My First Love

Best Friends

*note: *sigh, so we get more meetings this chapter. We all know lots about Mike and his posse, but what about Emily's? Or is the queen friendless? Jk. Oh and sorry I've been MIA, I have no excuse, I just need to manage time better. Thanks to Scriptettexx for the reminder that I should write. You are amazing <3 Anyways on with the story.

After the conversation with Cynthia, I feel a lot better about things. It also helps now that I know for sure I'm really serious about my relationship with Emily. I smile as I look to the girl sitting next to me under the big oak tree. She's sketching in her book, deep in thought. The guys went somewhere to go do... Well, I don't really know what they're up to. Suddenly I have a thought, I nudge Em a little to get her attention. She looks at me and I speak, "you know a lot about my friends, so when do I get to know about yours? I know that you're the queen, but that's about it." She doesn't answer at first, but when she does, she smiles, "okay. Why not? You've already met my sister, and nothing's worse than that. Come over to Cafe 14 tomorrow after school."

Cafe 14, that's the restaurant down the street from Emily's school. Why does she want to meet there? I better go do some research before walking in. I log in to my laptop and open up google and typed in the Cafe 14. I look at the descriptions and it says they use natural and organic products whenever possible. Scrolling down I see something's about the owners and chefs of the restaurant. Neil Kramer and Claudine Bernard opened Cafe 14 in the later part of 2004. I think my parents went here for a dinner date before, why would Emily want to meet there? From what I just read through, this place doesn't seem like a normal hangout place for high school kids. She's so unpredictable. No use wondering now, I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

When I walk into the restaurant the first thought in my mind was wow, this is definitely not the diner. "Excuse me, but are you Michael?" I turn my attention to the sound of the voice to see a well dressed waiter looking at me. I nod my head, "yes, I am." He smiles, "follow me please, your friends await." He walks toward the back of the restaurant and I follow him. We reach the table at the end and I see that it's a table set for five. A guy and a girl are sitting there and they both smile at me, but neither of them are Emily. The girl with brown eyes and brown hair stands up from her seat next to the guy with brown hair and green eyes, she extends her hand, "hi, I'm Cassidy Kramer. You must be Mike, Emily's told us so much about you." I take her hand and shake it. Then she tells me to sit at the head of the table while we wait for Emily. The guy speaks up, "hey, I'm Vincent Witherling. I've been to a few of your concerts, and I think Xero's awesome." I smile at him. So these are Emily's friends, from the way they're acting around each other, you can tell they're dating. Is that why Emily goes to the diner, because she feels like a third wheel? I was about to ask where Em was when I looked at the settings and notice that there were still two left, who else would be joining us. Emily said she only had two best friends. All of a sudden Emily appears with this guy with black hair and brown eyes, "I'm here." She sits to my right and the guy sits next to her. The guy looks at me, "sup. The name's John Bernard." Emily just tells the waiter to come over and get our drinks. Vincent orders first, "I'll take a sprite and Cass will have a coke." I was about to order for Em when John beat me to it, "we'll have two Dr. Peppers. What about you Mike?" I tell the waiter to bring me a coke. Then waiter leaves to get our drinks while I observe her friends, well really John. I'll admit it, I'm kind of jealous, but I know they've known each other longer, so I won't let it bother me. The waiter comes back with the drinks and asks for our order. Vincent orders first, "I'll have the 8 oz. Filet Mignon, and Cass wants the usual- Boston Lettuce Salad." John orders next, "I'll have the Bouillabaisse and the queen will have the 12 oz. Box Cut New York Steak." Since I wasn't paying attention to the menu, I order the first thing I see which happens to be the Brown Sugar Crusted Organic Salmon.

As the the food is being prepared, the group decides to make some conversations and for me to learn more about them. I found out that Emily and John are closer even though they're best friends with Cassidy. They met in sixth grade during English class, though John and Em met in sixth grade science before that. I learned that Vincent met the group freshman year and started dating Cassidy making them high school sweethearts. They also told me that I was the first guy Emily was even interested in, making me her first boyfriend. Our meal came and I have to say, for choosing a random item on the menu, the salmon was pretty good. Cassidy seems really nice and caring though she has moments where she can be confused and not know what everyone's talking about, Emily calls it her "inner blonde" trying to come out. They then get into a small argument while the guys (me included) just watch and laugh. John, though I wasn't sure about him turned out to be a pretty cool guy. He acts just like Emily, it's no wonder they're best friends. Before we left we had some spontaneous artistic moment and we all took our napkins and drew on them. In celebration of new friendships, each word was put on the five napkins and put together along with drawings of us, ballons, and our meals. This is what happens when you have three artistic people in a group.

We all went our separate ways. Really I just left by myself cause they all lived close to each other. Cass went with Vincent and John was going to take Emily home on his motorcycle. Before they left Em kissed me on the cheek and John and I talked for a minute. We do the bro hug (you know, the one hand hug thing that guys always do), "don't hurt her,or I'll hurt you." I smile, "I was hoping I would get a death threat." He smiles back, "oh, and you don't have to worry about me, I'm not your competition, I have my eye on her sister. So if you run in to Lucas, tell him to watch his back." With that I watched them ride away. As I drove back home, I couldn't help but smile at how well everything was falling into place with my relationship with Emily.

*note2: sorry I normally don't like 2 notes, but I didn't want to make the first note too long. Cafe 14 and its owners do not belong to me. They actually exist. So if any of you soldiers are in Mike's hometown go check them out, I've never been there, I just thought it would be nice to put real things in the story. It's like a fancy dinner restaurant, nothing like Al's Diner. Thanks, I love you all <3