At The Cafe With Harper

I glance over my shoulder (completely not conspicuously), and thankfully, I see no sign of Jack.

“Why are you hiding?” Harper asks loudly.

“Be quiet!” I hiss; she really has no concept of voice modulation.

“But I wanna knooooooow,” She whines.

“Don’t ask questions. Just, get down.”

She sighs forcefully; I give her a pointed look, and she rolls her eyes.

A tanned waitress stands next to our table, smacking her gum obnoxiously. She c***s her head to the side, and clicks her pen approximately five more times than necessary. “Are you going to like, order or what? I have like, other customers, you know, who are like, waiting on me.”

I glance around the nearly empty diner; the only other customers there was an elderly couple sipping coffee quietly and one small balding man with a pedometer strapped around his upper arm.

The waitress blows her bangs out her eyes impatiently. “Well?”

“Um, I think I’ll have the Dutch apple pie…. A la mode!” Harper says.

“Water for me,” I mumble. The waitress rolls her eyes and walks away.

“So?” Harper raises her eyebrows questioningly.

“So what?” Nonchalance is key here.

Unfortunately, this is the wrong lock for the nonchalance key. “So… why are you avoiding Jack?”

“I’m not avoiding anybody.” I say quickly.

“Rae. Rae. Rae. Yes you are. Deny it if you like, but you are, like, totally avoiding him. And you know it.”

Deny, deny, deny. “No I’m not. I’m simply trying to enjoy this lovely day with my best friend. Since when did that become a crime?”

“Since when do you not order pie?” She c***s an eyebrow. “The Raeleigh Patton I know would be all up on that Dulce de Leche pie right now.”

“I’m just not hungry, okay?” I say a bit angrily.

“Whatever,” she says, but drops it.

 A minute or so later, the waitress comes back with her slice of pie and my glass of ice water, with condensation already dripping down the side. Quickly, I take a long gulp so that I don’t have to answer Harper’s bombardment of questions. Fortunately, she didn’t expect me to talk with water in my mouth. Unfortunately as soon as I swallow, she begins the interrogation again.

“So where did you guys go?”

Reviews

[Lavorther]

You really got me curious about what happened that night. Sounds like it was something bad.