You Belong With Me

As soon as I walked onto the bus, I could tell that dinner was going to be crazy. Everyone was talking loudly, and didn’t even notice that I had arrived. I quickly unclipped my radio and slid it into it’s charger before running to my bunk and grabbing my black Four Year Strong hoodie and purse.

“Alright, I’m famished, let’s eat!” I said throwing my hands and yelling to get everyone’s attention.

“When did you get here?” Vinny asked after the bus quieted down.

“About 3 minutes ago,” I said smiling, “Now, where are we going to eat?”

“We’re going to Benihana’s,” Danny said as everyone stood up and grabbed what they needed.

“Good choice,” I said as we walked down the bus stairs, “But how are we getting there?”

“With our legs!” Alex said popping up next to me, “It’s about 5 blocks away, not too far.”

I just nodded and we all started on our journey to the restaurant. I mainly talked to Rian and Zack, considering I had barely gotten to talk to them when I arrived. I did, however, hold a conversation with Vinny about random easycore bands we were both currently into, and New York.

The walk, as Alex had said, was about 20 minutes long and we only had to wait for about 10 minutes to get our table. Once we were lead to our table I was sat between Alice and Danny. Of course, Alice flew into conversation with Matt, so I had no choice but to talk to Danny. It was a little harder than normal, thanks to the thoughts Sean had put into my head.

“What would you suggest to get?” I asked Danny as we went through the menus, “I’ve never been to one of these, only other hibachi grills.”

“I’d go for the teriyaki chicken with brown rice,” he said pointing to my menu, “Or the tofu, if you like that kind of stuff.”

“I think I’ll be going with Tofu, it sounds delicious,” I said finally setting my menu down.
Pretty soon, a waitress came to take our orders, and we all relayed them to her.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Alex said stopping the waitress, “A round of jagear shots, and a round of Heineken for everyone.”

She prompted that we all needed an ID to drink, so we all dug them out, and had her come to check them. Once she realized that we were all 21, she told us she’d run the order to the bar, and be back shortly.

“Well, at least we still look youthful,” Danny said as the waitress walked away.

“I know right? I’m dreading the day when they don’t even ask for an ID,” I said laughing a little, “Which I’m hoping is quite a ways off.”

“Well, 23 is pretty old you know,” he said trying to act serious.

“Says the boy who’s turning 24 before me!” I said lightly smacking his arm.

“Like what, 7 days earlier?” he said, surprising me.

“Uh, yeah, actually,” I said smiling, “Wait, how do you know mine?”

“Possibly the same way you know mine,” he said smirking, “Alice writes everything on the calendar.”

“She was the same way in college,” I said laughing a little bit.

“I heard my name,” Alice said looking over her shoulder, “Talking shit already guys?”

“Oh, you know it,” I said laughing and nodding, “Nah, we were just talking about how you write everything down on a calendar.”

“If she didn’t have her many calendars, she’d forget almost everything,” Matt butted in causing up to all laugh.

Alice gave him a knowing glance, which made him quickly add a “that’s why I love her” at the end of his statement. Before we could even laugh at the couple, the chef was rolling up to our table with the cart of food he was going to cook for us.

I sat and watched intently, considering I had been amazed by the tricks they did since I had first gone to a hibachi grill at Epcot when I was 11. Once the chef was done cooking, the whole group dug in like ravenous wolves. I hadn’t realized how hungry I had been, but then I remembered I hadn’t ate since I was at the airport earlier in the day.

“Best tour kick off dinner ever,” Danny said leaning back in his chair as we were finishing up.

“Agreed,” I said putting my fork down and pushing my plate a little, “After this it’s catering and gas station food, so we better savor this!”

He nodded in agreement, and everyone at the table started finding the appropriate checks, so we could put our payments in them. I found mine, and slid the right amount in, before closing it, and placing it on the edge of the table. Everyone else slowly did the same, and we left a combined tip before grabbing our stuff and leaving.

“Man, I could run forever right now,” I said as we were all walking back to the bus.

“Isn’t eating supposed to make you tired though?” Vinny asked eyeing me.

“Not me,” I said smiling, “Who will race me the last few blocks to the bus? Loser buys winner their next meal?”

Everyone looked a little weary, and a few just said flat out no. Vinny finally agreed to race me, so I asked Danny to hold my purse while I raced.

“Don’t worry, just call it a satchel if anyone asks,” I said as he held it along with my jacket.

He just laughed, and Vinny and I got into position to run, waiting for the signal, and both shot off once we got it.

We were even at the start, but I pulled ahead of him for a little while. I turned around to see how far behind he was, and was soon flying towards the pavement face first. I threw my hands out as fast as I could, but ended up hitting the ground with my left elbow and both knees.

“Oh shit. Fuck,” I said as I rolled over and tried to ignore the stinging in my elbow and knees.

“Shit, Alice, are you okay,” Vinny said running up and crouching by me.

“Yeah, I think I just scraped my elbow and knees up,” I said sitting up and examining my knees, “And boy was I right about my knees.”
They were both bleeding and covered in dirt and specks of gravel. I wiped away the gravel from my shins, and stood up with Vinny’s help.

“Damn, your elbow is pretty jacked up too,” Vinny said examining it.

“What the hell happened here?” I heard Alice say as the rest of the group reached us.

“I tripped while running,” I said facing the group, “No biggie.”

“You’re bleeding on both knees, and your elbow, it’s kind of a big deal,” she said as we started walking again, “We’ll clean you up when we get to the bus.”

“Oh no, you’re not allowed to clean me up,” I said shaking my head, “Remember that time in college when I fell and you cleaned them? Yeah, I was crying from the pain.”

“You were also extremely drunk,” she said pointing a finger.

“But I could still feel the pain!” I said being dramatic, “So, who will clean me up, that is gentle and won’t taunt me?”

“If I can’t taunt you then I’m automatically out,” Jack said followed my quick ‘me too’-s from everyone but Danny.

“Fine, I’ll clean your knees and elbows,” Danny said as we made it to the bus, “Just sit on the front couch, I’ll go find the first aid kit.”

“Thank’s buddy,” I said smiling and sitting down.

He started rummaging through the cupboards while everyone either retreated to their bunks, or the back lounge to do whatever it was they needed to do. Danny finally pulled the kit out of the cabinet and made his way back to me. He grabbed a clean wash cloth from under the kitchenettes sink, and rolled it up.

“Here, take this,” he said handing it to me, as he grabbed the stuff he needed out.

“Uh, okay,” I said taking it, “But why?”

“Bite down on it when it hurts,” he said opening an alcohol pad, “Now this is going to sting.”

I took a sharp breath as the pad touched my knee. I decided to take Danny’s advice and bit down on the cloth to distract myself. He placed a bandage over it once it was clean, and did the same thing with the next knee. Once both knees were done, he moved from the floor to the couch, and made me turn so he could have better access to it. He cleaned it up and bandaged it before taping the band-aid in place so it wouldn’t fall off when I bent my arm.

“See, not that bad right?” he said once I was cleaned up.

“Not bad at all,” I said standing up, “Thanks again.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said smiling at me, “Well, I’m off to bed, I’ll catch you in the morning.”

“Alright, night Danny.”

“Night Addison,” he said before disappearing into the bunk area.

I flopped back onto the couch and pulled my blackberry out of my purse, and sent Sean a text.

I hope you know I hate you for putting stupid thoughts in my head.

I hit send, before standing up and going to my respective bunk and crawling in. I quickly slid out of my jean shorts, and replaced then with a pair of cotton ones, and made myself comfortable under the comforter.

I felt my phone vibrate under my pillow and pulled it out noticing Sean had replied to me.

You know you love me ;) And I didn’t put anything into your head, I just reminded you of it.

I sighed, knowing he was right, before putting the key guard on, and shoving it under my pillow again. I rolled onto my side and pushed all thoughts out of my head before falling asleep.