Best Friends and More

Chapter 7

It's already 8pm and I hear a knock at the door, “Come in.” The door slowly opens with Aaron behind it and he walks into the helm with his eyes looking at everything. The room is not very large but it has the controls at the front of the room with a chair in front of the controls, a L-shaped couch in the corner, and a small desk and chair in the other corner. “Hey. Dinner is ready. Jonas made some tacos and they actually smell edible.” he chuckles at his own joke but says more seriously, “You didn’t eat any lunch so I will drag you to the table if need be.” 

“I’ll be down in like 3 minutes.” I look at him and he is just giving me an evil look, “I have to stop the boat first, so stop with the look. I’ll be down after the boat is anchored, okay.” 

“Okay then.” he says and then exits the helm. 

After the boat is anchored, I make my way down to the dining room and see everyone already sitting at the table. Aaron, Jonas, Nolan, and Joseph are sitting on one side with Keaton, Emma, Nha, and I sitting across from them. On the table were taco shells, meat, cheese, olives, etc. for a build your own taco. “Can we watch a movie after dinner? Since we’re stopped for the night Chloe can join us too!” Emma says excitedly. We all respond with a yes and continue with our dinner. 

“What are we going to watch? I vote for The Notebook!” says Emma.

“Hell no! Let's watch Ready Player One or some other action movie!” I input. 

“I think that is our winner for tonight! I’ll make popcorn!” says Nha as she runs to the kitchen as the rest of us make our way to the living room. As the beginning credits start to play Nha walks in with 4 bowls of popcorn. She hands one bowl to every couple and hands the last bowl to Joseph. “Do you want any?” Joseph asks 

“Yes. Thanks.” I say as everyone takes their seat. I sit next to Joseph and he puts the bowl half on my thigh and the other half on his. The movie starts to play and we start to eat our popcorn. After the first movie ends, Aaron, Keaton, Nha, and Emma leave to sleep while the rest of us stay and watch the second movie. Half way through the second movie I feel warmth on my shoulder and turn to see Joseph has fallen asleep on my shoulder. Here I thought it was supposed to be the girl that fell asleep on the guys shoulder but I thought wrong. Nolan and Jonas both seem sleepy and look toward us, “How about we call it a night?” Jonas whispered, “Are you going to need help with Joseph to his room?”

“No. I’m just going to wake him up and hopefully he just walks to his room but if worse comes to worse I’ll just give him a blanket and leave him on the couch.” I whisper back, “Y’all go ahead but could you turn the T.V. off. Goodnight boys.” They go to turn off the T.V., say their goodnights, and head up the stairs. I look at Joseph who is still passed out on my shoulder and he looks so adorable that I almost don't want to wake him up but I have to. “Joseph” *poke* “Wake up” *poke* “Come on, let's get you to bed.” He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me with a sleepy/grumpy look, “ Wh… y..u ...nt” he mumbled out then closed his eyes to try to go back to sleep. “Come on. Stand up with me. I will drag your a*s down to your room.” I say quietly to him. Joseph tries to stand up by himself but stumbles and I catch him under his arm before he falls face first. Getting him down the stairs was a f*****g challenge for the both of us. I had to half drag and half carry him to his room but I managed to get him there. “Alright, go get ready for bed. I’ll see you in the morning.” I say as I start to walk out but a sleepy Joseph has other plans. He steps up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, “Goodnight Chloe.” Joseph whispered in my ear. After he says that he releases me and I rush out of the room with my face tinted red. ‘What just happened?’