Learning to Love

Michelle shrugged.
"To each his own, I guess," she said. "I suppose I could see how some classes could be seen as unnecessary. I like them all, though," she finished sheepily. She took a sip of the iced tea that the waitress had just dropped off.

"Heh, I can still respect that." Joey happily took his lemonade and stirred it with his straw, mixing the mass of strawberries and juice in the bottom of his glass into the rest of the drink. He actually was somewhat impressed. He got taunts just for enjoying and knowing his subjects of choice, let alone everything school taught. But he liked that Michelle seemed to have that intellectual level. He, of course, was entirely silent on the matter.

As they waited for their food, Artemis removed the teabag from the now green tea, and sipped softly at it, shivering a little from the bitter taste. "So, what shall we do after this?"

Michelle shrugged. She figured she had already made it pretty obvious that she wasn't good at planning things like this. But at the same time, she didn't want to leave all the decision making to Joey again, either. She cocked her head to one side, a habit she had whenever she was thinking.
"Well," she said finally, "It's a really nice day today. Isn't there a park or something close by?" Fearing that her companions would think the park too childish she added, "I mean, we could go walking or something."

Joey paused to take a long sip of his lemonade before responding. "That doesn't sound too bad," he said before making a game out of stabbing strawberries in the glass with his straw. "I'm all up for that."

Artemis sipped at the tea again, set the cup down, and gave a light nod. "I think that's a good idea. I haven't been there in a really long while...I wonder if the swings are still there."

Michelle shrugged; being new in town, she wouldn't know. She always loved parks though, ever since she was a child. In her pre-teen years she had always escaped to the relative quiet of the outdoors to draw or read. She had never really 'hung out' with anyone there, but she thought it might be fun, with these two.

She smiled up at the waitress as she came to deliver their food. She had skipped lunch, and this looked delicious. She licked her lips.

Joey set aside a strawberry on a napkin; he loved the flavoring, yet hated the fruit. He would never understand why. "Well then, I guess that's settled," he decided before returning to the game of strawberry hunting. "And I think this is the most I've done with people in months. Kinda weird."

Quickly, Artemis eyed the strawberry, reaching across with a fork and stabbing the small fruit like a tasty victim on the end of a lance, popping it in his mouth with delight and chewing with savoring motions, relishing in the flavor. "Ah! Delicimo!"

[Please forgive any possible misspellings I might make when using other languages. Just beat Assassin's Creed 2, and I really wanna test out some of the Italian. =^-^=]

Michelle watched Artemis devour the strawberry with a bit of jealousy. It was her favorite fruit, after all. She shrugged. It wouldn't have tasted very good with her oniony cheeseburger anyway. She took a bite of said burger, closing her eyes in bliss as the complex taste flowed into her mouth. She chewed carefully before opening her mouth to speak.

"It's the most I've done with someone in a while as well," she said with a smile. "I'm really looking forward to it! It's been so long since I've been to a park!" She couldn't suppress a small giggle.

Joey smiled a little past his look of concentration as he continued spearing strawberries and setting them aside on the napkin. He had a small pile of them within a minute or so. "Been years for me, I think," he replied. "And I haven't done much with anyone as of late. Haven't had any real friends for the past few months, I guess." He fell silent again as he focused on one particularly difficult strawberry to catch.

Artemis looked over to Joey...then to his plate. "You seem like a good person. Hard to believe you don't have any friends..." Looking to Michelle, Artemis gave a light cough, turning again to Joey. "However, if you don't mind, I'm sure the three of us could become quite decent friends, that I am." He blinked, coughed again, and skewered another strawberry, savoring the flavor. "Starting to sound like Father..."

Michelle giggled.
"I'm sure we can be great friends!" she said, wrapping her arms around both of them and giving them a squeeze. She was beginning to feel more comfertable with these two, and was almost ready to let herself be herself.

Joey had just gotten the last strawberry speared at the end of his straw when Michelle decided to randomly hug him and Artemis. He made another "ack" noise as he was yanked away from his glass, and an expression that was somewhere between annoyed and confused came across his face.

"Why?" he asked simply, looking at Michelle from the corner of his eye.

Artemis looked up just in time to see Michelle hug the two men. He gave a small smile and reached an arm across, hugging her back before setting to his sandwich with zealous delight.

Michelle smiled happily as Artemis returned the hug, and laughed slightly at Joey's question.
"Why not?" she giggled. It had been a long time since she had felt so relaxed, and it was refreshing. She took her arms away from the two boys, and picked up her burger with a grin.

Joey just laughed softly and shook his head. "Because I'm not all that fond of physical contact?" he suggested lightly; in spite of this, he wasn't upset. Simply amused. He went back to his lemonade, bent of getting that last piece of strawberry out of his glass.

Artemis looked across to Joey. "That sounded a little bit mean..." He blinked, raising his head back as he gave a sneeze resembling Donald Duck, then twitched, grabbing a napkin and blowing his nose.

Michelle looked over at Joey with an exaggerated pout on her face. "That's really too bad," she said. A sudden jerk from Artemis drew her attention.

"Ah!" Michelle scooted away from Artemis slightly to avoid being hit by his sneeze. "Bless you," she said, her eyebrows raised.

"It wasn't intended to be mean," Joey said with a slight frown. "I just don't like being touched all that much. Took my old best friend two years to get me comfortable with being hugged randomly." He shrugged, and made no comment to Artemis' sneeze.

Artemis gave a light nod. "I know how you feel. Problem is, though, that I was raised in a house full of women. My mother, two aunts, many cousins, and my little sister. Getting frequent hugs is something I'm used to by now." He took a final bite of the sandwich before relaxing with his back against the booth. "So, when do you guys want to leave? I gotta be home for my sister's birthday party around 8:00."

Michelle finished off the last of her burger with a happy smile.
"Well, we would want to finish before it got dark anyway," she noted. "So we should probably go soon." She looked out the window. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but she knew that it would sink quickly, since she was having so much fun.

Joey shook his lemonade glass, rattling the leftover ice cubes that hadn't melted into his drink. "I concur," he said, beginning to stand. "If we're going to bounce like three-year-olds through an old park, we'll want to do it before it gets too late. Best for all involved." He smirked a little.

Artemis stood, reaching into his breast pocket. "Shall we split the bill, then?" He asked casually, picking up his tea for one last sip.

"That sounds fine," Michelle said with a shrug. She pulled her wallet out of her small green purse, and laid a five dollar bill out on the table. That should be enough to cover her meal and a small tip.

Joey's comment that they would 'bounce like three-year-olds' had her excited. She could hardly wait to go.