The Road Trip

Chapter 21
Hmmm… Well the guy at the table certainly has the same eyes as Eric, the same hair, the same build, and the same glare on his face that Eric would have.

I sighed. Eric was still upset with me. How depressing… I decided to turn away from that sad sight to watch Corbin’s face as the flirting between Master Foo-Goo and Levi went on. And on and on and on. I finally decided to go sit with Corbin and the angry Eric because it was too disgusting to watch the huge amount of flirting going on.

As I plopped down in front of Corbin, I tried to ignore the piercing glare I felt from Eric and distract Corbin from his misery.

“So, is the food any good?” I asked, addressing the McDonald’s meal on Corbin’s tray. He mumbled incoherently and continued to gaze towards the ‘happy’ couple. I had a feeling Levi was only pretending to flirt with Master Foo-Goo to make Corbin jealous, but I couldn’t be sure. Either way, it was bad.

“And this is your friend Corbin?” I asked, trying again. This time Corbin managed to put together actual words.

“Mhm.. this is Eric. Eric meet Denny, Denny, Eric.” He said. While he managed to speak correctly, he was still watching Levi. Eric finally quit staring at me, and looked at his partially eaten food.

“We’ve already met.” Eric said quietly. Now this got Corbin’s attention. He raised an eyebrow at the two of us.

“What? Since when?” He asked. He was obviously perplexed. I was a little hurt that Eric never mentioned Levi or me to Corbin. He didn’t even mention me? Levi I can understand, but me? I thought, half bitterly, half wistfully.

“Since, like, 2 weeks ago, I think…” I answered, looking down at the table and wishing I had food.

“Yeup, 2 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, and 38 minutes.” Eric added and then clapped his hand over his mouth. I looked up at him quickly, my mouth gaping. How in the world did he remember that? I couldn’t even remember that if I tried. I was amazed.

I was about to ask, but then closed my mouth and decided against it. Plus, Corbin the big mouth beat me to it.

“How the heck did you remember that Eric? You can remember that, but not your aunt’s birthday? Weirdo.” He said as amazed as I was. Eric just shrugged his shoulders and looked back down at his food.

“I’m hungry.” I said to change the subject. I watched as Eric smiled a little at this, probably remembering the same thing I was.

Meat…meat…food…must fill sad tummy…I thought ravenously while piling all the hospital food I could into my mouth. Apparently hospital food is actually okay and has a good variety. There was bacon, eggs, sandwiches, pizza, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, apples, and strawberries, all of which were taking the lunchtime train nonstop to my stomach. It took at least thirty minutes of this voracious (awesome word right? :D) eating to make my tummy stop rumbling and just bulge happily. When I was finally done I looked up and noticed my two visitors staring at me with their mouths gaping open. Well actually one of their mouths was gaping; the other was slightly open and had a hand holding a phone up. I’ll ask him about the reasons for that later.

“What are you guys looking at?” I asked them, pleasantly due to my happy tummy. They just continued to stare unblinkingly at me until Eric looked down at his phone, snapped it shut, and started shaking his head.

“What?” I asked again innocently.

“Well, we both knew you were hungry, but we didn’t realize you were hungry enough to be able to eat enough food to last a town in Africa FOR AT LEAST A WEEK!!!!” Eric exclaimed in reply. Hmmm….Did I really eat that much food? I mean I haven’t even had dessert yet. I thought, but what I said was…

“What are you talking about!?! I did no such thing! I just ate enough to make my sad tummy---“ I replied indignantly but was cut off by Levi.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, to make your sad tummy happy. Well, did it work?” Levi said, finally closing her mouth and getting into the conversation.

I giggled at the memory, but was saddened yet again by this reverie. Eric seemed saddened by it a little too, but mustered up enough strength in him to say a few non-hostile words.

“No surprise there, you’re always hungry.”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yuh huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“YUH HUH!”

“NUH UH!”

“YUH… Are we really getting into this right now?”

“Yes, and I win. So there.” I told him, sticking my tongue out. Almost like old times. The only difference was that instead of Levi, Corbin was giving us that interested look with the raised eyebrow. After a bit, it began to creep me out.

“Stop it Corbin! You know what, I’m gonna go get food!” I told them, and then rushed off to the McDonald’s line. I remembered what happened in a McDonald’s not too long ago with Eric.

“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, stinks 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.

Not the most pleasant memory, but it included Eric, which made it a bit better. There was also that other thing that happened at McDonald’s. When we were trying to pay…

“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, before I could say anything , 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.

I laughed a little at that memory. I missed those days. Which was pretty funny, since those days were only a couple of weeks ago.

When I finally ordered everything and got my drink first, I gulped all the drink down in one big thirsty gulp. Impossible you say? Not for me, Denny Allen, a trained professional. I refilled my drink, sipped a bit more and waited for my food.

By the time I got it, I was practically peeing on myself. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea… So I took my tray, rushed it to the table, barely noticed the fact that Levi and Ted were sitting there making goo-goo, or should I say foo-goo, eyes at each other and ran to the bathroom.

After relieving myself, I washed my hands and headed out the door. While walking out the door, I managed to make a fool of myself by slipping on an apparently wet floor and flipping backward. Joy. While getting up, I walked rather slowly, still in a bit of pain. Falling backward is no walk in the park, you know.

As I crept past the boy’s restroom, I heard familiar voices.

“Dude, why didn’t you tell me you were so tight with Denny?” Corbin’s voice resonated.

“USED to be close, now we’re not.” Eric’s voice followed. I widened my eyes and crept even slower. What I was still moving…. Just very slowly. Eavesdropping is wrong!

“Why not? You guys look like you could be even better friends than we are, which is saying something!” Corbin questioned.

“Because of something that happened. No need for more detail.” Eric said after a pause.

“So you’re saying you guys don’t get along?”

“No, no Denny’s amazing… but because of what happened… I just don’t know.”

“Aw man… I know that look… you like her don’t you!” Corbin accused excitedly. I held my breath.

“Of course not man!” Eric replied, but I could hear his blush from out here.

“You’re blushing!” Point proven. “You liiiike her.”

“I do not!”

“Do too!”

“Do not!”

“Do too!” I heard the sound of bodies hitting the floor and some muffled laughter.

“Alright, Alright. Uncle.” Eric’s voice said heavily.

“So do you then? And be honest.” I heard the intake of breath.

“Yeah. I think I do.”