I sit in iHop with Alesa, looking over the menu for something that looks like it'd be good.

"Oh no-" Alesa mutters, staring over at something.

I turn my head, keeping my eyes on Alesa before my curiosity gets the best of me and I let my eyes flick over to what she's looking at.

The first person I see is Adam. Then my heart drops.

He has Barney, Jordan, Nick and.. Red with him.

Jordan looks over at me, looks straight ahead then looks at me again.

I maintain eye contact with him for a couple of seconds, but Red places a hand on his shoulder, getting his attention.

I feel my face heat up.

I point to the bathrooms and Alesa nods a bit.

I scoot my chair out a bit and freeze for a couple of seconds when I realize I have to walk past them.

I take a shaky breath and walk forward, Adam doing a double take when he sees me, his eyes wide.

I glance at him and shake my head slightly then nod towards the bathroom.

A hostess walks up towards the counter, but not fast enough.

It seems like everything is going in slow motion as I walk by the group of people, most of them not paying any attention to me aside from Jordan and Adam.

I walk into the bathroom and quickly go into a stall then close it and lock it then lean against the door.

I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this..

Seeing Red made my face flush. I can still feel the heat on my cheeks.

He didn't look at me, so that's a good thing. I didn't want him to see me looking like a tomato.

I stand there for a couple more seconds before I slowly walk out of the stall.

My face had cooled down, and I walk out of the bathroom then go back to our table.

I sit back down across from Alesa and act as if nothing happened.

"You alright?" She asks softly.

I nod a bit, but don't take my eyes off of the menu as I try to decide on either waffles or pancakes.

I notice that the guys are all sitting about halfway across the restaurant from us, but I don't look over at them.

Alesa looks at something behind me then raises the menu a bit to cover her face.

I furrow my eyebrows and turn then flinch a bit when I see a man walking over to me.

Nick.

What the hell is he doing?

"Hey, uh, one of my friends thinks your cute and I came over to get your number for him because he's too scared to do so himself."

I look over Nick's shoulder and see Red laughing at Jordan, who's hiding his face, and Adam is looking over in our direction, hoping that Nick doesn't realize I'm here with Alesa.

I look back at Nick and turn then grab a pen from the table, grab a little napkin and quickly write my name; TJ on it, along with my phone number and smile a bit then hand it to Nick.

"Alright, thanks." He says and smiles then turns and leaves.

My heart is literally pounding right now.

I take a couple of breaths before I turn back to Alesa who lowers the menu from her face.

N i c k

"Well, you weren't lying Jordan. She is pretty," I say as I bring my glass to my lips.

"I still can't believe you did that," he says and huffs, his cheeks still tinted pink as he takes his hand away from his face.

"Well you weren't going to do it yourself, so I went and did it for you. Here you go," I say and hand him the napkin with her name and number on it.

He takes it and rolls his eyes at me then puts it into his pocket.

"But she was pretty, c'mon." I say then look at Adam, who looks over at her for a couple seconds before turning back to the table and nods.

"Yeah. Red?"

"Hmm?" He hums.

I look at Red and roll my eyes before kicking his shin.

"Oww! What?!" Red says and looks up from his phone.

"Ever since you started dating Lacey you haven't looked up from that box." I scoff. "The girl back there," I say and point my thumb over my shoulder towards her. "She's pretty. You agree?"

He looks at her, stares for about five seconds before nodding a bit. "Yeah." He says softly and tilts his head back down, only this time not looking at his phone that's dinging over and over.

I sigh and roll my eyes then turn my head to the waitress as she brings out food out.

T J

I trace my fingers along the glass of the sea otter tank, one of them swimming along the glass, following my fingers.

I smile a bit at the sleek brown creature that occasionally does a barrel roll or goes up for air, it's paws occasionally touching the glass to kick off and swim in a pattern.

"TJ, come on," Alesa says and waves me over as she places Mason into his stroller.

I turn away from the otter and follow her out of the little covered area, where she then takes me to where we can see elephants.

I look through the glass at the large, grey animals walking around, one or two just standing still.

We don't stop walking though. We just walk through all the animal exhibits for another hour or so, until we go back to the car.

"You have fun?" Alesa asks as we pull out of the parking lot.

I smile and nod as I pluck off a tuft of my cotton candy and put it into my mouth, the fluffy blue substance quickly melting.

---

So I had fun writing this chapter :3
You guys make me love writing so much more than I'd expected cx <3
And fam. There's literally a Pokémon Go convention in Portland that I'm going to with a few friends (trimet ride gonna be long af) and Ima see a friend I haven't seen in like three or four months so I'm a little nervous.
But hey.
Pokemans. Lel.
Next chappie should be out in a couple of days :3