CHAPTER 72: FOOD ADVENTURE

I stare, dumbfound, at Malik who grins at me looking weirdly proud as well as excited. I turn to the guy standing beside Malik with a slightly better expression. A little smile, amused and slightly apologetic but nonetheless proud. Keaton. The other guy, I mean. I look behind them and see Malik's car. So they came together, that's good to know. Or not? I frown to myself.

"Hey baby," Malik greets me first. He tugs me and plants a kiss on my lips before letting me go and push me in front of Keaton.

Smiling slightly, Keaton also tugs me and pecks me fleetingly. He keeps holding my hand with one of his and brushing my bangs aside with another and patting my head, maybe trying to calm me down or at least makes me snap out of my trance.

"Explain?" I ask them, trying to not make this weirder than it's supposed to.

"Well, you and Malik did make an appointment first, but I'm going for the trip later tonight and I really want to see you before I go, so I called Malik and asked for his permission on whether or not I can tag along," Keaton explains, trying to apologize.

"Well, we weren't going to go on a date or anything like that," Malik says to me and I nod in agreement, but still.

"And you're actually okay with it?" I ask Keaton somehow in intrigue as well as confusion.

"I'll take what I can get," he smiles at me reassuringly.

"I told him we'll be fucking once he leaves so we'd better just skip the lunch and head to my place for some session before he leaves but he refused," Malik grins at me. I roll my eyes before smacking his arms.

"Be decent. This is a school," I glare at him although I can't help but chuckle especially after I see Keaton's troubled look. "He won't have sex with me unless I agree to be his boyfriend or something," I tell Malik, shrugging.

"Or something," Keaton smiles a little shyly.

"You do you," Malik says to Keaton, shrugging, "but don't expect me to stop seeing Lee just because of that," he says with a grin although he seems pretty serious.

"As long as he's not my boyfriend yet, I will not meddle in his business," Keaton says, promising, especially to me. He gives me his dimpled smile and I swoon and damn his gorgeous face.

"Keep doing that and it won't be long," Malik laughs, seeing my reaction. "You cheating with that dimple of yours, you know that, huh?" he adds, accusingly only for Keaton to smile wider and wink at him.

"Whatever," I wave at them, tired, and just deciding to let whatever it is run its course, "what are we doing today, then?" I ask, looking at both of them.

"The lunch at that fusion place you want to try," Malik reminds me, before turning to Keaton, "and a drink at my place," he grins. Keaton rolls his eyes but he nods finally.

"Fine," he gives up in the end.

"We'll take you to the airport later," Malik offers, "just tell your people to bring your luggage there and we'll meet them when it's time, so we can spend more time and drink more booze, that good?" he asks.

"Sure," Keaton smiles, looking slightly grateful and somehow embarrassed before he takes out his phone and starts texting whomever it is he texts for stuff like that.

"Shall we go now, then?" Malik asks.

"Let's go," I say and am about to enter the car when I hear my name being called.

"Lee." I stop and the smile leaves my face and I sigh before turning around to face my best friend who looks positively furious.

"Chuck," I greet him with no smile. He stares at me before turning to stare at the two other guys.

"Keaton du Bois?" Chuck stares at Keaton unsure.

"Charles Lester," Keaton greets back with a smile and a handshake offer which Chuck takes albeit hesitatingly and suspiciously.

"Malik Amin," Malik introduces himself to Chuck who nods and shakes his hand.

"Chuck," he says. "Lee's friends?" he asks and i roll my eeys at how stupid that question sounds.

"Of course they are," I tell him.

"Going somewhere?" Chuck asks, staring at me, His eyes have no smile whatsoever and I can see his muscles tauting and he probably will do something stupid like scream at me or worse.

"Yes," I tell him, not willing to say more.

"Lee," Chuck tries to argue with me again, I just know it.

"A word?" I sigh, grabbing him and dragging him away after throwing Malik and Keaton an apologetic smile. I drag him a good distance away from the other two before letting his arm go and me turning around to glare at him. "What is your problem?" I ask him.

"What's yours?" Chuck asks back, scoffing, "you look far nervous for someone with no problems," he mocks me and well, I kinda deserve that and it's kidan true so I'm speechless.

"Fine," I say, glaring, "be that way, then," I turn around and about to leave when he grabs me and makes me turn back around to face him once again and the anger on his face is so apparent I can't help but to cower.

"For fuck's sake, Lee," he hisses at me, "what the fuck are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, slightly trembling as I try to free myself from his clutch which just gets stronger the more I struggle.

"Do you think I didn't see them kissing you? In broad daylight and at school?" he asks in disbelief. I stop struggling and stare at him half cofmused half surprised.

"So it's okay for me to kiss how many people I want as long as it's not in broad daylight and not at school? Huh? Noted." I scoff at him.

"That's not what I meant!" Chuck tightens his hold once again and I wince.

"You're hurting me," I tell him, annoyed and frankly, pretty scared right now.

"Then don't do stupid shits!" he tells me.

"How is it stupid? You don't even know what I'm doing!" I tell him, almost yelling but holding myself back because I really don't want to attract attention and really don't want to create a scene. This does start to look like something out of a soap opera. It's annoying. "Just fuck off," I finally able to free myself. I glare at him and he glares back.

"What happened to you?" Chuck asks after a while. He looks troubled and confused and angry and I pity him, honestly.

"Life, Chuck. Life happened to me and for the love of God can't you just let me live it, please?" I plead to him. He stares at me and not answers. "I'm leaving with my friends, don't try to stop me or help me God," I point my finger to his face, threatening him. He still says nothing so I turn on my heels and practically run back to Malik and Keaton who's waiting for me.

"Everything okay?" Keaton frowns as he takes my hand and throws a glance over at Chuck who's probably still staring this way.

"Yeah, yeah," I smile at him but I'm pretty sure I still look as nervous as ever. Keaton frowns but stil, leads me to the car and lets me in before closing the door and he gets in the passenger's seat while Malik goes to the driver's seat.

"You okay babe?" Malik asks as he starts to drive.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I grin at him after letting out a long sigh.

"You're friends with Charles Lester?" Keaton asks.

"Yeah. He's my best friend," I tell him with a smile, "me, Chuck, and Marsha Cortes have been friends since forever, so they're kinda very protective and really, really like to meddle in my life," I try explaining to them.

"More like possessive than protective," Malik says, half teasing half serious.

"Yeah… I don't think he knows the difference," I tell him, chuckling.

"Is he the one you're in love with?" Malik asks again and I choke on my saliva.

"God, no!" I laugh, shaking my head. "No. Not me and Chuck. We don't have that kind of relationship."

"You sure?" Keaton asks, the tone of his voice makes me frown at him through the rearview mirror. He offers me a small smile. "He's pretty intense for someone who's just a best friend," he tries to reason.

"Well, it's Chuck. He's always intense," I chuckle. "He's just really protective. He's not in love with me or something," I tell them.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Malik says, glancing over at Keaton who also nods.

"Stop," I tell them, gritting my teeth. "Don't be ridiculous, okay? He's really not in love with me nor I with him."

"Okay, baby. Relax, don't be mad," Malik says, grinning, half amused half apologetically.

"Sorry. We don't mean to meddle," Keaton reaches out his hand to the back and I take it, holding too tightly.

"It's fine. Sorry for lashing out on you guys." I really feel bad for my outburst. They shouldn't be involved in my drama. We should just be having fun.

"Forget about it and let's just eat to our heart's content, 'k?" Malik says as he parks the car in front of the restaurant. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, determining myself to not let whatever ruin my day. I open my eyes after a while to two smiling faces. I return the smile genuinely this time.

"Let's go," I grin at them and they laugh, getting out of the car and into the restaurant.

We get into the restaurant and are immediately greeted by the neons. The place is filled with neon signs that are almost too blinding to be not offending. The colors are beautiful, though. The disco-themed restaurant even has disco balls on the ceiling. Malik takes us to one empty booth and we sit down as he's calling for the waitress. Malik orders for me and Keaton because this is our first time and also because we want to be slightly adventurous so not looking at menus is probably best.

We end up eating a gigantic ramen burger with root beer float with caramel syrup, croissant-coned ice cream with sprinkles and coarse salt, as well as watermelon and chili jello. They're not bad, actually. I can eat practically anything so these types of food just mostly look weird, But they taste better than I expected. Not to keaton, though, maybe.

"You okay?" Malik asks Keaton who looks almost as if he wants to destroy the entirety of the ramen burger for existing at all.

"This should be illegal," Keaton says even before we eat and I totally got him, though.

"Don't tell me you've never been to these kinds of places before?" Malik asks between chewing.

"I don't think so,'' Keaton admits in a slight embarrassment.

"Neither did I, actually," I also tell Malik who stares at us in amazement.

"You rich people really lacking in adventure," Malik tells us.

"Well, technically, my friends are the ones who are rich," I grin at him.

"Whatever," Malik rolls his eyes, "you two need some education," he tells us before ordering another set of ridiculously looking pizza. Tops with spaghetti, it seems, and the crust is actually sausage-wrapped bacon. I can't even comprehend how that could come to be.

"Can we at least order normal drinks?" I ask, pleading, to Malik who grins but nods nonetheless and I smile at him gratefully before trying the pizza.

Huh. This is actually good. I turn to Keaton who looks just as surprised as I am and I smile at him. Keaton smiles back before getting his second bite. He's willing to try new things, which is good. I smile proudly at Malik who returns the same sentiment. I think Malik likes Keaton even more now. They are nothing like each other. I don't think they even have anything in common. But it's a good thing for people to make new friends. However the way.

We sit down after the meal, completely fool and unwilling, nor able to get up.

"That was great," I tell Malik lazily.

"Glad you like it," he smiles at me and Keaton who also nods. "Wanna take a walk to digest?" he asks.

"I don't think I can move, though," I chuckle but start to get up anyway. "I'll get this one," I stand up and walk to the cashier before anyone can protest. I pay for our meal and waitt by the door for the other two before Malik leads us along the pavement. We walk a few distance from the restaurant and come across a crowded park. It's a big park with a playground for children and a big fountain with a stone path going along and through the entire park for walks. We walk there and circle the entire park before Malik has us stop in front of a coffee truck and order three warm coffee for us. We take our coffee and sit down on a bench overlooking the fountain.

This is good. I can feel the breeze that's starting to get cold. It's almost fall. The weather starts to change. I probably need to take out my winter clothes sooner. I look to my right where Malik and Keaton are sitting and chatting about their works.

Maybe having new friends is what I need right now especially.

I just hope I don't ruin this one either.