Me and the Gretchen Boys

Chapter 22: Chocolates

    After Mrs.Gretchen and I are done laughing, we quickly hide the goods where the boys are definitely not going to find them.

   "Oh! When did you guys get here?" A deep voice asks causing Mrs.Gretchen and I to jump. I hurriedly throw the last item in its hidding spot. I turn around to see Mr.Gretchen standing in the doorway staring at us.

   Mrs.G runs up to him and jumps in his arms giving him a huge hug. He stumbles back a little but instantly wraps his arms around her.

    "We came in through the back door." Mrs.Gretchen simply states pushing her husband along. I nod in agreement.

    Mr.G still looks like he wants to ask more questions, but Mrs.G gave him the "do not push it" look.

   "W-well, since your guys made it home we can have dinner." He says, with obvious fear laced in his voice.

   With that, we set up the table and the boys come down not too long after. The smell of the food instantly hits my nose and my causes my mouth to water. It smells like we're having spaghetti today with breadsticks. Then the food comes out and is set on the table.

I take a seat with my eyes glued on the food, never wavering. A commotion comes from both sides of me. I look to my left and watch Justin quickly take the seat beside me. To my right Christian scrambles to get into the other seat next to me fighting off Lance. I do a double glance at both of them and they smile brightly at me. I look across the table and Lance goofily smiles and dwindles his fingers at me. Dontae, Noah, and Shawn fill in the rest of the seats.

I ignore what's going on around me and focus on the food. I lick my lips and get ready to dig in when extra food gets dumped on my plate. My head turns to the right and I catch Christian in the act of giving me more food.

"Here. Don't be shy." Christian says in a loving tone smiling at me. He continues to pile more food on my plate.

"Stop that!" those words leave someone else's mouth before I can get to it. Everyone's head turns to where the voice came from.

Justin.

I can see his chest heave up and down and his eyes squinted at Christian. Everyone stares at him in shock because Justin never yells.

It's clear that after his little outburst he is embarrassed. I give him a small pat on the leg to show him it's ok. I begin to pull my hand away, but he catches it. I get flustered and can feel my body temperature rise. Lance seems to notice and makes a little jerking movement under the table.

"Ow!" Justin yells, "I know you kicked me, Lance!"

"No, it wasn't me. I'm pretty sure Dontae did it."

"No. I. Did. Not. Lance kicked you because he got jealous of seeing you hold hands with Carmen." Dontae responds quickly shooting Lance a dirty look.

"Why did you have your filthy hands on Carmen?" Christian snaps glaring at Justin.

"L-let's just leave Carmen out of this," Noah says. His voice comes out so timid compared to all the loud arguing. I almost didn't even hear him.

"Carmen, I apologize for you having to deal with these idiots. They are very annoying." Shawn apologizes. He sounds so classy and looks so unbothered.

"Can someone please hand me a napkin?" I interrupt in hopes of ending the argument.

"Here." All six boys answer in unison, with each of them handing me a napkin. I'm surrounded on all sides of me by napkins and they all stare at me expectantly waiting for my choice.