The Road Trip

Chapter 25

“Hmm… What if I don’t want to go to a party?” Levi asked me in a rather whiny voice while sitting on Master Foo-Goo’s lap on our hotel couch. I hadn’t enjoyed seeing that when Corbin, Eric, and I got back to the room. But I got over it and told her about the party without making eye contact with either of them.

“Then I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to that house and tie you to a chair so that you can’t leave. How does that sound?” I smiled sweetly at her while saying this. Her eyes widened and then narrowed.

“You wouldn’t dare.” She told me with a steely tone and a threatening look. Okay, two can play it this way. I thought. My expression changed to one that was menacing and scary.

“Oh I wouldn’t?” I said to her in a creepy voice, and I saw fear flash in her eyes. I then changed my face to a smirk, and grabbed for her. She attempted to hold onto Foo-Goo a few seconds too late and fell to the floor. Levi didn’t hit the floor too hard, but it wasn’t exactly light either, although these carpet in the hotel are very soft and plush, I would be able to sleep on it. I began to drag Levi toward the door with her screaming in fear and anger at her face being pulled across the carpet.

“DENNY! DENNELLE ALLEN! QUIT DRAGGING ME THIS INSTANT!” I paused my dragging and just held her feet as she thrashed around. I fake a thoughtful look.

“Hmm… no.” I replied then proceeded to drag her towards the door again. As we neared the door I made a sharp turn with Levi and led her into the closet. I continued to hold her, but with only one hand as I used the other one to whistle. The high pitched sound called forth the bounding, happy feet of Leo. He was panting when he came to me, he’d probably been running around this closet for an hour or two by now. I petted his head with free hand, which caused him to lick it affectionately. I bent down to whisper in his ear.

“Sick her.” I said simply, and watched as he went flying at Levi, attacking her face with his tongue and hopping all around her in a tornado of tongue and brown fur. Levi was half screaming and half laughing through Leo’s torture. I just stood by watching and smirking, still holding Lev’s legs so that she couldn’t escape. After about 5 minutes, I decided to have mercy.

“So who’s going to the party tonight?” I asked her in a mocking tone.

“ME!” Lev exclaimed, partially choking to get the one word out due to her laughter.

“Good.” I smiled winningly, released Levi’s legs, and exited the closet, leaving Leo and Levi to work out their issues. Eric and Corbin raised their eyebrows questioningly.

“I am victorious.” I said with a confident smile on my face. They smiled at me, but had wondering looks in their eyes probably wanting to know what happened in the closet.

“Two words: Puppy power.” I told them smirking. They imagined Leo all over Levi, making them laugh; and the thought of it was funny, but it was even funnier in person. But the laughing came to a halt as Foo-Goo cleared his throat. I turned and smiled politely at him.

“Yes, Tim?” I responded.

“Well, am I going to the party tonight?” He asked. No, I thought, but before I could answer, Levi burst from the closet with cute little Leonardo in her arms.

“Of course you are!” She told him with a beaming smile as she sat down on the couch next to him while petting Leo. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Corbin scowl. I gave Foo-Goo a feeble smile.

“Yeah, of course you can come.” I told him. Stalker. I thought venomously.

“So what do I wear to this? Is it casual, semi-formal, or formal? Is this actually a party or just a social gathering?” As Foo-Goo saw our weird looks toward that question he said, “Trust me there is a difference or at least a distinction. And are we all going as a group or is this a date-type thing? Who’s car are we taking? Who’s car are we not taking? What time is the party? Is dinner going to be served there or are we expected to eat before?” And the questions went on and on, I half expected him to ask ‘why is the sky blue’ at some point, and even that would have made him sound a bit more intelligent than he sounded now. Foo-Goo didn’t even give us the chance to actually answer his questions just continued to prattle them off nonsensically.

Finally, as it seemed these questions had no end, I just walked over to Levi, who was so engrossed in Tim’s questions she’d stopped petting Leo, took the puppy, turned, and walked out the door after snatching his leash from the coat hook. A few seconds later, Corbin opened the door and exited too. I sent him a questioning look asking ‘is Eric coming too?’.

“Nope, he said he’d stay so if Tim ever stopped asking questions he might be able to answer some of them.” Corbin explained although he said Foo-Goo’s name with malice. I shot him a sympathetic look.

“Don’t worry, if all goes as planned tonight you won’t have to worry about Foo-Goo ever again.” I told him soothingly, while rubbing his back. He sighed.

“I hope your plan, whatever it may be, works because I can’t stand that guy.” Corbin said a lot more calmly with a hint of hope.

“None of us can, besides Levi for some reason because she used to hate him back when he was stalking me.” I told him matter-of-factly.

“I wonder why she changed her opinion.” Corbin thought aloud. I wonder that myself, I thought, but didn’t say. I just nodded.

We walked in a comfortable silence until we reached the hotel lobby doors to go outside, where I put on Leo’s leash and set him on the ground. The cute little ball of fur then proceeded to run right into the revolving door and sat waiting for me to come push it around. I walked over to Leo.

“Aw, I love you so much Leo.” I told the puppy while rubbing his head and then pushed the door around once Corbin joined us.

When we were outside we talked about anything and everything, just avoiding the topic of Levi and Foo-Goo.

}..{

Once we had circled back around and made it back to the hotel, I took off Leo’s leash, let him run up and down the sidewalk freely for a few minutes and then scooped him up and followed Corbin back inside. As we went up to the room, we were joking about some of the things we had seen while walking Leo, like a squirrel running into a tree after Leo tried to chase it or the car that got pulled over and the driver had his pants sagging so low he tripped over them when he tried to run away.

I used my key that I always keep in my pocket to open the door. When we got in, we saw Foo-Goo asleep on the couch, Eric looking bored and watching television, and Levi had gone somewhere.

“Where’s Levi?” I asked Eric. He snapped his attention on me and without answering my question he ran to me and engulfed me in a huge hug. I returned it, even though I was confused.

“Uhm… I missed you too?” I said to him. Corbin chuckled behind me.

“Do not EVER leave me alone with HIM again.” He said next to my ear then he looked up at Corbin and said, “You either.” He sounded scarred. Poor Eric, I thought and rubbed his back soothingly. Corbin was just smirking at Eric.

Once Eric let go of me, I re-asked where Levi was and he said down at the hotel restaurant ordering everyone food to be brought up to our room. I sighed, put Leo down, and jumped back on my bed, while thinking, I love room service.

Corbin and I recounted our encounters on our walk until Levi came with the delicious smelling food. I jumped up off the bed immediately and ran to it.

Corbin, Eric, and Levi all started laughing at me as I searched for the box with my name.

“Your love for food is never going to change.” Levi said between laughs. All I did in reply to that was give her a blank look and continue to search. Once I found it, I grabbed it and took it back to my bed then made one comment before digging in.

“Bon appétit!”