ChapterThirteen
Katie
What in theworld was I thinking? And more importantly, what did Mitch think he was accomplishing with this littlestunt?
As it stood, there were four of us at the table. And the dynamics were already pretty weird before he broughtkissinginto the mix. Seriously, whodidthat?
I looked across the table to try and catch Gwen’s eye, but she was busy glaring at Mitch while he laughed it off. That boy was either the most oblivious guy on the face of the earth or he was theworst.
While I hadn’t spent a bunch of time with Mitch, I liked him. I was pretty sure Gwenlikedhim. And that was part of theproblem.
We were already sitting in a way that broke us into couples. Originally, I hadn’t thought lunch with Julian would be that uncomfortable. Sure, there was the awkward moment the other night. And last night after the fight with my dad, I had snuck out to his trampolineagain.
Thankfully, that time he didn’tnotice.
But when I realized we would be sitting next to each other, I was barely keeping it together. I remembered how his arms felt around me and the way his deep voice in my ear seemed to rumble deep down into my bones. I shivered at thememory.
That wasn’t the point though. The point was there was no way to win the stupid eat off, unless you actually won. If I lost, I would end up kissing one of the other people sitting at thetable.
Gwen would be weird if only for the fact she was a girl and I was strictly hetero. She was my best friend here, quite possibly my only actual friend in a small sea of acquaintances. She also happened to be into Mitch. Mitch, who happened to be one of the other possibilities. That would be tooweird.
And Julian. I refused to consider what kissing Julianwouldmean.
So either Mitch didn’t care that things were about to get all kinds of awkward or he thrivedonit.
I didn’t have time to consider all the possibilities before our foodcameout.
“Ok,” Gwen announced when the food was all set before us. “We gotta talk about the rules. Everything has to be eaten off your plate to win. No spare fries, no tomato slices. And that milkshake glass had better beempty.”
“We know how it works, Gwen,” Mitch chimed in from beside her. “Stop stalling, and start eating.” He looked around the table careful to make eye contact with everyone seated beforeyelling, “Go!”
Gwen, Julian and I sat there stunned for a few seconds before it registered that Mitch had started eating and wasn’t holding anything back. After looking at my opponents, I dug in. I started with my burger taking as big of a bite as I could and chewing with a speed that could only be described as aggressive. I grabbed my shake and took a few sips to wash it down before grabbing a handful of fries. I repeated this a couple of times focused on my plate in front of me before looking up and seeing how everyone else wasdoing.
I was way,wayout of myleague.
Julian had devoured most of his burger and was working on his fries almost simultaneously. Gwen was also much further along than me on her burger and I swore she had less fries too. But Mitch, he was the one who took speed eating to the nextlevel.
He had grease running down his chin as he shoved the last bite of his burger into his mouth. Just a couple of fries remained on his plate and I watched as he lifted his cup to his mouth, not even bothering with a straw, and began to shovel his milkshake into his mouth with aspoon.
It was a freaky sight to behold and I watched mesmerized. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t going to win, even if I stopped staring at Mitch and focused completely on myownfood.
“It doesn’t count if it ends up on the table,” Gwen said around her own mouthful of food and I watched as something flew out of her mouth and landed on Mitch’splate.
Gross.
“Dude!” Mitch managed to get out though his own mouthful. “Keep it in yourmouth.”
“Why?” Gwen opened her mouth wide in Mitch’s direction showing off the half chewed food inside. “Feeling queasy? Doesn’t count, if you throw it up,either.”
Mitch narrowed his eyes at Gwen before finishing up the shake and grabbing the last couple offries.
“Missed something.” Gwen pointed to the food that had previously been in her mouth and was now residing on Mitch’splate.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m noteatingthat.”
“Then I guess you’re also not winning, which would be a shame considering how quickly you ate the other food.Everythingon yourplate.”
I’d given up on trying to actually win, which was probably for the best considering I would be throwing up if I had to watch Mitch eat the final bite. Gwen wasruthless.
