once tommy and i get our water, we decide we want to go to the arcade. we quickly change back into our regular shoes and head into the arcade. once we do, i approach a random game, then sigh.

"we don't have tickets," i say.

"we have money to buy tickets," tommy says, whipping out about 20 pounds. i raise an eyebrow and give a skeptical look.

"and how did you get that? i know that's not your money."

"the dirty crime boy never reveals his secrets."

"he can reveal his secrets to his partner in crime." tommy groans.

"fine. stole it from wilbur's pocket when he wasn't paying attention. don't tell him." i laugh. of course he stole it from wilbur.

"i would never."

we head to the arcade and try to decide what game to play, which leads to us screaming and arguing.

"you can't play basketball! you suck at basketball!" tommy shouts. "we won't get any tickets!"

"all the skee ball lanes are occupied!" i yell. "lets play basketball and then skee ball!"

"i paid so i get to choose."

"technically wilbur paid."

"wilbur unknowingly paid, and he likes me best. he'd let me choose the game."

"one, he definitely likes me best. two, what does him 'liking you better' have to do with SKEE BALL?" tommy glares at me and huffs, crossing his arms. after a minute, he looks up at me.

"wanna play air hockey?" he asks. i laugh.

"yeah."

after tommy crushes me at air hockey, we play basketball. like he predicted, i'm absolutely horrible, but he sucks as well. we win about 5 tickets from that one game.

we play skee ball, and contrary to basketball, we both nail it, earning a lot of tickets.

"not too shabby, huh davis?" tommy says.

"since when did you call me by my last name, simons?" i respond.

"since when did you?" i huff.

"whatever. let's just find another game."

we roam the arcade a bit until we both lay our eyes on the same thing.

dance dance revolution.

"that," we both say as we point to it. we run over before anyone can occupy it and tommy inserts a few tokens.

"is this gonna be like that scene in the kissing booth?" i ask.

"hell no," tommy says. "because i doubt either of us can dance."

"let's see who's the better of the two, then."

"why does everything we do together turn out to be a competition?" tommy laughs.

"you're competitive, i'm competitive, you do the math."

"fair point." tommy chooses the hardest level for us to do.

"why did you choose that one?" i shout.

"you wanted a competition," tommy says. "so you're gonna get a competition."

i sigh as the game starts and tommy and i are left stomping on the arrows on the machine. within a minute we're both struggling not to roll our ankles.

"didn't realize," tommy says in between panting breaths. "that it would be this hard."

"you chose the level called extreme and thought it wouldn't be hard?" i gasp for air.

"shit, now we have to switch sides," tommy says, but he doesn't give me enough notice. he knocks into me and almost sends me backwards. luckily, i grab the back railing on the machine and avoid disaster. i pull both of us back up.

"i need at least a five second notice before you pull that on me, tommy," i say while laughing.

"yeah... whoops!" he responds, his face red.

after another minute we finish the game, earning an extremely low score and barely any tickets.

"let's not do that again," i say. tommy nods.

"no need to do it again, since i already got all of that on video," a voice says behind us. our eyes grow wide as we snap our heads around.

"tubbo no!" tommy shouts, running over to toby, the owner of the voice.

"delete that video, for god's sake," i say as i approach the two.

"nah, i won't. now i have blackmail on you two. be nice to me or i'll post this on twitter!" toby says with a smirk.

"fuck you," tommy says, laughing and nudging toby's shoulder with his.

the three of us play more games as a group, and eventually stash all of our tickets away, deciding we'll get our prizes later. we go back to lace up our skates, and see that it's 5:59.

"time really flies when you're having fun," i say. tommy nods.

"i'm gonna go in there and talk to wilbur about dinner, but you two can join later!" toby says, trying not to laugh for some reason. tommy and i both nod and toby skates off.

the clock hits 6:00.

"alrighty everyone!" a man on the overhead speakers says. "it's that time again... couple's skate! everyone who isn't a couple kindly exit the rink, couples come on out!"

my eyes grow wide and my jaw drops.

couple's skate?!

"for fuck's sake," i can hear wilbur say nearby. "let's go to the arcade, niki. i don't know why these weirdos still do couple's skate. this just makes us single people feel extra lonely." i see niki nod and the two of them get out of the rink, toby following closely behind.

"THIS IS OUR TIME!" i hear karl scream. i look in the direction of the yell and see karl dragging alex and nick into the rink.

"hey look!" alex shouts, pointing at clay and george. "dnf in the couple's skate!"

"gogy just needs a little bit of help skating. he's trying not to use his skate mate," clay says. george nods.

i turn my head to ask tommy if he wants to go back to the arcade, but he's already standing in front of me, his hand extended to me.

"wanna join me in couple's skate?" he asks.