Lane 666

It was a typical Friday night at Whitewood lanes, overcrowded as usual, but me and my friends still go since it’s one of the only days we are all free. Out of all my friends I would say I am the best bowler, second would probably be Jack then Maddy, Mike, Kevin, Jessica and Ryan but it's never about who wins, the atmosphere of the alley, the food and drinks as well as hanging out after a long week, that is what it's about. Since the beginning of college we would come to Whitewood every week and nothing like this had happened. This night begins at around 9:30 I am getting dressed and ready to head over to Jacks place to pick him up for bowling, we all carpool in 3 cars to save time. Passing by my little brother who is watching TV on the couch, it's a Friday the 13th marathon i guess i had forgotten that today was indeed that made up holiday Friday the 13th. I walk to the front door saying nothing to interrupt him and walked out to my car. My first stop was to pick up Jack. He was only about 5 blocks away, so he was already outside when I showed up. He gets in exclaiming a casual "aye" while doing so, then he puts his seatbelt on and we're off to get Mike. Mike was probably a mile down the street so I decided now was a good time to put on some music. "Take on me" by A-Ha started playing as we pulled in front of Mike's place. He awkwardly jogs to the car, moving in a zig zag to avoid any possible holes. The alley is closer to our neighborhood than everyone else in the other cars, so we decided to drink some of our beers in the parking lot before they arrived. It's been something we do every time we go and enjoy our 10 minute pregame, sometimes more than bowling. We talked about some of our past times here as well as some friendly trash talk before the games. I looked out of the window on the passenger side and saw both of the cars of our friends meeting us. We step out all together as I'm finishing my beer, walking towards them, I see Kevin give me a slight nod as I raise my now empty beer. We all give slight acknowledgement to one another before walking into Whitewood lanes on what would be a night I will never forget. We all walked in. I looked up at the clock next to the bar right as we're passing by "10:01". Past 10 on Fridays was half off bowling so we just got here before the line got too long. I looked over at Ryan and Kevin, who I could tell drank a bit more than we did before and were laughing at something on the TV that was too blurry for me to make out. The line moved quickly and before i knew it we were at the front, we each paid separately so it took longer for us to get our lane, but I was in no rush, no plans tomorrow and no one telling me when to get home. I was truly on my own.