Song Above: Fredo They ain't 100

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"I wouldn't mind coming,"

"Cool,"

"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned slumping further into the backseat. I sulkily stared out the window. I ignored the death glare being sent through the rearview mirror from Brody and resisted the urge to flip him the finger.

I was currently situated in Brody's car, sat next to an overly enthusiastic Rose and behind a nervous-looking Ryan, who had shotgun the passenger's seat like the coward he was.

Not like I'd want to be anywhere near Lucifer whilst he's driving anyway.

After proposing to have dinner together last week, Ryan had forgotten to inform me that a certain Brunette was always his lift home. As if getting in the car wasn't awkward enough, Ryan had then decided to open his big mouth and invite them to join us for dinner. I was really contemplating opening the door and jumping out of the car.

I know I'm being dramatic but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I wouldn't have minded if it was just Rose, it would have been nice to spend some time with her when she's not attached to Brody's hip. I haven't had a chance to speak to my best friend in a while and I'll kill you if you repeat this but I do miss her.

Recently she's been less Rose more clingy girlfriend. Since they've been dating all she can do is drool over Brody as if he's god gift, and I tell you it's doing wonders to his ego. If they aren't making out at her locker, she's straddling him at lunch or spending her evenings with him after school. It makes me feel sick how loved up she is.

The worst thing about it is I know how it feels to have Brody kiss you. I know what it's like to have his hands touch your skin. Deep down inside it feels weird that he's doing that to someone else. I can't explain it but it just doesn't settle well with me.

I also assumed that when Ryan wanted to go to dinner it would be the two of us. I'd would have liked to have spent more time with him alone. But now I'm stuck with two other people that weren't part of my plan.

Since our incident in the hallway, Brody and I can barely mutter a hi in passing and I spend most of my time looking at my feet whenever he walks past.

I preferred it when we openly hated each other, not this awkward avoidance.

It's a strange feeling pretending as you've never seen someone naked before. When they are at their most vulnerable. I have touched his bare skin, felt his heat merging with mine and kissed his lips. Yet from the outside, no one would ever know except us.

I wanted to say that this didn't bother me. But it did.

I still felt something towards him, I thought after seeing him with someone else it would go away but it didn't. My feeling would have to be my little secret. He or anyone else for that matter couldn't know that.

"Where would you like to go?" It annoyed me that Ryan was asking the whole car. It was supposed to be our choice, not theirs.

"How about Bills?" Rose asked and I rolled my eyes. Of course, she would choose Bills. That's the only place she knows. It was an old diner with a limited amount of options. If you didn't like Hamburgers and fries you were pretty much screwed. I would have preferred to go to Ze-

"How about Zens?" Brody's eyes stayed on the road and I was pleased as I didn't want him to see the surprise on my face.

It was as if he had read my mind. Zen's was a little oriental restaurant on the outskirts of town. It was hidden down an alleyway and not a lot of people were aware of its existence. I used to go there with my Dad all the time.

"Zens?" Rose screwed her face up.

"Yeah, it's oriental, it's really delicious food," I tried to ignore Brody's eyes glancing at me through the rearview mirror.  I think he thought he was the only one who knew about the place.

"You've been there?" Ryan thought he was whispering but he really wasn't. His tone was genuine but I could ever so slightly sense suspicion. I think he thought Brody and I had been together, which was far from the truth.

Unless we had both been there at the same time and were completely unaware, which I'm sure wasn't the case. I'd recognize his fat head from a mile away.

I wouldn't deny the fact I was curious as to when he'd been. It didn't come up on google searches and how most people found it was by stumbling upon it like my father and I had.

"I've been there a few times, but that was a while ago with a family member," Brody answered when I didn't, If anyone had noticed the sadness in his voice they didn't act on it.

I knew what family member he was referring to and weirdly I wanted to smile. We had both shared memories in that restaurant with people who were no longer with us.

"Let's go then," Ryan smiled after concluding in his head that I hadn't been with Brody.

"It's a fifteen-minute drive, so I'll play some music so I don't have to hear you lot breathing," Brody twisted the volume so that some techno band's music blared through the speakers. Rose began to awkwardly sway to the music despite the fact it wasn't the type of music you swayed to. Ryan pretended to play the keyboard elbowing me every time Brody turned a corner and I leaned further into my seat thinking it couldn't get any worse than this.

•*•*•*

"What the hell is a dumpling?" If Rose got any closer to the menu she'd be in it.

We were currently sat in a booth at the back of the restaurant, where the lighting was dim. You'd need a torch to see each other's faces which I was grateful for since I was sat directly opposite Brody. Every time he stretched his leg it would brush against mine and I had to stop myself from reacting to his touch. It still made me feel uncomfortable yet strangely warm and I couldn't explain it.

"A dumpling is a batter with meat in the middle babe," Brody put his arm around Rose's shoulder and it shouldn't have bothered me but it did. I'd seen them on each other for weeks yet it still affected me. I needed to get a grip and start focusing on the boy beside me, who seemed to have placed his hand on my knee without me noticing.

Cheeky.

"I think you'd prefer the chow main Rose," I added since I knew anything eccentric would blow Rosie's mind and I didn't want a dumpling to go to waste.

"The raw papaya salad is a lot better,"

"You actually tried that? I thought it looked grim," I think this was the first time I'd spoken to him directly in a while and he as well as me seemed shocked by it.

"Yeah, it was amazing," He said matter factly, placing his menu on the table.

"What about the chicken? Surely you liked that more?"

"Nah, I thought it was dry,"

I gasped " How could you say the chicken was dry? It's by far the best dish,"

"It's a basic bitch dish,"

"How could you say that? It's not basic, the chicken has feelings you know?"

"The chicken did have feelings once, it doesn't now because you know, the chickens dead,"

"We are eating dead chickens?!" I almost wanted to slap Rose but decide not to since I was more outraged by Brody's food choice than her confusion about meat production.

"You are the worst kind of person, you come here with your fat head and you diss their best dish and you try and tell me that the papaya salad is the best -"

"Woah, let's not get heads involved-"

"And you think this is acceptable?"

At this point, we were both glaring at each other across the table. Rose and Ryan's eyes flickered between us as if we were playing a very heated tennis match. I really couldn't tell you why I was getting so irate. Part of me wanted to believe it was because of the papaya salad but I knew it wasn't.

"Don't come at me because you don't know what a perfectly good dish is when you see it," he said calmly and evenly.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you have no concept of what's right in front of you, you'd rather go for the easy boring option than take a risk or even an adventure,"

His eyes flickered an emotion I couldn't decipher. I paused in shock to register what he was saying, call me crazy but I felt as if he wasn't talking about the food anymore.

My face went hot. If he was referring to us then I could not believe the audacity.

He was the one who cut off our deal.

He was the one who told me we couldn't be alone together.

He's the one who's dating my best friend.

And he thinks it's okay to act as if I was the one who did all those things.

And was he trying to insinuate that Ryan was boring?

Why did he care if I supposedly chose the easy life? It didn't concern him. He couldn't care less about my life or my relationships.

I went to reply but was interrupted by the waiter. As if in a trance he peeled his eyes away from me to look at his menu. The silence was deadly. Rose awkwardly stared at the table, whilst Ryan stared off into the distance thoughts running through his mind that I didn't want to unravel.

Brody and I just couldn't be in the same room together, it caused too much destruction. We couldn't hold a conversation without raising our voices and what was a conversation about food turned into something much more.

Everyone ordered their food, a lengthy silence in between each order.

I ordered the chicken and Brody ordered the papaya salad.

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