Be a Man

Austin looked down, about to say something, then he saw that it was me and grinned.

“Hey, Anna.”

I tried to shoulder by him, to catch up to the still singing Brandon. I thought I was home-free, but everyone reading would guess right if they said that I was wrong.

“What’s the rush?” Austin asked, spinning me back around to face him.

“Well, my friend is getting farther and farther away and you just kept me from getting to him.”
I said, leaning around Austin to catch a glimpse of the oblivious Brandon, for whom everyone in front of him was parting. I tried to sidestep again, but was thwarted.

“Some friend he is, he hasn’t noticed.” Austin said, glancing over his shoulder.

“The others will, when he shows up without me.” I said, “but, be my guest. Follow me. I don’t care, I’ve just got to get to them before Brandon starves.”

Then I realized what I’d said and he smirked. “Lead the way,” he said.

I mentally groaned, and started to squeeze through Brandon’s fading gap, with Austin close behind, then beside.

“Anna! There you are, I was about to call you - oi, are you stalking her or something?” Hailey stared confusedly at Austin as he walked up behind me.

“No---”

“Yes, he is.” I cut him off with a smirk.

“Sure, whatever floats your boat,” he rolled his eyes. I mentally swore since it didn’t get him to leave.

“Oh, well. Let’s just find food,” Sara sighed, shaking her head at me. This might have been because I was glaring at him. Or because I was planning on tripping him…Sara the mind-reader. Ugh.

“It’s not food,” Brandon piped up. “It’s a snack to ‘tide me over’ until we leave!”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s still something that falls under the category of ‘food.’”

“Whatever!” Brandon groaned. “Let’s just go find it.”

We laughed, even the tag-along, and found a funnel cake stand.

“YES!” Brandon cried for the skies to hear. “I can die a happy man.”

And he took a bite.

Hailey and I rolled our eyes, but we couldn’t blame him. I got up to go buy my own, since I’d waited for the line to clear out, and got to the window before any other passersby could see the stand’s ‘no line’ status.

“Would you like any of our toppings?” the guy from the stand asked.

“Just powdered sugar would do,” I said with a smile.

“Alright, that’s four dollars.”

I was in the process of pulling out the bills when a five fell onto the little ledge.

“You can keep the change,” Austin grinned. “Thanks.”

“Thank you,” the man kind of nodded. “Enjoy!”

Austin picked up the plate and motioned for me to walk back to the table. I walked about seven feet and stopped, turned, and glared.

“What did I do this time?” He asked incredulously.

“I am perfectly capable of purchasing my own carnival paraphernalia!” I said. Stupid thing to be angry for, yes, I should be cheering for my ‘free’ funnel cake. But it was Austin, there had to be a catch, and he knows I don’t like people paying for me (except for Mom and Dad, but that’s another story).

“I can’t just be nice?” he grinned, and I realized it had only fazed him for a few seconds. “Let’s get back to your friends, they’re staring.”

“Of course they’re staring!” I retorted. “They know that I think you’re an insensitive prat!”

“Of course,” he just rolled his eyes, a softer grin in place, and ushered me back to the table.

I hate to admit it, but I was touched. The only thing he asked for was a few pieces of the funnel cake.

“What happened out there?” Hailey asked in a soft but shrill voice as we entered the ladies’ restrooms.

“I’d like to know, too.” Sara entered behind us.

“He bought my funnel cake. End of story.” I sighed even though I’d seen it coming when Austin had dropped the five on the ledge a good twenty minutes ago.

Hailey seemed disappointed, but went to a stall. Sara, however, hung back a moment.

“I think you should soften up a bit, Anna.” she said softly, so that none of the others in the bathroom would hear. “He’s genuine, trust me.”

I stared at her until her stall door closed behind her, then I entered my own.

“Where are we going where are we going where are we going where are we---”

“Brandon, shut up!” I cried. “Where do you think?”

He gasped, then squealed. “Whitney’s?!”

Whitney’s was just barely considered a restaurant, it was so small, but it was cozy. And there was usually enough room for our little group to squeeze in.

“Where else?!” Hailey cried, excitedly. I regretted buying her the cotton candy.

“Calm down,” I said, glaring from the corner of my eye. “Or I will drive right past to taunt you, and I will take you home and come back with Sara and Josh.”

Brandon and Hailey froze, turned toward me slowly, and stared. I laughed inwardly. The scenery moved by in the twilight, and the trees were swaying in a gentle breeze. I chose to watch this and the road rather than Hailey and Brandon.

Five minutes later, we pulled nearer, with the little building twinkling at us with a half-full parking lot. I found a parking spot towards the road, not wanting to take a closer one just in case a few older people who would need it more than us came. The others knew this trend of mine, and there were no protests, until Brandon squealed, “Hurry up and stop so we can go!”

I laughed, parked, and turned the truck off as Brandon hopped out immediately.

“I gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good, good
night!” Brandon said in sing-song voice as we all headed toward the doors.

“Hush,” I said, sighing.

“Fine.” he pouted, then lit up. “Never mind! It’s karaoke night!”

We all looked, and what he said was true.

“Just our luck.” Josh said, teasingly.

“Hey!” Brandon cried.

“C’mon, we can to a duet!” Hailey suggested to him excitedly.

“Rihanna and Neyo?!” He cried, grinning.

“Sure!” Hailey smiled back.

“That get’s them out of the way,” I whispered.

“And we all know they’ll talk you into singing something like ‘somewhere over the rainbow,
way up high, th---’ ouch!”

I laughed as Sara smacked her boyfriend in the back of the head.

“Be nice,” she demanded. He pouted.

“Alright.” he relented.

“Hurry up!” the voices of Brandon and Hailey mingled together as we looked up from halfway across the parking lot to see them at the doors. We jogged to catch up.

If Hailey’s singing wasn’t the same caliber as Brandon’s, it wasn’t bad, either. Then they did bully me up there, but they came up to, and we all had fun with Boom Boom Pow. Then Hailey kept me up and dragged Sara up for…

“Hey, hey, you, you, I don’t like your girlfriend!
No way, no way, I think you need a new one…”

Yup. You got it. Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend.

Hilarious.

But all too soon, our food came and we gave the other customers the chance to embarrass themselves…which few of them decided to do. So I guess we were the current weirdo group. Well, I take that back. You don’t need to guess to know that we were.

We talked about random things: music, school, boys, movies, books, boys, paintball, swimming, boys, and…um…yeah. The ‘boys’ topic kept coming up because of the incident earlier today - Hailey was increasing her efforts to try to find out more. She didn’t seem satisfied with my ‘it’s nothing’ claim.

Oh, well. Worth a try.

I don’t suppose someone squeezing into our booth beside me helped, because he just slid
in with a, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Hailey said, wide-eyed and looking from me to Austin.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, not quite venomously, but not too far from it.

“Sitting.” He replied simply.

“Oh, yes, I couldn’t see that.” I noted sarcastically.

“I guess not.”

I went back to my burger in slight frustration, then a fry when that last bite was done with.

“Did you have fun?” Josh asked, and I realized that he was directing it primarily at Austin.

“Yeah, until all my friends ditched me.” he grinned, “Some friends they are.”

I glared at him.

“They left when I was hanging with you guys,” he continued. “I got a text after an hour of looking for them. Not a very nice thing to do, huh?”

I snorted, “That’s funny,” I said, grinning. “I don’t know how you tolerate friends like that. I bet they wouldn’t be there if you needed them unless it had it’s benefits.”

“Anna!” Hailey and Sara cried.

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Austin said to them, then aloud said, “Anna’s probably right, though. I think the only reason Wendy Neff hangs around is so she can get exclusive invitations.”

At this, all of us snorted. None of us particularly liked Wendy since she’d confronted Josh (her ex - we could all see why he dumped her) and told him he could to better than Sara.

Hell, I’d gotten detention.

“She seems to have that effect on people.” Josh remarked dryly.

“I wish she’d stop clinging.“

“Not gonna happen,“ I told Austin, laughing.

“Oh, well.” Austin shrugged.

I actually, in my mind, didn’t compare Wendy’s clinging to Austin until a few days later.