2007

“Look what I’ve got!” my friend Karen exclaims, holding up her wrist. She’s showing off a new gold bracelet, which totally goes with her white party dress. She’s way overdressed for the arcade, but I don’t say that. “Isn’t it just amazing?”

“It’s really pretty,” I say, pushing myself further back into the car’s back seat. I’m wearing jeans and a top that’s printed with a giant butterfly, and I’ve got my hair twisted up in a bunch of teeny butterfly clips.

Karen looks satisfied with my answer, pursing her lips and nodding. I look at Donovan, our chauffeur, but he is silent as usual. Karen and I are on our way to Asher’s 22nd birthday party, or at least the arcade part of the day.

I overheard Asher talking to his girlfriend about the rager they’re going to throw later in the day. But Karen and I are thirteen, just old enough to have started liking boys and having opinions about clothes.

In other words, we are so not invited to the more adult festivities.

“Do you think Asher will like it?” Karen asks, fingering her bracelet. I can tell she isn’t really asking for my opinion, especially because she immediately follows her question with a statement. “If your brother will just look at me, I swear to god, I’ll like… die.”

I roll my eyes. Karen might have the world’s biggest crush on Asher, but I’m still running a little behind in the crush department. Whatever the magic is that is supposed to make me wide eyed and dumb around boys, it hasn’t affected me just yet.

“We are here, Miss Emma,” Donovan says, pulling the car to a stop. I peer out the window and find the a plain brick building, its facade a little run down. In fact, aside from the sign that declares ARCADE, you could just go by without knowing what’s inside.

I squint out the window. Karen is faster than me, opening the door and hopping out.

“Will you need an escort inside?” Donovan asks.

I smile and shake my head. “No thanks.”

“You have your cell phone?” he asks.

I pat my back pocket. “Got it.”

“I’ll be around the corner, waiting.” Donovan smiles at me a little.

“Okay.” I start to scoot out of the car, hurrying to join Karen as she pulls open the arcade’s door.

I’m immediately engulfed in the sights and sounds of the arcade as soon as I step inside. Screens flash, lights strobe. Everywhere around us there are ding ding dings and disembodied voices saying that I could win!

On top of all that, there are what appears to be a zillion kids, running and climbing all over everything. Karen grabs my arm hard.

“Omigod, where should we go first?” she asks, wide eyed.

“Mmm...” I say, considering. But then Karen digs her fingernails into my skin and squeals.

“Over there!” she says, pointing. I look, and find my brother Asher playing air hockey, bending over every time he hits the puck. I can only see about half of the table, because there’s a huge Jeopardy game in my way.

Karen drags me toward Asher. I roll my eyes as we get closer.

“You say hi, and then you introduce me,” she orders, pushing me forward.

“Ahh!” Asher exclaims as we approach, raising his hands in defeat. “Good game, man.”

I don’t recognize the dark haired young man that he is playing with, but he comes closer. I look at his height and his dark eyes for a second. I’m suddenly warm all over and a little short of breath, but I don’t know why.

Asher sees me and steps in my line of sight, eclipsing the guy I’m staring at.

“Emma!” he says, coming over to hug me. He wraps his arms around me, surprising me with a genuine hug. “Glad you made it. I had to practically beg our parents to allow you to come.”

“Hey, Ash,” I say, pulling back to look up at him. “Happy birthday. And… thanks for talking to them about it.”

“No problem,” he says, ruffling my hair a little.

“Hey!” I say, scrunching my face and putting up a hand to fight him off.

“A-hem?” Karen reminds me impatiently.

Ash releases me, and I wave a hand at Karen. “This is my friend Karen.”

Ash just nods to her. “Hey.”

I peer around Ash. “Who is your friend?”

The dark haired guy looks at me quizzically. Ash shakes his head. “You know Jameson, Emma. He’s only been my best friend for over ten years.”

I squint at Jameson. “I do?”

Jameson comes to stand by Asher, his eyes crinkling with humor. “I’ve been around for a while. You were probably too little to remember a lot of it, though.”

I stare at Jameson, feeling a funny tickle in my stomach, like butterflies. “Oh.”

All across the building, an announcement comes over the tinny speakers. “Anyone that wants to play laser tag, please come to the laser tag arena now. Thank you.”

“Yessss,” Asher says, pointing his finger in Jameson’s face. “Now’s my chance to get you back for earlier.”

Jameson rolls his eyes. “Yeah, because playing for the third time will really help you beat me.”

“I’m expecting you to be tired,” Asher jokes.

Karen practically stomps on my foot. “We want to play!”

“Ow!” I say, rubbing my foot. Karen shoots me a death glare. “I mean… yeah. Can we?”

Asher chuckles. “Yeah, sure. Come on.”

Karen scuttles ahead, eager to catch up with Asher. I notice that Jameson drops back a little, and I match his slower pace. I surreptitiously glance at him through the corner of my eye. He’s really quite tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. He’s got very distinguished features, his cheekbones and jawline honed steel.

I notice for the first time that he has a certain heft to his build, a muscular sort of look to him that makes him seem sleek yet strong. I blush when I realize that this is what my mother’s secret stash of romances refer to as his muscular build.

It suddenly hits me in the face that all the well-thumbed descriptions of the heroes in my mother’s books… they all suddenly make sense, looking at him.

“Wanna do it together?” he asks, glancing at me.

I turn eight shades of red. “W-what?”

“Do you want to be on the same team?” He says the words very slowly, like I might be a little dumb or something.

“Oh! Uh… yes?” I say.

“Great.” He moves closer, swinging his arm around my shoulders. I almost faint the second his arm makes contact with my shoulders. “We should probably talk strategy…”

He smells so freaking good, I can’t even stand it. It makes my whole body tingly. I look up at him, openmouthed, as he starts talking about laser tag.

That is the moment that I know for sure that I am feeling my very first crush.