Lovesick ✔

chapter eight ; bilingual, he said

AMOS

"Why are we back at the same God damn place we go to every weekend?" I complained with a huff, crossing my arms across my chest as I scanned the place for any empty seats.

"Because this is my favourite place," Alex exclaimed cheerfully as if it wasn't obvious enough. "Dustin, get us a table, I'm gonna be at the washroom for a moment."

"Gotcha," Dustin responded with a thumbs up. After he was positive Alex had left, he turned to face me, "Hey shorty, find us a table."

"He asked you to do it though," I pointed out, shooting him an accusatory look.

"Doesn't mean I'm obliged to do it," he shrugged before being interrupted by the sound of his phone going off.

"Your phone's been going off the entire time we got here, who on Earth is that?"

"Caleb and Mateo, probably flaming me for filing a noise complaint against them," he said with a proud look on his face before patting himself on the shoulder. "You're the man, Dustin."

I shook my head at him, Alex and Dustin really did go along well together.

"Sorry I'm late!" came a familiar voice.

"Don't worry about it," I grinned, leading the both of them to an empty table. Ethan sat down beside Dustin, shooting him a confused look, "Where's Alex?"

"Washroom," Dustin responded bluntly, switching his phone off and placing it on the table face-down.

"Have you guys ordered yet?" Ethan questioned.

"You just saw us sit down, of course we haven't ordered yet, dumbass," Dustin said, pointing out the obvious with an annoyed eye-roll. "You know what? When we first met, I really thought you were the dumbest dude ever."

"Me or Ivanov?" I questioned, looking up at the two of them.

"Ivanov," Dustin stated, looking over at Ethan. "That's you, dumbass," he reminded upon noticing that there was no reaction from Ethan's side.

"What did you say?"

"When we first met, I thought you were really dumb," Dustin repeated. 

"Oh? How about now?" Ethan questioned with a smirk.

"Nothing's changed. You're still dumb as fuck."

Before the two of them could engage in a session of friendly banter, Alex made his presence known by taking his seat between Ethan and I.

"Have you guys ordered yet?" he asked, playing with the menu.

"Nope, there aren't any waiters around," Ethan stated.

"Then go find one, dumbass," Alex retorted.

"I'll go find one," I proposed, standing up before spotting one in the back corner of the room. I raised my hand to signal for them to come over.

The lady made her way over to us, notepad and pen in hand, "What would you like to have?" she questioned in broken English.

"Wait, are you Croatian?" Alex questioned with a surprised gasp.

"Yes," she confirmed.

"Guys, wait. I got this," Alex said to us in a hushed voice. "I took five years of Croatian, I guarantee you I'm more fluent than the entire population of Croatia combined."

"Work your magic, magic man," Ethan clapped.

Alex cleared his throat dramatically and whipped his head over to the lady before saying something only the two of them could comprehend whilst the remaining three of us stared in awe and admiration.

We expected for her to be just as impressed as we were. Instead, her expression contorted into that of unamusement, "Say it in English. I can understand."

We looked at each other in confusion but placed our order anyway. After she'd turned and left, Alex turned to the rest of us, "Did I say something wrong? Why'd she get so mad like that?"

"What exactly did you say to her?" I questioned, pulling my phone out to check Google translate. I proceeded to turn on the mic to catch what he was saying as he repeated exactly what he had said to her. I waited for the words to display on my screen and when I translated it back to English, I was utterly horrified.

"What? You look like I just rode over your grandmother with a Range Rover," Alex commented. "What did I do?"

With my mouth wide open, I turned the phone so the screen was visible to them. Ethan and Dustin collectively slapped their hands over their mouth, and when it was Alex's turn to view the screen, he paused for a moment - and then his smile completely dropped.

"No, this can't be true," he complained. "I took classes for five years."

"Clearly five years wasn't enough," Ethan snorted.

"What were you trying to say?" Dustin questioned.

"I was trying to ask her what she thinks we should get," he sighed, embarrassment evident in his features as he buried his face into his palms, his cheeks turning a bright shade of red. "And you're telling me I told her that her dad looks like fried chicken breasts?"

"Google translate said it, not me," I shrugged. 

As another waiter made his way over to us with a starter tray, the three of us grabbed three tall glasses each of refreshing lime juice. We brought out glasses together and upon the sound of the 'clink', Ethan spoke out: 

"Cheers! To our bilingual king, Alex Black"