We were talking nonstop, no one could really understand what the others were saying but we all knew we were talking about the same thing. As our parents started turning down an ally we obliviously followed until we noticed where we were. We slowly grew quieter and when we walked in, we became silent.
***
This started when my whole Skating team drove to Ohio for nationals at Miami of Ohio. After making final rounds my friends and I, and our parents, decided to go look around the campus for fun before we had to go back to the rink to watch the Miami of Ohio teams perform. We were already tiered after our early five A.M. practice and a great fourth place win and we started complaining about our hunger and decided it was time to find a fast place to eat. Our parents saw a Mexican restaurant right across the street but my friends and I all agreed we wanted cheeseburgers. Without any of us noticing, our parents asked one of the passing college students where a good cheeseburger place was. If we had known that we were going to eat at a place recommended by a college student we probably would’ve looked up the place on our phones just in case, but we were all tiered, hot, and starving. We started walking. We obliviously followed until we noticed where we were. We slowly grew quieter and when we walked in, we became silent. The first thing that stood out to us about this place was that it was in the middle of an ally, when we walked in, there were students screaming and cheering and slamming there glasses down that I assume were filled with some kind of beer by the way they were acting. They were all looking up at a TV which led to the conclusion that they were most likely watch a football or hockey game. We stood at the door way mostly silent accept for occasional whispers and glances that said “thanks, but no thanks”.


“Can we eat down stairs,” one of my friends said to her mom as she peered down the small stairway into an empty part of the restaurant. Her mom asked to be seated down stairs and the man led us all down the stairs, once we were down stairs where it was a little quieter he disappeared into the back somewhere so we seated ourselves, parents at one table and us at another. The first table we sat at had writing carved into it but we couldn’t exactly tell if they were real letters, or words. Quickly after we sat down we realized that the tables were so completely disgusting and sticky that there were multiple pieces of hair stuck to the table. As soon as I pointed that out we all quickly jumped out of our seats feeling dirty and went around looking for a clean table and settling for a not so completely disgusting table. We didn’t realize there were menus stacked up next to us until the very annoyed looking waiter came to take our order. We started by ordering our drinks, we went around the table “water” we all said, because that was the only we could think of that might be non alcoholic. The last person to order was m friend heather, always gets her way, “Do you have anything like non alcoholic?” she asked. The waiter looked almost surprised, “we have like coke, sprite, kiddy cocktails…” “I’ll have that,” she said cutting him off mid sentence. We immediately all yelled out to change our orders to that also. After waiting what seemed like a couple hours for our food and drinks we eat pretty fast because more people were piling in and we just wanted to leave the place. When we were done we went over to our parents and said we wanted to go but they said that they had to wait for the check but we could head out. We looked at one and other, we didn’t really want to go out there alone... “Adams out there,” said one of my friends moms, Adam’s my friends little brother that has grown to be close to me as if he was my own little brother. We decided we would be fine out there alone if Adam could be out there alone. It was nice outside, sunny, and warm. Adam was doing tricks on his skateboard and we were all just talking and watching, occasionally attempting to ride his skateboard. Then out of nowhere we hear a deep male voice yelling at Adam to do a tick on his skateboard, we couldn’t find the voice anywhere until Adam replied to it, “Adam! Shhh, don’t!” his older sister whispered at him. When we heard the voice again we realized it was coming from above us, it was a collage boy on a balcony throwing bottles of something in the ally where we were. We were all in a state of shock with our heads tilted towards the sky when we heard more voices of teenagers that sounded a lot closer. We looked straight to the source of the sound to find a group of about five not-so-nice looking collage kids, when they started talking to us about alcohol we were all beyond ready to leave, finally my dad walked out and the group of kids proceeded down the alley and the guy from above was gone. After all the parents left and came outside we were more than happy to leave the ally and go to a nice Starbucks. Looking back on this adventure it was fun to try something completely new but I think I speak for all of us when I say, I probably won’t be going back to “Mac and Joes” anytime soon.