No Worth

How to Steal a Meatball

Mitch's POV

"Well we better go now, Ashley might be falling asleep over here." I say, seeing her yawn, eyes a little watery.

"Yeah, I have yet to adjust myself to the American time zone." she says.

"Oh yeah, you have to get used to this AMERICAN AIR." Jerome teases.

"What?" Adam asks, clearly confused. Jerome and I just laugh.

"Oh, nothing." Jerome says. I shake my head at the lot of them.

"Seriously though, it's getting late, and I'm hungry." I say.

"Oh yeah. We all know how Mitch gets when he doesn't get his food." Adam chuckles.

"I do not." I say. "Do I?" Jerome whistles and pretends to not have heard me, and Ashley says nothing.

"Jerome? Ashley?" I ask hopefully.

"What sorry, did you say something?" Jerome teases. I roll my eyes at him and turn to Ashley.

"I didn't hear anything." she replies. "Now let's go before Mitch starts having his moods."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The entire taxi/walk to get to the restaurant pretty much consists of me asking about my supposedly "Mitch Moods", and no one giving me much of an answer. I finally drop the subject once we get there. The place is nice, with a small bar and dim lighting. We stand in line for a few minutes until a waiter comes over and shows us to our table in the far corner of the restaurant. I sit down next to Ashley and immediately pick up the menu. Everything on it is pretty well priced, but one item catches my eye.

"I think I want the spaghetti and meatballs." Ashley and I say at the same time. We look at each other in shock, and then laugh.

"What the hell just happened?" Jerome says, looking slightly frightened.

"Actually, what the fuck was that?" Adam says, wearing the same expression as Jerome. Alesa just quietly chuckles.

"Don't worry about it." Ashley says, stealing Adam's line. Ashley and I both put our menus down and quietly wait for Jerome and Adam to decide what they want.

"God dammit all of it looks good..." Jerome says.

"I think I'm going to get the uh, the porterhouse steak." Adam says, placing his menu on the table.

"I think I'll get a caesar salad and panini." Alesa says, setting her menu down as well.

"Yeah, and I think I'll get the pasta dish." Jerome adds.

"Naturally for the Italian." I joke. He shrugs, and Adam chuckles. The waiter comes over and takes all our orders, and then asks if Ashley and I want to share a large spaghetti for a cheaper price yet bigger quantity. Ashley says nothing, so I ask her if it's ok.

"Yeah, I probably won't be eating a lot anyway." she says. Once the waiter leaves, Adam grins at us mischievously.

"So, I'm guessing you're doing this lady and the tramp style?" he says. I roll my eyes. Alesa shoots Ashley a look across the table, but it's too quick for me to make out what it was.

"You act like they don't have plates." I say, taking one of the appetizer plates and showing it to him. While we're waiting we all nibble on some bread and make small conversation.

When our food arrives, it's Ashley and I who's served first. The dish is set down in front of both of us, filled to the top with hot spaghetti. I gesture for Ashley to go first, and she fills her little bowl, yet not fully. Once she's done, I take the two serving spoons/forks and create a heaping pile of spaghetti on my tiny plate. Ashley shakes her head when she sees my serving.

"What?" I ask. "I like food."

Ashley's POV

Everyone ate and talked and laughed, Mitch downing each plate of pasta he gave himself within the course of 10 minutes or less. Meanwhile I was still on my first, regretting having ordered the dish in the first place. The food was good, but impossible to eat for someone like me and not make a complete fool and pig out of myself. So I ate slowly and as neatly as I could.

"So, Ashley," Jerome says, interrupting my concentration. "you going to finish that anytime soon? You better, because I don't think Mitch really wants to share any of it." I glance over at Mitch, and sure enough, he's eaten half of the pasta bowl.

"I like food okay? JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND DON'T JUDGE ME. Plus, I haven't had anything to eat all day." Mitch says, reading another forkful or pasta to put in his mouth. Meanwhile Adam has finished and Jerome is as well with their one-serving dishes.

"It's ok, I'm not that hungry." I say. It's true, I haven't had much of an appetite at all these days. No need to waste food.

"Suit yourself." Mitch says. I was actually amazed that he was consuming so much food yet doing it so neatly like a gentlemen.

Once I finally finish my small plate, I take a meatball from the bowl and cut it up on my plate before eating it.

"These are good." I say after swallowing. Mitch nods, popping one in his mouth. I risk having another bowl of pasta, but eat this one quicker after having some experience. After a while, there's less than half of the pasta left, and one meatball. I look away and try to stealthily take it, but when I pull my fork away, I find something is keeping it down. When I look over to see what it is, I discover Mitch's fork in the same meatball, his face previously turned to Jerome.

"Are you guys for real right now?" Jerome says, laughing.

"Ashley are you trying to read my mind or something?" he asks, laughing as well.

"No, are you reading mine?" I contradict, allowing myself to smile. "You can have the meatball though." Mitch shakes his head.

"Cooties?" I ask, right at the exact same time he says it. Mitch bangs the table with his free hand, and Jerome starts laughing even harder.

"Looks like you two are on the same wavelength tonight, huh?" Alesa says, glancing at our forks I just shake my head, resisting the urge to laugh really hard.

I look at Alesa who's still looking at our forks in the same meatball, and has a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Not the Lady in the Tramp, eh?" Adam comments. Mitch realizes our forks are still in the same position, and quickly goes to take them out.

"Here, no one will have the meatball." he says, moving it over to his plate. I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Oh, so you consider yourself no one?" I question. He grins.

"Maybe..." Before he can pop the meatball in his mouth, I swiftly pluck it off his plate and place it into the own mouth. Luckily it was one of the smaller meatballs, so I was able to chew it without looking like a slob. Meanwhile he just stares at me in awe. I have to cover my mouth to keep from laughing, whilst Adam and Jerome are laughing their asses off.

"Did you just...?" Mitch trails off. I chew the rest of it and swallow.

"Ninja Ashley." I say, finally being able to laugh. This laugh is actually genuine, and I can't stop.

"You little..." Mitch says, shaking his head yet laughing as well. Across from us, Jerome is trying to contain his laughter, his face red from the effort.

"You just...his face..." he manages. It makes us all laugh even more, especially Adam. "Nice steal Ashley, nice freaking steal."

And for the first time in a long time, I actually felt good about myself.