Charlie's Story ~ My Eighth Grade Dilemma ~ Book One

Bananas

SPOILER ALERT!!  IF YOU PLAN ON READING THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER!  IT WILL RUIN THE BOOK! IT'S AN AMAZING BOOK BUT I'M STILL HURTING..... A LOT.

Oh!  And, bananas are kind of a big thing in this chapter.  This is what happens when you let eighth graders have bananas.  It's... just read... just read.......

Somewhere in between school and the hotel, Destany and I get bored looking at normal stuff so we flip through her cat memes and show them to Ethan.  I hate when I giggle like a Japanese school girl around him but I really can't help it.

Another 15 minutes of looking at TFIOS (The Fault in Our Stars) pictures, hugging Destany's arm, and eventually sobbing into it passes and we are finally at the Monte Carlo.  I'm so excited but I feel empty due to the feels.  WHY DID JOHN GREEN KILL AUGUSTUS?!  WHAHHYYYYY?!  Other than that, I'm really happy at this moment.

I babble as we walk, even though no one can understand a word I'm saying, I continue to babble until we get in the buffet.  For a couple minutes, our group looks for a place to sit, then we find two booths.  One for the guys and the other for the girls.  Our third group sits at a table diagonal from us.  Ethan and Noah are probably the first of our group to move.  Then Destany and I.  Then everyone else joins.

I return, when Zugey and Mya are already eating, my plate covered with seafood.  Sadly, they didn't have any shrimp.  I start eating, then I look behind me and Ethan is staring at me, eating a banana seductively.  I don't even know if I can call it seductive.  Sexual.  Yes.  He was staring at me, eating a banana very sexually.  And after Destany takes her seat, Ethan slides in next to her, with his banana, and starts "flirting" with us.  Aka. "So.  Bananas."

Then, I have a brilliant idea and bring Destany with me to get bananas.  I load my plate with all different types of sugary sweets before getting a banana and forcing Destany to get one too.  We walk, well I walk flamboyantly back to our table and set my plate down enthusiastically on the table.  I slide into the booth and smirk back at Lawrence mouthing the word "bananas".

Finally, Ethan and Noah get back from the buffet with sweets on their plates.  I peel my banana and urge Destany to do the same.  We both know exactly what to do next.  We turn around, put our elbows over our booth to theirs, and eat our bananas sexually, staring straight at the only boys in our group.  I, for one, am staring back and forth from Ethan to Noah to Ethan to Lawrence, repeat.  Every time I look back at Destany though, she's only looking at Ethan.  Once Noah notices us, he elbows Ethan and points at us.  Immediately, Ethan and Noah get up and sit next to us.  Then we play "Pimp and Bitch".

I wonder how long we can keep this charade up.  I make a deal with myself to make it last through the weekend up until the end of Monday.

As Ethan and Noah make "plans" with us, Lawrence listens, laughing and rolling his eyes and such.  He's jealous, the thought makes me grin.  I'm not sorry for him though.  I don't like clingy guys.  And he is a clingy guy.  I thought he was normal, but it turns out that if you become his friend, he will NEVER leave you alone.  And that fact really bothers me.  Whenever something happens, he just has to know about it.  And he may think he knows how to make you feel better but really, it just makes things worse at times.  I honestly don't regret anything I'm thinking right now.  I really don't.  But I am regretting ever going out with him in the first place.  If I hadn't, I wouldn't have needed to break his heart.  But now it's over and done, and I am finally free.  I am free.  Although I promise myself to never date anyone unless that person is Ethan.

After we finish our bananas, the boys move back to their table and finish their food.  Then, we are escorted out to the restrooms.  I enter only to fix my hair and wash my face.  As I wait outside, Ethan and Noah are planning our seating arrangements.  Noah will sit closest to the aisle, Destany sits to his right, Ethan to her right, and I sit in between him and Lawrence.

Once everyone is out, there is a small parade of people playing electronic instruments, probably from the Blue Man Group concert.  We are very close to the parade, some of us even in their way, so we have to press against the wall to avoid getting hit.  The wall is uncomfortable because of the ATM's jutting out from it.  Luckily, the parade is short.  I guess they're saving their best notes for the performance.

Outside the theatre is glowing with moving blue lights, pointing to the entrance.  We walk slowly, receiving tickets from our chaperones and giving them to the employees to scan.  Our group stands in the order we discussed, Lawrence first, me next, Ethan third, Destany fourth, and Noah last, as we take back our tickets and walk in the dark room ahead.  The first thing you see is the huge stage and the two massive columns on either side of it.  Then, you notice the floating eyes.  The first one to appear looks like a pokeball and the second one is wearing earings and false eyelashes.  In between the stage and the columns are screens that display shoutouts to some audience members. I laugh as I read stupid, but amusing shoutouts.

A couple minutes pass as the theatre gets packed with people of all ages.  Then, the lights dull down and the floating eyes disappear backstage.  Soon after, I start "flirting" with Lawrence, trying as hard as I can to make him blush, then I turn to Ethan, run my hand up his thigh starting as his knee, and say "Are you ready?" trying to sound as sexy as I can.  He grins at me, says "Oh, yeah" back, quite seductively, and runs his hand from the bottom of my dress (it stops at my knee when I'm sitting down) up to the center of my thigh, lifting the dress up slightly.  I can't help but wish he would go even slightly higher as I giggle and blush when he does this.  Ethan's hands are always cold so it sends more of a shock through me than usual.  That and I'm not wearing tights underneath my dress, just a pair of short shorts that stop at the top of my thigh.  Even though I know none of this is real, my teenage hormones start RAGING.

Near the end of the show, they throw giant white beach balls (I am well aware of how nasty that sounds) into the air as we all start "shaking our behinds".  Then comes the toilet paper.  It streams from vents about ten rows behind us and everything just gets stuffed in our row somehow.  A couple seconds later, we loose Ethan in the sea of toilet paper.  Destany and I laugh so hard while we pull up layers and layers of toilet paper.  Then I find Ethan's hand and he grasps mine tightly.  His grip is strong.  Destany sort of gave up on helping him so she stood there with her hands over her mouth, laughing as I bring Ethan up from the dead.  All the toilet paper that people are trying to pull away is on him.  I giggle some more as I rip the toilet paper away, finding him laughing.  Ethan is so cute when he laughs.  He turns red and he laughs, showing his teeth.  This is his real smile.  I love it so much.

We exit, leaving the mess of toilet paper behind.  I wrapped some around my head and around my wrist like Ethan and Noah.  Everyone laughs and talks among their friends, talking about how Hiram, third chair tenor saxophone player in jazz band and first chair oboe player in symphonic band, was stuffing his shirt with the paper.

Once we get outside, everything is dark.  The sky is nearly pitch black, even though it's only 7:45 p.m. and the only lights leading us are the ones underneath the cover outside the back of the hotel where we came from.  We get on the buses after the drivers turn on the lights.  Noah, Destany, Lawrence, Ethan, and I sit at the back of the bus.  We wait until the bus is loaded to join in the chatter.  The group agrees on playing dirty truth or dare, along with a few others, aside from Lawrence who keeps on insisting that he's not playing because "Someone might dare Charlotte to do something to me."  What a pussy.  And like I would EVER do anything to YOU of all people. I think, rolling my eyes.

The game proceeded.  About ten minutes passed and someone had dared Ethan to kiss Destany on the lips, even though basically EVERYONE knows I like Ethan, and I'm sitting right here.  But they follow the rules, like everyone else, and pucker up into a tightly closed kiss.  Even though I know Ethan honestly wouldn't want to kiss Destany at all, or anyone for that case, it hurts more than ever.  I shouldn't sweat the small stuff, but I do.  And I let this ruin my day.  But I pretend that I didn't see anything as I slowly walk down the bus aisle.  I get off the bus and enter the school gates, feeling empty.  That's when Destany caught up to me and told me "I think I like Ethan now."