Long Rides

I was lying on the bed and kept rolling over. I didn’t know what to do and I was bored. I stopped rolling over when Verion sat next to me, looking down to my face.

“What?” I asked, noticing her facial expression.

“I heard about you and Caleb,” she said.

“Which one?”

“You’re seeing each other but you don’t want him to be your boyfriend yet.”

I groaned. “Verion, it was days ago!”

“And it’s important, Athe. You’re still remembering him. He’s already in jail, for god’s sake! And it happened for almost 2 years ago! Get over it.”

“I can’t, Ver. His face keeps haunting me… he threatened he’d find me when he gets out of jail—“

“Hey, stop it. He’s gonna be in jail for 18 years, and in 18 years, you can do anything, including dating other guys.”

“I know, but what if Caleb would do the same thing like he did?”

“He won’t. You know he’s really nice.”

“He can change, Verion!” I doubted, sitting up straight. “He was really nice before I dated him, and when we were dating…”

“Caleb won’t do such things!”

“I know. But I’m still scared.”

“Athe, you need to get over this. You are a guys’ magnet, you’re attracting them, and don’t forget that Alex is seeing you too! Okay?” she said and stood up and went into the bathroom.

“I can tell he’s seeing me too,” I muttered before plopping my back onto the bed.

I stared at the ceiling for a while, until my stomach growled. I groaned and rolled onto my stomach. I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Few moments later, someone knocked the door. Vincent and Arne were at the other rooms and Verion was in the bathroom, so I stood up and opened the door, revealing the one and only Alex Gaskarth standing in front of me.

“Hey,” he said. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“Nope.”

“I heard there’s a Starbucks in this hotel… wanna have breakfast in there?”

“Of course! I’m starving. Wait, I need to grab some stuff.”

I put on my hoodie and took my Blackberry and my wallet on the desk and put them into my hoodie’s pocket. I put on a pair of flip-flops. I then knocked on the bathroom door and the person inside responded with a ‘yeah?’

“Ver, I’m going to Starbucks downstairs with Alex, okay?” I said.

“Okay!” she replied.

I smiled at Alex before going out from the room and closed the door. We went down to the second floor and spotted a Starbucks a few meters from the elevators. We went inside and seeing that it wasn’t crowded, we decided to order first.

“May I have a hot Caramel Chocolate and a warmed brownie, please?” I ordered.

The girl behind the cashier pressed the register’s screen a few times and turned to Alex, asking for his order. Alex ordered his drink and food, and we paid for our foods. I grabbed the sofa near the window and I placed down our foods on the table as he waited for our beverages. No longer, he came with 2 hot beverages in each of his hands. He sat on the sofa across me and placed down the beverages on the table.

“I see Jack is really funny,” I said, starting the conversation.

“Yeah, he is. He makes people laugh, either with his perverted jokes or un-perverted jokes. I see Verion and Kyle are seeing each other,” he replied before he ate a chunk of his cheese danish.

“Yeah. They’re cute together, though,” I agreed and took a chunk of my brownie.

He nodded in agreement and took a sip of his Peppermint Mocha Twist. “GAH! It burns!” he exclaimed, sticking his tongue out. I only laughed at him. “You’re mean.” He stuck his lower lip. I found that cute.

“That’s what they said,” I grinned and sipped my Caramel Chocolate. “Gah! It burns!” I mimicked him.

He rolled his eyes at me. “That’s not funny.”

“I found that it is.”

“Why isn’t that weird,” he rested his head on his palm and smiled.

I tried to ignore the stares he was giving to me and concentrate with my brownie, but it’s hard for me to concentrate when someone is staring.

“Finish your danish instead of staring at me,” I said, not looking away from the brownie.

“I’m done with it.”

I brought my head up and stared back into his eyes as I stuffed the last piece of my brownie into my mouth. I chewed slowly, still staring at him. The next thing I realized, we were having a staring contest. Around 20 seconds passes and he blinked.

“HA! I won!” I announced, throwing fists into the air. “Buy me a choco chip cookie.”

“What? Whyy?” he whined.

“Because I won the staring contest.”

“Ugh, fine,” he then stood up and went to the counters.

I tried to sip my chocolate but it was hard for me since it was too hot. Someone sat on the sofa across me, and it wasn’t Alex. I looked up from my drink and spotted Jonathan was grinning widely at me. I found itincredibly scary.

“Oh my god, you’re the Cheshire Cat, right?!” I said after placing my drink down.

“Oh my god, you’re right!”

“Oh my god, no way! I’m like, in love with you, Cheshire Cat!”

“Oh my god, I love you too!”

Another voice said, “You guys are freaks.”

We both looked up and saw Kyle and Verion next to him.

“Did you say we’re freaks, Kyle?” Jonathan said, standing up. Kyle nodded. Jonathan sat next to me and wrapped his arms around me. “You’re just jealous ‘cos we’re in love,” he joked, extending the ‘o’ in ‘love’.

Verion giggled and they took a seat across us. A few moments later Alex came. His expression was puzzled.

“Oh hey Alex, meet my friends Kyle, Jonathan, and Verion,” I said.

“I know that, you moron,” he joked and sat next to Verion. He put the cookie in front of me.

“Ooh, thanks!” I ripped the wrapper and bit the cookie.

“Can I have a bite?” Jonathan asked.

He opened his mouth and I put a part of the cookie into his mouth and he bit it, and then chewing it. I could feel Alex was giving us a jealous stare.