The Bowling Bet
Excerpt from EXES & FOES copyright © 2024 by Amanda Woody.
I approach the pins, swing back, and let loose. The ball rolls halfway down the lane before careening sideways into the gutter. To my dismay, I hear Juliet yell,
“That was a practice shot! You got this!”
Of course she’d start paying attention right when I flub my first throw. Before embarrassment can reach my face, I swivel around and bow, causing both Alice and Juliet to clap for me. “I threw it into the gutter purposefully,” I say, hopping toward the ball return. “So you’ll feel okay when you take your first turns.”
“I appreciate your sacrifice,” Juliet says with a grateful nod, and she snags her shimmering pink ball, climbing the steps to her lane. I spy the opportunity for a moment, and I grab my ball as well, meeting her at the lane to her right.
“Who’s going to win this turn?” I ask innocently.
“You.”
“Why’s that?”
“I have astigmatism,” Juliet says.
Oh. Uh. I can’t find a way to make a joke about eye defects, so I say, “You saw my first throw, didn’t you? But let’s have some fun and bet on it.”
Juliet’s face lightens with intrigue. “If I win, what do I get?”
I rummage through my brain for an idea that isn’t overtly flirty. Loser has to kiss the other person’s cheek is probably too obvious. Damn you, Caleb, for forcing me to be subtle. But something like loser has to buy the other person a snack isn’t meaningful.
“Loser kisses Caleb on the mouth,” Alice says, and oh my god.
I’m going to dropkick this fucker.
There’s a horrifyingly loud thud, and Juliet and I spin around. Caleb has returned and just dropped his giant violet ball onto the tile floor. He’s gazing at Alice in startled horror.
“Oh, that’s spicy,” Juliet says with a maniacal giggle.
“He…should consent,” I croak, inundated with so many overwhelming emotions that I can barely separate them. Anger, frustration, disappointment (why does Juliet sound so keen?), maybe even amusement (Caleb makes funny faces).
“Good point,” Juliet agrees. “Caleb, do you consent to be kissed on the mouth by the loser?”
I’m nearly shaking with embarrassment. I should be giving him a teasing grin, or poking fun, but I can only stand there in abject terror, awaiting his response. If he agrees…no. He can’t. Both situations are lose-lose for me. If I win, Juliet will kiss him on his lips. If I lose…that means…
An image floods into my head. Thirteen-year-old me smashing my mouth against Caleb’s, blood rushing through my veins, my body searing hot.
No, no, no.
Caleb’s doing some mental calculation I’m not privy to. To my astonishment, he says, “I consent.” He gives me a challenging, almost smug look, despite his pasty cheekbones glowing pink. He knows the situation I’m in.
I have to win because I don’t want to kiss him. But…
I have to lose because I can’t give Juliet the chance to kiss him.
Fuck this shit.
“Here we go!” Juliet says, hopping into position with her ball.
“I believe in you,” Alice calls from her seat, winking when she catches my livid expression. Is this her idea of punishing me for concocting the competition idea? How does she expect me to ever talk to her again? Juliet swings her arm back, and my muscles snap tight.
She drops the goddamn ball.
It rolls backward off the step, and Alice catches it with her foot. “That doesn’t count, right?” Juliet asks, laughing feebly.
“Of course not,” Alice says with a reassuring smile.
Caleb stands at the ball return, his wiry arms folded, observing Juliet with such fondness that it gives me stabbing chest pains. This sucks. Just get it over with please.
Juliet unleashes the ball again (correctly, this time). It takes a comedic bounce, but rolls to the end of the lane, colliding with four pins. “Yes!” she cries out, pumping her fist like she just got a strike. Maybe my unintentional plan of make everyone feel better about their first throw by botching mine actually worked.
Okay. I gaze at the pearly whites at the end of my lane, gasping through my breaths. Am I more afraid of giving Caleb the opportunity to advance his relationship with Juliet, or of having to kiss him myself? And…oh, fuck.
Would Juliet kissing him for this dare count toward our competition? If she kisses him on the mouth, does that mean I just…lose? For good?
There are many bad things that have happened to me over the years, and this moment just might be the fucking worst.
“What are you waiting for?” Caleb asks, sounding abnormally cheeky. He does realize that he’ll have to kiss me if I blunder this, right? Shouldn’t he sound more panicked? Juliet stands on the lane beside me, rocking back and forth with excitement. Is she hoping I’ll lose? Win? Is she thrilled at the thought of kissing Caleb, or just at the idea of this competition?
I can’t keep standing here, so I release the ball, hoping the Lord will make my decision for me. It streaks down the right side of the lane and smashes six pins. I stagger back, relieved but somehow more uneasy.
Juliet needs to hit three pins to win.
She steps up to the lane, and my fists are squeezed so tight I can feel my nails piercing crescents into my palms. Caleb shuffles around, obviously hoping for a gutter ball. Juliet tosses it forward. It rolls, rolls, rolls. I jam my eyes closed, because I can’t watch what happens next.
I hear the sound of pins collapsing.
When two ex-best friends decide to hold a competition for the new girl's heart, they don't expect to fall for each other instead.
Emma has been a thorn in Caleb’s side since middle school. Having tarnished their friendship in eighth grade, she’s now little more to him than an unkempt,unruly, disastrous bisexual mess. Over the years, she’s gotten in the way of every romantic relationship he’s attempted to settle into, using little more than mischievous charisma to lure them into her clutches.
To Emma, Caleb sets the record for World’s Largest Stick in the Mud. Uptight,unbearably tidy, and a rule-follower, he’s exactly the kind of boring person her mother wishes she was. When she discovers they’re both after Juliet, the new girl, Emma proposes a competition to nudge him out of the way. Whoever can get Juliet to kiss them first wins, and the opposition must bow out with the promise of never talking to her again.
But plans go awry when Juliet seems mostly interested in hanging out with both of them together. Emma and Caleb just have to figure out whether winningJuliet’s heart is worth the torment of constantly dealing with each other, andthe risk of reopening wounds from a past they thought they had left behind
LGBTQ | Young Adult Romance | Women's Fiction Friendship [Penguin, On Sale: July 23, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593403143 / eISBN: 9780593403150]
Amanda Woody is a metro-Detroit-based queer author. They graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in English and a certificate in creative writing. When not writing and reading happily ever afters,they can be found drinking caramel apple cocktails, playing Hades, or rewatching childhood shows with their siblings.
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