Seagulls and Chocolate Cake

The cool, August air gently pushed me forward. I could smell the sea, though we were miles from the coast. The sky was littered with white clouds and –

“Oh my god!” Katie obnoxiously laughed, “Guys, look! The seagull is eating-”

Her voice was drowned out by one of the other’s in the group, “Is that seagull eating a piece of chocolate cake?”

“It’s defiantly eating chocolate cake,” a deeper voice spoke from behind me – that’d be Nate.

“Well I can’t blame him,” Stephanie shrugged as she started taking pictures of the bird eating the pastry, “It is delicious.”

“Marie!” Rachel beckoned me over, “You have to see this!”

I’m sure I don’t, but I’ll squeeze myself awkwardly between the seven of you all huddled in a group, trying to watch the stupid bird eat a piece of chocolate cake while trying not to scare the poor thing off.

I tried to ignore the way my heart pounded when my hand brushed against Ryan’s, and that tiny zap of something that I can’t really explain.

“Wow,” I made sure the sarcasm was evident in my voice, “That is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I know, right?” Katie and Stephanie laughed.

Apparently not enough sarcasm.

I turned my back on the scene and wedged my way out of the huddled teenagers trying to pry at a seagull.

“You’re still doing my laundry,” Nate reminded Stephanie. Earlier, Steph had gotten, you guessed it, chocolate ice cream on Nate’s beige slacks. She tried to get it off – which was funny by itself because it was on his thigh – but ended up making a bigger mess. Then she made some Mexican joke about cleaning it up and doing his laundry.

Apparently, being Mexican means that she can make all the racist jokes that we can’t without her feeling offended.

“I know,” Stephanie rolled her brown eyes that had tiny flecks of gold in them.

“Look, it’s flying away!” Jimmy pointed at the poor bird, and chuckled, “I think it’s flying lower!”

“It didn’t eat all of it…” Caroline’s blue eyes were cast down on the half eaten piece of cake.

“Okay, let’s get going,” Dr. Coffman, our supervisor for the two-week trip to the UK, told us she started to usher us into the building.

“Look, it’s coming back!” Katie excitedly pointed out as the same seagull flew back for seconds.

I stopped paying attention to the conversation about the damn seagull after that.

It’s a seagull, I bitterly thought, We’ve seen probably a million of them since we got to Edinburgh a few days ago.

“But it’s eating chocolate cake!” Stephanie pointed out with a laugh, as if she was reading my mind.

“So?” shrugged, “You don’t see me marveling at you whenever you eat chocolate cake.”

“But that’s because-”

“There’s nothing exciting about watching a seagull fatten itself with chocolate cake,” I crossed my arms over my shoulders, “It’s really unhealthy and it could die, or run into-”

“Ooh,” Rachel cringed.

“That looked like that hurt…” Katie was cringing as well.

“What?” Stephanie looked so excited.

“That seagull flew into a building,” Jimmy said. His face held a mixture of laughter and shock – though it’s hard to tell with the full-on beard. It’s like something out of 300, long, and slightly pointy. The hair is a mixture of blond and brown hair, but mostly brown. His hair is just as long, coming down just past his shoulders, and is always pulled back in a ponytail.

Stephanie made an “oh man!” face and then glared at me, like it was my fault she didn’t get to see a bird stupidly fly into a building.

“Man…” Ryan had a wide grin on his face, his electric blue eyes were wide with excitement, “That was AWESOME!” I tried not to swoon.

“I know, right?” Nate laughed with him.

Those two… I shook my head. They were peas in a pod, and very pretty damn funny together.

“Okay,” Dr. Coffman managed to finally reel us into the building. If you went straight there was a bakery that sold delicious pastries, tea, and coffee. If you went right, you’d find yourself climbing a set of stairs to a theatre. Our destination was the later.

Everybody but Dr. Coffman, Raven – another one of the students on the trip – and I were talking about the seagull. The three of us remained silent as we led the pack up a flight of stairs.

“It was protecting it from the other seagulls,” Ryan’s voice, though at the pack, carried it’s way towards the front and to my ears, “When it went back. It didn’t want anyone else it eat his cake!”

“What if he is a she?” Rachel proposed. You go Rachel.

“Same difference,” Ryan shrugged it off and Nate laughed.

I tried not to think about the words my best friend, Piper, had told me about a week before I left, but the conversation was already starting to echo in my brain…

“You two are perfect for each other!”

As I glanced back at Ryan and Nate, I thought about my response to her and immediately I felt sad, “Ryan and Me? Psh, no, we’re just friends.”

I looked forward again and trudged up the last few steps, Piper’s rebuttal hanging in my ears, “You wish you were more though.”

“Marie, you should’ve seen it!” Rachel laughed as she temporarily pulled me out of my thoughts, “That seagull was so funny!”

“Sure it was,” I rolled my eyes.

We were all at the top of the landing, standing together in a group as we waiting in a line to be allowed in.

“Cheer up,” Ryan playfully punched my shoulder. It didn’t hurt, unless you say my heart was my shoulder and his fist was a bulldozer.

Despite the pain, I smiled up at him. One by one, the ten of us entered the auditorium-like theatre. I didn’t end up sitting next to Ryan, like part of me wanted to.

Instead, I ended up on the opposite end of him, next to Stephanie.

“You okay?” Stephanie asked me.

Well you’re asking, so obviously I’m not.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.