The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

while.
     

Chapter 8
     
     
     
    #17 Let Something Amazing Happen, Without Question or Hesitation
     
     
     
    Kayden
     
    I know what I’m doing is wrong, but I can’t seem to stop. I’m flirting with her, looking for excuses to touch her and make her laugh. I’ve never laid it on this thick before with anyone, including Daisy. Daisy was easy. All I had to do was say something nice about her and life was good. Not with Callie. With her I have to earn it.
     
    “No one ever wins these games, especially the top shelf prizes,” Seth declares as we roam along the row of booths. He’s got his arm around Callie and they keep whispering to each other. I want to exchange places with him, but don’t know the right way to go about it.
     
    “It’s a trick, I tell you, to steal all your money.” He makes an evil villain mixed with a pirate laugh and Callie buries her face into his chest, her shoulders heaving as she laughs hysterically.
     
    “Did he seriously just say that?” Luke asks as he maneuvers around an older man handing out flyers.
     
    I nod, my gaze tracking the booths. “I think he did.”
     
    Luke’s neck cranes to the left as he checks out a tall brunette, wearing tight jeans and a shirt that covers half her stomach. “I think you might have to prove him wrong.”
     
    “Are you trying to tell me that you can win that?” Seth points at a booth where darts have to be thrown at balloons. Then, he aims his finger toward the ceiling where there are massive teddy bears hanging by strings. “And I’m not talking about those silly little prizes on the bottom row. I want one of those big ones up there.”
     
    I crack my knuckles and my neck. “Okay, first off when I win one, it’s not going to be for you. It’s going to be for that beautiful girl right there.” I point at Callie, then want to take it back, even though it’s true.
     
    Callie glances up at me through her eyelashes, trying to hold back a blush and Seth clears his throat. “Alright, manly man,” he says. “Go prove that you’re a man.”
     
    I slip my wallet out of my back pocket, while Luke ambles off toward the rides, lighting up a cigarette.
     
    “You do realize he’s the quarterback, right?” Callie says to Seth as they walk behind me and it makes me smile for some stupid reason. “He practices hitting a target every day.”
     
    “So what?” Seth argues. “I’m still calling his bull shit. These games are unwinnable.”
     
    Callie stands to the side of me as I hand the guy in the booth some money in exchange for five darts. He lays them down on the counter and backs into the corner, returning his attention to his dinner. 
     
    I pick one up, raise it over my shoulder, and squint at a balloon. Callie crosses her arms, studying me, and I lower the dart, but keep my eyes on the balloon. “Are you trying to make me nervous?”
     
    “No, why? Am I?” she asks uneasily.
     
    “Kind of,” I admit, looking at her. “I can feel your intense gaze burning through the side of my head.”
     
    “Sorry, I’ll stop,” she sputters and begins to turn away.
     
    I catch the bottom of her white t-shirt and my knuckles graze her soft skin. “No, keep looking at me like that. It makes it more challenging.”
     
    She glances down at my hand and then her gaze glides up me. “Okay.”
     
    I tear my eyes off her, lift the dart back up as she focuses on me, and fling it at a red balloon on the top row. It pops and Callie flinches. “One down, four to go.” I grin at her, but note that she’s growing nervous.
     
    I pick up another dart and throw it, then repeat the same move. Each one pops a balloon and when I’m done, the top row is nothing but deflated pieces of latex. The guy behind the counter comes over with a frown on his face.
     
    “Congratulations,” he says in a monotone voice and points his finger at a row of teddy bears dangling from the ceiling. “You get your choose from one of those lovely prizes up there.”
     
    I glance at Callie who’s staring at the balloons with a frown on her lips.  “I said if I won, it was for you.”
     
    Callie sighs, her shoulders slumping as she fixes her eyes up at the bears. “They seem so big. I think my roommate would be pissed if I brought it back to our tiny room.”
     
    “We have to take the prize,” Seth says with a serious expression on his face as he puts his hands on the counter and tilts his head up to look at all the prizes. “You don’t turn