Status: Working on it!

Warped Vision

Chapter 9

I sat with the four boys in silence for what felt like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes. They all watched me anxiously, waiting for me to say something, anything. As if I was going to give them that satisfaction.

After a few more moments, the boy who had lets us into the bus seemed to realize this. He smacked his forehead as if he had just remembered something, “I didn't even introduce myself, I'm sorry! I'm Austin.”

The other two did the same, telling me their names were Phil and Tino. I nodded to show my understanding and gave them a small wave, still not speaking.

Austin looked around at everyone before letting out an awkward breath and speaking again, “So, why is Alex 'punishing,'” he made air quotes, “You?”

After having been looking down at my hands, I glanced up at him without ever lifting my head. I contemplated not even answering, but I felt awfully rude. “I don't want to talk about it,” I muttered harshly instead before looking back down.

I heard him stand up then, walking over to Alan, who was sitting right beside me. Austin pat him on the back and I heard him whisper, “Well, good luck with this one.” With that, he was out the door, and the other two boys followed his lead. Soon, I was left alone with Alan.

We sat in silence for another few moments. I checked my phone to see that it had only been twenty minutes since Alex had left, and I had no clue when he was supposed to be back.

“So,” Alan finally spoke up, and I fought my urge to let out a groan, “You listen to our band, right?”

I looked up at him, confused, “What? I don't even know your band's name.”

He gave me the same expression in return, lifting an eyebrow, “But, okay, you were wearing one of our shirts that day at the tent, I'm sure of it.”

“That was Rian's shirt, I looked the way I looked just in case I needed to go unnoticed by certain people.”

“Oh,” was all Alan said, probably figuring I wouldn't answer if he asked any further questions. Neither of us spoke once again, until Alan lifted his head with an idea, “Want to play a board game or something?”

“You're like a proper babysitter,” I laughed a little, and he returned the favor. Biting my lip in thought, I turned to him, “Sure, I guess.”

We both stood and went to the main room to find that the rest of the band had left. “I guess we're playing alone,” Alan said awkwardly, opening a cabinet, “Wanna play Mystery Date?”

This time, I let out a much larger laugh, “Isn't that game for like, 12 year old girls?” I asked, and he looked at me with mock sadness.

“And 21 year old men, okay?” He turned back and continued to survey the cabinet, “and it's either that or Monopoly, so take your pick.”

“Mystery Date is fine, then,” I said meekly, not wanting to spend hours playing Monopoly with Alan. As he pulled the game out and began to set up on the table, I checked my phone again to find not only that it still hadn't even been an hour that Alex was gone, but a text from Justin.

Did you tell your brother about last night?” it said. I read the text a few times and finally came to a realization of what 'business' Alex had to attend to. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried to consider the other possibilities of this situation besides just the worst case scenario.

“Everything okay?” Alan asked and I snapped my eyes back open.

“Yeah,” I let out the breath and shut my phone, “So how do you play this?”

He explained the basics of the game for me as he put the draw pile out and flipped a card over to create a discard pile. I helped him set the cardboard playing pieces up, but before we could begin playing, he looked at me excitedly, “Want to order a pizza?”

“Wow, Alan, you're really on a roll. Have you babysat before?” I giggled.

He rolled his eyes, “No seriously, I'm hungry.”

Before I knew it, he had me looking up the nearest Dominoes pizza's number on my phone and he was calling, waiting for them to pick up. He covered the microphone piece and looked over at me, “What do you want?”

“Cheese,” I shrugged.

“Hi, yeah,” He didn't acknowledge me, someone finally picking up on the other end, “I would like a large cheese pizza. Yeah, draw a cat on the box.” Alan looked up at me with a smile as I laughed, “Oh, and also a large pizza with pineapples and anchovies. Yeah, draw a cat on that one too. Thanks. 30 minutes? Perfect.”

I continued to chuckle at him after he had hung up, “Do you seriously like that kind of pizza?”

“No, I just wanted to make you laugh again.”

I felt myself blush, not having expected that, and went to sit down in front of the game. He sat across from me and dealt me and himself three cards. “So,” I cleared my throat, “I can only have up to 6 cards and I can only open the door once I have a full set?”

“Yup,” he said, clearly feeling the awkward tension.

Before we could get started though, Austin returned to the bus and gasped once he saw us playing. He ran over to the table and sat next to Alan with a smile, “I call the ginger princess,” he grabbed one of the playing pieces.

Alan's mouth went agape, “NO WAY DUDE I'M ALWAYS THE RED HEADED ONE.”

“Get over it,” Austin chuckled and looked in my direction. I gave him an uncomfortable smile as he put the piece on his corner of the board. Alan took it swiftly, putting it on his own corner. The two went back and forth a few times, until Austin took it once more, and Alan playfully tackled him.

While they were on top of each other, I took it for myself with a grin. It took them a moment, but they finally realized what I had done and sat back in their respective seats. I put the piece on Alan's corner and Austin didn't appear to have the nerve to fight with me about it. I gave him the black haired one, and took the blonde for myself. Finally, we could start playing.

“YES!” Austin cheered as he reached the “open the door” block on the board. It was his third time trying to open the door with the same outfit. He put his cards down once again, and turned the knob, opening it to reveal the picture of the nerd.

Alan and I burst out laughing.

“You have to put your set in the discard pile now,” I giggled.

Alan wasn't even focused on the game part of what just happened. He continued to laugh, holding his stomach, “You got the nerd, that makes you a loser. I ship you and the nerd so hard, oh my god.”

His laugh was one of those that was contagious. I couldn't help but laugh too, and we both looked at each other with huge grins on our faces.

Austin let out a whiny 'no' before slamming his cards down into the discard pile and picking up three new ones, a pout on his face. “I give up on that snowboarding outfit, okay. It's cursed.”

We went through our turns a few more times, and whenever Austin had to swap cards with Alan, he gave Austin a snowboarding outfit card. This time, though, Austin landed on 'swap cards with any player.'

Alan pulled a card out of his hand and put it down on the table. “No way,” Austin chuckled, “You're going to give me another blue card. I'm swapping with Hannah.”

I kept a straight face and pulled a card out of my own hand, giving it to Austin.

“You should've given him a blue one.” Alan said, eying me.

I sent a little smirk in his direction and nodded as Austin freaked out across from me. “I did,” I said, and Alan put his hand out to give me a high five. I obliged and then looked over to Austin, who had his mouth in the shape of an 'O.'

“You've got her in on it too now?” He whined, “You're corrupting her!”

Alan didn't answer, and I glanced at him to see that he had his head down, looking at his phone in his lap. “Shit,” He muttered, “We have to get the pizza.”

It took a lot of arguing on my part, but we finally decided to walk to Dominoes instead of biking there. It was only a 15 minute walk, and plus I was still slightly uncomfortable with Alan. I did not want to spend even a second pegging on the back of his bike.

Once we got to the building, Alan rushed inside and Austin and I followed him, confused. “Am I too late too pick up my pizzas?” He asked, “I'm like a half hour late. It's under the name Alan.”

We thankfully got our pizzas and didn't have to pay for nothing. On the way back, Alan looked down at the box with a frown, “This doesn't even look like a cat,” He pointed to it, “look at it.”

“Yes it does,” I laughed at him, “Plus it says meow.”

“I can say meow too, that doesn't make me a cat.”

“Shouldn't we be more focused on the smell rather than the drawing on the box,” Austin scrunched up his nose, “What the hell did you get? It wreaks.”

A mischievous smile came across Alan's face and he looked toward me, then up at Austin, “You'll see.”

I grabbed a piece of cheese pizza once we were back on the bus and sat back down in my spot at the table. No one had won yet, so I figured we were still playing. I rolled the dice as the other two mimicked my actions.

“I'm actually ready to open the door,” I said after landing on the right block. I set my cards down and twisted the knob, opening it to reveal the wrong date. “Dang it,” I frowned, closing the door in mock anger and forgetting to twist the knob again like I was supposed to.

Alan's turn was next, and he was able to open the door as well. He set down the cards gracefully, showing that he needed the exact date I had just opened the door too.

“That's the date I just got,” I said, forgetting that I hadn't done what would prevent him from winning.

He smirked at me and opened the door without moving the knob at all. “I win!” He cheered, “You guys lose, you have to eat the other pizza!”

“No way!” Austin grumbled, “You cheated! You have to turn the knob.”

“Hannah was supposed to, not me. I won,” He started collecting all of the cards and cleaning up.

Austin looked over at me sadly, and we both stood up and walked over to where the boxes of pizza sat. We looked down at the open box that held the anchovy and pineapple pizza with disgusted faces. “We could pull the toppings off and eat it,” Austin suggested.

“There's no way I'm eating that at all.” I made a face and stuck my finger in my mouth, pretending to puke.

“It's not gonna eat itself,” Alan singsonged, pulling a piece out of the box, putting it on a plate, and handing it to me. I pushed it back to him, but he refused to take it.

I was actually about to take a bite, but luck was thankfully on my side, as Alex bounded onto the bus through the open door with a smile. I handed the plate to him, “Want a piece?”

“That looks disgusting.” He chuckled, putting it down on the counter, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, sure,” I grinned, grabbing another piece of cheese pizza and saying goodbye to the guys. I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Time went by pretty fast.

Once we were off of the bus, Alex turned to me with a knowing smile on his face, “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” I said after a moment, thinking, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Even if I didn't really have fun, it was a successful evening. I couldn't remember a single time after I had gotten the text from Justin that I thought about the whole situation.

Alex of course needed to be dealt with. He probably did something stupid involving Justin. But I'd worry about that tomorrow; I was too proud of myself for not becoming sad over it for almost an entire day.
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ok i love alan so much wow this chapter was so fun to write
comments please luv ya xo