Lets Just Say I Have Issues

I am sitting at a restaurant, in Atlanta, getting situated. A bunch of guys roll up in the restaurant. I glance up at them then glanced back down on at the menu. I hear footsteps walk up me.

“Elizabeth Cooper?” I hear someone say.
“Yeah…” I look up at him, “Michael Bohn?”
“The one and only,” He says.
I stand up, “I've missed you!”
"I've missed you too! Oh my God, Eli, you've changed so much," Michael says as he pulls me into a hug.
"Yeah...," I say with a smile as I hug him back.
“You look amazing though,” He says.
“Thank you. Who are these lovely guys you have with you?” I ask kindly.
“Tyler, Ty, Sky, AJ, and Josh,” Michael replies. As he says each name, he gestures his arms towards each one, “Guys this is Elizabeth. She was my neighbor growing up and she was my best friends before we split ways after high school.”
“Nice to meet you all,” I say.
“You too,” All the guys reply with.
“Why don’t you guys eat with me?” I say.
“Sounds awesome,” Tyler pipes up.
“Yeah,” Michael says.

I sit back down and Michael sits on my left and Tyler ends up on the right of me. The other guys just pile in. The waiter delivers my drink and takes their drink order. I pour sugar into my drink, stirring it up.

“What have you been up to Michael?” I ask.
“I’m in a band with these dudes. We are about to start tour tomorrow,” Michael answers, his face twitching slightly, “You?”
I observe his twitching before speaking again, “I’m doing online college, getting my degree for music production. I was thinking about making my house into a recording studio.”
“Do you still live in the same house that you did growing up?” He questions.
“Yeah….Mom and Dad moved to the Virgin Islands,” I answer.
“When you make your house a recording studio, you should call up our manager and we’ll totally record with you,” Sky says.
“That would be excellent…Sky right?” I say.
“Yes ma’am,” He answers.

The waiter comes by and he gets our orders. Michael and I caught up with each other. The gentlemen just chatted away. It was nice reconnecting with my use to be best friend.

“Come on tour with us,” He asks.
“Michael, I have school,” I answer.
“Come on…please,” He begs.
“I can’t manage…school and being on tour with you gentlemen,” I say honestly.
“Would you like to come on tour with us?” Michael questions.
“Yes, but I can’t,” I say to him.
“Ellllllliiiiii,” Michael starts.

The waiter puts down our food and we eat. I somehow manage to regret coming to this restaurant. I look at Michael as he eats. I swallow my bite, taking a deep breath, preparing myself for my life changing decision.

“I’ll go with you guys,” I say.
“Really? You want to?” Michael says as he swallows his bite.
“Yes,” I say.

Michael smiles hugely. We continue to eat in an awkward comfortable silence. I just thought about this possible mistake. I asked the waiter to put my stuff separate check. I write down my number on a paper. I hand it to Michael. He smiles as he takes. He takes out his phone and type in my number. He smiles and leans over, kissing my cheek. God, it was just like it used to be.

“You know where I live. So you know where I’ll be,” I got up with my check.
“See you later hopefully,” Michael says.
“Bye…,” Tyler says.
“Bye,” Said the rest of the guys.

I paid my check and walked outside. I walk to my car and get in. I sit there and sigh quietly. I start the car and headed towards home. It was great seeing Michael again. Michael and I have a complicated pass. I hated him when I first met him. I use to go to his house to get baby sat by his parents. My parents would baby sit him when his parents wanted to go out. We use to play outside and I would always ended up on top of him, pushing his face in dirt. When we started 8th grade I found out he had tourettes. He had them for a while but he told me the first day of 8th grade. When he started high school, we still managed to be best friends. He beat up my first ex-boyfriend and got called my boyfriend a lot. In 10th grade, something happened; I don’t know how to explain it. He came over one day and we were watching movies on the couch in the loft.

=FLASHBACK=
“Wo-would you go to homecoming with me?” He voice a bit shaky, I figured it was from his tourettes.
“Like…as friends?” I ask.
“Yeah….,” He states his eyes lost all hope.
“Don’t lie Michael,” I commented.
“I meant like do you want to be my date?” He restates his question from before.
For some reason I got all happy over that, “Yes!”
=FLASHBACK ENDS=

I went to homecoming with him and our parents saw this coming. We went to homecoming. We had a great time. During our dance to a slow song, we kissed and…well, it was amazing. A week after that Michael asked me out and I said yes. We dated for a few months after that. We had a talk one day and we decided we were better off friends. I took us until that summer to finally getting comfortable with each other again. He was my first whilst we were dating, to be honest. Graduation happens and I ran off to California and I guess he’s been in bands since then. I find myself at home and parked in my drive way. I missed my best friend. I got inside of my house and my phone buzzes in my pocket. I take it out and look at it. Unknown number. I press the open button.
Hey It’s Michael. I hope your packing. Sleep well. We’ll be there at 8am to pick you up. I remember the way
I smiled and saved the number to my phone. My phone buzzed again.
Hey, it’s Tyler, Michael’s best friend. We met at the restaurant. I practically had to beg for your phone number. See you tomorrow
I laughed a little. I saved Tyler’s number into my phone. I crawled into my pajamas. I pulled out my old high school scrap book. I curled up in bed and I looked through the pictures and saw the one from prom. I hate this section of the scrap book. I slowly drifted into a deep sleep. I could pack in the morning. I get up at 6 A.M. anyways.