• Roxy •
Mari had driven Ashton, Diana, and I to the restaurant while Michael, Luke, and Calum had gone in Michael's car. We pulled up right next to each other and ran inside to escape the increasing chill.
We got a table in the corner of the noisy restaurant and Ashton and I ended up sitting across from each other. Mari sat next to Michael, leaning her head on his shoulder, and Calum sat next to me with Luke and Diana to his other side.
"Mari, we could share a pizza if that's what you want," Michael suggested, looking down at the menu and running a hand through his hair.
"I ain't sharing with you," Mari replied, stealing his menu and looking over it by herself. Michael rolled his eyes and laughed.
"Ashton, do you know what you want?" Diana asked, obviously trying to make him feel included. If anyone was the mom of the friend group, it was most definitely Diana.
"There's a lot of options, I haven't quite made my decision yet," he replied. Whenever he talked to people, he started grinning widely and giggling.
"If you don't want to get pizza, they also make really great burgers," Luke suggested.
The waitress came by and took all of our drink orders.
"So Ashton, how was your first day at an American high school?" Mari asked. I just sort of listened and observed, it was what I felt comfortable with.
"It was pretty good!" He replied. "Not all that much different from Australian high school to be perfectly honest, other than the weather."
"Don't you and Roxy have a bunch of classes together?" Calum asked. He had been with us in our fifth hour class.
"Yeah, all except for the last two periods," Ashton said. "It's kinda funny how that worked out, actually. I'm really glad I had Roxy to show me around — I might've gotten lost without her."
I glanced up from the table at just the wrong time, like I had at the airport. Ashton was looking at me and I met his eyes. The corner of his mouth turned up into a little grin and he brushed another curl off of his forehead, never breaking eye contact until Diana spoke to him again and he turned to her.
"That is really lucky!" She said. "It's pretty easy to get lost in the building if you don't know where you're going. Lots of levels and hallways."
"I actually did get lost on my first day of freshman year," Luke added. "That's when I met Diana — she showed me where my class was and told me that I was really stupid."
"Nothing's changed," Diana mumbled, but Luke had heard her nevertheless. He gave her a playful little shove and she laughed.
The waitress came back with our drinks and took our orders. Mari and Mikey both ordered their own pizzas even though they got the same toppings because they refused to share their food, Luke and Diana both got burgers, and Calum, Ashton, and I all ordered a large cheese pizza.
Mari had somehow migrated from her chair onto Michael's lap and they were laughing loudly about something stupid. Ashton caught my attention.
"Do they do that a lot?" He asked in a voice just slightly above a whisper.
"Do what?" I asked in reply.
"I dunno, they're just kind of all over each other," he said. "I mean, it's not bothering me or anything, I was just observing."
"Yeah, they're kind of physical," I replied. "You get used to it."
Mari and Michael were definitely the couple that was touching each other all the time but, like I said, you get used to it.
