I Fell For My Nemesis

Chapter 113 - The Full Arcade Experience

Jocelyn hadn't expected Delta to seek her out specifically to apologize. Or compliment her multiple times in the process. Or make her laugh. 

The very thought of being the life of the party was hilarious because she had never been to a party. And didn't have a life. The absurdity of it was what got to her and helped her forget her hurt feelings from before. 

She hadn't realized he would be retiring so soon. It would be strange not seeing him around multiple times a week anymore. It had been when they weren't talking and that was for less than a week. She had worked alone before and could do it again but it would take some getting used to. 

Mercury had moved on. Now Delta was moving on too. Where did that leave her? 

Jocelyn supposed she was doing something by meeting with Keith occasionally outside of work. Though having one real friend wouldn't be enough to get her to retire from hero work. 

She didn't have hobbies. She didn't have anything better to be doing. All she had wanted for so many years was to help as many people as possible and keep herself distracted in the process. 

Now she had something else she wanted too. She wanted to keep the first friend she ever made. That scared her more than any villain. 

Fighting was familiar. Comfortable. Easy. Handling any sort of relationship with another human being that wasn't strictly business was not. It was uncharted territory. 

Jocelyn was both nervous and excited about what activity they would be doing on Tuesday night. She thought about it all day Tuesday, especially after Keith refused to give her any hints when she saw him at lunch time. He simply winked and said it was a surprise.

Since she didn't know what they would be doing she had tried to dress as comfortably as possible while still being professional. She wore a tan sweater with skinny jeans and matching tan boots that were well broken in. 

She was supposed to meet him at a certain subway stop so they could head to the place he had in mind together when he got off work. He did mention it wouldn't involve food so she would need to eat beforehand. She did that while waiting for him and got him a sandwich too since he probably wouldn't have time to eat before meeting her. 

Unlike last time, Keith wasn't wearing his uniform when he showed up. He had clearly brought clothes to change into. He was wearing jeans, a gray t-shirt, a leather jacket, and black sneakers. 

She had only seen him without his helmet on one other time and his hair was just as messy as it had been then. Like he tried to fix it with water after wearing the helmet so much but it didn't quite want to cooperate. 

Jocelyn held out the sandwich bag and he looked at it in surprise. "Is this for me?"

"Yes. I didn't think you had eaten yet."

"You're right, I haven't. Thank you! That's really nice of you; you totally didn't have to do that."

"You're welcome. So where are we going? I've been wondering all day."

Keith grinned at her. "You'll see when we get there."

"Must you leave me in suspense?" Jocelyn asked with a sigh. "I feel like you're dragging this out on purpose." 

"Guilty as charged. I want to see the look on your face when we get there."

"…what kind of place are you taking me to exactly?"

"A fun one!" 

Fun. Did Jocelyn even know how to have fun? All she knew how to do was kill time. Though if anything in her life was fun it was her brief interactions with Keith. She was going to have to trust him on this. 

While they waited for their train he ate his sandwich with vigor. Afterward it was kind of hard to hold a conversation with how crowded the station was but they did their best with small talk about their days until he told her their train had arrived and they needed to go. 

She wasn't familiar with this particular train. It wasn't the one she took to commute so she had no idea where they were going. 

When they arrived she blinked at the place he had taken her in shock. She had never stepped foot in one of these before though she had heard of them. 

"An arcade?"

"Tada!" Keith said proudly before squinting at her. "Why do you look so shocked? Don't tell me you're one of those people who thinks adults aren't allowed to have fun unless it involves alcohol." 

Jocelyn shook her head. "Not at all. I've just never been to one of these before."

"Never?! That's unacceptable. You have to understand the joys of Skee Ball and Dance Dance Revolution. Follow me, my uneducated friend."

He waved her over to the change machine before sticking a twenty dollar bill inside of it. The sheer number of quarters was nearly incomprehensible but he counted them out and split them in half before handing a pile to her that she struggled to fit into one of her pants pockets. 

Next he directed her to the Skee Ball machines. She watched a few people around them and realized they were trying to roll the ball into the holes with the highest point values. She could probably do that. 

Jocelyn put her quarter in the machine and gave it a try but she never managed to get above the twenty point hole. She got two tickets for her effort and held them up before sticking them in her other pocket. Maybe she just needed to try again. It was only her first time. 

She tried twice more but never managed to make it above the thirty point hole and that was only once. She looked at Keith a bit glumly. 

"I don't think I'm very good at this."

"It's only your first time! Don't worry about it. I'm a bona fide Skee Ball expert," he told her as he put his own quarter in the machine next to hers. "I'll get us some more tickets."

Keith hadn't been boasting. He never scored lower than the forty point hole and frequently made it into the hundred point ones. He must have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Had he picked the arcade because he came here often? 

He ended up getting over a dozen tickets compared to her two. She was impressed. 

"How did you do that?"

"A LOT of practice. But Skee Ball isn't how you get a lot of tickets. It's mostly for fun. You want to win a lot of tickets you need to play jackpot games. I'll show you where those are at if you want."

Jocelyn nodded eagerly, wanting to get more tickets. She had seen the prize area briefly from a distance earlier and thought she might be able to get something to put in her office for her youngest clients. That would not be happening by playing Skee Ball. 

Keith showed her to a game that was much like a jump rope where you had to jump over a spinning line that got faster and faster. He only managed to get thirty tickets and she was determined to do better. She had been excellent at jump rope when she was younger because it was something she could do alone at recess without any of the other kids giving her a hard time. 

Jocelyn put her quarter in and managed to win over a hundred tickets. She grinned in satisfaction when they all came out of the machine and she looked up at her friend who was visibly shocked. 

"How did you get so many?! I've never seen anyone do that!" 

"I guess I didn't lose my jump rope skills. That's nice. I think I'm going to keep trying this one for a while if you don't mind."

She ended up inserting multiple quarters so she could play the triple jackpot and won it with ease. That really made her tickets add up. She didn't have pocket space anymore so she had to start putting tickets in her purse. 

"You're incredible! Do you want to try something else?" Keith asked. 

"Sure."

They wandered around trying various jackpot games for a while. Then Jocelyn stood by and watched him make it all the way to the end of Pac-Man, which got him a lot of tickets as well. He definitely had a lot of experience with that one too. 

There were some games they were able to play together, such as one where two players could hit colored lights as quickly as possible or air hockey. She kept knocking the puck into her own goal but she was very good at the light one and got more than a hundred and fifty tickets from it. 

"Dance Dance Revolution doesn't get you any tickets but you have to try it at least once to get the full arcade experience," Keith explained once they were running low on quarters. 

Jocelyn nodded. She had followed his lead this long and had been having a good time. 

Once their quarters were in he warned her that she would want to do beginner mode because she didn't know what she was doing but she accidentally pushed the button for the highest level. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. 

"You're not going to hit a single move on that! This game is really hard; I've barely moved up from beginner to basic and still rarely score higher than a C," he warned her. 

Jocelyn didn't care about that. She was doing this for the experience not the points since tickets didn't count. But one the music started she didn't see what he had been so worried about.. She didn't miss any moves.