Effortless

Twenty-eight

Shopping was just as weird as the car ride was. We didn't have much to say to each other. Every now and again I would have a conversation with Javier while Justin and Benji would speak to each other a bit. Sometimes it seemed like Benji was trying to strike up a conversation with me but it would never go anywhere.

"By the way, congrats on second place in the competition." Benji said before giving me a high five. I missed his hand the first time so we had to do it again.

The high five was successful the second time. "Thanks."

Benji looked at me like he was waiting for me to say something else, but I didn't. What was I supposed to say? I had already thanked him and there was nothing to elaborate on.

We were passing the food court when we smelled corndogs. Benji pointed to the stall that was selling them. "Do you like corndogs?"

I shook my head.

"Who doesn't like corndogs?" Justin asked with utter disbelief.

"Me." I replied blandly.

There was another pause in conversation as everyone was waiting for the next person to suggest where we should go next. We had stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the walkway. People were having to walk around us and I could see the annoyed looks on their faces.

Javier cleared his throat. "Maybe we should get some food."

"Let's get corn dogs." Justin suggested with a smirk. He looked at me and awaited my reaction but I simply rolled my eyes.

"I want a corndog." Benji said. "But the line is long. Eli, come wait with me."

The line was indeed long. "I'm good. I'll find us a table."

Benji didn't seem all that happy with my answer.

"I'm getting a corndog, Benny, I'll wait with you." Justin smiled slyly.

"Don't call me Benny."

Justin merely laughed as he began toward the food stall. Benji reluctantly followed along with him. Now it was just me and Javi standing in the middle of the walkway.

"You didn't want a corndog?" I asked.

Javier shrugged. "Nope, I'm going to get pretzels instead."

Javier went to the pretzel stall and I followed because I didn't want to stand alone in the middle of the mall. The line for pretzels was a lot shorter than the line that Justin and Benji were waiting in so I figured I'd find a table once Javi got his snack. After a minute it was Javi's turn to order. It was just our luck that the workers were waiting on another batch of pretzels to come up so we had to wait a couple of minutes. We moved to the side and waited for the couple of minutes.

"What are you getting?" He asked me.

"Nothing." I leaned against the wall of the pretzel stall.

He eyed me for a few seconds. "Do you want to share the pretzel?"

"You only get one of them, Javi, you don't need to share it with me."

"But I want to."

I couldn't help but smile and think that I had made the right decision in asking him to join. He hadn't done much yet he was making this entire trip a lot more bearable.

"Question." Javier said after a second. "Why did you ask me of all people to come with you guys?"

The answer was simple, because Ricky prompted me to. Well, that wasn't the main reason but it was indeed a reason.