Hidden Away

Chapter 3

Danny pulls into the bowling alley parking lot and parks in the first empty space she finds. I step out of the car, grab my rose gold backpack, and sling it over my shoulders. I close the door and turn to look at the bowling alley entrance. Suddenly, I feel numb and like I can’t move. A memory of my mom instantly flashes into my mind.

**Flashback**

“Hey sweetie, I was thinking, what if we go do something fun tonight, just you and me?” my mom said as she entered the living room from the kitchen with a big bowl of popcorn. This was our after school ritual: sitting on the couch with snacks and just talking about random things for a little while. We had done this for as long as I could remember.

“Sure, but I’m already having my birthday party tomorrow with all my friends. Is everything alright? Do you need to talk to me about something? Are you and dad okay? OMG are you getting a divorce and you need to sit me down to talk about it? The day before my birthday?!” I quickly spiraled before my mom could get a word in. My mind was always quick to go to the worst case scenario.

“No, of course not! Nothing like that, sweetie. I just thought it’d be nice for us to have some one on one time. My mom started doing the same thing with me around your age. I just wanted to continue the tradition.” She calmly replied, as she threw some popcorn in her mouth and then offered me the bowl.

“Oh… you’ve never mentioned grandma before. How come I never met her?” I asked

“We can talk about that another time.. right now, we need to decide what fun thing we’re doing tonight!”

We googled nearby places, but none of them interested me until we got to the glow in the dark bowling. It turned out there was something she wanted to talk to me about.. and I was not prepared for the birds and the bees she hit me with. Even though that first year traumatized me, I still picked that bowling alley every year. After a couple years, she stopped asking me and just automatically knew that was going to be our thing every year.

**End flashback**

“Are you sure you’re okay to do this? If you think about it, three years isn’t really that long. It would definitely take me a lot longer to go back to a place like this, we can go somewhere else if you want.” I hear Danny say as I close my eyes and take a deep breath then reopen them and look over to her guilty face. I didn’t want her to feel guilty, she was just helping me move on. Which meant the world to me.

“I’m okay, promise, I was just remembering the first time my mom brought me here. She gave me “the talk”… I was so traumatized, but good thing she did because shortly after I got my period and knew exactly what was happening..” I lightly chuckle as I look over at Danny, she gives me a small smile.

“You’re just scared I’m going to kick your butt at bowling!” I accuse her.

Her mouth drops, “oh! You're so on! The loser buys the shots tomorrow, deal?

I let out an exaggerated gasp and covered my mouth with my hand,” you would make the birthday girl buy her own shots on her birthday?”

“Well you better not lose then!” She yells back at me as she starts running towards the entrance to the bowling alley. I hesitate for a second and then follow her,”hey! Wait for me!” I yell as I catch up to her.

As we near the entrance, my heart rate starts to rapidly pulsate. I thought it was going to jump out of my chest. I still can’t believe I decided I was ready to come back here, everything looks the same. A bunch of different arcade games line the wall to the left: driving games, a claw machine, dance dance revolution and a few others. To the right is the in house restaurant where servers come to your table on roller skates, I always got a kick out of that. When I tried to learn myself though, I gave up after one day. My butt had never hurt so much in my life before.

As soon as we reach the service desk, I smell the most amazing thing: a mixture of petrichor with hints of pine and sandalwood. As soon as I inhale it, my heartbeat immediately begins to slow and the knot building in my chest subsides. I was curious not only how the scent calmed my senses, but what exactly was it? I have never smelled any cologne that has smelled so delicious, maybe essential oils? How you capture the scent of petrichor though, was beyond me.