Today's recommended song: She Loves Control - Camila Cabello
october 9th, 2016 Diana Hughes
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"So what exactly is the purpose of this road trip?" My fingers slid a piece of hair behind my
ear before resting my chin against my palm. The lights in the diner produced a warm glow on each of the boys foreheads as the cars passed outside leaving us the only people in the diner, alone with the remnants of our milkshakes.
"Well, Halloween's coming up so you know how me and E have that little holiday home thing near like Ottawa that our parents bought before they had us? So we thought we could go up there the week before and stay there for Halloween and then we can stay a week after too. My mom said it's ok." Grayson proposed the idea and all of its details, leaning backwards into his seat and rolling up his sleeves. Toby, the only one other than me who seemed to not have previously been briefed on this roadtrip.
"Is there enough rooms?" Toby runs his fingertips through his hair as he asks.
"There's like 5 bedrooms i think but if we really have to the couch pulls out into a bed."
"Awesome." I told them, nodding my head.
"Who's else is coming?"
"I was thinking Kayla and Shawn as well as us. Our moms minivan can hold us all." Ethan chirped in, gesturing his arms and shrugging his shoulders as he told me.
"Ok, I'll ask my mom and dad." Toby tells us and I scoff.
"I'll ask mine but there's a very slim chance I'll be allowed, I'll go anyways." I shrugged and they all grimaced a little.
"I still can't believe your parents are divorcing, Dee." Noah tells me, he plays with the leather wristband of his watch, unclasping it and retying it.
"I can." I raised my eyebrows puffing a small amount of air from my nose. I got up from my seat and went over to the bar, paying the new waitress who I didn't yet know.
"So what's tonight's plans?" I asked the boys when i returned to the table, all of them standing from their seats ready to go. Noah flicked his keys around his index finger as he smiled a little, checking his phone.
"Gray's got a game in a half hour so I'm gonna go watch him. I don't know what everyone else's doing, though." Ethan told me.
"Awesome, I'll come too." I smiled at my friends only to find that Noah and Toby had left without me noticing. A feeling of excitement washed over me, Grayson was famous for his football skills in his school and I felt privileged to be invited to watch him play. "Will Kayla be coming too?" I asked them both as we walked outside, the wind brushed against my bare arms as I walked to Ethan's truck.
"Yeah, we'll meet her there." Grayson grumbled, not looking up from his phone Ethan leaned down and mumbled into my ear.
"Even though we'll probably find her making out with one of the other players in the boys bathrooms." I giggled at Ethan's remark and Grayson mumbled that he heard what he had said.
Grayson's girlfriend was notorious in our friends for cheating on him despite he fact it had never fully been confirmed, just some obvious flirting here and there-- but the boys liked to mention it whenever they could.
After arriving at Grayson's school and losing him, Ethan and I sat on the bleachers by everybody else, waiting for the game to begin. Crowds of people all sit on the bleachers, eating and talking with a buzz.
"So, where's your boyfriend?" In that moment I remembered not only that Shawn went to this school but that he was the football captain too.
"He's not my boyfriend, E. We just went on a couple dates."
"And invited him to our diner and kissed him a lot and you always talk about him. I'd say he sounds like your boyfriend, and if not, you're probably giving him the wrong idea."
"It's not that I don't want him to be my boyfriend it's just that I don't know how he'd feel about that or how I'd feel about that either. I mean its my first relationship since Chris, you know how hard that is for me." And as soon as I said that, Ethan's entire body tensed up like he wasn't telling me something.
"Yeah, I understand. But I still think you should mention it to Shawn, you both need to understand where your relationship is going in order for you both to appreciate it equally." Ethan gave me a small smile and I returned it.
How wise of him.
I looked up and found Kayla sitting beside me.
"Hey, Ethan, Diana." She smiled a little at us before unlocking her phone. Ethan looked painfully at me and I stifled a laugh as he looked at his hands.
I exchanged some conversation between the two about who they were playing against and what they were like before the game finally started.
The truth is, I knew absolutely nothing about football. I didn't know who was who, I didn't know the rules or the positions or what it meant when they all huddled together, I just assumed a touchdown meant they scored. And when we had scored 34 touchdowns and Grayson was responsible for 7 of them, the rest all Shawn's, I assumed we had won. Our team all rushed from the pitch but Shawn appeared at the edge of the bleachers, pulling his helmet off revealing his hair which was soaking in sweat.
"Well played, buddy!" Ethan congratulated him, patting his padded shoulders and Shawn smiled with gratitude.
"Thanks man," Shawn smiled at Ethan and then at Kayla too, who had been staring at him throughout the whole game. "You didn't tell me you'd be coming, Rose." Shawn smiled and Ethan gritted his teeth at the word rose; what had started off as a lame pick up line had shifted into a sort of a nickname. Shawn often flicked through calling me Diana, Rose and Goat Kid.
"It was sort of a last minute decision." I shrugged my shoulders and the huge smile not once fell from Shawn's face. "What are you smiling at?" I asked him, looking at Ethan and then back at Shawn.
"I'm just happy you're here." Shawn shook his head and his coach called him to get changed. "Do you guys and Grayson wanna go out and get some food or something after I've changed?"
We all looked at each other before nodding, Shawn running off inside the school.
"There's your perfect opportunity to ask about the road trip." Ethan told me, raising his eyebrows.
"Road trip?" Kayla asked, peeling her eyes from her phone screen.
"Yeah, Gray'll probably ask you later." Ethan links my arm and we walk off, leaving Kayla behind us.
