5
On Tuesday nights, the bowling alley was rather quiet. TVs mounted in the ceiling kept track of the scores and bathed the sitting area in soft blue. A smell of old shoes and French fries hung in the air.
Amanda met Sarah and Ryan at the bar. Sarah clung obnoxiously to his arm and greeted her only with a sheepish smile. Amanda had seen this before in her friend – love chemicals washing all sense out of her brain, turning it into a dopamine sponge.
In jarring contrast to Sarah’s lacy red dress, Ryan’s jeans were ripped, and a thick leather vest hugged his broad shoulders. A flaming sleeve adorned one of his muscle-knotted arms, while the other one was wrapped in thorns of black ink.
“Hey, guys!” Amanda said.
She’d hoped that Marc would meet up with her outside, and she had waited in the blistering cold until her face started hurting. It was no big deal and somewhat silly, but she would’ve liked to enter together.
Ryan nodded. “Hello, sweet cheeks. Can I buy you a drink?”
“Hey!” Sarah said in feigned outrage. ”He’s kidding! He’s just charming like that.”
She laughed and gave her boyfriend an annoyed look. Amanda did her best not to throw up. She glanced at the entrance.
Sarah finally broke free from Ryan’s arm and came over to hug Amanda. “How’re the studies going?”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
Her friend always made a point of Amanda still being in school, and her working a real job. Perhaps it wasn’t intentional, but the topic always seemed to come up whenever they hung out.
“Where’s Mr. Chocolate Bar?” Sarah said, still grinning.
“He’s–”
At that very moment, the doors to the bowling alley opened, and Marc strode up to the bar. His black mane burned behind him in the draft from the door. The striped panel shirt and the red-white-blue wide-soled bowling shoes were very different from the flaming tuxedo he’d worn the other day.
“Speak of the… Nice to meet you!” Sarah giggled. “I’m Sarah, and this is my boyfriend, Ryan.”
“Greetings,” Marc said, but his eyes remained glued to Amanda up until Ryan held out his hand.
Marc looked at the biker’s hand for a few seconds before taking it.
“Hell’s Angels?” Marc said, reading the red text that encircled the winged skull on Ryan’s vest. “Have you met the real ones? They’re a nasty bunch, especially Balor and Wormwood.”
“What do you mean by ‘real ones,’ pretty boy?” Ryan said through gritted teeth, his face pulled tight.
“Oh, I’m not talking about your little biker gang, I meant the actual… you know what, let’s just go bowling.” Marc casually sauntered past the larger man, and leaned over the counter, whispering something to the owner.
A few minutes later they were cooped up in the VIP booth on the second floor.
“I can’t believe you know the owner, Marc!” Sarah said and hugged the bottle of complimentary champagne.
“I said I knew his grandfather,” Marc said. “Anyway, who’s first?”
As Ryan strode up to the lane and grabbed a bowling ball, Marc sat down next to Amanda. He touched the shoulder strap of her dress.
“Would you like us to match?” he said, nodding at his own stereotypical bowling outfit.
“I’m fine, thanks.” Amanda hadn’t meant to sound so snappy, but that’s how it came out.
The smile melted off Marc’s face. “Are you mad that I didn’t meet you outside?”
“No, it’s okay,” she said softly.
Marc leaned closer. “I hope so because those were the last Flowers of Adonai that I had.”
Ryan’s first ball cleared all the pins with a loud wooden rattle. Sarah cheered, jumping up and down. The biker came over, handing a ball to Marc.
“Your turn,” he said, grinning.
Marc rose and lazily dropped the ball into the lane, and then returned to his seat, not once taking his eyes off of Amanda.
“I would’ve been there earlier if it weren’t for this blasted war,” he whispered. “I swear, it’s the worst timing of the millennia.”
The bowling ball rolled slowly, skidding dangerously close to the gutter.
“It’s no big deal,” Amanda said. “We’re not even together. Besides, you’re the King of Hell. You can come and go as you wish.”
“Ah, but even a king has certain responsibilities – especially, to his future queen.”
The ball hit one of the outer pins before tumbling away. That pin somehow fell onto its closest neighbor, causing a domino effect. One by one they fell until only one remained standing. It wobbled back and forth before finally falling over as well.
“I guess it’s my lucky day,” Marc said and smirked at the dumbstruck Ryan.
Amanda just watched Marc’s jaw move. He had proposed to her in one of his letters, but the thought of becoming the Queen of Hell had never occurred to her before now. What did that even mean?
“Excuse me. I need to go to the bathroom,” Amanda said and hurried out of the room.
Luckily, the bowling alley was mostly empty, and she got some privacy in the ladies’ room. She splashed her face with cold water and sighed. She had decided that she liked Marc, despite his unpunctuality and demonic nature, but was she ready to give up her life on Earth to rule the realm of the damned?
She tried to tell herself that this was just the first date, but Hell was where it all ended. Letting herself catch real feelings for someone like Marc was not only dangerous, it was potentially stupid.
Amanda looked at herself in the mirror. The water had torn through her makeup, revealing the spots and blemishes on her skin. She ran a hand through her blonde, boringly straight hair. She was just a college girl with regular problems. She couldn’t understand what Marc saw in her. He could have any woman he wanted.
“I’ve seen that look before,” a voice said behind her.
Until now, Amanda hadn’t noticed the pale girl on the other side of the bathroom. Her night sky of gleaming black hair slithered down her bony shoulder like a snake.
“I’m sorry, what?” Amanda said and reached into her bag for her concealer.
“Can you love someone in spite of what they are?” The girl moved, and her shadow shifted behind her. “Love can be tricky, sometimes.”
Her baggy hoodie hung off her tawny frame like an unshapely dress, and her bare feet padded against the tiled floor as she came up next to Amanda.
“I um…” Amanda mumbled, suddenly feeling nervous.
There was something about the girl that was thoroughly unsettling. Those turquoise eyes that stared at her intensely in the mirror – she’d never met anyone with such sharpness – they made her seem wise beyond her years.
“You look pent up,” the girl said.
“Excuse me?”
“You look like you could use a real friend.” The girl took a step closer, her thin lips barely parting as she spoke. “Someone to talk to.”
Time seemed to stop, and all Amanda could focus on was the girl's eyes. How their pitch-black pupils dilated until they almost pushed away all the turquoise of her irises. Amanda swallowed.
“And... who are you?”
The girl tilted her head to the side. “I’m Lucy.”
“Amanda…”
“That is a pretty name,” Lucy said and took a step back. “So tell me, what’s on your mind?”
The whole notion of her opening up to a virtual stranger in the bathroom of a bowling alley was absurd in itself. But there was something about the girl that made her really easy to share with. She seemed so understanding – like she was a person who would never diminish a problem, no matter how small.
“There’s this guy I’ve been friends with for a long time…” Amanda started, and when Lucy nodded encouragingly, she decided to tell her everything.
***
It felt like a year had passed when Amanda finally stepped out of the bathroom, but in reality, it had barely been ten minutes.
“Ah, there you are!” Sarah said when Amanda entered the VIP booth. “It’s your turn.”
Amanda glanced at Marc and threw the ball into the lane. She managed to take down all the pins on the second ball, and cheered and hugged with Sarah.
“Nice spare!” Marc said as she sat down next to him.
She gingerly placed her hand on his. He looked up, confusion plastered on his face. But then he smiled and took her hand.
“You’re less tense,” Marc said.
“I guess I had a bit of an epiphany.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhm…” Amanda nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, that’s… that’s…”
Amanda smiled. Perhaps dating a demon wouldn’t be so bad.