Love is a Game

Simon dropped a few coins into the slot when I had stepped onto the other matt and the screen jumped to life with an all-too-familiar tune. I could not hide the smile that slowly unfolded on my face when my memories of playing DDR came back to me.

“Can I pick a song?” I desperately tried to tone down my enthusiasm but there was no use in trying to hide how much I had missed playing this game.

“Yeah sure, you can pick a song if you’d like. It’s still your turn to choose,” he reminded with an amused smile. He was clearly happy to see that I was enjoying myself and I now recognized that inviting me to an arcade for our first date had been a brilliant idea. Simon and I both enjoyed playing games (I preferred those of the video variety, whereas Simon preferred board or card games), we were both competitive to the bone and the retro aesthetic of the arcade made for a surprisingly romantic environment.

I looked up at the screen to see what song options were available. The list of songs had clearly not been updated since the 2010s, but I was pleased to find that I still recognized a lot of songs from my childhood. There was one that stood out from the rest and I recovered a splinter of hope; if there was any song I could beat Simon at, it would be this one. I hummed: “Hmm, let’s go with a classic… We could try ‘Single Ladies’ from Beyoncé?”

“Are you serious?!” Simon burst out in laughter.

“Yes. I’m serious. It’s a really good song with a fun, challenging choreography! What about it?” I replied defensively. Simon’s laughter made me feel a bit uncomfortable. 'Single Ladies' was not the manliest of songs, sure, but by making fun of my song choice, it inadvertently felt like Simon was making fun of me as well.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Simon answered out of breath when he noticed that I was not amused. “It was really unexpected, that’s all. You don’t look like you’d listen to artists like Beyoncé, so your choice caught me off guard.”

“Hey! I may not be a lady nor am I single, but I can still enjoy the song even if it was intended for a different audience. If you are allowed to enjoy a violent zombie shooter, then I’m allowed to like girl-power songs!” I pouted.

Simon put his hands on my shoulders to calm me down and snickered: “I know, Joey, you’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed. But I swear I’m not judging you! Your song choice just genuinely surprised me.”

Simon’s apology made me feel a lot better but I was not going to let him off the hook that easily. “No one disrespects Queen B. Now you’re definitely going down!” I playfully growled with determination. I confidently selected ‘Single Ladies’ on the highest difficulty. “Get ready, Fisher, I won’t go easy on ya!” I triumphantly declared.

As the countdown got closer to zero, Simon winked and answered: “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

At the start of the song, the moves were still relatively easy to follow, but as time went on, the arrow combinations became increasingly complicated and we were both struggling to keep up. “Wow, this is more difficult than I remember,” Simon panted. “I’ve got to give it to you: this song rules!”

I was not going to make the mistake of being distracted by Simon twice, so instead of replying to his comment, I focused all of my energy on the game. Judging from his onscreen score Simon was doing quite alright, but, to my surprise, he was not doing as well as I was. Although we had both started off strong, I was slowly but surely gaining ground on my ultra-competitive crush.

We were starting to near the end of the song and the arrows were moving across the screen at an incredibly fast pace. Meanwhile, Simon had become aware of the slowly increasing gap between our scores and he doubled his efforts in an attempt to catch up. Maybe it was because of my familiarity with the song, my great stamina, my raging desire to finally beat Simon (my grand rival ‘PeePooPieLord’ if you will) or a mixture of all of these things, but somehow my score did not falter. It became obvious that the result of this competition would be a close call.

I broke my promise to not get distracted by Simon when I suddenly heard a loud shriek next to me. Simon’s sneakers had slipped on the worn-down arrow mat and he was not able to regain his balance. I managed to catch him as he tumbled sideways, but unfortunately for me, he took me down in his fall. A burst of pain shot through my spine when my back connected with the hard carpet and a soft curse escaped from my lips. My body hurt like hell and it took me a moment to recover, but when I finally opened my eyes I was happy to see that Simon was unharmed.

However, that relief was quickly overshadowed by worry when I saw that Simon’s eyes were tearing up. Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I had not made him cry, had I? Was he hurt? Had I ruined our date? I started to panic a little bit and worriedly asked: “Are you okay?”

“Never been better,” Simon laughed shakily. “That scared me, but I think I’m fine. Thank you for breaking my fall.” A huge pressure was taken off my shoulders when I realized that his tears had not been tears of pain, but just tears of pure shock.

“Thank god, you’re okay,” I sighed as I tenderly wiped the tears off his cheeks. Despite the uncomfortable position we were in, it was nice to have Simon’s warm body pressed so closely against mine and I tightened my grip around his waist; this would be the perfect moment to make a move. Before my thoughts could derail any further, I sheepishly smiled: “I don’t think this was supposed to be one of the dance moves?”

Simon chuckled and shook his head. “Certainly not, but it was an interesting one nonetheless.”

My date looked like he had no intention of getting up anytime soon and with our faces only a few centimetres apart, the urge to kiss him grew larger with every passing second. I could smell his aftershave for god sake… I finally asked him with a teasing smile: “Can I show you another interesting move?”

He looked puzzled. “I’d love to see it, but if you are going to show me a dance move, I think we need to stand up first. You can’t possibly do it on the ground.” Simon’s obliviousness was adorable and made my heart skip a beat.

“I don’t think that will be a problem, love. It’s not a dance move,” I smirked.

“Okay… Show me then,” Simon responded demandingly. The surprised look on his face when I softly pressed my lips against his was priceless. It made everything that had happened today worth it, including the throbbing pain in my back after our fall and the blunders I had endured during the zombie shooting game.

Simon giggled cutely when our lips separated and I could not help but smile in turn. This first kiss had been short, sweet and satisfactory, but Simon was eager to return the favour and it did not take long before he affectionately pressed his lips against mine once more. I slipped a hand into his wavy hair; the smooth, yet tickling structure of the strands between my fingers kept me grounded in reality.

This kiss was already longer, deeper and more intimate than the last, but I still craved more. A hot, ravenous desire bloomed inside of my chest as I forced Simon’s delicate lips open, giving me free rein to explore every corner of his mouth. Simon’s tongue tried to resist at first, but it soon fell into the rhythm and pace that I dictated.

At this moment, Simon completely belonged to me. He could tease me all he wanted by beating me in my favourite video games, by making fun of my song choices or by acting oblivious towards my advances, but as long as he would stay mine, I could not care less.

Simon was the first to break contact. “Je-Jesus, Joey… Hah-How the fuck did you get so good at kissing? Do you… Do you not breathe or something?” He panted. Simon looked like a mess; his face was red as a tomato, his fluffy, blonde hair was all over the place and his entire body was trembling. All and all, I was quite delighted by the sight of what I had done to him.

Although I knew I was likely looking just as ridiculous as Simon, I tried to play it cool and smirked: “Well, if you insist, I’m actually such a good kisse-,”

“Actually, never mind, I don’t… I don’t want to know,” Simon sighed as he stood up and dusted off his knees. He then looked up at the DDR scoreboard and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Huh, well would you look at that. I guess you won in the end after all! Respect. I totally underestimated you.”

I chuckled awkwardly as Simon helped me back up. “Eh, you weren’t half bad either…” I felt even more uncomfortable when my stomach suddenly started growling like an angry bear. “Maybe we can get some food? My treat. Not gonna lie, I’m starting to get really hungry,” I laughed.

Simon rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand. “Joey… You’re always hungry, that’s nothing new. But, I’ll admit that I’m having some cravings for pizza right now, so maybe getting food isn’t such a bad idea.”

“Well, no time to waste. Let’s go!” I enthusiastically answered after which I dragged Simon to the arcade’s restaurant. I ordered pizzas and sodas for both of us and we spent the remainder of the afternoon chatting about anything and everything we could think of. I had not properly talked to Simon in years before our eventful winter trip to Denmark, but talking to him now oddly enough felt safe and familiar. He truly understood me and I knew I could confide in him. Although we had barely scratched the surface of conversation topics, at a certain point I felt like it was time to go home.

“Care to split?” Simon suggested upon seeing the bill.

“No, no, I already promised that I would pay for it,” I answered. “You can see this a symbolic repayment of all the pizzas that we did not get to share back when we were both arcade-loving kids. I’m sure we would have hung out here together all the time if we had been able to set aside our differences sooner.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Joey,” Simon smiled, but then he added threateningly: “but next time I'll cover the bill!”

I perked up. “Next time? You mean ‘next time’ as in going on a second date?”

Simon laughed and then nodded. “Yeah, of course, you dummy! I had a lot of fun today! You were a lot of fun.” He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he leaned across the table and planted a warm kiss on my mouth. His lips were already gone before I could fully register what had just happened. He looked extremely flustered and asked: “C-could we meet up out of school again next week?”

“Yeah, that sounds good!” I immediately answered.

“I’ll see you on Monday then!” Simon stood up from the table and waved at me with a bright smile one last time before he exited the building, leaving me in a state of total awe. It appeared that my relationship with Simon had just levelled up.