But I Never Promised You

I woke up the next morning to Alex poking me.

“What do you want Alex? Go back to sleep.”

“I’m hungry. Let’s go get breakfast. Please?”

Looking at the clock, I noticed it was almost ten. I was content to lie in bed for another three hours, but Alex was up and very energetic. I didn’t anticipate that happening.

“Fine, just let me go shower first. Okay?”

He did a little dance in bed to show his excitement.

I giggled at him, “Why don’t you go see if Conner and the rest of the guys are up and want to come with us?”

Alex bounded off the bed and out my door. I heard him yell, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” to Conner before I stepped into the shower.

By the time I had gotten out of the shower and finished getting ready, Alex had collected all the boys and they were waiting for me in the living room.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked Alex.

He nodded and everyone stood up and started making their way over to the door.

“Where are we going to go?”

“Let’s go to Perkins!” Jack practically shouted.

He has way too much energy.

We decided that Conner and I would take my car to the restaurant and the rest of the guys would take the Cadillac.

We met at the restaurant a few minutes later. We all piled out of the vehicles and started walking into Perkins.

Everyone stared at us as soon as we were through the doors and the girls that recognized the guys were starting to freak out.

I heard one girl say to her friend, “Oh my god! It’s All Time Low!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have come here,” I said.

“It would be the same at any other restaurant we would have decided to go to. Perkins generally has more people that don’t know who we are.”

After we were seated, we all looked through the menu deciding what we were going to eat.

Our server came a short while later to get our drink orders. Some of the guys didn’t know what they were going to get yet, so she said she’d come back in a little while.

When she came back with our drinks, she asked, “Is everyone ready to order?”

We nodded and told her what we were getting.

“Are these separate or on one ticket?”

We looked at each other and Rian spoke up, “One ticket.”

She smiled again before walking back to the kitchen.

In the midst of our conversation, Jack asked Conner a question I was hoping to never hear escape any of their lips, “So, Conner, what’s Mika’s most embarrassing moment?”

He smiled, like he was waiting for this question to pop up, “Oh, man, let me think. There are so many.”

I hid my face. This could not be happening. Not today.

“Please, no. Conner, if you say anything to them, I will never speak to you again.”

Conner just smirked, “Well, it was a few years ago. I was sixteen and Mika was fifteen. We had gotten a new neighbor and she thought he was really cute. She went over to talk to him and she was flirting quite a bit and they started hanging out a lot. Now, here’s the funny part, we were in the car one day and he turns to her and says, ‘Mika, I know you like me, but there’s something I have to tell you. I’m gay and your family and mine are related. We’re cousins somehow.’ The look on her face when he said that was priceless. I don’t think she talked to him for like a week.”

I just sat there with my head in my hands, blushing like crazy.

Thankfully, our food came right after this. The boys were distracted enough to not say anything to me while they were eating.

I wasn’t able to eat much of my waffle. I was too embarrassed to think about eating it.

While the guys were eating, there wasn’t much conversation. I was dreading the moment they all finished. I was thankful that I drove with Conner, though. I wouldn’t have to deal with it until we got back to the apartment.

When the boys were done, they somehow hadn’t finished everything, weren’t quite ready to leave.

Jack threw a grape and hit Alex directly in the middle of his forehead.

Everything escalated from there.

Food was being thrown everywhere.

Jack stood up and yelled, “Food fight!”

This is the point where I crawled under the table for safety. I didn’t want food all over me, nor did I want to be associated in any way with the food fight going on above my head.

I could hear Jack and Alex going at it.

“Take that, Barakat!”

“Is that all you got, Gaskarth? My grandma could throw better than that!”

This went on for about another five minutes. I was surprised someone hadn’t come out to stop them, yet. It’s probably only because they were celebrities, but even still, food fights shouldn’t be allowed for anyone.

I decided it was time to put an end to it.

I crawled out from under the table, “Guys, you’ve had enough fun for one day. Time to go. I’d rather not get kicked out of here by association with you.”

Jack and Alex didn’t look like they were planning on stopping any time soon, so I pulled Alex away by the hand.

“Aww, man. You’re such a party pooper, Mika.” Jack said as he watched Alex get pulled away.

“I know, Jack. Forgive me?”

He shook his head like a child, “I can’t.”

“I’ll give you candy,” I bribed.

“And a sugary beverage?” he added.

“Sure.”

“Okay. You’re forgiven.”

Rian walked to the register to pay for the meal and the rest of us walked outside to the cars.

“Meet back at my place…or?” I asked when Rian joined us again.

“Sounds like a plan, but I think Zack and I are going to take off for the afternoon. We were thinking about going fishing.”

“Fishing? Really? That sounds so boring.”

“Hey! Don’t knock it ‘til you try it, Mika,” Zack said.

I held my hands up in mock surrender, “Don’t get so defensive. I have been fishing. I didn’t like it.”

“Probably because you didn’t catch anything.”

“I have caught a fish before, thank you very much.”

“Right. Is there enough room in your car for Alex and Jack?”

“Yeah, there is. Let’s go guys, unless you want to go fishing, too.”

They both shook their heads and got in my car.

When we got back to the apartment I looked at Alex and Jack, “Go shower,” I said as I pointed to their apartment.

“Fine.”

"Come over when you’re done if you want."

I unlocked the door and walked into my apartment followed by Conner.

I looked at him and scrunched my nose up.

He knew what I was going to say because he spoke before I could, “I know. Go shower, right?”

I nodded.

After Conner disappeared into the bathroom, I turned on the TV. I flipped through the channels until I found something decent to watch.

I sat on the couch staring at the TV while I waited for my boys to come back.