Safe

Chapter 4

"Who was that you were talking to?" Ava cuts to it as we all take our seats in the booth.

This place smells like heaven. As a Vietnamese – American, I LOVE Vietnamese food, but if I had to pick a second favorite, it would be Korean food. I don't know what it is, but their flavors are AMAZING. Los Angeles has great Korean food and is practically known to have great food choices overall.

Breaking through my thoughts, Ava waves her hand in my face, "Hello?!" pulling me out from my daydream of food.

Trying to comprehend the situation and the question, I run through what I want to say. I have to phrase this right or else they're all going to take it out of context, "Sorry, I accidentally spilled some water, or ice, or ice water on this guy while I was looking for the RR, " crossing my index and middle finger together to sign the letter's "RR".

My ears begin to ring, as I hear my cousins laughing so loud, it hurts my head a little bit. Huh, maybe this is the downhill of drinking.

Nicole breaks her laugh first, "Did he stop you to stick it back in your face or something?" Nicole wonders as she picks up the menu, trying her best to slow down her breathing from the laughter.

Honestly, I don't know? I think to myself. I can't really tell what his intentions were when he stopped me, "No, he just said thanks for helping..." I narrow my eyes a bit at the wall ahead of me trying to remember exactly what he said, "...I think."

I can't remember much of what happened as it has slipped my mind completely since coming here. All I can think about now is eating this delicious food.

--

As the waiter takes our order we decide that soju would be a smart choice. It's only fair that we make responsible decisions like these.

Soon after he collects our menu, our conversation leads to talking about what we are going to do tomorrow. It is obvious neither one of us is going to wake up early, so we have to plan out the routes precisely enough to do everything we can do while I'm still here.

Belle jots down all of our ideas and maps out each location making sure we are in the time frame. I'm adamant about making sure I make the best of the time I have here. I don't know when I will be back, so it's critical to me that I get to see and do as much as I can.

As our food makes its way out, my mouth begins to water, watching our waiter place the meal in front of us.  Once it is all set, I begin to devour what's in front of me, listening to conversations about small stops in between our trip. I'm too busy inhaling my food to care about them.

All of a sudden, as if my sensitivity for loud noise weren't already reached, a loud group of people slams through the restaurant door. They must have been drunker than us.

Turning to see the look on our waiter's faces, he drops his head to confirm our suspicion as the group files in one by one. Poor guy. We all give him a knowing smile as he walks away, to take care of the new table.

Lance can see them clearly from his side of the booth as he squinks his nose together, "Poor guy, those other guys are drunk as fuck," he declares, clearly hearing them from the booth behind us.

As my side of the seat begins to shake, indicating that they have taken a seat, I continue to pay them no attention. That is until I hear one of them say, "Dude, why were you staring at that random girl so hard?"

Interesting.

A voice, almost familiar to me, responds, "Bro, lower your voice, would you? And I wasn't staring at her, I just, just, just, needed to thank her for something."