Get Your Kicks

The soft, glowing light of dawn is what I woke up to as Darcy gently shook my shoulder. Blinking away sleep, I sat up and glanced around. We were parked in front of a brightly covered diner with a flashing neon sign proclaiming that it was Hal’s place. Harry stirred beside me, his curly haired head pressed against the passenger side window and my mouth dropped open. Last night really happened; we really picked up One Direction in the middle of nowhere on our way to Vegas.

“Come on Bren,” Darcy sighed. “Get up and help me wake up everyone else.”

I nodded numbly, the inside of my mouth feeling like sandpaper. I poked Harry in the ribs and he groaned, his hand absently slapping at air, a signal for me to go away. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed his outstretched hand and yanked, pulling him towards the driver’s side door. He groaned but inched out of the front of the van anyway.

Leaving him to wake up, I climbed back into the front of the van and leaned over the back seat where Darcy was trying to pull Healey, Louis and Ellie from the van. Niall and Zayn were sleeping like the dead, both hunched over each other and Tay was pressed up against a window, Liam leaning into her side with his head bent over the back of the seat. That boy was going to have a killer stiff neck when he woke up.

Laughing to myself, I pulled my iPhone from the front pocket of my jean shorts and turned on the camera. I quickly snapped a picture of Liam and Schmidt before shaking both of them by their shoulders. Schmidt groaned and blinked at me, looking seriously like she only got ten minutes of sleep. Liam jumped, his head snapping around wildly as he took in his surroundings.

“What…?” He asked, his voice sounding like my mouth felt.

Darcy stuck her head back in the van after successfully luring Ellie, Louis and Healey from the van. “You need to get your boys up,” she said, her hands fists on her hips. “They’re practically catatonic.”

“Huh?” Liam asked, his eyebrows shooting up on his forehead. “Catawhata?”

“Like, dead,” Tay filled in for him, rolling her eyes before nudging at Liam so she could get out of the van.

Realization washing over his face, Liam nodded and moved so Tay could get out.

“You coming Brenna?” Tay asked as she slid out of the van.

I nodded and followed her out, my limbs screaming in protest. Sleeping in the van was the worst decision any of could have ever made, especially with the added group of people riding with us. Now there was considerably less room and we had to deal with censoring ourselves around strangers.

Once on the gravel, I leaned back and stretched my back before jogging to catch up with Taylor as she headed toward the diner. Looping my arm with hers, I rested my head on her shoulder and groaned.

“What did we get ourselves into with these boys?” I asked as she pulled open the door.

The overwhelming smell of bacon and coffee hit my nose as Tay shrugged and pulled me towards our other best friends and two members of One Direction. “I’ll let you know when I get some coffee and can think straight,” she said, sliding into the large, rounded booth next to Louis.

Taking the other side, I scooted in next to Healey and fought the urge to bang my head on the table. Last night everything seemed so much clearer. Now my head was like foggy windows after making out for two hours in the backseat. We didn’t know these boys and they didn’t know us so how were we supposed to be pressed in a van with them for six hundred miles to Vegas?

“Are you alright?” Ellie’s soft voice startled me and I nodded, suddenly realizing that I zoned out just a little bit.

“’ave you ordered yet?” Niall asked as he, Liam and Zayn bounded over to the table. He was looking considerably more awake while the other two still seemed to be dragging.

Niall slid into the booth next to me with Liam following after him while Zayn slid in next to Tay.

“No,” Healey answered as she handed me the menu she was looking at.

I didn’t bother looking before I passed it over to Niall, my head resting back against the booth. My eyes trailed over the eclectic group we had going in the booth, my four best friends and the five boys of One Direction. Louis was trying to chat up Ellie and Darcy but neither seemed to be interested. Healey was talking across the table to Tay and Zayn while Harry seemed to be half paying attention to that conversation and Niall and Liam were arguing beside me about whether or not Niall could order pancakes AND waffles.

A short, stocky woman came over to our table and gave a wide grin. Plucking a pen from the large bun on top of her head, she poised it over her order pad. “Are y’all ready to order or do you need a couple more minutes?”

As if on some kind of cue, all of the boys seemed to turn to Niall. “I’m ready,” he said, nodding at the menu.

One by one she went around the table taking our orders. Liam, Zayn, Healey, Darcy, Harry and Tay all ordered pancakes while the rest of us got waffles with Niall getting both and a side of bacon.

“Are you a human garbage disposal?” Healey asked Niall as the waitress walked away. “Because I don’t think anyone can eat that much.”

“Niall can,” Louis chimed in, nodding. “Once he ate a whole pizza by himself and then had two pieces of cake half an hour later.”

Beside me Niall shrugged. “I like food.”

Everyone nodded and seemed to head back to their individual conversations. My eyes found Harry’s and I shivered. There was just something about his green eyes that sent my insides twisting. But that was totally ridiculous. He was in a famous boy band, what girl didn’t have her insides turn twisty looking at him? Even if he was sweet and flirty I couldn’t let my mind go there. The last thing I needed was a crush on some famous guy.

I needed to focus on my girls, to make sure they didn’t get into trouble on this trip – particularly Darcy. This was our last hurrah, our final push of togetherness before we’d all split up and head our separate ways to get on with our lives and it’d be better if we all came out of it alive. But with Darcy that was never a guarantee.