It was a 45 minute ride to Waterman's. A 45 minute fun house.
"I cannot believe you didn't tell us!" Maribeth yelled at me and Rachel from the back seat of my royal-blue BMW convertible.
"We already told you we're sorry," I yelled back, "but you know we couldn't have told you. You would've freaked!"
"But you made us look like idiots!" Joanne complained, shaking her head.
"Don't worry, I looked a lot worse than you," Rachel said, laughing at the memory. "I literally almost fell off the wave runner. They had to pull me up!"
"Oh, okay," Joanne said. "As long as you guys looked as bad as us."
"I might have," Rachel said, "but Alex was pretty together."
"Sorry guys!" I said. I looked in the rearview mirror. "Jamie, are you okay?"
She seemed to snap out of her daze and come back to the real world. "Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "I was just thinking about how adorable Howie looks in person!"
"Oh!" I said. "Isn't Brian sexy?!"
"And what about Kevin?!" Joanne exclaimed, fanning herself with her hand. "I need a fan just to look at him!"
"Nope, sorry," Maribeth said, "AJ wins in my book!"
The whole car turned quiet. I stopped at the light and took a look next to me.
"Rachel?" we all said in unison.
"Well . . ." she started.
"Come on, just tell us," Maribeth whined.
"I actually think Nick is kinda cute," Rachel said quietly.
"Awe!" Joanne cooed. Rachel turned around and hit her upside the head. They started swatting each other continuously. A few seconds later, the cell phone rang.
I answered it. "Hello?"
"Now, now!" Brian's said from the other end. "No fighting over there. You don't want me to have to send you guys back to your rooms, do you?"
"Actually, I don't think you'd want to have to send us back to our rooms," I teased, turning and looking at the black Jeep behind us. "You guys would probably mind that more than us."
"Who is it?" Rachel whispered.
"True," Brian said. I start laughing, then we hung up.
"It was Brian," I told Rachel, pressing the gas peddle as the light turned green. The entire car cracked up!
"It's like they're psychic!" Maribeth said.
"Psychic?" I asked. "He called 'cause they saw these two wackos fighting." I pointed to Rachel and Joanne.
"How'd he get your number?" Joanne asked.
"I gave it to him just before we left," I said. "Just in case we lost them."
Just then, Joanne's face brightened up, then turned mischievous.
"What?" I asked her. "I know that look. What scheme is cooking up in that little head of yours?"
"I just think we should give them a little preview of how loud we can be," she said innocently.
"What do you mean?" Maribeth asked.
"I mean, why don't we blast one of their CD's from the car stereo and sing along?"
"Well, the car stereo is pretty loud, so they'll definitely hear it," I said. "Which one?"
"How 'bout Backstreet's Back?" Maribeth said. "We can put it on random."
"Works for me," I said. "Any objections?"
"Nope," they said.
Rachel got the CD out of the case in the glove compartment and put it in the CD player. She pushed random and let it spin, cranking up the volume. The first song to come on was "That's The Way I Like It."
"Hey, Alex! It's your song!" Maribeth cheered from the back seat. "Or, one of them at least."
"Yea!" I said. We started to sing along to the song. Not at the top of our lungs, but loud enough for the whole countryside to hear. Again, the phone rang.
I turn down the volume a little so I can hear, and I answer. "Hello?"
"You're pretty good!" Nick said. I heard Howie laugh in the background. "I'm not sure about the rest of them, but we can hear you and Joanne."
"Thanks!" I said, then I yelled back to Joanne. "Nick thinks we suck at singing!" I told her, hanging up the phone.
"Well, I know one person who's gonna get a beating when we get to the restaurant," Joanne grumbled, half joking.
We started singing again until the CD paused to change to the next song. When the song came on, we all went into hysterics. It was "Hey, Mr. DJ." We had made up a dance to this song last night.
Again, the phone rang.
I shook my head and answered it. "What do you want this time?"
"What's wrong with my song?" AJ asked in a mockingly hurt voice. "You all laughed at it!"
"Nothing is wrong with your song," I said. "It's just that we made up a dance to this last night and it was funny that it came on."
"Oh, okay," he said happily. "Oh, and we need gas, so stop at the next gas station, k?"
"Sure," I said, hanging up.
"What did they want this time?" Jamie asked.
"AJ thought we were laughing at him. He thought we were making fun of his song."
"You told him we weren't, right?" Jamie asked.
"No," I said sarcastically. "I told him we were laughing at him and now they're going to turn around and go home."
"What?!?!" Jamie and Maribeth scream.
Joanne, Rachel, and I start cracking up. Those two were so predictable. If I had told them I was being sarcastic, they still would have thought I meant it!
"I'm kidding," I said reassuringly. "I assured him we weren't laughing at him and he hung up happy. Satisfied?"
"Okay, but don't ever scare us like that again," Jamie said, letting her breath out.
Just then, I pulled over into a gas station and parked on the side. After all, we still had three-quarters of a tank left. Leave it to the males to come up empty! We all got out of the car to stretch our legs. The guys pulled in and stopped next to a pump. AJ, Nick, Kevin, and Howie came over to us while Brian pumped the gas.
"I want to ride with you guys!" Nick said.
"Yeah, so do I!" AJ said. "It'd be funny to watch you guys from the back seat."
"Well, if two of the girls wanna switch, I'd love to take you," I said, turning towards the girls. "Any volunteers?"
"I'll go," Jamie volunteered.
"I wanna go!" Joanne said.
"I guess I'll go, too," Maribeth said. "That'll leave you and Rachel." She turned to Kevin and Howie. "Do either of you want to go with Alex to even things up?"
They looked at each other. "I guess I'll go," Kevin said.
"Hey, don't come willingly or anything," I mumbled.
AJ put his arm around my shoulders. "Now look what you've done! You upset Alex. Bad boy!" He wagged his finger at Kevin. I started giggling.
Maribeth turned to Kevin. "You sure you can handle them?"
"I think I'll be okay," he assured her. "I'm not exactly normal either."
"Okay, then we'll go with Brian and Howie," Maribeth said. "This way, they won't have to worry about getting lost. If we lose you, we'll meet you there.
Automatically, AJ and Nick catapulted over the side of the car and landed hard on the black leather interior. I grimaced, thinking of the indentations. Oh, well, I thought. It'll go back into shape later . . . if they don't . . .wait! Never mind, nasty thought.
I've always wanted to do that!" Nick cheered, giving AJ a high five.
"I'm always stuck with the weird ones," Kevin jokingly complained, laughing. He opened the car door and held it open for me and Rachel to get inside.
"Thanks!" I said, climbing in after Rachel. Then Kevin climbed in the back, we waved good-bye to Maribeth, Jamie, Joanne, Brian, and Howie, and we were off.
As soon as we were on the road, we asked them if it would be okay if we listened to their music
"Sure! Just crank up the volume!" AJ said.
"This is so awesome!" Rachel whispered to me as she pressed play on the stereo. The first song to come on was "If You Want It To Be Good Girl." AJ, Nick, and I joined in immediately. Rachel was a little shy at first, but ended up chiming in by the end. Kevin sang at a few parts, but mostly sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the ride. I couldn't help but notice how the wind whipping through his hair made him look incredibly sexy.
By the time the song ended, AJ was jumping up and down in his seat. I was excited enough to be doing the same, but I had to control the wheel, so I think it wouldn't have been a good idea if I did the same.
A few other songs came on and all of us (not including Kevin, who seemed to be in his own little world) sang along.
Then, "That's What She Said" came on. Being one of my all-time favorites, I had to sing along. Surprisingly, Kevin was the only one to join in. When I glanced at everyone to see why they were so silent, AJ and Nick just stared at me. Kevin looked at me and smiled. I looked at Rachel, and she shrugged, indicating that she didn't know the lyrics.
As the song ended, we pulled up to the restaurant.
"We're here," I said. "Waterman's Crab House."
"Food!!" Nick shouted, pumping his arms in the air. Rachel and I cracked up. Kevin only shook his head while AJ started dancing again in his seat.
As we were walking to our table on the outside deck, Kevin came up and laid his hand on my arm to get my attention.
"You know," he said, "you're a really good singer."
"Yeah," AJ said, coming up next to me, throwing his arm over my shoulders. "You sounded really good with Brian's recorded voice. Now we just have to see how you sound with his real voice."
"Thanks," I said, suddenly turning shy. I really hate being complimented. Actually, I love it, it's just that I get really shy and don't know what to do with myself. So I just clam up.
As we were getting ready to sit down, Kevin came over to pull out chairs for me and Rachel, but then he realized we were sitting on benches. We giggled and he shrugged and sat down. I was at the end of the table, AJ was on my right, Rachel was across from me, Nick was next to Rachel, and Kevin was at the head of the table.
"It seems so empty," I said, looking at the other half of the table, which was empty.
"I know what you mean," AJ said. "It's pretty quiet without Brian and Howie, isn't it?" AJ turned to look at Nick expectantly. Nick continued to stare off into space. When he saw everyone looking at him, he snapped out of it.
"Whoops!" he said. "Was someone talking to me?"
Kevin laughed. "When Nick's hungry, he goes off into his own little world."
"Well, I'm sorry!" Nick said. "It's not my fault I missed lunch. Howie challenged me to a basketball match and I was having so much fun beating him that I missed lunch."
"Did I hear my name?" asked a voice behind us. Everyone looked up to see Howie, Brian, Joanne, Jamie, and Maribeth walking towards us.
Yeah," I said. "Nick was just telling us how you challenged him to a basketball match and got your butt kicked!"
"Well, then Nick's been telling stories," Brian said to me while sitting down next to AJ. "After we met you guys, I went up to see how the game was going and the score seemed pretty even, but I think Howie was winning by a few."
"He might have been winning then, but I did end up beating him," Nick said matter-of-factly.
"Not quite," Howie said, sitting down next to Maribeth, who had sat next to Nick. "It was a tie, remember?"
"Oh, all right!" Nick said. "It was a tie. Are you happy now?"
"Yep!" Howie said.
eryone else took their seats. Jamie sat next to Brian and Joanne sat next to Jamie.
"Well, now that every one's here, how 'bout we see what we want to eat," Kevin suggested.
"There's really only one good thing to eat here, and that's crab," I said. "The rest of the food is good, but the crab is usually delicious. Messy, but delicious."
"Well, then does anyone object to crab?" Brian asked.
"Nope," we all said in unison.
"You know what crab is, right?" I asked AJ. Rachel and Brian snickered, AJ gave me a "drop-dead" look, and the others just looked at us, confused.
"Well, then that settles it," I said, focusing back on the order "but how many should we get? I know all of us gals eat three at the most"
"Well, I eat about six," Kevin said.
"I'll eat about four," Brian said.
"I'm about the same," said AJ.
"I eat around three," said Howie.
"Umm . . . I'm not sure. Probably around five or six," Nick said.
"Well, then, that should be about . . ." it took me a few seconds to do the math in my head, "three dozen, because I'm probably only gonna eat one. I'm not that hungry."
"You feeling okay?" Rachel asked me.
"Yeah," I said. "Just a little stomach ache."
"Okay," she said, then she started talking to Nick about some kind of wind surfing technique.
So, not much else happened. We ordered the crabs, we waited for the crabs, we ate the crabs, and we paid for the crabs. Occasionally, we ordered drinks and we did talk to one another. I talked mostly to AJ and Brian about wave runners, boats, and music. It turns out that the boat they're staying at was owned by the two of them together. It was a 51 foot, blue Sea Ray Aft Cabin, 1999 edition. It sounded pretty neat, so they said they'd show it to us when we got back. After we were all done eating, we paid for the food and left.
"Now it's time for the ultimate question," Nick said. "Who's going in what car?"
"Well, I want to go with Alex again," Kevin said, "but I want Brian to come with us in Alex's car this time. I want to see something."
"I would," Brian said, "but I have to drive my car."
"No problemo!" Nick said, grabbing the car keys from Brian's hand. "I'll take your car and you go with Alex."
Brian looked from his hand to the keys a few times, then shrugged. "Okay!"
"I'll go with you guys," Joanne offered.
"I'll go, too," AJ said. "Riding with the top down is awesome!"
"Okay," I turned to Maribeth, Jamie, and Rachel. "Then you guys will go with Nick and Howie in Brian's car, okay?"
"Sure, whatever," Rachel said, walking towards the Jeep. "We'll meet you back at Great Oak."
"Sure, but where?" I asked.
"Umm . . . How about your boat? We can see theirs later if we want to take a walk."
"Okay, see ya!" I said, waving. The I turned around to see AJ already in the back to the car. I almost laughed out-loud when I realized that Brian was standing there holding my door open and Kevin was on the passenger side holding the door open for Joanne. I thanked Brian and got in. Then, to my surprise, he went around to the other side of the car and got in next to me. Wondering where Joanne was, I looked in the back to see her in the middle of Kevin (who was behind me) and AJ (who was behind Brian). I shook my head, chuckling to myself. The three of them made for a great picture. Kevin, the serious one, AJ, the maniac, and Joanne, the mixture of the two (but at this moment, she was probably worse than AJ).
When I started the car, I glanced over at Brian and he flashed me a gorgeous smile. I turned on the engine, pulled out of the parking-lot, and we were off.