The Greatest in the League

Four

Blake Matthews

My friends and I are driving to the Mcdonald's that Noah works at, with the goal of ruining his mood so badly that it completely throws off his gameplay for the next three months. If that doesn't work, we'll just come back!

Ethan is driving his used Honda Civic that I'm convinced he's had since we met, even if that was in third grade. And of course, Thomas insists on having the aux because he guilt-trips us all into letting him do whatever he wants due to the time we accidentally flushed his very alive fish. (I don't even know how that happened, to be honest.)

"How much longer?!" Jake complains, and we all throw our heads back with exaggerated groans. "This is the fourth time you've asked, we've been in the car for ten minutes!" Thomas yells, but Jake redirects his attention to counting the number of Walmarts we pass. I chuckle quietly to myself, going unheard by the others because of Thomas' loud music.

"Can I play a song, Thomas-"

"No."

Ethan looks over angrily and then flips him off, almost swerving into a gas station in the process. We all scream, and Jake perks up, clearly oblivious to what actually happened. "I know! Thirteen Walmarts is crazy!" Our screams come to an abrupt stop as we all turn and look at Jake like he's stupid. (Because he is, but that's not the point.)

"You've got something that needs to be diagnosed, Jay," Thomas shakes his head, and we all chuckle. Ethan pulls into the address I gave him, and now it's their turn for them to look at me like I'm stupid.

"You do know that this is a McDonald's, right? Bee, if you were hungry, you could've just said that," Ethan states, and I scoff in defensiveness. "He's here, I swear!" They all roll their eyes, not believing me as they unbuckle their seatbelts. We all walk towards the clear door, and that's when they gasp in unison. They see him at the counter, and I push between the three so that I can walk in first (I have to make an appearance, it's kinda my thing.)

Noah looks very tired. His dark circles are very prominent, and his lips are chapped; it's the roughest I've ever seen him. It's a good thing in way, because maybe the girls on our cheer team will stop thirsting over him (unfortunately though, I don't think anything could prevent that). He leans over on the counter, looking down at the smooth surfaces when his eyes start to shut.

I grin, walking up to him and slamming my palms against the counter, causing the loud smack to jolt him upright. His eyes flash with surprise, embarrassment, confusion, horror, then finally, anger. It was actually the funniest thing I had ever seen. "Hey, Miller," I whisper, and he goes to speak, then the three of my friends pop up behind me as well.

"Hey, Noahhhh!" Jake tries to say meanly, but it comes off as sweet as he always talks. Thomas knocks him in the back of the head playfully, then flips Noah off. Ethan puts his hands in his pockets, smirking as he looks him up and down, "You look like shit."

Now Noah lets out the loudest, most frustrated groan I've ever heard. "There's three more of you?!" He whines.

"I am not serving you assholes-" he goes to say, then who I assume is his manager peeks around the corner to arch an eyebrow at him. He instantly freezes, turning to us with a very put-on smile, "My name is Noah. What can I get for you today?" His tone of voice makes it sound like it nearly killed him to be so kind, and we all burst out laughing. Thomas pushes me out of the way, pretending to look very hard at the menu for at least three minutes.

"Dude, seriously, pick something," Noah gripes after what felt like an hour, and Thomas just smiles smugly. "I think I'll have a... four-piece and a sweet tea." We attempt to stifle our giggles at Noah's very unamused expression so that Jake can order. We don't expect Jake to know what he's supposed to be doing though.. because he clearly doesn't.