a long way from home ; g.d.

t w e n t y - s i x

Once we were all ready, we left the hotel and headed directly to Dave and Busters. We had to take a raincheck on it the other night since it was closed. It was fairly busy, and everyone in their looked to be at least our age or a little older.

We didn't split up this time, and took turns following whichever one of us decided to lead the rest. Ethan and Grayson ran for the motorcycle games, while Emma, James, and I got sodas and walked around looking for any game that looked halfway fun.

Eventually we found one across the building from where Ethan and Grayson were. I went against Emma at electric pinball. "I'll bet you 10 bucks I win," I said cooly. She laughed. "We'll see about that."

And sure enough, I won. She rolled her eyes and dropped a 10 in my hand and I stuffed it into my pocket.

We both looked over at James, who was staring at something a few yards away at the concession stand. It was a cute guy, with long brown hair and a nose ring. He was tall and skinny, and had piercing blue eyes. He was staring back in James' direction.

"What the hell are you still doing here? Go talk to him," Emma said. He grimaced. "I don't know, we aren't gonna be in New York much longer."

I shrugged. "So? Doesn't have to be anything serious. Guy's gotta eat, right?"

He smirked. "I like the way you think." He walked away from us and headed towards him.

"Think we should try to find Thing #1 and Thing #2?" Emma asked as we wandered around the room.

Ethan and Grayson came running up towards us, completely out of breath. "We're out of tokens," Grayson panted.

"We don't have any either. But I'm hungry and the pizza here is horrible," Emma said.

"Yeah we are too. Wanna get James so we can go?" Ethan asked, fanning himself off with the neck of his shirt.

Emma and I glanced back at James, who was still talking and laughing with the cute guy at the concession stand. "I think James is good," I said, pointing, my thumb in their direction.

"I'll just text him," Grayson said. He took out his phone and typed. We were still looking over at James, who was looking down to check his phone. He looked across the room from us and gave us a thumbs up.

After we left, we ordered to-go Chinese food from a small restaurant dowm the street and headed back to the hotel. I almost felt nervous walking into the lobby. I kept expecting my family to be standing there, waiting for me. We rode up the elevator to their floor and walked into their room.

We all changed into more comfortable clothes, and ate our food and watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective until we were done. By then it was about 10:30, so we decided to get ready for bed. I turned off all the lights and climbed into bed next to Grayson.

Ethan and Emma fell asleep in shortly after, while Grayson and I stayed awake to finish the movie. I was laying on his chest, playing with the front of his shirt. His hand was running up and down my back, the other behind his head. "Gray, can I ask you something?" I asked quietly. "Anything," he answered. "What are we gonna do? If I do have to go back."

"I thought you said we weren't gonna bring it up until next morning."

I shrugged. "The night's pretty much over."

He let out a long sigh. "I do have one thing in mind, but it's a pretty big deal and an even bigger decision."

I turned my head away from the TV and towards him. "And what is that?"

He looked away from the TV too, and let his eyes meet mine.
"You could come to L.A. with us."