Eat Your Salad

Noah punched in an address on his phone, and we hailed a taxi to the nearest Jacka’s, though it was called something different here—Burger Dunce or something like that.

I’m sure everybody would assume Solstice representatives would be treated to gourmet meals cooked by multiple Michelin-starred chefs. Nope! We were eating greasy hamburgers and chips cooked by equally greasy-faced teenagers who looked like they would rather be doing anything else at that point in time.

“What is everyone getting?” Noah asked.

I’ll get ten cheeseburgers.” Pete said. There was a moment of silence before we just continued with the order. Fuck, if Pete wanted every item on the menu, we would get it for him. Even if we didn’t have the budget.

“I’ll have a hamburger and a milkshake.” Luca requested.

“They have milkshakes. Oh my god, I want one. Can I have one, please deary?” Jane begged Noah.

“Of course, anything for my sweetheart,” Noah replied, looking adoringly into her eyes. I wanted to gag, though deep in my heart, I wanted to be sappy like that with Marco. He seemed to be taking in our antics.

Given that Marco seemed alright with all our antics and since I already knew what I wanted, I signed the conversation to Darcy.

“I’ll get a milkshake too.”

“Shorty, tell Darcy that I’ll happily give her a milkshake if she wants later.” He winked.

“Ok, I’ll do that.” I turned to Darcy. “Jet’s being a tool again; pay no heed to him.”

“I’ll be sure to punish him later.” She signed back. I didn’t want to know what that meant. I think I may have to have a serious talking-to with Darcy later. She was getting awfully close to Jet. I didn’t want her to be hurt by his playboy attitude.

Going back to the rest of the group. They had continued the discussions about milkshakes.

“You think we should write a song about milkshakes?” Luca asked.

“I don’t even know how we would do that. But it would be amazing if we did,” I replied. It would be cool to do a song about milkshakes, but I wouldn’t have a clue how we could do that. I was pretty creative. But you would have to be a genius to write an entire song about milkshakes. Truly, such a song was out of our league.

“Could you imagine us returning next year to Solstice with a song about milkshakes?” Noah laughed.

“Hey, I would vote for it.” I laughed back.

“Same.” Luca nodded.

“Everyone should vote for a song about milkshakes,” Jet agreed. I couldn’t believe Jet, and I agreed about something. That must mean it is a truly worthwhile view.

With that brief moment of unity around milkshakes aside, I had to add my meal to the order.

“I’ll get an orange juice and a salad.”

“Salad?” Marco asked, horrified.

“You continue to disappoint me.” Jet added. “Do you have any redeeming qualities?”

“My shlon… hey, wait a minute. Didn’t we have this conversation before?”

“I’ll confirm on that later.”

“You quiet.” I scolded Marco for joining Jet in teasing me. “Salads are good for you. You should have some greens in your diet.”

Everyone but me decided to get milkshakes, even Pete, who already had a mountain of cheeseburgers. Marco ordered some chicken nuggets. The food came out, and boy, did it look like we had a feast on our hands.

We divvied up the food and began to chow down on it. I have to say, my salad was beginning to look somewhat bland compared to everyone else’s. I looked over to Marco, who had a bunch of chicken nuggets. God, his nugs looked good; they made me want to drool. However, I couldn't say anything after my big spill about eating healthy.

“Want one?” he asked. Well, how the hell was I supposed to turn that down? I opened my mouth wide, making an ‘ah~’ sound as I did so.

He placed his nug in my mouth, and I could feel his fingers as they grazed the side of my mouth as he did so. His nugget was warm and tasty.

“Get a room you two.” Jet called out from across the table. Despite my face turning redder than a farmer with blood pressure problems, I still managed to fling my spare fork at him, hitting him right in the middle of his face. A short time later, we finished eating. I would have to say it was a very pleasurable dinner.

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After we were done, we took a taxi to our hotel. Marco was staying at the same one, which was pretty much booked out for Solstice competitors, so it wasn’t particularly surprising. His room was down the corridor from ours.

To save costs, we decided to split rooms, and I ended up with Darcy. Jet and Pete got put together, Noah and Jane, of course, decided to share a double bed, and Luca also had a room with them.

“Ok, well, night people,” Noah called as he and Jane waved before disappearing into their room. Luca followed as well.

“They have more than six channels!” I could hear Pete yelling from his room. Darcy was writing something to Jet, and he nodded before heading off to join Pete.

“See you later tonight,” Marco winked at me as I felt my face turning red. I intended to sneak out later, but how he framed it made me embarrassed. I nodded, and then we departed to each of our own rooms.

Once I had unpacked things, enough time had passed that I was convinced I could sneak out without anybody noticing. Well, almost anybody.

“Darcy, I’m going to spend the night with Marco. Will you be alright by yourself?”

“I already figured you would. Have a wonderful evening. Don’t come back too soon.” She smiled and waved me off. I can’t believe it. It had been years since Marco and I spent the night together. Not since we were kids. There was a lot to catch up on. A lot to discuss. 

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End of Chapter 5