In the Crowd (Tye)

Chapter 5

Four more days. Damn, why am I counting?

Nico switched the cannels again for the fifth time and I felt a sudden urge to strangle the guy. “Choose a channel and just watch already!” I groaned, slouching down into the couch. Nico ignored me and switched channels again, absentmindedly eating saltine crackers as he did so. I shot a glare at him which he ignored too.

“So Griffin,” Nico said suddenly, pausing his unbearable channel surfing. “How’s your new girlfriend?” Griffin laughed and sat down on the armrest.

“I think she’s more into getting the fame about dating someone from Hourglass than me,” he said with a chuckle. Ace bounced over, a frown pasted on his face.

“Woah dude, who?” he asked.

“Nancy, you don’t know her.”

Ace had a sudden expression of hurt. “You told Nico before me?” Ace pouted. Griffin only rolled his eyes.

“Come on man, I would have told you eventually.”

“But you told Nico before me!” he whined.

“Stop being such a sissy Ace, I’m not even into her or anything,” Griffin shrugged and turned to watch the T.V. I glanced toward Ace who looked seriously hurt. I was with Griffin on this, I mean, was it even that big of a deal?

Ace trudged slowly back into the kitchen to continue fixing his lunch. He dragged his feet on the ground, making loud, annoying sounds with his feet.

“Yo Ace!” Griffin called to Ace who was behind us. “Make me something too will ya?” I expected Ace to yell back something like “Sure thing!” Or whatever but instead, we received silence.

Griffin glanced over to where Ace was standing behind us, slowly scraping a layer of peanut butter onto a slice of bread. The bread seemed to be falling apart from the weight of layer after layer of peanut butter plastered on it. Ace carefully placed down the shriveled thing and walked away.

Ken walked in as Ace left. He glanced at Ace with surprise. “What’s with him?” Ken asked us. Griffin only shrugged in response.

“Is he going to be like that forever?” I asked Griffin. He shrugged again. I was expecting more since after all, Griffin knew Ace better than the rest of us.

“Not forever, but he’ll keep a grudge,” Griffin muttered absently, his eyes glued to the T.V. screen.

Sure enough, he did.

“So, what’s for dinner?” Ace asked me. For a moment, I didn’t respond. Just stared at the guy who’d been holed up in his room for who knows how long.

“Bailey’s cooking,” Ken answered for me, nudging me to wake up from my state. Ace’s face lit up brighter than it had been just before.

“Bailey? Wicked! His cooking’s boss!” Ace exclaimed, beaming as he bounced away. He picked up a pair of carelessly tossed aside drumsticks and began banging them against everything around him. I rolled my eyes but decided to not scold him about the condition of his drumsticks.

Griffin, who had his head inside the fridge called out to the rest of us. “Dudes! How the hell are we already out of peanut butter?” he shot me a sideways glance. “You did buy some right?” he added almost accusingly. I nodded. Griffin frowned as he slowly closed the refrigerator door. “Then who…?” Ace laughed, cutting him off.

“I’ll go buy some more tomorrow,” Ace promised, childishly sticking up his pinky to symbolize the promise.

Yup, Ace was quickly back to normal.

As usual, none of us ate in what was supposedly the dining room because it was strewn with various papers; we weren’t really the type to have warm family meals anyway. I ate in front of the T.V. beside Griffin and Ace, Bailey ate somewhere, Ken ate in his room and Nico had finished eating and had gone to buy take-out for himself.

There wasn’t really an awkward silence between us, Griffin and Ace talking like two girls on a sleepover, and me just saying something every now and then.

“Damn guys, shut up!” I snapped at them again Ace raised an eyebrow.

“You’re actually interesting in this?” he gestured to the images flashing on the screen.

“More than you guys talking,” I muttered before trying to ignore them again. Griffin chuckled but the two quieted slightly. For two seconds. Seriously. I counted.

As soon as a commercial came on, the dudes stopped talking. They hated me didn’t they? A nice silence followed through about five commercials.

Griffin ran his fingers through his short blond hair. “So. Ace,” he began. “Did you really want to know about Nancy?”

“No,” Ace replied shortly. Griffin pressed his lips together for a moment.

“Alright,” he replied after a while. I stayed quiet, pretending that I didn’t care and wasn’t listening. Not that I did or was. Just saying.

Ace really didn’t seem to care though because the rest of that night wasn’t all that awkward; and nobody mentioned anything to raise the tension.

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Hey, I seem to be getting a schedule here, yes? Hooray! I'm sorry to say, with a schedule, my other stories may take a while!!! This isn't my best chapter but it seemed long enough and I really wanted to upload :) Hope you enjoyed!