Red Strings | The Group Chat x Reader

Chapter 8 | Dinner Plans Continued

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," Tanner rolls his eyes dramatically and puts his shoe back on, just in time for our food to arrive.

The waitress gives Tanner a weird look at first for having his shoes off, but she ignores him and starts to hand out everyone's food. Before taking a bite, I start looking for the salt and pepper.

"Hey, has anyone seen the salt and pepper?" I ask.

I scan the table one last time to see the culprit. Isaac, who is quite literally dousing his food in salt and pepper. Upon hearing me asking, his movements freeze. He then continues to douse his food for a few more seconds, before handing them over to me. When he does hand them over, his fingers graze mine for a second and we both pause, almost like our strings tied us to the spot. A second later though, he clears his throat and pulls away. I linger only for a second, before I remember what I was supposed to be doing with the objects in my hand. I see out of the corner of my eye that Isaac has pulled his mask down so he could eat and I just need to peek a bit more. He still has his sunglasses on and a bucket hat, but that jawline is sharp. His face card is actually lethal and I have to force myself to look down at my food, because I need an actual excuse for drooling. I feel my face heating up just thinking about the lower half of his face. I force myself to pay attention to my food and once I take a bite, I give a satisfactory hum.

"Rate it," Larry says.

"I'll give it a solid 9, it's pretty damn good," I say after swallowing another bite.

"Good, if it was anything lower than an 8.5, I wouldn't have been able to trust you anymore," Larry nods to himself.

My face scrunches up, "okay then, what would you rate your meal?"

"A 10, obviously," he gives me the biggest 'duh' face. "I've already found my perfect meal, I ordered this every time. Every. Time." Larry jabs his finger on the table to the beat of his words, just to really enunciate his point.

"Whatever," I roll my eyes and continue to eat.

After everyone finished eating and paying our own bills, we slowly make our way outside. I was a little reluctant to end the night.

"Any other plans afterwards?" I smile.

"I need to edit," Isaac replies quickly.

"Edit? What are you editing?"

Nick cringes, and everyone just looks at one another.

"We... kinda of forgot to tell you something," Nick starts.

I started to get a little worried. "What are you talking about?" I hug myself.

"It's nothing bad, we just stream and make YouTube videos." Nick finished, looking like he's holding his breath.

"Oh... uh... that's cool?" I don't even really know what to think of it, "what do you guys do? Like what types of videos and stuff."

Nick exhales finally after my response. "I have a vlogging channel, but I also just do some random videos. Like making a song in 30 minutes," he seems to smile thinking about his channel.

Yumi pulls out his phone and starts typing, before handing it to me, "I do a lot of video games."

I start scrolling on his phone. I notice that he has a larger subscriber count, "is this your guys' full time job?"

"Yeah, we also have a group channel and a podcast channel. It's called The Group Chat, hence the name of our text chat." Nick adds, while Yumi takes his phone back to show me their group channel.

My mouth is in an 'o' shape. I'm kind of shocked? I guess I never asked what they did for work, but this was not what I was expecting. The Group Chat, huh? I'm gonna have to do some digging of my own later.

"This is actually really cool! Sorry, I just didn't really expect it, so I don't really know how to respond."

"This doesn't change anything, does it?" Larry asks the question that all of them were thinking, but they were too scared to bring it up.

"No? At least I don't think so?" They all visibly relax, "it's kind of weird, but I'm not going to use you guys or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

"Well, I'll take that answer," Nick smiles and everyone else seems to agree.

"I guess this is where we part then?" I frown a little, but I remind myself there will always be a next time.

"Don't worry N/n, I'll make sure you see me again soon," Tanner winks and blows me a kiss.

It makes me laugh and perks my mood a bit, but, "N/n?"

"Yeah, it's just a nickname I just came up for you," he smirks.

"Alright," I shrug and give a lopsided grin.

Yumi being closest to me, is - of course - the first person to give me a hug goodbye. The little line gets smaller and smaller as I give each of them a hug. Isaac still doesn't seem to want a hug, but I won't force him. After everyone else gets their hug, I give a final wave and head back to my car.

"Drive safe, text me when you guys get home!" I call out before opening my door and entering my car.

"You too!"