Trouble in Paradise?
Chapter Twenty Six

When I woke up the next day, I was on the floor.

Blake had pushed me onto the floor.

He was spread out on his bed surrounded by empty pints of ice cream. I was on the carpeted yet uncomfortable floor. At least someone had the decency to put a pillow under my head and a blanket on me.

I glared at Blake’s sleeping form and crossed my arms. After a minute of doing this, I got up and stretched. I tried to be as quiet as possible as I snuck past Blake and headed for the door. When I opened it, praying that it didn’t sneak, I almost laughed.

Xavier, Ethan and Jordan had fallen asleep leaning against the walls. I knew then that they must all truly be best friends.

None of them woke up as I snuck downstairs. Thankfully, the house was empty. I searched around the kitchen for a glass, finally finding one. When I went to fill it up with water at the tap, I almost back flipped onto the ceiling when I heard a voice.

“What’re you doing?”

I jumped so high that I nearly hit the fan above. “HOLY FUCK WHAT THE F-?”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as I was trying to catch the glass I nearly dropped and shattered.

I turned around to see Ethan. “You almost killed me. My dead body would’ve been lying here.”

“I think you’re exaggerating,” he chuckled, getting the milk out of the fridge.

“My gravestone would’ve read: ‘Stephanie, died of a heart attack.’” I huffed, filling up my glass with water and drinking the whole thing in one go.

He rolled his eyes and started gulping down the milk.

“You know, drinks go in glasses for a reason,” I stated. “What a perfectly good milk carton. Wasted with your germs.”

“Afraid of boy germs, are we?” he smirked, and continued drinking.

“That sentence is a trap in itself,” I replied. “I’m leaving, before you cleverly think of a way to spread your boy germs on me.”

I went back upstairs, where Jordan was lying on the ground with an explicit drawing on his head. Specifically, a picture of the male genitals.

I looked at Xavier, who seemed barely able to contain his laughter.

“This was you, wasn’t it?” I whispered, starting to lose it myself.

“Ethan’s idea, my execution of the idea,” he proudly stated, taking pictures of Jordan.

When Jordan started to wake up, Blake was suddenly interested in something on his phone while I casually inspected a wall.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Jordan said, oblivious to the whole situation.

“Oh nothing much,” Xavier replied. “Stef and I were just talking about how much we hated dickheads.”

I nearly laughed, but played it off as a cough instead. “Yep, totally. Hate them with a passion.”

Jordan laughed nervously. “Okay? Sounds like fun?”

“Yep, really fun. So much fun happening over here,” Xavier said. I wanted to reach over and slap him before he ruined the joke.

Just then, the door to Blake’s room flew open and Blake walked out. Seeing us, he plastered a smile on his face. “Guys, I just had a beyond brilliant idea.” He stared at Jordan for a split second before seeing my expression. Realisation set in as he kept talking.

“We should all go camping!” he said excitedly. “Us five in a forest, almost getting eaten alive by bears. We’ll have a great time!”

“Oh yeah, I love camping. Making s’mores, having bonfires, erecting tents... sounds awesome dude!” Xavier replied. Again, my hand itches to slap him.

“I’m up for it,” Jordan shrugged.

“Me too,” I added in. Just then, Ethan came back upstairs and joined the conversation.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We’re all going camping. Wanna come?” Blake asked like an excited puppy about to get a treat. He wanted to have fun, and I would be damned if I couldn’t help him have fun.

“I’ll check the dates, but sure I guess,” said Ethan. “All five of us?”

Blake nodded in response.

“Anyone up for breakfast?” I asked. “We could stay here and cook, or go out?”

“Let’s go out, I don’t want Jordan in my kitchen,” Blake replied, glaring at Jordan while Jordan shrugged.

“Okay, we’ll leave soon,” Xavier said, getting up.

It was a bit late, but I then realised that I was still in my Captain America pajamas. I sighed. “Blake, got any spare clothes I could wear?”

“Not any that’ll fit you, but yeah,” he said, beckoning me to follow him. I did so.

“By the way Jordan,” Blake called out before we all went in different directions. “You have a penis on your forehead.”

Jordan bolted to the bathroom. Seconds later, we heard “WHAT THE FUCK?” Everyone laughed.

Twenty minutes later, we walked into a pancake parlour. I was wearing an oversized Star Wars shirt with jeans that I had to roll up. It looked alright I supposed. Probably better than Captain America pajamas.

I had never been here before, but it smelled amazing and I was starving. We got our menus and started browsing.

“I’m gonna have the ice cream covered chocolate chip and fudge double pancake,” Jordan said. “With a coke on the side.”

How do boys eat so much?

I seriously didn’t get it as I read through the menu. I decided on some butter pancakes covered in strawberry syrup, with custard on the side. I just decided on some water with it as well.

The boys ordered huge meals, and of course wouldn’t gain a kilo (those fuckers).

Anyway, our food arrived and it was purely heaven. We all started eating as soon as the plates were set on the table.

I then noticed that Blake had brought a backpack with him, and it looked overloaded. “What’s in the bag?”

“Homework, books..” He opened it up, revealing tons of papers and binders. “Mostly school stuff.”

“Jesus.”

“I don’t think he’d fit.”

I flicked him on the forehead.

I finished off my pancakes as Jordan and Xavier discussed something. When I finally zoned in, they were talking about school lockers.

“I’m gonna move out of mine,” Jordan declared.

“Why?”

“Because it’s disgusting,” he commented. “Filled with germs.”

“It’s a locker,” I said. “Not a toilet bowl.”

He shrugged for the third time today. “Don’t care. I’m moving out of home guys, I know you all will miss me.” He faked a tear rolling down his face.

“Can I have your laptop?” Xavier asked hopefully.

Jordan narrowed his eyes. “No.”

“Damn.”

After the boys finished their pancakes, we paid the bill and walked out.

“Anyone wanna go to the movies?” Jordan suggested. “I’m still hungry.”

I looked at him with a bewildered look. “How are you still hungry?”

“That was barely a meal,” he replied, and I wore a weird look.

“I’d like to go,” Xavier added in. “I’m in the mood for a movie.”

“I’ll go, just as long as you idiots don’t pick a crappy movie like last time,” Ethan interjected.

“To be fair, that was Blake’s fault,” said Jordan.

“It was not,” Blake scoffed. “It was your fault. And it was a good movie!”

“You know what? This year, I’m getting you a dictionary for Christmas.”

“Why?”

“So you can look up the definition of ‘good’.” Jordan chuckled. “I’m not sure you know what it means.”

“Oh shut up, both of you,” I lazily told them. “Let’s go to the cinema.”

We took Blake’s car to the cinema, which was pretty empty. The air was ninety nine percent popcorn, and it smelled delicious.

“What movie?” I asked. “Action? Horror?” I tried to come up with some suggestions. None of them were helping.

Finally, someone spoke. “We’ll just go pick a movie when we go up there,” Ethan. “They can just deal with what we pick.”

However, the other three weren’t listening. They were wasting all of their coins on claw games. I rolled my eyes and walked with Ethan to the counter, were a bored staff member stood. He looked young, probably our age.

I looked at the movies on at this time. We ended up deciding on some horror movie.

“Five tickets please,” Ethan said, getting out his wallet. I held mine in my hand. “What food do we get?”

“Um,” I said. “Five small popcorns and five drinks please.”

The cashier told us our final price, and Ethan froze. I peeked and saw that his wallet was completely empty. I quickly grabbed mine out and handed the cashier a few notes. “It’s on me,” I said to Ethan.

“Thank you,” he barely whispered back, nodding his head. We got the five tickets and food, which we could barely hold. We filled up our drinks at the machine, and then walked over to the others who greedily snatched their popcorn.

As I watched them, I had the sudden feeling of gratefulness wash over me. I was grateful that these boys, all four of them, were my friends.

We went into the movie, where Xavier sat down on my right while Blake and Jordan argued, like usual. Thankfully, the cinema was empty so we were the only ones in there. No one else could hear their intelligent arguments.

“I want to sit next to Stef,” Blake pouted. “I’m better than you.”

Jordan scowled. “No, I want to sit here!”

Then, Ethan pushed past them both and sat down on my left. “Sit down and shut up, both of you,” he said in a cool manner, with a somewhat joking tone.

They sighed and sat down, beginning to munch on popcorn. The movie started, the lights dimming.

And throughout the whole movie, I laughed at Xavier losing it during the jump scares. I watched Ethan tell Blake to keep quiet whenever he started ranting. And Jordan threw popcorn at me every five seconds.

However, it was still the best day I’ve had in a while.

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