The following day, from the second I open my eyes, I vow I'm going to just forget Orion. I would distract myself as best I could. Little did I know it wouldn't be that easy.

I get in the car. It's the weekend, and everyone managed to get the day off. Lee is driving, and picks me up first. I sit up front. From there we pick up David.

"Tristan, wanna jump in back?" Lee says as David climbs in and gets situated.

I start to unbuckle, but David puts his hand on my shoulder, giving me his smile that requires sunglasses. "No, stay up there."

That surprises me. "You sure?"

"Yeah. We can get cozy later," he adds with smirk.

Next pick up is Easton, followed by Matt. Once we grab Matt, we swing back around to go get Arlene. As we drive, Lee is shuffling through his small, black, zippered CD case. Every time I'm in Lee's car I can't help but laugh.

"Still clinging to eras from long ago?" I tease as Lee inserts the disc, and we pull up to Arlene's house.

"Whatever," Lee scowls at me, laying on the horn. "They still press CD's, yaknow. It's not like I'm breaking out an eight-track."

"What's an eight-track?" Matt asks.

I turn to face him as Arlene huffs out the front door. I grin at Matt. "You seriously don't know what an eight-track is?"

Matt shakes his head. I pout at him a moment before going back to grinning. "Aw, wee little lamb."

"Fuck off," Matt laughs as Arlene opens the door.

As she crawls over everyone in back, she pauses long enough to smack Lee on the back of the head. She then flips over, laying across everyone's lap, holding her purse to her chest. "Speaking of 'fuck off'. Lee—you know my mama hates that shit."

As Lee backs out of the driveway, he glances at Arlene and grins. Matt momentarily leans out, shutting the door since Arlene can't. "I know—that's why I did it."

"She's fixing to shove that horn up your ass."

As Lee laughs, I can't help but smile. Everyone knows that Arlene likes Lee, and he likes her, too. They're both too chicken shit to act on it though. Things were further complicated by Arlene landing an actual job in her field a few months ago. It required her to move—a lot. We sadly didn't see her much anymore.

"The hell you do to your hair?" Easton asks.

Before she can answer, I shift in my chair to look back at Easton. "She was dipped in a nuclear waste pool."

As everyone laughs, Arlene rolls her eyes. "Ha ha, Trist. So original. When are those type of jokes going to get old?"

"Never," Easton, Matt, Lee, and myself all say together, causing David to laugh.

Arlene looks up at David. "So, who are you anyway? Thanks for letting me rest my head in your lap."

"Not like you gave the poor man a choice!" Easton says. "You just, crawled right on top of him, like you own the damn place or something."

David laughs, and the two shake hands. "I'm David. And you're welcome."

"Oh," Arlene says. "So you're David."

"Yeah...and you are?"

"Arlene. Tristan's best friend."

"Oh! That must be how you heard of me."

"Guilty as charged," I say over my shoulder.

"Good things, I hope?"

"Honestly, no. But I haven't heard bad things, either," Arlene adds quickly with a wink. "Tell me more about yourself."

As the conversation unfolds, I decide to stop paying attention. I stare out the window, focusing on the music. As a new song starts, a lyric catches my attention; I swivel my head to look at the dashboard panel. The song title, apparently, is Fear Of Water. As I listen, I feel like I've been punched in the gut. The air is gone, and my stomach hurts.

"Who is this?" I ask plainly, masking the fact this song is making me think of Orion in the worst kind of way.

"SYML," Lee replies.

After about the half-way point of the song, I can't take it anymore. It's too much. It's too heavy. I'm doing that thing where every song I hear reminds me of someone, someone I'd rather forget now. So I lean forward and shut off the music, and then go back to staring out the window.

"Hey!" Lee protests.

"Don't feel like listening to music," I grumble, still looking out the window.

There's a pause in conversation, and the car suddenly feels a bit claustrophobic. I'm happy when Arlene jumps to the rescue.

"So what did you fools have in mind today?" she asks. "If we're just going to drive around, take me back home so I can lay down on my bed instead of all y'alls bony asses."

Lee reaches out and turns on the radio, snubbing his nose at me. A Scotty Mccreery song comes on, Feel Good Summer Song, and it's just as bad as the song I had just shut off. I'm praying no one is seeing the grumpy  frown on my face.

"Bowling!" David chimes in immediately. He seems to have forgotten himself, because he suddenly sounds shy. "Er, I mean, if you guys like bowling...we can totally do something else if that's not your thing..."

"Woooo! Let's go bowling!" Arlene says.

"Bowling it is," Lee replies, turning on his turn signal.

~

It's like I never left. Wordlessly the group splits the cost of everything. Before I know it I'm staring down pins, there's a platter of food behind me on the table we all share, and my friends are trying to distract me in an attempt to make me screw up.

"Why are they hackling you?" David questioned.

Matt had overheard, and shoots me a grin as Arlene threw her ball down the alley. "Tristan is the only person I know who can bowl close to 300."

"I can barely hit 90!" Lee chimes in with a laugh.

I blow on my fingernails and then polish them against my shoulder, grinning. "It's not my fault I'm awesome at all sports."

David wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me. "And so modest, too!"

"If we didn't do that," Arlene says, walk past and grabbing a slice of pizza from the pile of junk food we bought, "he'd absolutely wipe the floor with us!"

David glances at the scoreboard over our heads, munching on a hot wing, and grins. "Looks like he's doing that, anyway."

Just then, the lights switch off. There's a momentary panic before the black lights come on, and everything starts glowing.

"Oh sweet," I say. "I forgot they did cosmic bowling on the weekends."

"Arlene," Easton teases then, "in this game you're supposed to hit the pins, not throw the ball in the gutter."

Arlene hits her forehead and rolls her eyes. "Oh, gee, thanks for letting me know, Easton. But—what's a gutter?"

We all laugh. Then suddenly I'm pulled out of the moment when the music that's piped in over the speakers changes. It's an old song by Russell Dickerson called Yours. It had always made me think of Orion. 

As such, I trip mid-swing of the bowling ball, and it bounces into the gutter. As my face burns in shame, my friends and boyfriend roar in laughter.

"What?" I say nonchalantly with a grin. "I was just imitating all y'all."

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.