Chapter 12
We arrived at Perkins in one piece and hopped out of the van.
we walked into the crowded restaurant and Mr. Hanson requested two tables one for Mr. and Mrs. Hanson, Jessica, Avery, Mackie and Zoe being held by Mrs. Hanson. Then another table for Steph, me, Tay, Ike and Zac.
We all got seated, Zac, Steph and I on one side and Ike and Tay on the other.
"mmm….sugar!" Zac said devilishly. He tore open about 6 packs of sugar and dumped them into his mouth.
"He once downed 47!" Taylor informed us.
"Ahh…I could take you on any day." I told Zac jokingly.
"No way!" He exclaimed. "I am the Sugar King." He said proudly.
I looked at him and noticed again he had that "I’m up to something" look on his face.
Carefully he undid the cap of the salt shaker and dumped all the salt onto a napkin. He then poured all the remaining sugar packets into the salt shaker!
"You know that’s really disgusting;" Issac told him with a look of disgust. "That’s going to ruin someone’s perfectly good meal."
"Exactly" Zac said with a look of satisfaction on his face.
We picked up our menus. "Hmm….what lookd good?" I came across a seafood omlette entre that made my mouth water.
Nah, better not I thought to myself. I didn’t want them to think I was some kind of queer who ate seafood omlettes.
We all decided on what we wanted and placed an order.
Then we started up conversation about stuff like rumors we had heard about them. Like one we thought was pretty funny.
"Hey Taylor, did you know you were in a coma and almost died?" I told him.
Taylor rolled his eyes "I heard that one, how stupid can they get?"
"Hey Ike, did you know you were going out with Leann Rimes?" Stephanie asked him laughing.
"Hey, come on guys we don’t have to get that nasty about this now do we? I mean that’s just a little beyond disgusting." Issac said making a face.
A few seconds later we heard a really loud shriek coming from across the restaurant. I looked around in surprise wondering if someone had got hurt or something.
Then I saw a VERY plesently plump girl running over to our table almost tripping over chairs.
"OH MY GOD!!!! YOUR HANSON!!!!!! "She shrieked as loudly as possible so the whole restuarant could hear.
"Gee, I didn’t notice." Zac muttered under his breath.
The girl was still panting from running and screaming so loud. "I love you guys soooooo much! I’m your #1 fan!" She said with a chessy smile plastered across her face. "I have to have your autograph!"
"Uhh…sure…"Taylor said as politely as possible.
"What would you like signed?" He asked.
I looked across the table at him, god I was glad I didn’t do what this girl was doing, when I met them at the pool this morning. Although I knew it was flattering for them I also saw a look of annoyance in Taylor’s clear blue eyes. I mean, they couldn’t go to a simple restaurant and get through one simple meal without being bothered.
Umm…..Umm….I want you guys to sign my back!" The girl demeandedyperventilating.
Taylor’s mouth dropped a mile. He looked at me with a look of panic and disgust. I knew that there was no way in hell he was going to sign this girls back in a public restaurant. Her fat stomach was falling out of her little Blue baby tee that was far too small as it was, we didn’t need it pulled up anymore.
"Uhh….How about…."Taylor looked around frantically for something to sign to get the girl away from their table.
I quickly reached into my world famous bag and pulled out a notepad and a pen, I handed it over to him. He mouthed a silent thank you and I got a look from all three of them as if I was some sort of god or something.
They all quickly signed the paper and handed it back to her.
"Thank you! The girl said seeming only slightly dissapointed that they hadn’t signed her fat back for her.
Before the girl left she finally seemed to notice me and Stephanie sitting at the table.
She gave us the dirtiest most jelous looking look you could imagine and walked away.
"Fat cow" I muttered under my breath.
Issac looked at me and started laughing.
"And people wondering why we don’t have girlfriends." Taylor said shaking his head.
"Everywhere we’d go they’d get looks thrown at them and called names." Taylor said.
I looked at Taylor (again!) into his blue eyes and although I knew how flattering all this attention must be for them I saw a hint of sadness, as if in his prefect pop star life something was missing or for that matter someone.
He caught my stares and smiled at me. I quickly glanced away in embarrassment.
Soon our food came. I picked up the salt shaker to salt my fries. I looked over to find Zac snickering.
"Don’t!" Taylor said quickly he put his hand on mine that I was holding the salt shaker with.
"Oh yah, sugar." I said looking at Zac.
"You saw me do it and you still almost fell for it!" Zac said doubling over with laughter. "You really are a blond aren’t you!"
"Shut up Zac, you shouldn’t talk." Taylor told him. Then he got up and picked up the salt shaker from the table beside ours.
"Here" he said handing it to me.
"Thanks, but I could have lived without salt on the fries." I told him.
"Oh well." He said shrugging.
I glanced over at Stephanie who had been rather quiet the whole time we’d been there, which was quite unusual for her. But of course she sat in a daze starring at the ever-so gorgeous Taylor.
I decided to have a little fun and embarrass her.
"Uh…Steph are you going to stop starring at Taylor for a second and eat?" I said with a smirk plastered across my face.
She snapped out of it pretty fast when I said that.
"I wasn’t starring at anyone." She said through gritting teeth glaring at me."
"Stephanaie…" Zac said in a cooey voice "Does soemeone have a little itty bitty crush on our Tay?"
Zac leaned in "OR MAYBE A BIG ONE?" He screamed at her.
"Shut the fuck up Zac!" Taylor yelled at him. Stephanaie looked away behond embarrassed.
But I knew what she was thinking, that they kind of thought of us as their friends now. Not two obsessed screaming fans. Even though before today that was exactly what we were. But it was hard to think like that now, I mean, after talking to them, they were only human, just very talented, famous, good looking humans, but still, humans.
We ate our burgers, milkshakes and fries.
We finished eating and Mrs. Hanson came over to our table.
"Are you guys almost finshed?" She asked us.
"Yah mom, almost done. Ike told his mom.
"Ok then I’m going to go up and pay and you guys head out to the van when your done."She told us.
"Just a sec," I said reaching into my piurse and pulling out 15 bucks to cover Stephanie’s and my meal.
"Oh, don’t worry about it," Taylor said. "It’s on us."
"No, no, no we want to pay." I said. "Yah, we got it" Steph agreed. Taylor looked at his mom for some help.
"No girls, we’ll pay." Mrs. Hanson said with a kind smile.
"Oh, well, thanks very much then." Stephanie and I said.
We both knew it wasn’t like they couldn’t afford it, but it was only right to offer to pay for our share.
We all walked back to the van, Steph, Zac , Jessica and Avery running ahead with Ike carrying Mackie not far behind. Taylor and I staggered slowly behind. "Thanks for lunch" I said quietly.
"Sure, no problem." Taylor said with an easy smile. "Listen, did you guys want to go swimming some more when we get back?" He asked.
"Sounds good with me." I said happily. We walked back to the van and drove back to the hotel.
Email: levans@autobahn.mb.ca