It was around 2:30 in the morning when at last we stepped out into the cold night air, or morning air I guess, and started our journey back to the dorms. My ears are pounding so hard that it's hard to hear what Rae is laughing at, but I can only assume it's Alex.
Somehow, Rae is still awake and functioning, however her legs aren't. It's like her entire bottom half just went to sleep without the rest of her. Apparently, the other guy's name is Chris, her boyfriend, and she now has a guy on both sides with arms around her. They're desperately trying to carry her back but it's obviously not working.
She refuses to move her feet, but her arms and head whip back and forth to the music Alex has playing on her phone. The boys end up grabbing each one of her legs to carry as well, so it looks like she is sitting on a throne and being carried throughout the empty sidewalks in the wee hours of the night.
I breathe a sigh of relief when the pulse in my head finally starts subsiding in the quiet air. My friends laugh at the music playing, but I focus on the pretty store lights lining the street. The wind picks up in a chill and unexpectedly sobers us all up a bit. The laughter dies down.
We continue walking until the boys' hands get too cold, so we stop at a bus bench and to set Rae down.
"What the hell, guys? I'm good to go still." She demands, giving Chris a stern look. He waves his hands in surrender.
"Okay," Nate answers heaving a sigh, "If you can get up, then you can walk."
Rae gives him a drunk smile, before her face twists into a full-on panic. "I can't move my legs!" she exclaims. Finally coming to the realization that the rest of us have been dealing with the last hour. The rest of us just groan.
I take a couple steps ahead of everyone and try to look up into the dark sky and see stars, but the city is too large and too bright. Taking in a deep breath, I try to calm my racing pulse even more. Somehow, I feel both ready to run a marathon but also be so lightheaded that I could just go limp and float away.
Just as I'm admiring the lights of the businesses across the street, I notice the Denny's. That means that we're close to the dorms because I remember passing it on the way here. It also means that they're open and the guys might want some coffee to help them carry Rae the rest of the way.
I turn my attention back to the group, "Hey guys, Denny's is over there and they're open." I suggest. Just as I finish my sentence, I notice Evan walking up alone in the darkness behind Nate. He stops under the lamp post by the bench.
"Well, look who it is," he says, and immediately brightens when he sees Chris.
"Hey, man!" Chris hops over Rae to him and gives him a high five. He must know him well, because Evan didn't have to ask for one.
"How's it going? What are you guys up to?" Evan asks and leans against the bench Rae is now currently laying on.
"We were just about to go and warm up in Denny's, care to join us?" Chris asks. I could tell that this upset Nate, but he was too exhausted from carrying Rae to say anything.
Evan looks around at who's in our group like that was a deciding factor. Then his eyes land on mine.
"Breakfast at three am?" he asks looking right at me, "Bring it on."
...
When we finally get across the street to the glass doors of Denny's, we could barely get in. Apparently, this was one of, if not the only, place open this late. Especially around here.
The place is booming with people and once inside, it's hard to even tell it's three in the morning.
I stand with my face practically to the glass of the entryway, nervously looking at the sea of people filling the place. Almost every table was full.
"This is the morning rush hour here," Evan leans down to whisper and I feel his breath on my ear. I shudder, deciding I need to get my drunk ass out of here. I turn to tell him that I need to go to the bathroom, when I come super close to his face.
I hadn't realized that the waiting area was packed with not only our group, but other parties as well. Evan didn't just have to stand next to me, he was practically pushed up against my back to make room for everyone else.
I could hear everyone breathe a sigh of relief as the hot air hit them once the glass doors finally drifted closed behind the last customer once again. But I couldn't see anything other than Evan's blue eyes that never wavered from mine.
I hope like hell there isn't anything on my face. I stay perfectly still, but raise an eyebrow when his eyes roam my face with an intense gaze. Like he was studying me. I was intimidated but also maybe a little bit braver because I had been drinking.
So, I let my own eyes study his face. Right away I notice the light assortment of freckles he has running across his nose and cheeks. Barely noticeable, and yet, something that makes him almost human. I had spent all my time looking at him like he was this man whore, but for some reason these freckles made him seem more real. Gave him an innocent boyish characteristic that I never thought to think of in him. He smiles a little at me, and I could see his perfectly white and straight teeth. God, I would kill to have teeth that perfect.
He notices me looking at his mouth, and he probably smiled just so that I would, but I still didn't move.
"C'mon Fox," he coos and begins to lean in closer to me. Ugh, that nickname.
Just as he was getting way too close for comfort, I notice a shade of red on his lips. Actually, make that two shades. In different places.
I push my hands up to his chest and lean back away from him. His confused but still gentle eyes playfully question me, but it was when he was far enough away from me that I noticed his hair too. It had obviously been pulled in multiple directions. Maybe even from multiple girls too.
"I have to pee," I say, not caring how I looked or sounded. I just had to get away from him. I turn and march deeper into the restaurant before I could see his reaction.
When I don't hear anything or anyone behind me, I slow down to carefully weave through the last of the tables to get to the bathroom.
When I walk in, I'm relieved to find it less harshly lit than the rest of the restaurant and peacefully empty. I stumble my own tired and cold legs over to the mirror and fix my face.
My makeup had mostly sweat off during the night and all that remained was a slight black smudge over the lids of my eyes.
I stare back at the girl in the mirror and mentally slap myself. Really? Him? Get yourself together, you're not an idiot. Even when a little drunk.
I ball up a couple paper towels and wash my face off in the sink. It makes my skin even more flushed, but regardless, I feel better and more in control.
I take one last steadying breath as I prepare myself to ignore Evan for the rest of the year. There is no way that I will let myself be involved with him. At all. And besides, he's my roommates' brother.
I open the door with that frame of mind, only to find him leaning against the wall beside the door.
"Hey, Fox," he says. His face changes when he notices my flushed face. "Thinking about me?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
I try not to react like I just had in fact been thinking about him the entire time I trapped myself in the bathroom, but my body betrayed me.
He smiles and I could tell that he too had probably gone to look in the mirror because the lipstick was gone and his hair flattened down.
"Are you stalking me?" I snap once I can react rationally and clear my throat. He crosses his arms and pushes off the wall, "No, I just came to show you were our table is."
That actually made sense.
"Oh," I cross my own arms, "Well, lead the way," I say, taking another step out of the girl's room doorway.
He smirks and rolls his eyes before taking off into the restaurant bustle. I do my best to run after him, but it's difficult to keep up with him in all the chaos. Servers bringing out food, children run around the tables, people put on their coats by throwing their arms into them. I lose sight of his hoodie a couple times because of his long gait, but am always able to spot his blonde hair above the abundance of people.
When we finally make it through to the far corner on the other side of the place, I notice they had taken all the extra chairs from our table, leaving us with only the six we need.
"What?" I blurt, realizing that Rae was seated between both Nate and Alex who were taking care of her. Which left Chris on the other side against the window by himself with two empty chairs. Evan went ahead and sat in the middle, which I was kind of grateful for, then at least I could get up if I wanted on the end. But where? It seemed like I was stuck here.
I reluctantly followed and sat beside Evan, ready to be bombarded with advances that I was preparing to reject.
But he never looked my way once. The whole time we were in the restaurant, he spent facing Chris and catching up with him.
I try a couple times to talk with Alex and Rae, but they are getting more and more out of it by the minute. I could tell it was taking everything Rae had not to just power down here in the warmth of the restaurant.
When the food comes, I realize that everyone had already ordered something while I was in the bathroom. A couple pancakes here, two scrambled eggs there, nothing in a full meal, but something.
"Did you want anything?" Evan asks, his attention on me suddenly and all at once.
I look at the bacon slices and hash browns he ordered and shake my head.
I don't exactly feel bad, just like I know not to put anything else in my stomach right now. Because then for sure I would be puking like Rae in the club.
"You sure?" he asks again, concern in his eyes. But then just as suddenly as he had spoken to me, he pulls back his plate he was offering and goes back to catching up with Chris.
I swallow down more of my water, which was actually really helping my headache and nerves. There was kind of a weird peace in the air. The bustle and chaos were actually a soothing feeling, and before I knew it, it was time to go.
"It's almost 4:30," Nate announces looking at his watch. Everyone starts getting up, helping each other in the now lessening buzz and emerging exhaustion. I couldn't help but notice that Evan never touched his plate of food. Was it for me?
I try to catch his eye, but he still never turns my way. As we were gathering our wits to leave, a server comes by and drops off our bills. Well, their bills. Water is apparently free.
My eye caught the top one and confusion poured through me. I could honestly say that this was the first time in my life that I went into a Denny's at three in the morning and watched someone order six dollars' worth of scrambled eggs.
We shuffle up to the front and merge into the crowd of people at the door. People were both coming and going, and everyone is standing in random batches. There is no clear and distinct line to be seen. We end up standing behind another group of people our age, next to the cash register. The only woman working the front takes forever to run them through, and once she does, she quickly locks up the register and takes off towards the kitchen.
We all exchange confused glances, looking around at the others that were waiting to be seated and pay.
"Where did she go?" Chris grumbles, clearly as annoyed as the rest of us.
Nate clears his throat and says, "Guys, its already 5 am, and I can't hold Rae up any longer. Not if I'm going to carry her back too."
We look around at each other again. "Should we go back and sit down?" Rae asks tiredly and we glance over at our table across the restaurant. It was already being cleared for the next group of people. I look back to the waiting room chairs, each one was full, some with people sitting on others' lap.
I had a thought. "Hey," I pull on Evan's sleeve and he finally looked at me for the first time in two hours. "How much was everyone's bills?" I ask.
He looks confused, and then says, "ohhhh" with a sly grin on his face. "You want to dine and dash, don't you?" he nods, leaning in closer to me.
My face flares up in red, "No," I say, my fatigue starting to come through. "I actually wanted to leave some money on the counter, but..."
"Hey guys," Evan turns to the group, "let me see your bills."
He takes them and begins adding them up in his head. "Just under twenty-four dollars." He grins like crazy at me.
"Okay," I say slowly and chew on my lip. I glance around again, praying that someone will come back and let us pay.
Suddenly Evan was back in my ear again and I wasn't surprised. "Judging by your reaction, I bet you've never dined and dashed before?" he whispers and I close my eyes.
I hadn't. But I needed to get out of here. Away from this sea of people. Back to my bed so I could sleep.
I shoot Evan him a look. He chuckles, showing more energy I'd seen in him for the last two hours.
"Look, we'll wait five more minutes. But if we haven't been able to have paid by then, we'll just leave." He announces all diplomatic, and tells the others by the door the plan.
I start to protest, but since I hadn't actually ordered anything, it's not like I was stealing. And it was only twenty-four dollars. Not twenty-four million dollars. Anything above thirty and I would have waited longer. But Nate was right. We'd been standing here at the front for nearly twenty minutes now. The people waiting to be seated have been even longer, there's no telling when she would be back.
I cast a nervous glance over at the other people in the restaurant, hoping they wouldn't notice what we were about to do. But nobody seemed to mind us. Actually, they didn't seem to care about anything. There were children running and playing, and parents laughing. Everyone waiting. At five in the freaking morning?
I couldn't wait anymore.
"They're gone." He says plainly in my ear.
I spin around. "What?"
I watch in disbelief as the glass door closes behind Nate who carries Rae out into the morning. Alex gives me a meek smile and I try not to scowl at them for leaving me here.
Great. Not only if I get caught, I'll get caught with Evan. My parents would kill me.
"Maybe we should wait longer then?" I ask him and he just nods his head.
We spend the next few minutes in silence surrounded by noise. I check my phone for the millionth time. It had actually been eight minutes. Evan let us wait longer anyway, but it was still no use.
Either everyone was in the kitchen, or there were bigger problems in the restaurant than getting teenagers to pay their measly bill.
"Let's go." I say to Evan, fed up. He raises his eyebrows but follows me out into the cold morning. My knees shake through my ripped jeans when the wind hits me. I turn my head to avoid the initial breeze hitting my face when we reach the sidewalk.
The sun would be coming up soon. I could already see the sky lightening up through the tall buildings of the city.
I stop and stare in awe at one of the tallest buildings on the street, seeing its lights go all the way up.
"Not from the city either, huh?" Evan asks beside me. His hood up, and his hands shoved deep into his hoodie pocket.
"Hmm?" I hum and look down the street at the other buildings. I quickly start walking again and he follows, oddly quiet. I don't know what to say to him, but the oddly calming quiet of the morning hours seemed to have the same effect on him.
When we reach the dorms, there's a mutual feeling of comfort in each other's presence. It was honestly slightly unnerving.
We pull open the front doors and push the button for the elevator. Just as the doors open and I'm thinking I'm going to have to do the awkward, are you coming over in my dorm room because your sister is my roommate? question, his phone chirps.
He glances at the screen and realizes it's a text. He smirks and gets inside. I follow him and scanned my ID card so I could push my floor, assuming he was coming with me, until he quickly reaches out and pushes floor five.
I unwillingly let out a confused grunt as he types into his phone in a frenzy. When the elevator reached the fifth floor, the doors open to reveal two girls in shorts and slutty tops they passed as pajamas.
"Evy poo!" they exclaim. I cringe as he walks out to them.
"C'mon girls," he says, and swings an arm around each of them. My mouth drops open.
"We were beginning to think you forgot about us," one pouts and I can tell she was an exchange student because of her accent.
"Aww girls, I could never forget about you." He trails off as the elevator doors close again. He never looked back.