The Movies Make It Look Easy

Chapter 10

I heard Natalie saying; "We're here."

But it sounded sort of far away and was drowned out by the rush of my thumping heartbeat in my ears. She threw a sympathetic smile over her shoulder at me, knowing how nervous I was.

Sadly, it didn't work.

She marched through the doors of the little pizzeria.

I'd previously informed her of how bad I was at meeting new people and had instructed her to make sure that there weren't any awkward silences in the conversation.

She'd just snorted at me but I think she'd gotten the point...hopefully. I grimaced; I couldn't be sure with Natalie.

I blew my fringe out of my eyes before standing up straighter and following Natalie through the doors.

We walked over to a table for five. The others were already there, waiting for us.

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at me as we got closer.

Emma had fiery red hair, a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and big brown eyes. She smiled warmly at me across the table as we sat down.

Natalie quickly introduced us.

Robbie had blonde hair and brown eyes. He seemed like a quiet-type but was really nice. Lee was pretty much the opposite of Robbie, he kept fidgeting as if he couldn't keep still, and he had black hair and grey eyes and was pretty hot. I couldn't tell any of their heights when they were sitting though.

I inwardly rolled my eyes at myself, trust me to be thinking about their looks. It was the personalities behind their faces that mattered- but their faces were pretty nice too! And I wasn't going to complain about that.

I came back to the present to the sound of laughing.

"She does that sometimes...no, all the time actually" Natalie giggled.

I blushed when I realized they were discussing me. "Sorry...I'm Shannon" I smiled weakly.

"We guessed" Lee winked at me.

I just blushed some more before taking off my jacket and hanging it over the back of my chair.

Emma leaned in from her seat beside me. "Don't mind them, they're all crazy" she whispered to me.

I laughed. Robbie threw his napkin at her from across the table; "What are you whispering about over there? I hope you're not giving her the wrong impression of us."

"Oh, because you're giving her the best impression right now!" she retorted.

"Hello! I'm right here" I blurted out.

The others all grinned at me. There was a chorus of "I love your accent". I just rolled my eyes; I was fast becoming sick of that sentence.

We were all silent for a couple of minutes as we studied the menu and chose what we wanted.

After ordering, - I got a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese! - The others asked me questions about myself and I did likewise.

I found out that the four of them had known each other for years - which just made me feel like more of a fifth wheel - and they found out that I was absolutely awful at Irish, though I'd been learning the language for most of my life.

Inevitably, they asked me about my roommate. I sighed inwardly; I couldn't even go a couple of hours without having to think about him. "Oh, we don't really get along, he's an ass."