If Normal Was a Thing

Sang's Boyfriend

After visiting with Dad for a bit, Oakley and I finished getting ready to go, and wished them a good date night. In the car I turned on the radio before Oakley could start any sort of conversation, though she didn't mind as she drove us towards Olive Garden for lunch. I watched out the window, not thinking about anything until my phone vibrated again.

I sighed, and pulled it out, checking who had texted before opening it up.

Luke: Will you meet me and some of the others for lunch? I'm going insane with Owen, he won't stop talking about boring stuff...

I bit my lip and shot off a quick reply, wondering if one of the messages I had deleted earlier had also been asking this, and if it had looked like I was trying to ignore the plea.

Sang: Sorry Luke, I deleted all my messages on accident earlier and now Oakley and I are headed out to go and eat lunch together..

Luke: Nah that's okay, I figured a girl like you would be too busy to come rescue me anyways

I stared at my phone for a good two minutes, unable to find the words to reply back with. My thumbs hovered over the touchpad keyboard and they did a little dance, as if trying to find the things I couldn't think of. After a moment another text vibrated my phone, but from someone else, so I had to quickly exit out and check it, deciding that I would simply reply to Luke afterwards.

Sean: Don't pay attention to Luke, he's just pouting because Owen won't let him have cheesecake as a main course

I exited out of Sean's messages and started one with Owen.

Sang: I happen to like dessert as a main course, because what if you die before the dessert part actually gets to the table?

Owen: That would be most unfortunate

The car parked next to a silver BMW and Oakley turned off the Bronco and we both got out of the car. I pulled a strand of my hair out of my eye, before getting irritated with how much had fallen out of the messy bun, and just letting the whole thing fall out of the hair tie. The hair tie went around my wrist, and after shoving my phone as much as I could into my pocket, I joined Oakley on the sidewalk. She looked at me curiously, but said nothing as we walked together to the restaurant entrance.

Inside the hostess lead us over to a back booth, and we each took our seats. After we ordered our drinks, we started quietly browsing the menus.

"I can't believe it!" A masculine voice said, coming from a few tables away.

It took me a second to realize I recognized the voice, but when I did I wanted to sigh. How the heck could this even be possible? Across from me, Oakley looked like she wanted to punch someone, she looked at me and frowned as if this was my fault, though I knew it was just because she was irritated.

The guy walked over and we both sort of shrunk in our seats, me because I really had just wanted to eat lunch with Oakley, and Oakley probably because Justin was a jerk. The guy kept coming and stopped at our table, pressing his hands to the wooden top and then leaning over it to make it look like he was that much bigger than us.

It would have worked before we moved here, but now we had been introduced to guys who were nice, and had bigger muscles, not that I'd been looking at the guys' muscles a whole bunch... I shook my head a little, catching only the end of what Oakley's not so ex boyfriend was saying.

"... you girls here, Oakley, Babe, why don't you text me back?" Justin's brown eyes narrowed in on Oakley.

She ignored him though, and sat up, looking at her menu still, "Why are you in Charleston, Justin?" she asked, not unkindly.

He smirked and our waitress walked past our table because I think she thought we were busy and she was being nice by not interrupting. Justin crouched down then, like he planned to be talking a while, "Oh, my grandma lives here and I'm visiting," he said as if this was supposed to impress her somehow.

It didn't, and he realized that a little late because he went on to say that she was old and pathetically incapable of most things, only shutting his mouth when Oakley turned her fierce glare on him, "she is probably better off without you there."

Justin's face showed his surprise, but then he was right back to his same old self. Oakley had given him a shot because she has a rule about not turning anyone down until she's made her own opinion of them, and Justin wasn't an exception to her rule. She had given him two weeks, and then we moved to Charleston. Justin started talking again, and the waitress passed our table once more.

My stomach growled and I looked down at my menu, thinking about how polite it would be to just hit him with it. Oakley wasn't exactly being nice to the guy, but he still wouldn't take the hint.

My daydream of hitting Justin with the menu, and maybe throwing an ice cube from my water, was cut off when someone slid into the bench next to me and slung an arm around my shoulder. My hands instantly curled around the menu, and I had almost picked it up to swing, but luckily I looked at the person who was sitting impossibly close.

Sean winked down at me and kissed the top of my head as if it was the most natural thing, then looked over in Oakley's direction. With a dry mouth, I followed his gaze. Oakley was grinning, and sitting next to her were Luke and Owen, both of which were looking at Justin as if he had a pig snout.

"Excuse me, who are you?" Owen asked, his hands folding on the tabletop as his eyebrow raised in question.

Justin balked, looking from Owen to Luke, then to Sean who was playing with my hair and ignoring Justin completely in favour of winking at Luke in a mischievous manner, "Who the fuck are you?" he demanded, ignoring Owen and standing back up.

It was Owen who responded again, "This is Luke, Oakley's boyfriend, that's Sean, Sang's boyfriend, and I'm Owen. Their body guard. I think Oakley was trying to tell you to get lost, and if you can't figure it out for yourself, I will call in the other men on security detail today, and they can help you with that."

His voice was cool and calm, and I think that's why Justin left instead of starting something I was quite certain he wouldn't be able to finish. He stalked back to his table, saying things under his breath.

Oakley looked at me and grinned warmly, "Did you call them or something?"

Luke answered before I could, "What? No you girls were stalking us, and eating at the same place we were. We saw you guys while we were headed out, and figured we'd save some damsels in distress," he explained happily.

"Although it looked like Sang was about to hit him with her menu if we hadn't shown up," Sean teased.

I ignored Sean, just because he was technically right, "Are you guys going to hang out for a bit?"

Luke opened his mouth but Owen beat him to it, "We can't, sorry, we've got some stuff we need to get done today. But perhaps we can schedule something later this week?" he fixed his tie, alerting me to the fact that he was dressed formally.

I quickly surveyed the others but they both seemed to be in semi casual clothes. Luke saw me looking and grinned at me, "Owen's weird like that," he explained.

The guys stuck around for a little bit longer before they had to go, and then the waitress finally came to our table and took our order. Oakley and I talked mostly about what the dance would be like, and if we'd meet anyone interesting. Both of us sort of half hearted talked about the boys we'd meet, assuming we weren't the only teens there. I couldn't really focus on it much, because I was wondering if Oakley possibly liked any of the guys. It wouldn't surprise me, and I totally approved of all of them if she wanted one of them... but the thought of her and one of them left me feeling a little cold and distant the rest of the meal.

And it scared the hell out of me.