Chapter Text
It's 2:30 AM when Tyler, Marcel, Craig, and Anthony walk into IHOP.
The waitress, an older woman who looks exhausted, smiles when she sees the four of them. "Same as usual?"
"Same as usual, ma'am." Marcel smiles at her, cutting off his yawn. "Thanks for working the night shift, it's gotta be tiring to deal with us."
"Don't you worry," she laughs as she takes the four to their usual spot, "you boys make me laugh at this hour of the night. I really do appreciate it. I'll be right back with your drinks."
She leaves and Craig plops down into the booth, scooting over so Marcel can sit next to him. He wrinkles his nose as Marcel pulls a folder full of paper out and plops it on the table. "Marcel, the point of our late night outings is to not bring homework."
"You guys can slack off all y'all want," Marcel snaps, making Anthony laugh as he sits across from the other two; Tyler sits down next to Anthony and checks his phone. "I have shit that's due tomorrow and I'm determined to finish it by tonight."
"I can guarantee that you're gonna be asleep before then." Tyler mumbles, cracking a smile as Anthony laughs again. "Every time you say this, we either drag you to the dorm or you sleepwalk back to the car."
"Suck my dick."
The waitress comes back with several mugs and a huge pot of coffee. She sets it down and laughs as everyone dives for their cup and to have the first sip of coffee. "I'll be back in a bit with the food."
"Thank you!!" Anthony smiles. Craig downs one burning cup and moves onto his next one. Tyler and Marcel take their time with their drinks, gently blowing off steam.
"So! What's on today's agenda?" Craig asks, humming happily as he takes another sip. "Today...what's today again?"
"If you mean by this morning already, it's Friday." Tyler snorts. "So that means the weekend is tomorrow. Anthony, what classes do we have?"
"The fact that you guys always ask me what classes you fucking have is proof that you guys do jack shit," Anthony grumbles. "We're all passing at this goddamn table. How!?"
"Late night escapes to either IHOP, Walmart, or Whataburger because they're open 24 hours." Marcel replies, not taking his eyes off his work. "Who knows, honestly. Talent with too much coffee in our systems."
The waitress, whose name tag reads "Sarah", comes back with a large tray of food and sets it down on their table. "Working on homework?"
"Yep," Craig smiles at her. "I have a paper due in several hours and I haven't gotten close to finishing it."
"Maybe find the motivation to finish it through your friends? They'd probably make fun of you if you didn't finish it." Sarah yawns to hide her laughter.
"They make fun of me anyways ma'am, but that's a pretty good idea."
As Sarah finishes putting the food down, the door to IHOP opens. All four guys look up and Sarah turns as three other dudes walk in looking exhausted. "Sorry to bother you this late at night...early in the morning?" One of them apologizes, looking like he just got out of bed with a red/orange/yellow tank and sweatpants. His two companions, a guy with spiky black hair and a red and white hoodie and a guy with a giant blue hoodie, look sheepish as Sarah heads on over. "There's no other place open at this hour and we got kinda hungry."
"It's quite all right, you three. You aren't my only customers at this hour." Sarah laughs again. The other three peer through the restaurant and blink in surprise as they spot the other four.
Sarah leads them to a booth close to the others, takes their orders, and leaves once more. Anthony glances over at them and tries to look nonchalant. "They go to our college too, actually."
"No shit?" Tyler asks, accidentally catching the guy with the red hoodie's eye. He looks away immediately, trying not to blush as the guy with the hoodie smiles at him.
"Yeah, I recognize the guy with the tank. He's in my psychology class." Anthony grins. "It looks like the guy with the red hoodie is talking to his friends about you."
"Shut the fuck up," Tyler mutters, grabbing some French fries off his plate and eating them. Across from him, Marcel's head slams against the table and Craig nearly bursts out laughing.
"I FUCKING TOLD YOU!!" Craig hisses loudly, trying not to laugh while Tyler grins. "Fucking dumbass. We told him and he didn't even listen."
"When does he?" Anthony cackles. "Do you think Scotty's awake at this hour?"
"He probably is but he's not gonna want to get Marcel. We're gonna have to drag him to the car." Tyler replies, rolling his eyes. "Only Marcel can fall asleep in a fucking IHOP after drinking coffee. The rest of us just suffer through our day."
Across from them, the guy with the blue hoodie laughs. "Holy fucking shit, that's one of the best laughs I've ever heard." Craig whispers, staring at them. "I think you have competition Anthony!"
"My cackles are legendary," Anthony laughs, throwing his head back. "Jesus, we're gonna have a fucking laugh-off at three in the morning. Anyways, Tyler, you have a class at 10 AM with Craig."
"Fucking hell," Tyler swears. "Isn't that the class—oh thank god never mind. I thought I was about to be screwed with assignments. That's our...uh...fuck, what class is that?"
"It's History you goddamn idiot." Craig snickers. "Tyler, we've been going to this class every couple of days for the past two months; how do you always forget?"
"I have much more important matters to worry about," Tyler huffs. "That's not one of them."
The guy in the red hoodie laughs and Tyler can't help but look over. He's pretty cute, Tyler thinks to himself. Is he looking at me??
"Earth to Tyler," Anthony raises an eyebrow. Craig snatches some food off of Marcel's plate and looks like he just got a brilliant idea. "What's up dude? You look more...zoned out than usual."
"What? Nah dude, I'm good." Tyler gives him a thumbs up.
Anthony squints suspiciously at him. "I know you better than that, Tyler."
Craig makes a tower of French fries on his plate and eats a few. He pushes his glasses back onto his face and then freezes as he glances at Marcel and then the fries. Jackpot.
"So what's up?" Anthony grins, already guessing the answer as Tyler throws his hands everywhere.
“Look,” Tyler begins, trying not to laugh at Craig who’s arranging French fries on Marcel’s sleeping head, “I’m just saying that HYPOTHETICALLY, if the cute guy over there is looking our way, should I say something?”
“Then you ask if he wants to eat with us, idiot.” Anthony snorts.
"Dude, no. That sounds weird as shit." Tyler grumbles. "What the fuck do I say to them anyways?"
"You're a little bitch," Craig responds immediately. He looks up from his creation, cups his hands around his mouth, and calls out, "Hey!! Do you guys want to eat with us so we can talk about the universe at three in the morning and procrastinate homework??"
The three guys look over, surprised. "Us?" The tank top guy asks.
"Who else?" Anthony laughs. "You're in my psych class too."
"That's right!! You're Anthony." The guy smiles, getting up with his friends. They snag a table and drag it over, bringing their drinks. "I'm Brock, and these are my friends Evan and Jon."
"Sup," Tyler butts in. "I'm Tyler, this is Anthony, that's Craig, and the sleeping guy is Marcel."
"So is IHOP the only place that's open at this hour?" Evan raises an eyebrow, grinning at everyone. "Who knew this was a popular place with us seven."
"Whataburger's open, we just didn't feel like getting burgers and chicken strips." Craig shrugs. "Also Walmart's open too but that's for our crazy nights. How we haven't been banned yet, I have no idea, but that doesn't stop any of us."
"Shit!!" Jon smacks Evan on the arm. "I KNEW I was forgetting a place!!! Whataburger, damn it!!"
"So, what's with him?" Evan gestures to Marcel, trying not to laugh at the pile of French fries being stacked by Craig. "I hope he's breathing."
"He is, the idiot just falls asleep faster than we do." Tyler laughs.
The seven of them talked and ate as time went on; finally, an hour later, they got up to leave. Due to Sarah being used to serving the original four, they knew where to turn off the lights and made sure to lock the door. The cook had gone home and since Sarah was opening the next day and didn't mind staying the night, they made sure she was asleep with a pillow and blanket somewhere in the back.
They leave at four in the morning. Jon helped Anthony with Marcel while Craig laughed his ass off at their still sleeping friend. Brock and Tyler were their respective drivers and as they bid each other goodnight, Evan pulls Tyler aside.
"Hey, so, I know this is kinda sudden, but I'm gonna head to a club to perform during the weekend. If you and your friends want to go, just let me know!!" Evan smiles at Tyler. His brown eyes are bright and eager and Tyler is literally starstruck.
"We'd love to," He manages, blinking as Evan offers his phone for Tyler's number. Oh my fucking god.
"I'd love to see you guys there." Evan smiles again. Tyler really thinks he's about to drown in those eyes as Evan's fingers brush against his hand.
"I'll definitely be there." Tyler nods frantically. "I'll, uh, bring my friends too. Just let me know where it'll be and we'll be there."
"Awesome!! See you then." Evan waves and heads off with Jon and Brock.
Tyler's still standing in the parking lot when Craig comes back to get him. "Get in you fucking idiot!!" He shouts, dragging him by the arm. "We heard you got a date, now come on!! We're tired as shit and we have a class in six hours. I'd like to sleep as soon as possible."
Tyler gets into the driver's seat and numbly drives off, eyes wide but smile growing bigger every second. In the passenger seat, Anthony laughs at him. "Look at you!! You're blushing, holy shit. Find yourself someone to make out with finally?"
"Maybe I fucking did!!" Tyler shouts, cheeks hurting from smiling. "And guess what? We got invites to a club this weekend AND I got his number!!"
Anthony and Craig cheer loudly but burst out laughing when Marcel jolts upright next to Craig. "Wha? What the fuck?"
"Go back to sleep," Craig giggles as he pats Marcel's back. "Tyler got a date and we're gonna go party this weekend!!"
"...Whatever," Marcel mutters as he goes back to sleep.
The car's silent before Anthony speaks up. "Hey Craig, can you send me the pictures of Marcel's French fry art? I really want to set that as my phone background."
"For sure my dude."
As Tyler parks in the college parking lot, Marcel jerks up. "WHAT?!"
Craig takes off running before the car's even fully stopped with a screaming Marcel behind him. Tyler snorts as he heads back to the dorms with Anthony. "Wow, what a fucking way to meet someone." Anthony remarks. "Three AM in a fucking IHOP. I've heard worst places to meet people, honestly."
"His eyes are so brown, dude. They're so pretty and HE'S so pretty and holy shit." Tyler puts his hand to his cheek and swoons.
Marcel's screams fade into the distance as Anthony pats Tyler on the back. "Hey man, if you pull this off, you might be able to pull off his pants by the end of this."
"Jesus, I fucking hope so."
Tyler's phone buzzes; he laughs his ass off when he sees the caller ID. "Oh shit, it's Craig."
"Marcel's still after me!!!" Craig yells the moment Tyler answers; he's laughing so hard he's crying. "I'm gonna need some help!!!! Please!!"
"Let's go rescue our friend!" Anthony laughs. "It's been a good night, dude. I'm ready to go to bed."
"Hell yeah man, let's go save our bitch-boy friend before he's killed." Tyler laughs as he heads off.
I hope you know I'm thinking of you, Evan. Goodnight.