I've Got This Friend ( c.h )

Chapter 8

"Show them the pickles." Luke finally said something.

"And- umm, there are some nasty ass pickles right there." He held the camera up to face Calum and I who were in the middle of a conversation because we didn't expect to be in the keek. "And there is my nasty ass best friend and Peyton." I waved and Calum reached across me to steal a sip of my milkshake. "God Calum, why do you even get food? All you do is eat Peyton's!"Ashton giggled again.

"All she does is eat mine!" He lied.

"I haven't touched your food today you liar!" I defended myself.

Ashton laughed hysterically once more before putting the camera back on Luke for a moment before going back to Calum who was now in the process of fixing the hair under his snapback.

"Uh, it's going to be good today. We're exploring New York."

"We get to play our show tomorrow." Michael decided to talk once again. "Yep." Ashton and him smiled awkwardly towards the phone as Ashton started to giggle like a little school boy. "We good?"

"Farewell." Ashton said goodbye to the keek before he went back to eating his food.

Due to the fact that we had all been starving, we ate faster than usual and were able to leave the restaurant in less than an hour, which was a major accomplishment for our group.

"Now off to the statue we go!" Luke pointed towards the nearest subway station and lead us towards it. I guess you could say like mother like son when it came to him and his sense of direction, also known as he was the only one out of all of us who could actually figure out where to go at this point.

Now, Luke's sense of direction was only useful above ground because the minute that we wanted him to read a subway map, all his knowledge was shit. This resulted in us arguing with a man behind a glass panel for about 15 minutes on where we needed to go and where we would go after we got there. I'm glad that I had five other people there with me because if I was alone there would've been no way that I could've remembered everything that man told us repeatedly.

Even though the Statue of Liberty was hard to miss, it was hard to get to. It took us two different subway rides and a three block walk before we could find where we had to go to be able to get closer to it.

We waited in the line, arguing about what tickets we wanted to buy and what we had time to do before we got up there and spontaneously made a decision, not that we really knew the difference between anything.

We walked onto the boat, but all the rails were crowded so we just decided to stand in the middle. It wasn't like we weren't going to be able to see the Statue of Liberty from where we were right now anyways. I could see it from the dock actually.

More and more people piled onto the boat before the door closed and the ropes were removed from the dock, allowing us to travel out to sea and get even closer to the statue. I made sure to stay between Calum and Ashton while Luke stood next to Calum and Michael who was holding Molly closely to him.

"I thought it was summer here. Why the hell is it so cold?" I complained as we stood on the boat. Even in the sweater and jeans I was in, it was freezing. Well, maybe not to some people but I got cold easily so I considered it freezing.

"How are you cold? That's the warmest sweater that I used to own." Calum sassed me.

"Shut up Cal."

"It is colder when you are out at sea. It's the winds created by the currents and all that stuff." The science geek, also known as Luke informed me.

"I want to keek." Calum announced before pulling out his phone and going to the keek app.

"Then keek." I told him and he stuck his tongue out at me.

He cleared his throat before starting the keek. "Ok, so we're here at the Statue of Liberty. The weather's getting rough, Peyton's getting cold, there's water everywhere." He directed the phone towards Luke, Michael, and Molly. "We've made it! There's Luke in his hoodie, Michael and Molly being a couple. But, there she is." Ashton just laughed at how ridiculous Calum was with his keeks. "There she is guys."

"There she blows." Ashton said in his best pirate voice.

"She's beautiful." Calum made a funny face, causing me to laugh and grab Calum's attention. "Beautiful like my best friend." Calum pulled me into the view of the camera and cuddled me in. "Say hi Pey."

I decided to take it literally and said, "Hi Pey."

"Very funny." Calum forced out a fake laugh. "Wait, the light actually lights up. Oh my god. That's actually epic." He stuck his tongue out towards the camera as I ran my sweater covered hand over my forehead as I fixed my hair that was blowing around. "Alright, we love you guys! Bye." Calum ended it.

I guess a few fans were on the boat too because they were constantly staring in our direction. "They don't bite you know." I informed them as they smiled at me and walked in our direction so they could start a conversation with the boys.

I walked towards the edge when I saw an opening and leaned on the barrier that prevented me from falling into the sea. I always loved the feeling of a rocking boat under me. It was soothing if you asked me. I closed my eyes and just imagined myself floating.

"Hey." I heard a raspy voice behind me as two long, lanky arms wrapped around me.

"Hey Calum."

"You still cold?"

"A little." I admitted.

"I'm sorry. If I had a jacket, you know I'd give it to you." He yawned.

"I know. Someone tired?"

"A little."

"Looks like we're going back to the hotel with everyone else tonight."

"I somehow knew you would say that." He let out a low chuckle.