I Will Wait

Chapter 7

 "You guys made it!" Joel shouted a little too loud for an indoor facility. His voice echoed throughout the area but thankfully not many people paid attention and it was so loud anyway, nobody probably even heard him. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show."

Caleb swatted his words away like that was the dumbest thing he had heard in years. "How could we miss it? Chance to beat you is a chance I will always take."

"Trying to redeem yourself after that soccer game last night are we?" Joel smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, careful not to tip his small cup of pretzel bites.

I stood, watching the boys. Caleb and Joel were the most competitive out of the four of us, in case nobody could tell. Chris and I usually watched, one time, a few years ago, we even debated making popcorn and watching them play a game of FIFA, they were rowdy enough for the neighbors' dogs to start barking at them.

"I was close. Arianna on your team cheated."

"The ref saw no fowl," Joel replied.

Caleb threw his arms to the side and a small laugh escaped his lips, expression bewildered. "There was no ref!"

"Was to! Chris was the ref."

"Chris was inside eating food!"

"Ok." Chris broke in. "Are you two going to get pretzels before we start or not?"

"I'm not that hungry." I said and because I was one to always want food and rejecting it was a huge offset I added in with a slow smirk. "But Caleb might need that extra fuel if he wants to beat Joel."

"Wow, there is very little confidence here from my teammate," Caleb swiped a non-existent tear from his eye and walked over to the pretzel stand line. "I expected more faith."

The smile on my face turned genuine and I crossed my arms over my chest, shaking my head at him.

"I just sent the list of items you have to find and take a picture of to everyone. The meet up place is back down at the bottom of the list. Don't look at it until we get there. I had mom pick it out so nobody knows where it is." Joel explained, turning his phone off and sticking it back into his shorts' pocket.

"As if you didn't peek." I pointed an accusing finger at him, but I was smiling.

Caleb was back in our little group about a few minutes later, receipt folded up neatly in his hand.

"You want me to throw that away?" I asked, the trash right on the other side of me.

"Nah," he replied. "I keep my receipts."

"You what?" I asked, but before he could respond Chris did. "He's the responsible one, super paranoid money saver."

"Not paranoid," Caleb corrected. "Just aware."

Chris smiled slightly at his younger brother and then grabbed the pretzel bites that were for Caleb off of the counter. Chris took one from the cup and then passed a glance at Joel who only smiled.

"Thanks for the snack guys." Joel said quickly as he and Chris started to back away.

"Wai—?"

"Wha—?"

 Caleb and I jumbled our protests together but Joel was talking so fast it was almost impossible to understand him.

"Don't forget the list is on your phone. Readysetgo!"

Before we could say anything or attempt to get Caleb's pretzels back the older boys were off running down the mall. I turned to look at Caleb who only returned the expression. What were those little thieves doing? Ok, they stole the pretzels. We were definitely going to beat them in the scavenger hunt now.