Adopted by Phan

Chapter 39

There was a knock on the door and a head poked around the corner, a bright green head actually. It was Jack and I could hear Mark talking behind him, to someone- several someones actually.

"Yeah we'll go, give us a second. Are you okay to go down like that Jay?" She sighed but nodded, lifting her head for a few seconds before letting it fall back into her arms.

"Come on Jay, let's go." Then Phil did something completely unexpected, he stood up and leaned over her, picking her up and swinging her over his shoulder.

She shrieked, her feet were no where near the floor but it wasn't a shocked cry, it was one of laughter.

"Phil! Oh my god put me down!" He laughed, bouncing up and down.

It was only a few seconds, but after that he put her down and she wobbled unsteadily on her one foot, the other lifted off the ground by her cast. Louise handed her the crutches and she grinned across at me, her hair ruffled and looking rather windswept.

Jack and Mark, still standing in the doorway, were both laughing and I could see some others in the door, a blue haired male among them. I didn't think I recognised them, although I did know his voice when he spoke.

"Alright, are we ready? Yes? No? Oh well let's go."

-------------------------------------------------------

The restaurant was nice, we managed to find a big enough booth to fit all of us, all of us being myself, Phil, Jay, Louise, Mat (as in Game Theory MatPat) Stephanie, Jack, Mark and of their friends, two of which we knew. They introduced themselves as Tyler and Ethan, both of them appearing to have similar, rather loud, personalities.

Jay was mostly silent, observing and listening to our conversations as we got to know the people we hadn't met. Ethan was more talkative and Tyler was more observant but both of them made conversation with us every now and again while we waited for our food.

Mat and Stephanie both congratulated us on the coming out video but they were much the same as the last time we had seen them, coming up to two years ago probably. Mark had still got his natural hair colour, the last time we saw him he had too and he hadn't changed much either, still talking and laughing loudly.

Jack seemed to have changed the most, his green hair no longer a neon colour but rather a darker green and his Irish accent had faded a little, but I supposed it was because of his time spent living in America.

Jay once again only picked at her food, twirling her fork around the pasta we had ordered for her after consulting her on what she wanted. She didn't seemed to want to talk in such a busy area, there were a lot of hotel guests and staff around for such a late night.

In the booth across from us there was a group of young men, many of them wearing the same brand of sweatshirt that simply read 'SDMN' although it was in different colours and patterns. One of them was resting his head on the table and another man was poking him, trying to get a reaction.

The rest were either on their phones or making quiet conversation with each other, trying not to draw attention to themselves, even though it wasn't the best attempt as some of them were being quiet loud.

"Leave him alone would you JJ, it's not everyday you get on a 25 hour flight and then are expected to spend the whole day at Vidcon." His poking ceased and they were left to talk again, the one on the table closing his eyes.

"Jay are you okay?" She shrugged but she did look exhausted, almost falling asleep at the table.

"Tired." It was barely legible and none of us seemed to know what she said until she said it again and even then we could still hardly hear it.

I glanced back over at the booth beside us, a few of the guys sitting there were stealing glances at us every now and again but as soon as they saw we were looking, they turned their heads away.

We finished our food pretty quickly and Tyler and Ethan were both checking their phones for the time pretty often, indicating that they both had something on.

"Alright, I think we should all head up to bed now, see all of you tomorrow? You've got a panel on tomorrow just after us I think." Mark was looking at Phil and I as he spoke and I nodded, knowing we did have a panel at some point the following morning, although I wasn't sure of the exact time.

Ethan and Tyler left first, followed by Mat and Stephanie and then Mark and Jack, who apparently had rooms side by side. We left last, after making sure that no one had left anything behind and then we all stood, heading for the lobby and elevator.

Just as we passed the booth opposite our table originally, a heard a bang followed by the clatter off crutches and I turned back to see Jay on the floor with her head clutched in her hands.