Zoned

"Thanks for the food, Dilly." Jorel joked. He took a huge bite of his burger. We all sat in the car, in the drive way, and just ate. Jordan was back in the front seat and Jorel and I switched places. I took a bite of my cheeseburger and spilled a little bit of ketchup on my pants.
"Well shit." I said.

Dylan turned around and said," What happened?"
"I spilled ketchup on my pants." I said casually.

Dylan casually turned around, grabbed a napkin, and turned back around and wiped the ketchup away. He looked up at me and smiled then put the napkin in the trash sack. He continued eating his burger like he didn't just do that. Jordan and Jorel completely froze. They were in mid-bite and stared at Dylan. I held in laughter.

"Uh.." Jorel uttered.

Dylan took the last bite of his burger and crumpled up the wrapper. "What?"

Jorel and Jordan shook their heads and continued eating.

I looked down at my pants and smiled at the tiny, redish stain. I knew I sort of liked him when we all warmed up to each other the first month we hung out outside of the contest, but that made me really like him. Small gestures such as that are what girls usually want. Maybe not wiping ketchup off your pants, but just something that shows they're helping. Or trying to help considering wiping the ketchup was what made the stain bigger.
Maybe I just like him in this moment, I thought.

"Uh..thanks." I smiled.

"Aw, little Rich is blushing." Jordan joked.

"Shut up!" I started blushing.

"Alright, I'm out." Jorel said as he crumpled up his trash and finished chewing.

"Woah, where are you going?" Dylan asked.

"I'm going out with a girl. Her name's Vanessa."

"You're still seeing her?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, we've gotten more serious than just being friends. We've been dating, I think."

"Woah, you 'think'?" I said.

"Well I'm not sure if she thinks so or not, so." Jorel said.

"Well, what do you want to be?" I asked.

"I like where we are." Jorel said. He burped then got out of the car and went inside.
Classy, I thought. Jordan looked at me and smiled. I looked at him then around the car with my eyes. I looked back at him and he was still smiling. He looked at Dylan and said," Okay, well I'm gonna go inside." He got out.

"When do you turn 17, Rich?" Dylan asked.

"Not tomorrow, but the next day."

"I thought so. What do you want to do for it?"

"Oh, we don't have to do anything. I mean, hanging with you guys is the best thing like...ever. You really have no idea how much we love you guys. Not even as fans, really, but as friends."

"Ha well thanks. We like you guys, too. That's why kept in touch. Hey, we all decided to buy this huge house together. It has 7 bedrooms and bathrooms in each except 2. We've been doing a great job with tours and shows, lately, that we decided to buy a new house."

I sat there a little surprised. I wasn't really sure how to react.

"I thought you guys were really...uh..not...able to afford..things." I tried to make that sound as polite as possible.

He chuckled and looked back at me," Yeah, but we got some help from our folks and we're pulling all of our money together so we can all live together. We thought it'd be easier."

"Are you sure? I don't know about that. I mean, y'all are getting a new recording studio built inside your original one, which is actually nice, and getting a new Cage built that's closer? Is it such a big deal walking down the hall to The Cage?"

"No, but we're greedy assholes, so." He laughed. "Actually, Aron was getting annoyed with the distance he got made about how we don't have our own mics and how we all had to switch around while recording. The new studio is almost done, actually."

"I thought you guys didn't want fame to change you? I thought you didn't let it change you, I guess it what I should say."

"It's not changing us, Rich. It's changing Aron, really. I'm getting tired of him. Did you know he hired a fucking assistant? Not for anyone in the band. Only him. He said he was famous enough for one."

"That's bullshit." Dylan gave me a weird look. "Oh my god, no, I mean it's bullshit that he thinks he needs one. Not because you aren't famous enough. That still sounded bad."

Dylan smiled and said," It's okay, I know what you meant. It just pisses me off that he's become a douche. He's always been a douche, but not this douchey."

"Why not talk to him? It's not that hard."

"We've all known each other since we were little faggots." I guess I looked like I didn't know what he meant because he said," When we were in boy scouts."

I nodded. "Why would it be a problem, then? If you guys are so close, you should be able to talk to him about it. All of you."

"We don't want it to seem like an intervention. Those aren't fun, dude."

"Okay...."

There was a silence for a while until he said something that made me think I imagined it.

"You guys want to move in with us?"