Chapter 16. OTW part 2//Pizza Night

"You ready?" Ben says to me while turning on the car. "Yep," I reply. I made sure to bring my snacks, phone, earphones, and a pillow just in case. "We're gonna follow your parents right?" he asks. "Yep," I reply again. "So, how was the drive so far?" He says. "It was fine, mostly just sat in the car and ate snacks the whole time," I say. "That's great," He chuckles "I just talked to my parents for a bit then just hung out on my phone." I nod in reply. "You think you can handle driving on the windy roads up the mountain?" I ask. I mean, he has only started driving. "I don't know, maybe I'll drive us off a cliff, who knows." He says nonchalantly. I gasp, "Don't say that! I'm scared of heights you know,"

"I'm kidding, and yes we'll be fine. Otherwise, my parents wouldn't have let me drive," he says laughing. "Promise you won't drive us off a cliff?" I say looking at him. "Promise," he says. Then, out of nowhere Ben just swerves the car catching me off-guard. "Ahh!" I scream. "Why would you do that!?" he laughs and says, "I'm not driving us off a cliff am I, I still have permission to do this though." I chuckle, "You're mean." I say to him. "Not all the time," he replies

•♦•

We've made it to the mountain and we stopped earlier to make sure with Ben's parents that he's fine driving up the mountain. "Oh slow down! Look, there's Bridal Falls!" I say pointing to the small waterfall on the side of the mountain. "Oh, I forgot about that! Small waterfall but still, very exciting," he says I nod as we pass by and some people pulled over to take pictures. "You want a chip?" I ask handing him a bag. "Yeah sure, isn't this like the second chip bag you opened already?" He says reaching in and grabbing one. "So?" I reply with food in my mouth still. He laughs at me while averting his gaze back towards the road.

"How was your nap?" He asks. "It was alright even though it only lasted 15 minutes," I say. "Mmm I see, Whatcha listening to? You can always just connect your phone to the car," He says to me. "Oh yeah, it's nothing," I reply to him. "Why won't you tell me what song? You usually do," He says laughing. "I'm not listening to anything," I say. "Well, something's obviously playing," he says looking at my phone. He taps on it and sees the audio bar, "Boyfriend ASMR? What the heck is that?" he asks with a confused face. I want to die. "What? I wasn't listening to that," I lie. Alright, before you come at me, I just listen to it because it's comforting alright.

"Hm, why do you listen to this stuff?" he asks. "I told you, I wasn't. It just was on autoplay," I say. "I'm just asking, and the only way you would've been recommended that is if you were listening to something similar," he says still focused on the road. "Fine, jeez, I just like their voices and it's, I don't know, comforting?" I reply still embarrassed. He nods. He probably thinks I'm weird now. I shouldn't have made the mistake to play it in the first place. God, I'm so dumb! "What's up? You look weird." He says glancing at me. I wipe the distressed and embarrassed look off my face and clear my voice, "Oh, I'm fine."

"No your not. Look, I honestly don't care if you listen to that. As long as it helps you relax in a way, I don't mind." he shrugs. "Oh, sorry," I say. "No, you're fine," he replies.

After we finally make it down the mountain we finally enter the city. "I haven't been here in so long," I say. "Me neither," Ben says. "It'd be cooler if we went there in the winter because then there'd be snow," I say looking around at the shops. "Yeah that's when we went last time, and thanks for inviting us." He says. "Yeah no problem, it was my dad's idea anyways."

By now, it's around 6 pm so I think we're gonna go out for dinner once we drop everything off at the house first. "Is this the house?" he asks. "Yep, it looks small on the outside but it's pretty big on the inside," I say.

I get out of the car and stretch. "Hi mom," I say walking towards her. "Hi honey, how was the ride?" she asks. "Oh you know, we had to fight dragons on the way here but it's fine," I say sarcastically. She laughs and says, "Oh really, surprised you're still alive!" she says going along with the joke. I usually just joke around with my mom a lot and try to make her as happy as possible. I don't like it when people get sad, not even myself.

I greet my dad while he opens the door and I walk in the house to be greeted by its nostalgic scent. It really just smells like an old house, to be honest. Most of the things here are old too, like the TV is old, the couches are old, as well as the kitchen and bedrooms. But, it's still nice and you can live in it. "Oh wow, it still looks the same," Tom says. "Yeah, we don't visit as often so we don't get to do much to it." My dad says.

I take off my shoes and bring my bag to the first room down the hallway. There are 4 rooms and two bathrooms. My room has the bunk bed which Ate Gemma and I usually share when she joins us. My parents take the room in front of mine and beside their room are two other rooms which have the other bathroom. Tom and Debby take the first room next to our parents and Ben take the room next to theirs. So imagine an "L" but make it backward and sideways if that helps and then my room would be on the short side of the "L".

Once I was done placing my bags in the room, I go and sit down on the couch opposite of Ben. "I like the house," he says. "Thanks yeah, nice to be back," I reply. "What's the wifi password?" he asks. "Oh yeah there's no wifi here, and T-mobile doesn't reach over here so there's no data here either. Sorry," I say. "Oh, that's fine," he says. "I downloaded some movies on my laptop, and when we go out you can download some more and music too," I say trying to lighten the mood. "Sure, that sounds great," he says.

"Where do you guys want to eat?" My dad asks. "Anything is fine," Tom says. "You guys are the guests, it's your choice." My mom says. "I kind of want pizza," Ben says joining in. "Yeah, same," I say. "Okay, pizza?" My dad says to Tom. "Yeah pizza's fine," Tom and Debby reply. To save gas, we brought our SUV that holds like 8 people. So we all just take our car. Or is it a truck? It's fine. My dad and Tom sit in the front, my mom and Debby sit in the middle row, and Ben and I sit in the back.

"Wait, which pizza place are we going to?" I ask my dad. "Uhh, Blue Dog Pizza, why?" My dad asks. "Oh, I was just asking," I say.

We back out of the driveway and head to the pizza place. A/N: Blue Dog Pizza is an actual place in Lake Tahoe and I believe I have been there before! "I'm so hungry," Ben says to me. "Same, I haven't eaten since 12 and all I had was a grilled cheese sandwich," I say. "I just had some mac n' cheese," He replies. "I was thinking about that but I got lazy," I say laughing. He chuckles and says, "Seems like something you'd do." "Hey! I'm not lazy all the time," I say with my mouth wide open. "Okay, suit yourself," He says smiling.

A lot is going on in the car, my dad and Tom talking in the front, my mom and Debby catching up and gossiping in the middle, and me and Ben singing in the back while the radio plays. This is pretty usual for me since me and my cousins travel together a lot.

Once we arrived, we sat down and ordered. As usual, the waiters couldn't hear me order so I had to raise my voice multiple times. It was pretty packed and we were lucky enough to at least get seats inside. I got a small combination pizza that I think I'm going to share with someone.

After we were finished with our food, I looked up to see Ben talking to someone. "Hey man! Long time no see." Ben says to a guy who looks about our age. "What's good!" he says while giving him that handshake that like every guy does. "What brings you here?" the guy says. "Oh yeah, my parents' friends invited us here," Ben says to him. "I see, who's this here, you got another girlfriend?" he says. I feel can already feel the embarrassment coming, how dumb is this guy? Ben literally said that his PARENT'S FRIENDS invited him. Why would you bring your girlfriend?

"Oh right, yeah no, she's not my girlfriend. That's their daughter who's my friend now, Jill this is Tyler, Tyler this is Jill." Ben says looking at us. "Oh well hello there," Tyler says smiling. "Hi," I say awkwardly. I'm surprised our parents haven't noticed us talking yet. "Yeah Tyler used to live near us and then he moved here," he says. I nod while taking a fry from the basket. Tyler goes and says hi to Ben's parents and they greet him back. He seems nice. if he knows his parents then that probably means they were close friends.

We make some small talk for a while and I give him my snap just because he asked. "I'll text you later," he says leaving. I smile and wave to him as he leaves. "You guys ready to head home?" my dad says after paying the check. "Yep, I'm so full now," I say leaning back into my seat.

I get into the car and I think I'm falling into a food coma. I yawn and fall asleep.

Ben

We get into the car and Jill looks really tired, I think she's falling into a food coma. I chuckle to myself and notice as she falls asleep on the seatbelt. As we turn around the corner, her head falls onto my shoulder. I freeze not knowing what to do, should I just move her head back? No, she'll probably notice, I think I'm just not going to move.

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A/N: Omg this took me a while to write. I keep forgetting to update the book and then it gets all messed up. This chapter has been on my mind for a while now too, I got Grammarly and I don't have the premium so right now I have 99+ premium mistakes. So, I don't have money for that and I'm just going to depend on the free one. I also literally typed the rest of this chapter during class. But at least I got it finished and I thank my fast typing skills and Grammarly. Also, do you think Tyler is sus? Why or why not, let me know!

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