After the Snow

Chapter 6 - Bowling

Chapter 6

Bowling

When I woke up I was in a very uncomfortable position, and I wasn't quite sure where all the car noises were coming from. Moaning, I rubbed my eyes. Why was it so bright?! Eventually, I came to my senses and sat up so quickly I hit my head on the top of my car.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed, hands flying to my head. Anthony was still sleeping next to me quite soundly, much to my confusion. The sun was completely up by the time I woke up, and the highway was back to its usual business.

My brain immediately went into a fury. How long had I been sleeping?! Why hadn't Scott called?! What time was it?! Brushing my messy hair back from my head, I stuck my hand in my pocket. No phone. That was when I really started freaking out. After searching all of my pockets I still hadn't found my phone and was forced to admit that I had left it back at my apartment.

"Anthony!" I hissed frantically, hitting his arm. I kept hitting his arm until he woke up, majorly pissed.

"What do you want?" He groaned, rubbing his eyes. There was that sexy-husky voice. No, stop, Bree!

"We're like four hours away from my apartment and I don't have a phone! Can I use yours?!" I begged, still having my mini heart attack. Oh my God Scott was probably freaking out! Anthony sighed and went to pull out his phone. I sat back, bouncing nervously.

"Um..." He muttered, giving me an innocent smile. My heart clenched. "My phone must've fallen out of my pocket last night...At your apartment."

"You've got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed, letting my shoulders sag. "Where are we, anyway?!" Where I had pulled over was basically the middle of nowhere. There was a little gas station way in the distance, but other than that it was just grass and the country highway.

"How should I know?" Anthony asked, chuckling. "You were the one driving." I hung my head, taking deep breaths. The only reason I was freaking out was because I knew Scott would be pissed that I left in the middle of the night with Anthony. Even I had to admit that was a little sketchy.

"Well then," I sighed, leaning over and turning on my car. Over the past few hours, the cold from outside had seeped in, and I was freezing. "I guess we should head back."

"Or," Anthony said excitedly, wiggling his eyebrows, "We could keep going and see where we get to."

My jaw dropped. "What's wrong with you?! We don't have phones and no one knows where we are!"

"Exactly!" He exclaimed, "That's the fun of it! Don't you ever just want to escape life? Well, here's your chance." Honestly, his idea sounded really good. I bit my lip, rubbing my hands together. "Come on, do something spontaneous!"

"I just..."

"Please!"

"Fine!" I screamed, throwing my hands up in frustration. Scott would forgive me, I was only gone for one day. No big deal, right? "Where do you want to go?"

"Just keep driving, we'll get somewhere eventually." He shrugged, throwing his feet up on the dashboard. Sighing, I made my way back onto the road and did as he requested.

God, it really was freezing in here! My fingers felt numb, and my teeth were chattering. Cranking up the heat, I glanced at the clock. It was 12:34. How had we slept so late?!

"What do you want to do?" I tried again. For some reason, I just couldn't grasp the concept of not knowing where I was headed. I felt the need to know.

"I don't know," Anthony sighed, shaking his head. "How should I know when we're in the middle of nowhere? I don't even know what's near."

"I mean just an idea..." I muttered. Was it so hard for him to say he wanted to see a movie or go bowling?! It didn't even have to be those things, just a general idea would be great!

Anthony shrugged, "Sure, those sound good."

"What?" I questioned, wrinkling my eyebrows.

"Bowling and a movie, that sounds good." He explained, grabbing his bag of food, which he had got the night before, off the ground.

Wait, had I said that out loud? Oops.

"Want some food?" Anthony asked, c*****g his head. At the mention of food, my stomach growled. I haven't eaten since dinner the night before, and I was starving.

"Yes, please." I smiled, reaching over and grabbing a bag of original Lays from his lap. I also grabbed a coke. "Next time we see a restaurant, we should get some food."

Anthony nodded in agreement and said nothing else. There was nothing else to say. Silence engulfed us, but it wasn't awkward. It was one of those silences where you didn't have to say anything, and you could just enjoy the company of the other person. I had missed that, I hadn't experienced it in a long time.

After about an hour, we started to drive into a small town. The sign said Providence. I recognized the name but had never been there. I had never been much of a traveler, and five hours away was far from home for me.

"How does McDonald's sound?" I asked, already turning into the parking lot. It was the first restaurant we found, and we were both pretty hungry even though we had been snacking on chips and candy bars.

No one complained, so we scurried inside to get out of the cold. After ordering my usual, a double cheeseburger, fries, and a large Dr. Pepper, I went to go find a table while Anthony ordered. To be honest, I was still really tired from driving all night, plus I was worried about Scott and McKenzie.

Why had I given into Anthony, again? Because he was annoying. We should be heading home right now so I could apologize profusely to my boyfriend, but no. We're sitting in McDonald's with no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. Was it bad that I didn't really care?

Groaning, I rested my head on the table. The cold surface felt good against my hot skin.

"Someone's sleepy," Anthony commented, poking my head. I jerked up, jumping in surprise.

"You scared me," I breathed, placing a hand over my head. God, can someone say heart attack?!

"Sorry," He apologized, handing me my food. I took it, shoving a few fries into my mouth immediately. Yum. So bad for you, and yet so good.

"It's fine," I muttered, unwrapping my burger. "So, what did you get to eat?"

"The same thing as you, actually." He sent me a smile, which I returned, before turning to his food.

Then something hit me. "Oh, I owe you money!" I exclaimed, jumping at the thought. I had totally forgotten about paying!

"No, no, it's fine," He insisted, brushing it off. Um, no. That's not okay.

"But I have to pay you," I said, determined. I'm not sure why, but I hated borrowing money from people. Especially from people who I hardly knew anymore. As much as I hated to admit it, Anthony was pretty much a stranger to me.

His eyes sparkling, he placed his hands over mine. "Look at me closely, and read my lips." I rolled my eyes but looked at him seriously. "I'm paying for today." He gripped my hands a little tighter, making my heart flutter.

Why did he affect me in that way?! I hadn't felt like that in years, not even with Scott. It was that feeling of complete stupidity. Where you feel like the person in front of you is the whole world, and you're stupid for even hoping they could feel the same way. The feeling of a crush. Damn it, why did he still make me act like a little kid! It was like he had me under his spell.

"Okay," I whispered breathlessly, pulling my hands from his. He blinked a few times, stunned. So he felt it too, that connection. It was real, and it was scary.

We ate the rest of our meal quietly. It seemed like a lot of this trip was spent in silence, but I didn't really mind too much. When we left, Anthony asked the lady at the counter if there was a bowling ally in town, and it turned out there was one right down the street.

"What size shoe?" The teen at the counter asked me. He looked like he was in high school. I remembered those days.

"Eight," I gave him a friendly smile, which he returned. Suddenly, I realized what I must look like. I was still wearing my clothes from the day before, and my hair was probably a wreck. Crap.

"Here you go," The guy smiled, handing me my shoes. He turned to Anthony. "And for you?"

"Twelve, please," Anthony said, pulling his wallet from his pocket. When the kid was gone to find the shoes, I giggled.

"You have big feet," I laughed again, punching Anthony's arm playfully.

"I'm a big guy," He defended, sticking his tongue out at me.

"Here you are," The kid interjected, cutting off what I was about to say. "Lane seven, have a good day."

"You too." I chirped, skipping off to our lane. One of the side effects of my being tired was I got really hyper, and the multiple cups of caffeine I had consumed probably wasn't helping. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"Yeah..." Anthony tailed off awkwardly, giving me a weird look. I clapped, jumping up and down. Bowling had always been fun to me, too bad I sucked at it.

"Can we get the bumpers?" I asked, sticking out my bottom lip. I sat down at a random table and started to put on my bowling shoes.

He scoffed. "We're big kids, we don't need bumpers." Well, maybe he didn't, but I sure did, because if we didn't have them, my balls would be going straight into the gutter.

Wipe that smirk off your face, I meant bowling balls you prevented people.

"Please," I begged, looking up to give him puppy dog eyes. Hey, don't judge. If I wanted to have a fighting chance at this game I needed those bumpers.

"No," He said simply, sticking his tongue out at me. My jaw dropped. Did he just say no to me?! Giving me a smirk, Anthony turned around and went to find a bowling ball.

"Anthony!" I shouted, running and jumping on his back. It caught him off guard for a second, and we went tumbling to the ground, me landing on top Anthony with his face straight in the ground.

For a second I was worried about all the people staring at us, but then I realized that Anthony had just fallen on the tile with a not so skinny girl landing on top of him.

"Any time you want to get up..." Anthony groaned into the ground. I gasped and jumped off of him, watching as he rolled over. As soon as I saw his face I screamed.

"You're bleeding!" I screamed again, waving my hands around frantically. Blood wasn't exactly my thing, and it was practically gushing from Anthony's nose. He started to get up, but I pushed him back down. "You can't get up, what are you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking I need to stop this blood." He answered, pinching his nose. I felt like crying I was feeling so guilty. Jumping up, I grabbed a can of napkins off the counter. "Thanks."

"Do you need anything else?" I asked, taking a few napkins and wiping a few drops of blood off the ground. I grimaced.

"Is everything okay over here?!" Someone asked, running up. It was the same guy from the counter.

"Just peachy," Anthony said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. I bit my lip, my stomach flipping. Damn, he was probably so angry with me.

"Just a nose bleed," I forced a smile, trying to make it seem like no big deal. Do you go to the hospitals for nose bleeds? I don't think so...

"That's a lot of blood," The kid commented, bending down to look Anthony over. He chuckled, shaking his head. "Usually it's the kids who get nose bleeds."

"This girl over here is a little kid," Anthony smirked, jerking his thumb in my direction. I huffed, crossing my arms.

The kid laughed again. "Can I get you anything? Pain medicine, an ice pack? How hard did you hit your head?"

"Not very hard, I'll be fine," Anthony answered, pushing himself off the ground. I got up after him quickly, helping him sit down.

"Well, if you need anything you know where I'll be." He said wearily, looking us over one last time before walking away.

"I'm so sorry," I said in a rush, handing him some more napkins. "I didn't mean to and I feel so bad and-"

"Bree, it's fine." Anthony chuckled, "It's just a nose bleed, no big deal like I said." I frowned, playing with my fingers. There was an awful lot of blood for 'no big deal.'

"Are you sure?" I asked, "Because you hit your head really hard, you might have a concussion." He sighed, letting the napkins fall from his face. The bleeding had stopped.

"If I have any symptoms of a concussion, I'll let you know. Right now I'm going to wash this blood off my face." He stood up, making me jump up with him. Anthony was a good five or more inches taller then me, so if he did pass out I wouldn't have been able to do much. I just felt like I had to be with him.

"I'm coming with you." I stated, making him raise an eyebrow at me. "If you pass out or something, someone has to be there." I deadpanned, making him shrug. It was obvious that he thought I was being ridiculous, but thank the Lord he didn't argue.

We went into the family bathroom where I quickly put the lid to the toilet down and sat on it. Anthony gave me another strange look, so I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You're exactly like a little kid," He muttered, shaking his head.

"And proud of it," I smirked, making him roll his eyes. He turned on the water and started to wash the dry blood from his face.

"How did it get down my shirt?" He questioned, ripping off his shirt to reveal some little streaks of dried blood. I sucked in a breath. Anthony was surprisingly fit, without the shirt, you could see that. He had abs...

Bloody hell, Bree! Don't look at him! You have a freaking boyfriend!

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, I couldn't rip my eyes away. I was under that trance again, and I couldn't do anything about it. It was really annoying that I had these feeling towards Anthony when this was only my second day of getting to re-know him. How does that happen?

"Okay, done," Anthony smiled, pulling his shirt back on. Immediately, I was brought back to reality.

That was so not appropriate.