I cross my arms as I lean against the fence of our apartment. According to Mel, the guys are on their way and are almost here. I hate that I'm a little excited for this event. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm starting to enjoy being around Cam. His consistency is comforting. But being around him reminds me of how much I want to sleep with him and how it isn't going to happen, which frustrates me. It also doesn't help that he teases me about it. And teases me in general. Man, he's annoying.

"There they are!" Mel announces excitedly as a large, black SUV pulls to a stop a few feet away.

"Whose car is this?" I mutter in slight admiration as we approach the clearly expensive vehicle. Gen gets into the front seat so I conclude that it's Axel's. I open the back door and find Ashton, who smiles at me before peeking under my arm to find Mel. She quickly shimmies around me, crawls into the seat beside him, and gives him a quiet greeting.

I let out a noisy sigh when I spot Cameron relaxing in the third row. His long legs are stretched out in front of him and I can tell I'm going to be cramped. I go to meet his gaze only to find that his eyes are slowly taking in my outfit, which Mel picked out. It's pink and more girly than I'm used to but it's cute, nonetheless. Clearly, he thinks so, too. I wait for him to reach my face as I stand with the door in my grip. I make it a point to lock a glare on my face and he only offers me a small wave, which gets a quiet scoff from me. I grumble quietly as I shift into the spot beside him. Once our seat belts are on, Axel zooms off.

"I'm so excited! I love bowling!" Mel announces and Ashton quickly agrees with her, revealing that he was on a bowling league in high school. I have no choice but to listen as Gen asks Axel if he's any good at bowling, to which he replies that she'll just have to find out.

I turn to Cameron, who is waiting to hear the words threatening to spill out of my mouth. "I hate bowling," I confess, which earns an entertained chuckle from him.

"Me, too," he nods in agreement, "I suck at it."

"You're definitely not worse than me." There's no possible way.

"I'm almost positive I am." I wonder if he's just bluffing. "What's the deal you guys proposed again?"

"The loser buys the winner dinner." He tilts his head back and laughs before regaining his composure.

"This doesn't count as the dinner you owe me, by the way," he clears up as if it was a pressing concern of mine, "now I'll just be buying you dinner twice."

"I'm buying this one, Cam...eron." I correct myself when he perks up a bit at my almost use of his nickname.

He gives me a flat look and I tune into the conversation taking place between the two couples in front of us. They're talking about the party last night, which I didn't go to. "I thought you said you guys didn't go out last night." Cameron turns to me with a quirked brow.

"They went," I motion to my two friends, "I didn't."

"What'd you do?" I offer him a slow shrug. I hung out with Danny, that's what I did. Of course I'm not going to say that.

"I hung out with a friend." I keep my eyes focused on the scenery outside of the window.

"You're a horrible liar," Cameron concludes once we lock eyes for a few seconds.

"I did!" I retort defensively before throwing my arms up in slight frustration. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Cameron."

"You don't," he shrugs, "but I'm your friend and you don't have to hide things from me either."

I assess his relaxed expression before huffing noisily. "Shut up." I can't think of a decent enough comeback.

We're silent the rest of the ride and I focus on his knee, which is bouncing against mine from his awkwardly angled position beside me. I feel his eyes examining my face and I keep my gaze locked out the window for the twenty minute journey to the bowling alley. We park the car and unload and I notice him bouncing on the balls of his feet beside me. "Are you okay?" I mostly ask out of slight annoyance.

"I have to pee...really bad." He leads the way to the bowling alley and I hear a scoff from behind us.

"I told you not to drink all that Gatorade," Axel chides him and he grunts quietly. He holds the door open for me and I lightly shove him in the direction of the bathroom once we reach the lobby.

"Go pee." His gaze bounces between the worker at the desk and the semi-distant bathroom.

"Wait for me. I'll be out in a second," he insists before disappearing into the bathroom.

I quickly jump ahead of the two couples and go straight to the lady passing out shoes. I rush out my request as I thrum my nails along the counter patiently. Catching on to my scheme, Ash clears his throat and informs me that, "he's a size 11." I relay the information to the employee.

I retrieve the shoes just as Cameron exits the bathroom in a much less jumpy state. He acknowledges the shoes in my hand and squints at me. I grin smugly and shove the large pair of shoes in his direction. "Here," I gift him and he purses his lips.

"Thanks," he mumbles as he slowly accepts the shoes.

"Feeling emasculated?" I pull my Converse off my feet.

"No, I can actually accept it when people do nice things for me." He wears a smug expression and it annoys me how he's one step ahead of me. Of course he managed to flip the situation into him teaching me a lesson. "I'm also just a little surprised that you guessed my shoe size right."

"Ashton told me." After absorbing my words, he shoots a short glare at his blonde friend, who is using Mel's shoulder as a balance to put on his shoes

"Snitch," he whispers while assessing his friend pointedly. Ashton only grins back at him before guiding Mel by her shoulders to their lane. I lead the way with Cameron in tow, who's complaining quietly about the shoes on his feet.

"What should our team name be?" He jumps to face me after watching Gen and Axel assign themselves a group name. I give a weak shrug as I try my best to come up with something. I figure 'Just Friends' would make me an asshole so I decide to leave it up to him.

"I don't know. You can choose," I figure, which I feel is giving him too much power. The way his lips mischievously turn upward tells me that he's going to abuse the right to name our group. He types slowly and makes it a point to hide it from my line of sight. I turn my gaze to the television and watch as it appears in the dark, bold text. I squint in slight confusion as I open my lips to read it aloud: "Fameron?"

"It's a combination of our names," he announces while I keep my gaze locked on the screen. "You see, I could've chosen Celicity but that doesn't have a nice ring to it. And Clizzy sounds kind of dirty."

I stare at the word for a few more seconds. Mel and Ash chose Potatoes as their team name and Axel and Gen chose Puppies, so I guess ours isn't the lamest one but it is the most couple-y. I break my gaze from the list of names and dramatically look around for an employee. "Is there anyway we can change it? Is it too late?" I crane my neck dramatically. Cameron rolls his eyes at my antics while I pretend to be serious. 

"I think it's cute." Of course Mel would. She looks from Cam to me with a knowing smile on her face.

"Shut up, Potato," I mutter. Ash chuckles at this. "Let's just get this game started. The quicker we play, the faster I lose, the sooner I eat, and the earlier I get to bed."

The more we play, the clearer it becomes that Cameron was not wrong about sucking at bowling. He may as well be feeding the balls to the gutter. I look at our score, which is significantly lower than Potatoes and Puppies. As expected, Potatoes is way ahead of everyone else; Ashton wasn't lying about being on a bowling league. Puppies has only a few points higher than us but the game is coming to an end. It's Cameron's turn so it goes without saying that we're doomed.

"Aren't you going to cheer me on and tell me to do good?" Cameron stands up and grabs the yellow ball he's been using for the entire game. I take a noisy slurp of my soda and cackle wildly.

"The only thing you can do is your best, which we all know sucks." When he realizes that I'm insulting him, he tosses his middle finger up in my direction. Gen releases a quiet giggle and makes a face at me.

"I hope your fingers fall off." He mocks me quietly before approaching the lane. As expected, the ball rolls into the gutter and I let out a noise of amazement. "Do you think we won?"

Everyone else stands up but I remain seated and wait for Cameron to approach me. As he grows closer, I hold my hands out for him and he has no problem yanking me up. We all take a few seconds to assess the scoreboard and I look to Cameron and disappointingly shake my head. "I told you I was bad." He rubs his neck in embarrassment while I repress a small smile. I genuinely don't care that we lost.

"You know, I made all those points. I literally carried this team on my back." He lightly shoves me in response and I bite my cheek to hide my grin.

"Looks like you owe me dinner," Ashton tells Mel before tilting his head. "But I don't think it's fair to make you pay because I was on a bowling league, after all."

"We get it asshole; you had no social life," Axel comments with a roll of his eyes. Gen stifles a laugh and Ashton swats at his friend, who laughs noisily and dodges it.

"Wow, I hope you don't eat much." Gen assesses the scoreboard and gives Axel a hopeful glance. I turn to Cameron, who seems to have already done the math judging by the grin on his face.

"You're finally letting me buy you dinner." We trail behind the other two pairs and I already feel my head twisting from side to side.

"No, no, no, Cameron. You see, that rule only applies to them because they're on dates. But we...we are just friends, so we can pay for our own meals."

"From what I recall, this was referred to as a triple date," he waves his hand in a circle to count everyone in, "they're one date. They're another date. We're the third date. Therefore this," he motions between the two of us, "is a date."

I listen to his reasoning before shaking my head. "Nah...we're just fifth wheeling together," I insist with a half smirk.

"You don't want a free meal?" His brows raise as he points behind us. "I'd expect you to be hungry seeing as you just carried our team on your back."

"I am hungry and I'm excited to buy myself food," I report back as I exchange shoes with the lady behind the counter.

"You paid for the shoe rental," he pipes up and I purse my lips. "So it's only fair that I pay for food."

"Except shoe rental was $15 dollars," again I shake of my head, "I don't know how much dinner will be but I imagine it's not $15 or less. Plus, you bought me lunch the other day."

"Stop counting how much I've spent on you." He rolls his eyes dismissively.

"It makes me feel guilty," I confess. I'm normally not one to pay attention to things like that. In fact, I'm the person that buys things for my friends and tells them not to worry about it. That's just how I was raised. But I feel guilty letting him buy me things. I've known him for a month and we've been friends for roughly a week. It's not like he's buying me a coffee every now and again; he's literally trying to buy me entire meals.

"It shouldn't." He waves his hand. "You paid for the activity. I'll pay for the meal. Is that fair?"

I repress a sigh and give a weak nod. "Fine." I know he won't let me say otherwise.

"I'm curious as to how your other dates go." He holds open the door for me. "If you're giving me this hard of a time, how did they fair?"

"I've never gone on a date," I admit as I lead the way outside. I look at Mel and Ashton, whose hands are entwined and swinging loosely. Axel and Gen nudge each other as they walk further ahead. Cam falls in step beside me with a surprised look on his face.

"Seriously?" His hands tuck deep into his hoodie pockets, which seem to be their home most of the time.

"Yes." Cue my slightly embarrassed nod. 

"This is a really shitty first date." He glances over his shoulder and shakes his head. "Don't count it."

"I don't," I acknowledge with a small smirk. In reality, I thought it was going pretty well.

"I'll take you on a much better one." We take our time approaching the car, which Axel has already started.

"I want to say I'll hold you to it, but I won't." He lets me climb into the car first.

"You can," he presses as he joins me. "I'll hold myself to it."

"So where are we eating?" Axel asks everyone and the girls are silent as the guys wait for us to answer.

"I don't care," I pipe up with a shrug. "Literally anywhere works for me."

"Is anyone craving anything?" Axel wonders as he stares at us in the rear-view. I raise my brows in amusement and make awkward eye contact with Cam, who lets out a low chuckle. I immediately look away as he continues to cackle knowingly. Axel seems to have noticed the interaction because he lets out an airy laugh. "Anything nonsexual, please."

Gen doesn't even have to glance back to know that I'm the target of his comment. "Nice one, Fee," she notes and everyone lets out entertained giggles. I press my head against the seat and let out a quiet groan.

The conversation continues and we eventually take the car onto the road. They manage to pick out a restaurant, which I've never heard of. We arrive and the hostess frowns slightly when our large crowd walks in. "Unfortunately, all of our tables are taken," she starts, "but we have two booths open. They only seat four people so you'd have to split the party up. Would you guys be willing to split up? Or would you prefer to wait?"

"We can split up," Cameron decides for us and the waitress smiles at the cooperation. "We'll take one booth."

"Oh yeah sure, Cameron, because we're the couple that this entire date was arranged for," I call out to him as he makes a beeline for the empty booth. The waitress laughs from behind me as I trail after him.

"You said it yourself, they're the only ones on real dates." He flawlessly slides into one side of the booth. I scoot into the other and watch as the rest of our group moves into the spot directly behind us.

"My name is Dana and I'll be your waitress for tonight. Can I start you two off with drinks?" She places our menus across the table. She offers us a nervous smile and I silently wonder if it's her first shift.

"Yeah, can I have a Pepsi?" he shrugs his shoulders, "or Coke? Whatever you have."

"Coke," she assures him with a nod as she scribbles it into her little notebook.

"Dr. Pepper?" I propose with a smile and she nods yet again as she pens it down.

"I'll be back with those in just a second." She then turns to the rest of our friends.

When she leaves, Cam props open his menu. "Ah...so what are you in the mood for?" He watches me over the unfolded piece of laminated plastic. Like all of his bowling balls, my mind travels to the gutter as I think about what I'd rather be doing with him right now. In a state of pure amusement, he slowly nods with a growing smirk. "I'm pretty sure I just read your mind."

"I don't think so." I hurriedly unfold my menu and bury my face behind it. I feel heat rise to my cheeks and mentally swear at myself. Why am I blushing? I never blush.

"Yeah, it was written all over your face," he concurs, which only makes things worse. "I'll rephrase: what do you plan on ordering?"

"I don't know." I adjust the menu so that I can truly hide behind it. "Can I have a second to look?"

"Take all the time you need." He nods so I take my time looking through it. I purse my lips, scan the menu, and try to find something I'd actually enjoy.

A few minutes pass and Dana returns with our drinks. "Are you two ready to order or do you need a minute?" Cam and I look at each other before simultaneously shrugging.

"I think we're ready," he announces before nodding at me.

"May I have the bacon cheeseburger with everything except onion? And can I get avocado on it?" Dana gives me a big nod as she scribbles it down in shorthand. "And cheese fries?"

"Now you're making me rethink my order..." He looks at the menu again before deciding to just go for it. "I'll take the twelve boneless buffalo wings...with a side of mac and cheese."

"Blue cheese or ranch?" she inquires as she glances up from the notepad.

"Ranch, please." She offers us both a large smile before closing her notebook.

"Alright." With that, she walks off with our menus.

"Let's look at dessert." He grabs the small binder at the end of the table. I retrieve my drink and peel off an inch of the straws wrapper. I put my mouth on the uncovered end and blow the cover at him. It flies into his face and he narrows his eyes at me. "You're a child."

I grin at him as I take a sip of my Dr. Pepper. "You're one to talk." I wait for him to make conversation. His stomach growls loudly and I watch as he lightly pats it.

"I'm so hungry. I haven't eaten since 1," he mumbles sadly. I look at my phone and see that it's been 8 hours, which worries me a little, "and I barely ate anything then."

"You should probably eat more." I hide the concern in my voice as I swirl my straw around my drink. "How was work?"

"Good..." he admits with a shrug. "I just do math all day so do what you want with that information."

"Sounds honestly nauseating." I tilt my head and wrinkle my nose at him.

"Not too inaccurate," he nods at me, "what about you? How was your day?"

"Boring, as usual." I sit back in my seat and shrug again.

He stares at me for a second before shaking his head. "I'm sorry to bring this back up again but how have you never been on a date?" he presses curiously.

"I've never been asked on one." Have I not told him this before?

"That's a lie." This gets a hot glance from me. How is he going to tell me? "Me, Felicity! I've asked you on multiple dates!"

"Oh..." I play with the small water droplets on the table, "I don't count those."

"Why not?" he presses with a curious look on his face. I give a weak shrug.

"Anyway," I redirect the subject. We continue to make conversation until our food comes. His eyes fall on my burger and a small pout reaches his lips. I sigh noisily before shoving it over to his side of the table. "Want a bite?"

"Yes." He lifts the burger in his hands and takes a large mouthful. I watch as he nods in content, clearly satisfied at having been able to taste it. I chuckle as he chews the massive bite and take one myself. "Do you want some wings?"

I smirk at him. "Don't mind if I do." I extend my fork across the table.

Our conversation fluctuates from deep topics to small jokes to low-key flirting. By the time we finish the food, I've laughed so hard that my stomach hurts. "Let's get dessert." He holds out the menu excitedly.

"I'm full but I'll watch you eat." I wrap both of my arms around my torso as I sit back.

"There's always room for dessert." He waves his hand at me. "Lava cake with ice cream?"

"If that's what you want," I conclude as I roll my cup between my hands. That actually doesn't sound too bad. Maybe I'll have a bite... By the time it arrives, I've already determined that I'll sneak at least one bite. I doubt he'll mind. And if he does, I don't care. Two spoons are placed beside the small dessert and he quickly grabs his and digs into the chocolate delight. I slowly extend my utensil and his eyes trail the metal tool up my arm until his gaze reaches my face. I continue to scoop up a bite and feed it to myself with a sheepish grin.

"I thought you were full," he teases as he pushes it between us.

I give a sheepish smile. "I made room for dessert." I take another bite.

We quickly reach the end of the treat and he shoves the small bowl towards me. "You can have the last bite." I stare at him for a few seconds before biting my lip. I scoop up the chocolate and vanilla remains before extending the spoon towards him. He grins widely and accepts it, dancing a little in his seat as he chews it.

"Are you guys done?" Gen blurts over the seat separating us. She looks at me and grins smugly at the smile on my face.

"Yeah." I try to casually tone down my happiness. "Are you guys?"

"Yeah," she confirms with a slow nod.

Once our meal is paid for (by Cam, per his request), we head out and join the group on the journey back to the car. I fall in step beside Cameron, who naturally walks at a faster speed than me. I nudge him in the side and he slows down with his usual amused smile. "So..." he prompts a conversation.

"So, what?" I go along with it.

"When are you going to let me take you on a real date?" I sigh loudly at his inquisition.

"I'm not going on a date with you, buddy." I fight back a grin. We go back and forth like this for the rest of the car ride back to the apartment. As we slow to a stop, Ashton kisses Mel's cheek and Cameron wiggles his eyebrows at me suggestively. If he even tries... I glare and hurriedly unbuckle my seatbelt. "Goodbye, Cameron."

He grins widely as he raises a hand and gives me a slow wave. "See you soon," he dismisses me.

I climb out of the car and join my friends in the journey up to our apartment. As soon as we're out of the guys hearing range, Gen turns to me. "'Goodbye, Cameron'," she mocks me. "You know damn well you wanted him to kiss you."

"I did not." I scoff and quickly shake my head.

"Did you have a good time at least?" Mel looks up at me with a hopeful smile.

I hate to admit it but I did. I had a very good time. I can't let them know that, though, so I give a weak shrug. "Eh, it was okay," I blow off casually. Gen narrows her eyes at me as I branch off to go to my room.

"She's lying," Gen whispers as I'm shutting the door. I don't bother popping back out to argue and instead, let them think what they want.