Across The Street

[19] distraction helps sometimes

°°°
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[19] distractions helps sometimes

"This is like heaven," moaned Flynn as he ate his pizza, multiple toppings toppling off of the pizza and onto the plate and table. I shook my head at him, wondering why he liked that many toppings on the pizza. It was like every bite, toppings would fall off.

Mia chuckled at Flynn's embarrassing attempt to catch a green pepper from his pizza that soon fell onto his lap. "Do you think you have a little too much?"

He popped a piece of pepperoni in his mouth, glancing up at her. "There's never enough." He then kept eating happily.

Mia just shook her head, and kept eating. "So I was thinking after this we could all go back to my house," said Mia eventually. "Like to watch a movie or something."

"Okay," we both agreed.

It didn't take Flynn long enough to try to grab one of Mia's hot wings on her plate, causing her to smack his hand which resulted in Flynn knocking his drink over. Many people glanced over at us, and Flynn's face grew red as he became embarrassed. Muttering apologetically, he started cleaning up the mess with a napkin. Our waiter came over and helped with the mess and he gave Flynn another drink.

"Thanks for the embarrassment, Mia," grumbled Flynn, taking a big gulp from his new soda.

"You're welcome," she said sweetly. After we paid for our food, we made our way to my car and headed to Mia's house. Mia's house was probably the nicest out of all of ours. It wasn't the biggest house either nor did it have a downstairs or upstairs. She had a cozy, inviting home that had a friendly aura that seemed to usually put me in a calmer state.

We went to the living room to find Camden, Mia's fourteen year old brother, playing a video game.

"Camden," said Mia, getting his attention. He paused the game to look at us. "Um...Flynn, Nolan, and I wanted to watch a movie in here. Do you think it would be okay if we could watch it?"

"Right now?" He asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose higher. Mia nodded. "I pretty much just started this mission though. Can't you two, like, go watch it in your room or something?"

"It'd be easier in here," she argued. "Plus, the television is bigger."

"And closer to the kitchen," chimed in Flynn, flinging himself on the love seat to make himself comfortable.

Camden frowned, "Dude, no-"

Mia's parents came in just then, causing Camden's words to die out on his tongue. "I knew I heard that video game pause," joked their mom.

Mia's dad noticed the tension, and the small frown still on Camden's face. "What's going on?"

"They wanna watch a movie," he said. "And I'm playing my game."

"Well, why don't you get off of it?" asks their mom.

"Because I just started a mission." said Camden.

"Well, why don't you finish that mission and the rest of you two can just wait, okay?" reasoned their dad.

"Do you guys have popcorn?" piped up Flynn after we agreed we could wait until Camden finished the mission.

"You're still hungry?" I asked him, making our way to the kitchen. Mia grabbed the popcorn and handed it to Flynn.

"Yes," he said with a sheepish smile, putting the popcorn in the microwave.

"I'm gonna go change into something more comfortable," Mia said. "When I get back, we can choose a movie to watch."

"Okay," I smiled and she turned to go to her room.

After a few minutes of waiting, Camden finally finished his mission and the popcorn was freshly popped now. Flynn, looking quite happy with himself, cuddled up on the love seat and the big bowl of popcorn was right with him. Mia put the first Harry Potter in then sat down on the bigger couch, propping her feet up while I sat on the recliner.

"Ah, I love these movies," I said, sighing.

"Me too, man," said Flynn, his voice muffled as he munched on his food. How he could eat all of that I did not know considering he'd eaten so much pizza not long ago.

"Mia," said Flynn after a few minutes into the movie. "I'm thirsty."

"Then go get something," she said, shaking her head, but not looking away from the television screen.

"Nolan, go get me a drink." He begged, sitting the half empty bowl of popcorn on the table.

"Why don't you?" I asked, looking back at the movie. "I mean, you should've known you'd get thirsty."

"Well I know now," he said, a handful of popcorn hitting me in the side of the face.

"Flynn! You better clean that up once the movie is over because I will not clean it up in result of you and your ridiculous actions." Mia scolded him, reminding me of something a mother would do to a child.

Flynn stuck his tongue out at her, looking childish, and threw popcorn at Mia in response. She grumbled a few hateful words at him while he laughed. I rolled my eyes and kept watching the movie.

°°°

The car ride home was quiet. Mia didn't come with us since she was already home, and Flynn was leaning his head on his chin while he stared out the window. Flynn had turned the music down a few notches since it was still a bit overly loud when we had been singing earlier.

Flynn looked exhausted now. His hair was a mess from laying down half the movie then getting in a popcorn war with the three of us which resulted in Mia's mom ordering us to clean all of it up and not miss a spot.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," I said, taking a hand off the steering wheel to flick him in the ear.

He jerked his shoulder upwards, making a noise of protest. "Shh, man, I'm tired. Just wake me up when I'm home, alright?" So I decided to leave him alone as he got comfortable and closed his eyes once again.

Looking back at what I'd all done today, it was actually pretty fun. I didn't regret saying yes to hanging out with them, and I'm glad they finally came over to inspect what was going on. I was thankful that Mia of Flynn didn't really make me talk about it like other people would have. It was nice to be distracted for a while, but it would still come back.

At the time being, I pushed all those thoughts away so I could just focus on the road and getting a sleepy Flynn home.