Arthur grins, like he’s still so proud to be one of my biggest fans. Maybe even the biggest fan.
“Not Ben-Jamin’s finest hour. It’s probably for the best that we don’t know everyone’s every thought.”
“Probably.”
It’s already pretty clear I don’t have a handle on what’s going on in Arthur’s life. I’m sure reading his mind will only tell me just how little he thinks about me.
“Anyway, I should’ve been clearer about Mikey. I just figured you’d be spending your summer break together.”
“We were supposed to be in Boston, but I lucked into this gig, and hello, New York. Arthur Seuss is officially on Broadway. Off-Broadway, but I can cough my way through that off.”
“You don’t have to pretend to be flashy, Art. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, Ben.”
His eyes are still so blue. I’m getting lost in them when Mario’s cheering shifts my attention.
Dylan is bowing down before Mario. “You truly are super!”
Mario holds his head high, playing along before turning to me. “Did you see that?”
I check the scoreboard. “You destroyed Dylan’s record.”
“Not very hard,” Samantha says.
“You give it a shot,” Dylan says.
Samantha rises to the challenge, moving with efficiency through the game as if she’s still back at Kool Koffee and multitasking between steaming milk, pumping flavored syrups, and ringing people up. Mario records her as she dominates on what I guess is her very first time playing this. She’s an absolute natural.
“Super Samantha!” Mario cheers when she beats his score. “Arthur, you up?”
Arthur shakes his head.
“Come on, Arthur, you got this.”
“I absolutely will not have that.”
Mario is about to go into full hype-man mode until I grab his shoulder to rein him in.
“Let him chill,” I say.
“Backing off,” Mario says.
Jessie and Samantha go off to bowl, laughing.
I see the photo booth where Arthur and I took pictures on our first date. I wasn’t as comfortable in that moment as I’d like to have been; even Arthur was able to tell. I was still dealing with my Hudson feelings, and we’d also taken pictures in that very photo booth. It’s like Dave & Buster’s is this romantic time machine that sucks me back every time my heart is excited about someone new.
I spot four empty Mario Kart seats and tell everyone to claim them. Dylan and Mario race there, and I love how much fun they’re already having together. You always hope your friends and crushes like each other. No concerns for Dylan, but I’m not sure what Arthur’s early impressions are. I sit next to Mario and Arthur takes the seat on the end, placing me between them; I don’t need to be a mind reader to know that Dylan is thinking up a crude joke about this.
Before the start of the race, we all choose our characters. Mario’s choice is obvious. Dylan goes for Bowser and promises pure chaos on the tracks. Arthur selects Toad, which isn’t actually a toad but instead a tiny humanoid who looks like a thumb with a mushroom cap.
The timer is running low, and I have to decide who I’m going to be.
“Choose Princess Peach so Mario-Mario can rescue you,” Dylan says to me.
“Wrong game,” I say. “There’s no teams here.”
“I’ll let you win if you want,” Mario says.
“Game on,” I say, choosing Yoshi. I’ve always had a soft spot for that green dinosaur.
Dylan leans forward, winking suggestively. “You know there are levels where Mario rides Yoshi, right?”
“Shut up, D.”
Bringing up sex as I sit between Mario and Arthur bothers me.
I do my best to focus on the race. Dylan is honoring his promise and knocks me off course with a red turtle shell. Mario has a strong lead on all of us. What isn’t he good at? As Yoshi recovers, I’m sure that I’ve fallen completely behind. Then I see Toad bumping into every canyon wall, and I laugh at how horrible Arthur is at this game.
“First time?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the road.
“I don’t know what gives you that idea,” Arthur says as he’s driving the opposite direction of everyone else.
We haven’t even completed our first of three laps when Mario passes us again in the middle of his second. He’s so concentrated on the game, like he’s going to get a real gold trophy out of this. Or like he has something to prove. As cute as it is watching Arthur prove why he should never be trusted with a driver’s license, I’m playing to win and praying for a miracle that will slow down Mario—his character falling off the map, being struck by lightning, or hit by a series of blue turtle shells. But everything is smooth sailing for the Marios.