A Trip To Remember

PacSun

After we'd all finished getting ready, we left the house and decided to use some of those rental bikes, instead of walking around all day, and made our way down to the village.
  It was a cute little place, and it was built with a rustic aesthetic. It reminded me of Haleiwa back home.
  I sighed and breathed in and out, taking in my surroundings, biking on the large, paved sidewalk on the side of the road. 
  This really was a beautiful place where I could see myself living. The air was easy to breathe, and the salty spray from the sea could reach you from miles away. I always judged a place by its overall smell. It might be weird, but it's my thing. If it doesn't have the right smell to me, then I just don't like it. It's why I hate Las Vegas and I don't care for Los Angeles.
  Alysa picked up her pace a little so she was biking right next to me.
  "So where do you wanna go?" I asked scanning the scene ahead.
  "I don't know. Oh, if they have a Gucci store here we can go in just to take mirror selfies and piss them off again." Alysa said excitedly, giggling.
  I laughed. "Well as fun as that sounds, I don't think they'll have a Gucci store around here." I said, smiling. She pouted and shrugged and I laughed lightly.
"Let's start at Pacsun." I said, nodding my head toward a store to the right, across the street.
"Race ya!" Rianna screamed, abruptly taking a sharp turn and speeding across the crosswalk. Sophia screamed and raced after her vigorously. Soon all the boys had shot after them too, while me and Alysa kept strolling at a merry pace, enjoying watching our immature friends.
Usually watching them cross the road with such recklessness would throw me into a fit of anxiety, but the road was clear, we had the right-away, and the speed limit was like 10 miles per hour because it was village like.
Before we started shopping, we decided to get some coffee because we spotted a cafe.
We went in and Rianna walked up to order first.
"Hi! What can I get you?" A middle aged barista asked in a very peppy tone that made me cringe.
"Uh yeah hey. Can I get a water with a pump of Hazelnut syrup, infused with mocha and espresso, with whip cream and java chips on the top?" Rianna said drumming her hands on the counter.
The barista blinked at her. "So you want...a mocha Frappuccino...?"
"No no. Waters free."
"Miss, that is not water—"
"Alright worth a try. Yeah hazelnut mocha Frappuccino please."
I laughed and rolled my eyes as Rianna slumped off and sat at a table waiting for us to order.
  We all ordered our coffees and sat together at the table to wait for it.
Alysa nudged me. I turned to her and raised my eyebrows slightly. "Yeah?"
"Look." She said nodding to the right corner of the shop in front of us. There sat a guy who looked about our age. He was tall, with black hair, and he was pretty cute.
I turned to her and smiled. "He's cute." I teased knowingly. I guess Jayden was out of her system. Or maybe they never hit it off in the first place.
"Oh shit I think he just looked at me." She said looking down.
"Go talk to him." I whispered.
She laughed. "Yeah right."
"Come on, he's alone anyway. Maybe he'd wanna spend the day with a cute girl."
"Hell no."
I thought for a second. "I'll buy you anything for lunch if you talk to him."
I swear I saw her ears perk up like a prairie dog and she thought about it. "Ok deal. Ahhhh I've never done this before what do I say?"
"Say something like you noticed he was alone and wondering if he wanted to join us."
She took a deep breath. "Ok this is where I die."
I smiled and watched as she walked to his table and talked to him. He smiled shyly, and a couple minutes later, he stood up and joined us at our table.
"Hey guys, this is Riley." Alysa said with a huge grin. I smiled proudly, because I knew she'd never picked up a guy before. I winked at her and she looked down smiling.
  "Hi." He said lifting his hand in a small wave.
  Everyone said hi and introduced ourselves. We talked for a couple more minutes before our drinks were ready.
We left the coffee shop and the guys, including Riley, already seemed to be treating him like their best friend.
"We've been stuck here with four girls, Riley." Nathan whispered to him like he was traumatized, and I punched his shoulder.
"OW!" He glared at me while Joe and Caleb laughed. I raised my eyebrows, and he stopped and shrugged.
We walked into Pacsun and the girls and guys kind of went their own ways.
"That's my baby." Sophia said like a choked up mother, hugging Alysa and taking her face in both hands. Alysa blushed and smiled. She looked at me and I winked.
"Yeah, mate. Way to score." Rianna said with a dirty grin and wink. Alysa rolled her eyes.
"Guys, stop." She laughed, turning red. She moved onto another rack and I turned to Sophia.
"Ten bucks they're gonna get together by the end of the week." I whispered.
"Try by the end of the day." She replied with a smirk, taking on my bet.
"HEY. ASH. JO SAID WE SHOULD GO THROW WATER BALLOONS AT KIDS OFF THE ROOF." Nathan exclaimed excitedly, rushing over to me and the girls.
I raised my eyebrows. "You guys are not doing that." I said, chuckling and shaking my head.
His smile fell. "Why not?" He complained.
"Because I said so." I said, picking up a sweatshirt and running my hand over it.
Nathan walked over to the guys. "WHY NOT." Jo shouted from across the store.
Everyone's heads turned to the guys and the thing about those guys, that I always found funny, is that it seemed like they never got embarrassed. They just kept being weird.
So I smiled to myself as I kept browsing.

*****

Riley