By the time we all piled into our respective vehicles, my feet were dead. I was actually glad when Cole said that he would go with us girls, because I couldn't feel my feet to work the pedals. I sat in the back seat with Kylie, my feet on her lap, moaning like a small child. I'll always be the first to admit, I'm super lazy. I'm not used to being on my feet for a long time, maybe that's something I have to work on before this week is up and I move to L.A. Cole and Sophie couldn't help but laugh at me from the front of the car, and I was tempted to throw things at them, but all I had was the Penguin Cole had made for me, and I wasn't about to give that up for anything.
Finally, after a lot of pouting and begging to Kylie, she rubbed my feet so I would be able to feel them when I had to drive back to the hotel. That's when something hit me. "Hey Sophie...Why were you in our hotel dining room, this morning?" I don't know why I hadn't remembered before.
The girl just laughed. "Wow. Kinda dense, aren't ya? Obviously, that's where we're staying too, dork. Did you not notice the crazy fangirls and camera douches?" That earned a gasp from Cole. She just rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat, putting her feet up on the dash. "Oh calm down, Cole. It's not like you haven't heard me say worse things, or said them yourself!"
Cole tried to feign horror. "I'll have you know that I am an innocent little boy, thank you very much, Miss Sophie!" Now Kylie and I were cracking up, and Cole's face dropped the horror, not able to help himself. We laughed the rest of the way to the restaurant, which made mine and Kylie's faces fall. Four stars. It had to be at least four stars. While Sophie and Cole got out of the car, Kylie and I simply sat in the back seat, looking at each other uncomfortably, until Cole opened my door. "What's the matter?" There was actual worry in his voice, that made me look at me sore feet and blush. I was glad when Kylie spoke up.
"We can't afford this place.." She sounded as nervous as I felt, but Cole just laughed, shaking his head.
"Don't worry about it. The studio covers our meals, and I've got you covered, do you trust me?" He then held his hand out to me, and all I could think was that he was super corny for throwing in that Aladdin reference.
"Yes..?" I took his hand and he grinned, pulled me out of the car, followed by Kyle. We both wobbled a bit, and I had to admit, my hand was sore from signing all of those autographs. How these boys did it almost every day, I would never know. Cole led us into the restaurant, then, and Kylie and I tried our best not to look star struck. But this was too much. I kept my eyes on the floor, following Kylie's feet.
Finally, the three of us got back to the table. Kylie saw the empty seat next to Dana and dove for it. Cole and I took the last two seats. I sat between him and Will, and Dalton was on his other side. I said my greetings before I picked up the menu, instantly scanning for the cheapest item there. Sadly, the cheapest meal was fish, which I was highly allergic to, so I kept scanning. There was no small plate under seven dollars, and that made my head spin. Finally, I put down the menu and mumbled that I wasn't hungry, even though the Pork Rice and Lo Mein meal sounded wonderful, it was $13, and that was just too much for two things, in my eyes. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention this was an Asian Restaurant? Whoops.
Cole saw the look and gave me a soft smile, nudging me with his shoulder. "Hey. Chin up, Charlie. I told you I'd handle it, yeah?" I nodded, but I felt guilty. So I kept quiet unless someone spoke to me. It was mostly Cole and Dalton. Will was too busy still scanning his menu.
"Charlie. I've said this like a million times already. But this Dolphin, it's fricken awesome." I gave him a small smile, just now noticing that he had the Dolphin Dalton on his lap. It made me wish I had brought the Penguin in that Cole had made me.
"Well I'm glad you like it, Dalton. Took me forever to make." I made my smile a bit wider, though my brain was slowly dying. It was finally sinking in that I was having lunch with the boys that had practically taken over my life for the last year and a half. The boys who had helped me through so many situations with their music. The boys who I had just sang on stage with.
