Home Is Where The Heart Is

Part 15

Cache Littman

Just so you know, I'm not going to do anything.

The words rang through my head as we ate ice cream. They seemed to bother me. I wanted to say I didn't know why. But deep down I did.

We finished up our ice cream, and we headed back out to the parking lot.

"Let's go to McDonald's," Mackenzie suggested. "Not much to do but we can mess around."

I couldn't help but smile to myself. Natalie's friends were so chill and easygoing. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting going in, but it was definitely something more along the lines of prideful and arrogant.

We got over to McDonald's, and Micah and Henry were debating over who could down the most Sprite the fastest.

Natalie looked at them and laughed. She walked over to the counter, and Mackenzie followed. I did not want to be left with the arguing boys, so I went too.

"Two large sprites please," Natalie asked still laughing. The cashier looked at the two boys and smiled while she took her money.

Mackenzie grabbed up the sodas and walked over to Micah and Henry. "Settle this will you?" She asked sarcastically.

"Yes ma'am," Micah replied with an equal amount of sarcasm.

They snatched up the drinks and looked at us. Mackenzie and Natalie both looked at me.

I was confused for a second, but then I got the memo. I turned to the boys and a smile spread across my face.

"On your mark. Get set, GO!" I laughed.

They immediately began to drink so furiously I thought they were going to pass out. They continued for 30 seconds before Micah slammed his down.

"I win loser!" He shouted at Henry. Henry just rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But I will get you."

I chuckled. I hadn't had fun like this in awhile. Just messing around being a dumb teenager. It was relaxing.

"Shots time," Henry then said with full energy.

The other three quickly agreed.

My eyes grew. I looked at Natalie and Henry. "Wh-What?" I stuttered.

Natalie chuckled. "Not real shots. We're not complete idiots."

I was still confused, but followed them over the a corner of the room. We stopped by the condiments.

"These shots," Micah explained, grabbing a handful of barbeque sauce cups.

I immediately felt the sense of relaxing come back. This made a lot more sense. It looked fun too. Mackenzie and Micah passed them out to us, and we all opened them up.

"Three, two, one!" Natalie counted down. We all downed the sauce. As I tilted my head back I could taste it.

What am I even doing, I thought to myself, my mother would never approve of this. But I didn't even care. I was having fun. I slammed my cup down, and found that I was first. The other four coming right after.

"Aye nice one Littman," Henry high-fived me. I smiled once again.

"Thanks."

We cleaned up our mess and headed out. We'd been here a couple hours, and decided to call it. We all called our parents, but naturally mine didn't respond.

Natalie saw me getting frustrated and walked over.

"Do you need a ride home?" She asked me.

I looked at the ground and back up. "Um... Yeah probably."