Petit Monde (Rye Beaumont)

FIRST HANGOUT

Alexandria Anderson

  “Yeah, whatever, Andy.” I laugh and hit him on his arm lightly.

  “Hey.” he rubs his arm, looking at me as if that hurt him, making me laugh.

  “Oh, come on, it’s not even that hard.” I tut.
 
   He smiles, as he puts his hand away. I shake my head, turn around and start to walk away from him whilst he walks faster to catch up. He puts his arm around my shoulder and after a couple seconds, he ruffles my hair.

  “Andy!” I groan, as I fix my hair.

  He laughs, but before he could say anything, his friends walk towards us.

  “Let’s go, lovebirds, we’re already starving.” Brad says with a smile.

  “Shut up, Brad.” Andy replies, laughing. “We are not birds.”

  “You two look cute together though.” Cam adds with a teasing smile.

  “What?” Andy asks, looking at him as if his friend are being ridiculous. “You two really are starving, let’s just eat.” he laughs.

  Andy walks towards the edge of the road and as we walk towards him, I glance at Rye – who’s just quiet since we left – only to catch him looking at me. He quickly looks away and I bite my lip, as the five of us cross the street. We walk to Nando’s and Rye and I are the last ones to walk inside. Rye holds the door and lets me in first, making me smile at what he did.

  “Thank you.” I say to him, as I follow the rest of the lads.

  “I am just going to order,” Andy says. “Cam, come with me.”

  Cam nods and Andy walks towards me, “What’s yours, the usual?” he asks me.

  “Yeah.” I reply with a smile, Andy and I already ate at Nando’s thousands of times, so he already knows what I like to order.

  “Alright.” he says and talks to Brad to ask for his order, whilst Cam talks to Rye.

  When Andy and Cam have our orders already, the three of us take our seats. I sit on the end of the table next to a wall whilst Rye sits across from me and Brad sits next to him. We are just on our cellphones as we wait for Andy and Cam to come back. Later on, Brad puts his cellphone down on the table and leans forward on his seat.

  “So,” he says, as he looks at me. “Andy said that it’s your first time to go to Windsor.”

  I nod, “I haven’t really went to different places yet, Mom’s always at the hospital so I don’t have someone to go out with.” I state.

  “We can go with you, we don’t really do much aside from rehearsals anyway, right Rye?” he asks, nudging his friend.

  “Yeah.” Rye simply replies, before he looks away.

  Brad furrows his eyebrows and looks back to me and smiles, “Don’t be shy to call us anytime.” he says and I nod.

  “Thank you,” I reply with a smile. “I really appreciate it.”

  I look over at Rye and catch him looking at me again, but he quickly looks away and runs his fingers through his hair. After a couple minutes, Andy and Cam came back and take their seats; Cam sits next to Brad and Andy sits next to me.

  “Are you okay?” Andy asks, as he settles down on his seat.

  “Yeah.” I assure him with a smile.

  “So, where are we going afterwards?” Cam asks, pulling his chair forward.

  “We haven’t even eaten yet.” Brad says to him.

  “Yeah, you might want to eat first.” Andy adds with a laugh.

  “What?” Cam asks defensively. “I was just asking.”

  I chuckle and the boys talk about going around Windsor, before we head back home. After a couple minutes, our orders came. I didn’t speak that much as we eat, I would just talk when someone asks me a question. Andy knows that I am really shy around people I barely know, but he still tries to involve me in their conversation which I appreciate. I couldn’t help myself, but glance at the boy in front of me who keeps on looking at me. Though, every time that I would look him, he would quickly look away. I haven’t had any conversation with him, ever since I met him this afternoon and he haven’t spoken that much as well, he must be very shy like I am. I snap out of my thoughts when I feel a hand on my forearm.

  “Are you ready to go?” Andy asks.

  “Y–yeah.” I stutter, taking my stuffs.

  We all stand up and walk out of Nando’s, we are just in front of the restaurant for a couple minutes as the boys talk about where to go next.

  “Are you okay?” Andy asks, as we walk down the pavement.

  “Yeah, of course.” I reply, smiling a little.

  He didn’t say anything and when I look at him, he was looking at me with a hint of doubt on his face.

  “What?” I ask with a light chuckle.

  “You seem deep in thoughts back in Nando’s.” he glances back and forth between me and the path.

  “Oh,” I utter. “I, uh, that was nothing.” I reply.

  “What were you thinking about?” he asks, obviously wasn’t convinced with my answer.

  I look at Rye, who’s walking along with Brad and Cam ahead of us, and take a deep breath before I look back at Andy.

  “Well, um, I have a question.” I say with uncertainty.

   “Anything.” Andy replies.

  I hesitate for a second, “Is he really like that?” I ask and he furrows his eyebrows, as he looks at me. “Rye.”

  “Why, what’s up with him?” he asks, his curiosity perceptible in the tone of his voice.

  “He’s really quiet ever since I met him earlier.” I reply.

  “Andy didn’t say anything and just smiles at me.

  “What’s with the smile?” I ask, curious about what’s on his mind right now.

  “Nothing.” he replies, his smile unfaltering. “He isn’t usually like that, he’s different from how he behaves when it’s just us.” he states.

  I just nod and we continue to walk down the sidewalk. We stop by a few more stores, before we head back home. I was just quiet on our way back, I don’t why but it bothers me so much. Andy walks me back to our house and I thank him for today, before he head to their flat. I knock on the door and after waiting for a couple seconds on the doorstep, Mom answers it.

  “Hi, sweetheart.” Mom beams. “How was your day?” she asks, as she moves at the side to let me in.

  “It was okay.” I walk into the Living room, waiting for her whilst she locks the door.

  “Well..” she trails off, looking at me expectantly.

  I plop down on the sofa and Mom sits down next to me and shifts on her seat so she’s facing me.

  “Well, I met his friends. We got to know each other, then we went to Windsor, and we ate at Nando’s.” I reply, summarizing everything that happened today and she nods.

  “How are they?” she asks.

  “Friendly, I love how they talk to me as if we’ve known each other for so long.” I shrug, fumbling with my fingers.

  “Aw, that’s nice to know, sweetheart.” she says with a smile.

  We continue to talk until it’s already ten in the evening, I get up from the sofa and tell her that I will be going upstairs already. I kiss her on the cheek, before going upstairs to my room. I take a quick shower and change into some comfortable clothes and settle down on my bed with my laptop. I go to YouTube and type, RoadTrip TV where I see a couple vlogs. Putting my earphones on, I sit back on the bed and click on their first vlog.