would in a simple car ride like this. It was just like Jaime knew exactly what type of sense of humour to use with me: jokes that weren’t too sarcastic for me to understand, but also not something than anybody would easily be able to get. I was pretty sure my jaw was going to hurt way too much before we even got to the bowling alley, because I was smiling so much. But that was why I remembered something.

“Hey, Jaime?” I asked, changing my mood from before to a more serious one.

“Yes?” Jaime replied while still recovering from his laughter, which was probably dangerous to drive with.

I thought of how I was going to say it before I messed up badly and offended him, “you told me you wanted to keep things quiet, but why? I thought you’d be rubbing it in everybody’s faces since you’ve been, like, flirting with me since you first saw me.”

“Oh, umm,” it seemed like Jaime also needed to think of what he wanted to say before opening his mouth, “umm, since we are all friends, you know, I first want to see how well this goes before we jump right into it and, umm, tell everyone about it, and then, umm, uh, we might break up, and I don’t want it to ruin any friendships. When we are both sure, then we’ll be able to tell them.”

“Can I tell Maya, though?” I thought out loud, knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep something like this from her.

“No!” Jaime replied way too quickly, “especially not her!”

“What?”

“I mean… she’s also one of my best friends, I don’t want her having choosing sides. Let’s just wait, ok?” Jaime corrected himself, but it didn’t sound that believable. I just let it be, though; I wasn’t going to be the one that would pressure him into doing things he didn’t want to do yet, just like I would want that from him.

I decided to light up the mood by adding a joke, “she will definitely choose my side. There’s no way she’d choose you over me.”

“We’ll see about that,” he winked, but didn’t laugh as comfortably as he was able to do before, “anyway, we’re here. We’re still going to have fun, right?”

“Of course! Otherwise we will never know ‘if this is right’.”

We went into the venue together and got a couple of drinks before getting our shoes and moving over to where we were able to bowl. Other couples and groups were already playing on the other lanes, and I was secretly watching their techniques to see if there was anything I could do to not be as shitty as I actually were. But their movements just seemed so natural, that I knew there was no way I was going to be able to copy them.

After Jaime asked me whether I liked to go first or not, I just honestly told him to go first because I was complete and utter shit. He replied with that I couldn’t be that bad, but I knew better. There was no way I was going to be able to hit a pin today. Maybe I’d even accidentally throw the ball the wrong way, and hit Jaime’s legs instead. The chances for that happening was definitely a whole load larger than me actually getting points.

Jaime threw his first ball and managed to already hit seven pins, which would be a bad throw for a professional, but, for a bass player, it was good, and for me that would be a miracle. He managed to hit the other three with his second ball, and I just watched with mouth wide open and eyes wide.

“It isn’t that amazing,” he chuckled at the look I was giving him, “it’s your turn now.”

“Oh god,” I groaned and stood up to choose a ball from the rack. Many of them were way too heavy for me -- I was the least muscular person you would ever find -- but when I finally found a weight that seemed ok, I walked back over to our lane. I gave Jaime one last look, just begging him to throw it for me, but he just shook his head.

“You’re going to be fine. Everybody thinks they’re bad, while they’re really not,” he told me encouragingly and gave me a thumbs up.

I was about to get ready to throw the ball, when I realised I was still wearing the ring, which I had gotten from my dad for my 16th birthday, on my thumb. It would be a really bad idea to try and stick my fingers in three holes with a ring on and then throw the object away… and that sounds very dirty. Well, ok, there’s something you can say ‘that’s what she said’ to. Enjoy it while you can.

I took the ring off and looked around for somewhere I could place it, but didn’t have any pockets myself and I was sure I was going to lose it if I put it in my bag, “umm, where can I put this?”

“Just give it to me,” Jaime reached out his hand so I could place the silver ring in it, “I’ll keep it safe in my pocket, and you can get it back as soon as we’re done.”

I handed it to him with a smile, making a mental note not to forget it later, which I was probably still going to do. My memory wasn’t bad, but when it came to things like this, I was completely lost. But anyway, back to the ‘bowling’ I was doing. I held onto the ball, throwing it… and it went straight into the gutter. Well great. This was embarrassing.

“Need some help over there?” Jaime smirked, his eyes twinkling a bit as he did so.

I pouted at him and nodded. Not only was I going to get some help, getting me some points, but Jaime was going to be standing close to me, and I wasn’t going to object to that.

----
Jaime’s POV

Ok, so I thought that going on this data with Naira would make everything so much easier. I would realise which girl I liked more and I would be able to easily end it with one of them before things got too messy. Sounds simple, right? Well, it really wasn’t. When Naira was standing in front of my car window, I already knew this was going to be so difficult. She looked absolutely amazing, and then the conversation we had in the car just seemed to flow so easily. It actually seemed like she was really into me now as well, which was what I really wanted… right? She was the girl of my dreams, and I’d do anything to get with her. But then my mind went back to Maya, and how amazing it would be to get together with my best friend and I couldn’t help but think about how awesome it was with her, the movie and all. I just didn’t know what to do anymore. They were both so stunning in their own way, I couldn’t just decide between them.

I was going to have to need more time with both to make this important decision. Was that messed up? Yes, definitely, but if you were in the situation I was at that moment, you would have done exactly the same. There were two girls who really wanted me, and I really wanted them. It wasn’t just a simple decision. It required a lot of thinking. I didn’t want to mess it up and regret my decision. If I chose one, I couldn’t just go back to the other one when I realised I fucked up. And then I could also mess up my friendship with Maya which I really didn’t want, she had been such a good friend for so long. But then again, I also didn’t want to ruin what I built up with Naira over the past couple of weeks. I had such a good connection with both and didn’t want to just break it off with one of them.

Some might consider it cheating, other’s playing around, but I called it making one of the most important decisions of my life. I wasn’t going to keep it going for that long, just until I no longer was confused; I was going to stop as soon as I knew who I wanted most.

Now, back to the amazing date I was on. I gave Naira another ball, and took my chance to basically stand against her while I helped her with her swing and aim. She didn’t seem to mind at all, because as soon as she let go of the ball, she held on to me watching as the ball actually rolled in the right direction. Sure, it definitely wasn’t the best throw ever, but she seemed so excited when it hit a couple of pins. She hugged me and did a small happy dance, causing me to grin at her. This girl was so amazing, yet it just made this whole thing so much more difficult.

I’m going to be honest here and say that I was more leaning towards Maya before this date. I thought Naira wasn’t going to be in it as much as I was, because she said no, so she was probably just doing it for my sake. But it didn’t seem that way at all anymore. It seemed like she actually decided to come because she wanted to. We were having fun together, and neither of us could deny that. So, over time, my feelings for Naira kept getting stronger. The way she smiled whenever she did something right made my heart flutter, and I was pretty sure she started messing up on purpose just so I would help her. But, come on, I couldn’t reject that. If I had a chance to be as close to her as possible, I was going to take it.

At one point we even decided to take a little break, ordering ourselves some more drinks, and just sat there and talked. She kept sitting closer and closer to me, her legs eventually making their way onto my lap. It felt nice to simply sit and talk like this while she let me draw shapes on her bare thighs. Even though I had already developed a crush on her so early on, getting to know her better just made me like her more. I wasn’t just physically attracted to her, but her personality was also so great. She was the perfect girl; my dream girl. But then there was also Maya who I still had to go on a date with… After that I was sure I was going to be able to make my choice. It couldn’t be so difficult, right?

After our amazing date, I decided to drop Naira back off at Maya’s house. Naira would occasionally look over at me and I’d look back at her with a smile. She would blush and act all cute when trying to hide it. I could help the feeling I got around her. We didn’t even need to talk the entire ride back, our date had been perfect enough for us to be able to enjoy each other’s company in silence. So, when I pulled up on the sidewalk a couple of houses down from Maya’s, I felt quite upset to have to say goodbye to this girl. But it had to happen.

“So…” I turned off the engine and turned around to I could see Naira better, “I had fun.”

“I did too,” she bit her lip and tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Oh, fuck it. I leaned forward and cupped one of her cheeks, letting her close the rest of the space in between us. To my surprise she actually did it, softly pressing her lips against mine. I didn’t hesitate to start kissing her, but only at a slow gentle pace. It was just so effortless. She kissed me back, probably happy that I decided to go for the gentle and tender kiss, instead of the passionate one I had shared with Maya just a couple of days before. And to be honest, I actually liked this kiss. Often I would get bored, but with Naira it just felt right. Her breath was carefully tickling my skin while her hair fell forward and covered my hand. Everything just fit together perfectly.

Notes

Oooooh! It's all starting to happen! Maya likes Jaime while Jaime likes her back, but he also likes Naira, who also likes him back now. It's all going to go so bad, isn't it? Or will Jaime be able to keep it up? Maybe he'll mess up and both of the girls will find out what he's been doing to them, or he'll be able to just hide it.

Tell us what you think! Your first decision is coming up soon! Should Jaime choose Naira or Maya? This is what will keep the story going!

- aweirdkindofyellow