"Okay now we need to talk." Awsten says as he leans against the doorway of the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth.
"You couldn't have picked a worse time to talk." I say, spitting out toothpaste into the sink before rinsing my mouth out with water.
"I could've waited until you needed to shit so you couldn't avoid the conversation." He shrugs and I nearly choke.
"Yeah let's, uh, not."
"That's what I thought. So that kiss, huh?" He smirks.
"Wow you're not going to let this go are you?"
"Nope." He laughs some and I roll my eyes.
"Would it kill you to just let things happen?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"So impatient. Just for that we're not talking."
"What?!" He whines, throwing his hands up.
"You heard me." I smile, walking out of the bathroom.
"You're a cruel woman."
"Thanks." I laugh some, sitting on the couch. Awsten comes over and sits on the other side, glancing my direction every now and then.
"You're not making this whole 'not talking' thing easy when you look at me like that." I say, picking up my Xbox controller.
"Oh really?" Awsten says, scooting closer to me.
"I know where this is going."
"Do you?" He stops, nearly a foot from my face.
"Yep. You're predictable."
"How so?" He grins, moving his face closer. I place a finger over his lips and he frowns.
"You're predictable. You think just because I kissed you one time that means I've fallen for you once again and that you can wrap me around your finger just like you did in the past." I say, smirking some as I take my finger away and he shakes his head, laughing some.
"Am I right though?"
"Possibly."
"That's not a no."
"It's not a yes, either, loverboy."
"Can you two fuck some other time? We want pizza." Geoff says from the kitchen and Awsten rolls his eyes, throwing a pillow at him.
"If you break my house I will break your spleen." I say and Geoff apologizes, picking up the pillow.
"We weren't fucking and we aren't going to, just to clarify." I say, googling local pizzarias.
"Aw, really?" Awsten pouts and I punch his arm, blushing some. Of course it was a thought, but I needed to avoid that.
"So, How about Rikky's?" I ask, avoiding the conversation with Awsten.
"I don't care where we go, I'm starving!" Otto whines and I laugh some as he pretends to melt onto the floor. Adorable.
"Well let's go."
"I'll drive!" Awsten jumps up and we all instantly yell no.
"I'm a good driver." He pouts and I roll my eyes sarcastically.
"You nearly hit a fire hydrant earlier."
"And?"
"The car was parked."
××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
"How many?" The greeter asks as we walk in.
"Four." I say politely, looking around at the colorful flags that surrounded us. The walkway inside the restraunt was entirely just flags of different countries decorating it.
"Follow me." The man guides us as we make our way towards the back booth where he places our menus down. Soon another man walks over, smiling some.
"My name is Dean, I'll be your waiter for today. Drinks?" He smiles some, holding up a small notepad.
"Hi, I'll have lemonade, Geoff wants ice water with lemon on the side, Otto wants a vanilla milkshake with extra whipped cream and two cherries, and Awsten wants a mountain dew." I say, smiling some back at the black haired man. It was spiked up in a quiff but it didn't seem intentional. He looked tired, as though he had been working for hours upon hours.
"Sure thing. I'll be back in a moment." He says, walking back towards the kitchen, looking back some.
"You didn't have to order for us." Awsten says and I shrug.
"But I did. Otto gets anxious about ordering and it's not fair to publicly out him about it so I just ordered for everyone and made it so that no one felt awkward or pointed out that Otto was anxious."
"You really think of stuff like that?" Otto asks, looking at me softly across the table.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
"Most people don't think like you do, Tori." Geoff says, not looking up from his phone. He was playing Pokémon Go again.
"I guess. So what's been new with you guys?" I ask, looking around the table at the boys, waiting for a response.
"Not much has really happened. I guess Awsten making up with Jack was the only significant thing that happened this month." Geoff says, shrugging. Awsten sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"You two finally made up?" I ask, looking at him and he laughs some.
"Something like that."
"What do you mean?"
Before he could answer, Dean returned with our drinks. He places them around the table and takes out his notepad once more, ready to take orders.
"I'll have a personal pan cheese pizza." Otto says, his voice cracking some as he shakes his leg anxiously. I look over at him, ready to take over if he needed me to. Instead, he just smiles some at me and continues.
"I'll have the personal pineapple." Geoff says, handing Dean the menu.
"Pepperoni." Awsten says, not looking up from his phone. I frown some, taking the menu from him and stacking it on top of mine before handing it to Dean.
"Personal pineapple as well, please." I say and he smiles.
"As you wish. I'll be back." He takes our menus and leaves. I turn to face the boys and Otto is staring at me, smirking.
"What? Something on my face?"
"He likes you." He says, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, no. I doubt that. Otto unless you're actually blind, I'm not a very likeable person." I laugh, taking a sip of my lemonade.
"You're kidding. You're gorgeous and have a great personality too. He'd be stupid not to like you." Otto says and I smile some, looking down at my drink.
"Thanks Otter. You always know what to say to hype me up." I smile at him and he returns the smile, squinting his eyes.
"Well, what about you, t? Anything interesting happen since we met up last?" Geoff asks and I shrug some.
"Well, I made some really great friends. Lynn means the world to me."
"Lynn, from PVRIS?" Otto asks and I nod.
"Yeah, she's amazing. She's one of the only girls I actually trust in this world."
"How'd you meet? Isn't she hard to find?"
"Because she's antisocial? Yeah, that's how we met. We were both being losers at a party." I laugh, thinking back to that night.
"Spill the tea." Awsten says and I look at him in disappointment.
"Only if you agree to never say that phrase ever again."
"Deal."
"I was at a party with Jack because I was trying to get o- have fun. I didn't wanna be alone and he dragged me to a party and of course I don't drink so I stood in the corner awkwardly avoiding the drunken disasters and she was doing the exact same thing. We ended up having a huge bonding moment over the stupidest shit. We hung out a couple times afterwards and we've been practically inseparable since then." I smile some to myself. She was genuinely the first girl I've ever trusted. The first one I fully trusted and I knew trusted me back.
I've never fit in with girls. They were always too feminine for me. When my cousins would play dress up, I wanted to build rockets. Whenever my cousins wanted to play tea party, I pretended I was a soldier. They would always talk about boys and drama and I just wanted to play Ocarina of Time. I never quite fit in.
With Lynn it's different. She understands me. She understands being different and she embraces it. She helped me learn to embrace my peculiarities and be me. Without her I wouldn't be nearly as confident as I am now. I'd probably still be the shy girl in the back of the room.
"Sorry to interrupt but I bring food." Dean says, laughing some as he places our food on the table. We all smile, staring down at the beautiful pizzas. I couldn't help but notice the extra plate of bread sticks though.
"Um, sir, we didn't order any-"
"Oh I know, my treat. Let me know if you need anything else, dear." He winks, walking away. I stare as he walks away, unable to find words.
"Did he just call me dear?" I finally say, looking at the boys.
"Unfortunately." Awsten angrily bites a breadstick, narrowing his eyes at Dean as he walks away.
××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
I make my way up to the front register to pay for our food as Dean walks up beside me, leaning up against the counter.
"So, was everything to your liking?" He asks and I smile.
"Yeah, it was great. Thank you so much for the breadsticks by the way. You really didn't need to do that." I say, turning to face him.
"Buuuut I wanted to so I did. What's your name, red?" He smirks, walking behind the counter.
"Trouble." I smirk as he hands me the bill. I slide my card and the payment is accepted.
"Well, trouble, would you mind me asking if you were free later this week?" He asks as I look down at the receipt, writing my signature to sign for paying. I write my number and hand it back to him.
"You tell me. Saturday, 7pm. Let's talk." I say, walking towards the door, leaving him to realize what I did.
"Did you seriously just do that?!" Geoff asks as I walk out joining the boys.
"The man used bread sticks against me. I couldn't help it."
"Note to self, your weakness is bread." Awsten says, laughing some.
"Oh no, it's gonna be a lot harder than that, love."