Terminal Velocity

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I draw a breath, pretty sure that I'm going to deeply regret the words that are about to leave my mouth. “Guys, what d’you want for dinner?” Nate’s face falls and he looks at me like I’ve just asked him which way he’d like me to kill him. I can’t really see why though, since he’s the one giving me an almost suicidal look at the prospect of the choice, and Andy’s pretty quiet, Cal should be my only problem, right? Wrong. It seems that as soon as food comes into the equation, so does Andy. He’s instantly arguing with Cal over what they want, and they haven’t even seen the choices yet! I mean, it’s a smallish seaside town – there aren’t unlimited choices!

“Guys?” I say pretty loudly, trying to catch their attention. I catch the pitying look Nate gives me, but I can tell he knew what was coming and isn’t going to help me, since the mess is my fault. I send him a dry look, and repeat the word. “Guys?!” I say it louder this time, but still to no avail. “GUYS!” With my loudest voice failing to distract them from the intense and pretty heated argument, and obviously no help from the now smirking Nate who’s casually slumped over the sofa, I turn to my last resort. Putting two fingers in my mouth, I whistle loudly and shrilly, and that gets their attention.

“How the fuck did you do that?” Cal demands, stomping over, obviously not happy that I didn’t let the argument draw to a natural conclusion.

I ignore his question and pull the homemade list of takeaways and places to eat down from the corkboard. “Are we listening now?” They all nod sheepishly, but all with slightly different expressions. Nate’s halfway between smirking and smiling (I like to think he’s smiling impressed-ly, but it’s probably all in my head), Andy’s part sheepish, part eager to see the list in my hand, even though he doesn’t know what it is, and Cal... Well, he’s just a little uncomfortable. Somehow though, they all manage to make it look good. “Right, thank you.” I say, smiling sweetly. “This,” I begin, “is a list of all the places to eat within walking distance and local takeaways.” By this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy lunged straight for the bit of paper in my hand. He’s a whole different person when it comes to food. I hold the sheet forward tentatively. “Have a look, see what you think.” I hold it out at arm’s length, so when the inevitable pounce from Andy arrives, it’s a good distance away from me.

I plonk down on the sofa nearish Nate, and look over at him curiously. “You don’t care what food we get, then?”

“Hey, hey, this is always how it goes. They pick some options, and I veto any that aren’t up to scratch, and then eventually, we have a winner.”

“That makes sense. And sounds like very little work on your part.” I add with a grin. I listen for a moment to the two men bickering on the floor, both of them lying on their tummies with the list in front of them, trying to figure out if they’ve made any kind of decision yet. Apparently not.

“However, that was when we knew all the takeaways around. You’ll have to guide us in the right direction when it comes to where is of sufficient quality.” He ends with a terrible impression of an English accent and his nose stuck up in the air.

“Nowhere on that list is not of sufficient quality! That’s my list, right there! My siblings and I put blood, sweat, tears and calories into working out where was worth your money!” I finish with an exaggerated hurt expression on my face, my eyebrows pushing into my hairline.

“Wow,” he replies with one eyebrow raised, “that must have been a hardship for you.”

“Nope!” I reply happily, thinking back to when me, Will and Jen all lived in here, and spent nearly a month trying out everywhere that sold food within 10 miles or so. To be fair, when we found one we liked we wouldn’t try a different one for a couple of days, and there are more places to eat in a 20 mile seaside circle than you’d think.