Chapter
23
When
Brian, Ashalyn, Nick, and Jenna got inside the restaurant where they would be
meeting the others, they found AJ, Howie, Serena, and Elyssa already
there. Kevin was nowhere in sight.
“Hey,
guys,” Howie greeted, when he saw the foursome approaching the large table
where they sat.
“Hey,”
Brian said, taking a seat across from Howie.
Ashalyn sat down next to him, across from Serena.
Jenna
sat down next to Ashalyn, across from AJ, and Nick sat next to her, across from
Elyssa. There was one empty seat left at
the end of the table for Kevin.
Kevin
walked in just then. “Hey, guys,” he
said, sitting down in the last seat. “Am
I late?”
“No,
you’re fine,” Brian said. “We just got
here.”
“Okay,”
Kevin said.
A
waitress came, bringing them menus and taking their drink orders. Then she left to let them decide what they
wanted to eat.
Awhile
later, their orders had been taken, their food had been served, and they were
eating, talking between bites.
Halfway
through the meal, Nick glanced next to him to see Jenna picking at the salad
she had ordered. “Something wrong?” he
asked.
She
looked up. “What?” she asked.
“You’re
not eating much. Is everything okay?” he
asked, concerned.
“Oh…
yeah, everything’s fine,” she said. “The
lettuce is a little dry, and I’m not really that hungry anyway.”
Nick
looked at her skeptically. “How could
you not be hungry? I was starved.”
She
shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never had a very big appetite.”
“You
sure you don’t want anything else? I
mean, if there’s something wrong with the salad, I could order you-“ Nick
started, but she cut him off.
“Nothing’s
wrong,” she said quickly. “The salad’s
fine. I told you, I’m just not that
hungry. You don’t have to keep
questioning me.”
“Sorry,”
Nick said, turning back to his own plate.
He didn’t say a word to Jenna the rest of lunch.
***
“Well,
you wanna do some more shopping, Ash?” Jenna asked eagerly, once they had paid
for their lunch.
“Sure,”
Ashalyn said.
“Mind
if I still tag along?” Nick asked.
“Of
course not,” Ashalyn said. “You’re
welcome to.”
“Thanks,”
Nick said. He turned to Brian. “You coming too, Rok?”
“Sure,”
Brian agreed. “Wanna come, Kev?”
“Sure,
Bri,” Kevin said. He turned back to the
four others. “Are you guys going off on
your own, or are you coming with us?”
“I
was gonna take Rena down to this cool place with all kinds of Latin stuff,”
Howie said.
“Lyssa
and I are gonna do some shopping and stuff by ourselves,” AJ said.
“Okay,”
Kevin replied.
With
that, the large group split into three smaller ones and went in opposite
directions.
***
