The Road Trip

As soon as we had crossed the parking lot and entered those golden arches, my nose became overwhelmed with the deliciously addicting smell of McDonald’s famous French fries. I stopped right there, closed my eyes, and just inhaled deeply, not caring what anyone on the outside thought. Sooo good…I thought drawn out until someone coughed. I opened my eyes and saw Levi smirking and shaking her head and Eric looking a little impatient, yet amused.

“Is this what we came for? To watch you suck in all the oxygen in this place?” Levi asked.

“Yeah, are we going to get food or what?” Eric asked. Geez, they’re a bit impatient, and they think I act like I’m starving.

“Come on guys, why don’t ya’ll take your time, and stop to smell the roses.” I said, inhaling again.

“That’s not roses you’re smelling.” Eric muttered under his breath. I shot him a look, but still remained at peace.

“Whatever.” I told him briskly, and practically glided over to the register, with Levi and Eric walking cautiously behind me. Do they think that I’m going to explode or something? I shrugged that thought off though and checked over the menu. Nuggets or burger, burger or nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, burger, burger, burger… Such a hard choice…While I pondered that, my stomach growled loud enough for Levi and Eric to hear, so they snickered a little behind me. I turned around and gave them a puppy dog look, which sort of resembled theirs… a little…, and rubbed my tummy in a self-pitying way. They just chuckled at that too. Those cruel, heartless people, laughing at a person in need.I thought a little bitterly, being as my “puppy dog face” didn’t work, not that I really expected it too, but you know what they say, practice makes perfect.

“Do you guys know what you’re going to order?” I asked them quickly, feeling another stomach grumble coming on.

“Do you?” Levi asked me, without answering. I shook my head slowly as my answer, and she brusquely pushed me aside to order. While she ordered, my tummy gave another little whimper and luckily it was only loud enough so that Eric could hear it. He just smiled a small grin and ordered his food. Dang, I must be super hungry!Then, DING (!), it hit me. I knew what I was going to order.

“Your turn, Denny.” Eric told me, finishing his order. I smiled at him in excitement for my food and turned to the cashier.

“Hiya! I’d like a 10-piece nugget, no meal, and a double quarter pounder with cheese meal, medium fries and drink please.” I told her with a smile. The cashier looked at me a little surprised. She also didn’t type my order in on the register.

“Umm, are you sure that you want ALL of that food? Can you even finish it? I mean you’re kind of small.” She told me.

“Oh boy… she called her small.” Levi said behind me, most likely shaking her head, to Eric. I didn’t turn around to check though because I was too angry. Normally, I’m a pretty happy, mellow person, Levi is the explosive, ever-changing one, but I just hate to be called small. I mean seriously? I could probably send a football player to the hospital just my kicking him, not even using all of my strength. And don’t even get me started on my punches. One hit in the jaw and you’ll be out. But nooo it’s all about height, not the amount of muscle you have!

I took a closer look at her and noticed she was only a little older than me. Maybe 20 years old. I looked at her uniform to find her name tag. Hello, my name is Ellie. Ellie, huh, well Ellie, I guess you should have just typed in the order.After I found her name tag, and new her name, I looked up at her with a sweet smile on my face.

“Well, thank you for your concern, Ellie. Maybe I will rethink my choice.” I told her nicely.

“What do you mean? She seems fine to me.” Eric whispered to Levi. I smirked mentally. He has no idea.My thoughts were then said aloud to him by Levi.

“You have no idea. This is just the beginning.” She whispered back to him.

“You sure you want to do this Twix?” She said in a normal voice to me. I nodded my head almost imperceptibly. I then heard Levi sigh, and imagined her throwing up her hands in an exasperated sort of way. I had been pretending to be thinking this entire time, and ‘Ellie’ was waiting.

“Okay, so I made my decision.” I told her. Ellie smiled.

“Okay, what’s it gonna be?” She asked.

“Well, El, may I call you El? I think I’ll take the exact same thing I ordered before—“I said, but was then interrupted by her.

“Oops, sorry, but my shift is over, my replacement will be here in a sec okay? And honestly you might want to rethink that order.” Ellie told me. Dang, I was just about to give it to her. Ugh, I hope her replacement doesn’t give me crap about my order.

“Okay, that’s fine.” I told her without emotion. Ellie looked at me a little strangely and then went to the back to change, I guess. I waited for around 2 minutes before another girl, younger than Ellie came to the register. She was probably 18. I saw on her name tag that her name was Katie. Katie was blonde, chubby, and smacking her lips while chewing her bubble gum.

“Welcome to McDonald’s. How may I help you?” She asked me looking completely uninterested, being as she was examining her fingernails, which appeared to be bitten all over. EW, nasty.

“Well, I would like the 10-piece nugget, no meal, and a double quarter pounder with cheese meal, medium fries and a medium drink please.” I told her politely, trying to disguise my disgust. I hope she won’t be making our meals.She scoffed once I had finished, but typed it in all the same. I was curious about her scoff though.

“What?” I asked her, referring to her scoff.

“Well, it’s just that that’s a lot of food you ordered right there. Are you trying to get fat? I mean, not like you aren’t already but still.” She said sounding a little bored, but still having a slightly haughty tone. I heard Levi gasp behind me, but nothing from Eric. I was stunned to silence by her bluntness for a few seconds, but then got my wits about me enough to feel insulted.

“Who do you think you are to call me fat?” I asked her incredulously. ‘Katie’ looked up at me from her nails and smirked.

“Well, I’m Katie Tarot, but I would think that you’d at least know my first name from my name tag. Not too bright either, are you? Fat and stupid, sucks for you.” Katie said easily. Who in the world is she calling fat and stupid? I thought angrily. I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off.

“Just so you know that’s probably why that hottie over there, who’s standing with your friend doesn’t like you.” She said matter-of-factly. I was stunned, therefore I acted on reflex. I moved my hand quickly to slap her; she flinched as my hand almost hit her, but then a hand grabbed mine before it could. I looked at the owner of the hand to see Eric, his face deep red.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I practically screamed at him, but I fought to keep my voice level. Why’s he stopping me? Does ‘Katie’ here not deserve to get slapped after what she just told me??

“Denny, she’s not worth it.” Eric told me, seeming calm, but the red of his face gave him away, also the slight quiver in his voice that told me he felt the same way I did.

“But she deserves it!” I told him. He leaned down next to my ear.

“I know, but let’s not get you in trouble.” He whispered. Tingles spread throughout me but I ignored them.

“Fine…” I grumbled. I then looked straight at Katie, who was looking at me triumphantly. Eric was trying to pull me away, so I wouldn’t try to hurt her again, but I resisted. I had something to say to her.

“Just so you know, out of the two of us, if we were to ask a million random people on the street who was fatter, you or me, they would definitely say you.” I spat out at her. She looked at me incredulously. Katie opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off like she did to me.

“In fact, I’d say everyone in the world who speaks English would say you were fatter, barring none except maybe your family and possibly your friends, although I doubt you have any.” I told her. Then I gave her a big smile just to throw her off, and turned away with a flourish. I then allowed Eric to drag me off to the table where he had told Levi to wait at so she wouldn’t do anything to Katie Tarot either.

“What the heck did she think she was doing, telling you that you were fat and stupid??” Levi said angrily.

“I have absolutely NO idea. I mean really, she’s such a hypocrite! She’s chubby everywhere, and is calling me, with no body fat at all and who wasn’t going to comment on her fatness, fat.” I replied full of anger too, yet at peace at the same time, since I told her off. We both huffed together in anger for a few minutes, whereas Eric was just silent, until Levi started giggling. Eric and I looked at each other than at Levi.

“What?” We asked her. How could she be laughing at a time like this?

“Well, I was just imagining what her face looked like after you told her off like that. I heard your little rant, but I didn’t actually get to see the after effects.” Levi said, still giggling.

“It was pretty funny, but in an awesome way.” Eric admitted with a smile. I grinned at both of them.

“It was pretty fun to say to her, and her face was awesome…” I told Levi, reenacting what had happened from when I was about to slap her until Eric pulled me over where we were then, until our number was called. I didn’t even say a word I just got up and practically sprinted to the counter to get my, I mean our, food and pay.

I was about to give the guy who gave me the food the money, but then the same hand that stopped me from slapping Katie Tarot went over mine. I turned to see Eric, who seemed determined. Uh oh, I know what comes next. I thought and sighed out loud.

“I know what you’re going to say, ‘I am an independent person and I can pay for my own food, blah, blah, blah’” Eric said to me making a mouth hand gesture, mimicking my voice—not well may I add, my voice is NOT that high, goodness gravy—, and rolling his eyes.

“Wow, you are all-knowing, aren’t ya?” I told him sarcastically, with my own roll of the eyes. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, he smiled at this.

“Why yes, yes I am, glad you noticed. But anyways, I am paying for this meal.” He said changing his voice to being stern. Fighting back my instinct to give a sarcastic remark back to this—which isn’t as easy as it seems—I looked into his turquoise eyes and saw them staring right back into my light-brown mixed with green eyes (they aren’t hazel per say… they change a lot). I saw in them his stubbornness, and knew he wouldn’t give this up so I decided to compromise.

“Fine then, how about we split it?” I asked him with a sigh. Eric looked into my eyes the same way I did to him, most likely saw my stubbornness, and shook his head in surrender.

“Fine we’ll compromise…” He said, pulling out his wallet, grabbing a few bills, and sticking them out to the guy with the food while I did the same.

“Well, have a nice day, you two, hope everything works out.” The unnamed food guy said with a wink. I was confused for a second but just decided to forget it. Crazy guy.Then, Eric and I carried all of the food back to the table. Once we set down the trays, I got back up and went to the sauce station and grabbed four of each kind. Mmm Sweet and Sour sauce… Yummilicious!

I made my way back carrying the huge bounty of sauces. When Levi saw them she just blinked and went back to eating, but Eric’s eyes widened and he was about to say something but I cut him off.

“Eh, honestly, I have no explanation for this one except that I like sauce and I have a lot of food. So how about you just tell me which type of sauce you want to use to eat your French fries with, and then let me eat in peace.” I suggested to him. Eric looked at me, and I guess decided this was probably the best course of action because he said…

“Sweet and Sour sauce please.” He said with a little smile.

“Good choice, good choice.” I told him and handed him a sauce packet. I didn’t even bother asking Levi, since she was eating a salad. I don’t understand who would come to McDonald’s to eat a salad, but oh well, that’s Levi. I’m glad Eric’s normal though, eating a Quarter Pounder.

“So is your favorite sauce ‘Sweet and Sour’?” I asked him, praying he would say the right answer.

“Oh yeah, definitely!” He said happily. Ding, ding, we have a winner folks. I thought, and then smiled to myself. Then we all ate in silence for some reason. My reason was because I was pondering what else Eric and I had in common. Plus, even though I didn’t want to acknowledge it, I had what that stupid Katie said about me buzzing in the back of my head.

“Fat and stupid, sucks for you.” “Just so you know that’s probably why that hottie over there, who’s standing with your friend doesn’t like you.” Those words were hopping around in there as though they were 7 year olds in a moon bounce. Strange, how even though you know words said about you aren’t true, they can still affect you.