Fortune Cookie Monday

A note. That was all it took to change our fate. And all I had to do was eat at Wong’s.

“Hey kid, you up for lunch?” Lark asked, using that annoying endearment, as usual.

His arms were over my shoulders like clothes on a hanger. The a*s. I rolled my eyes at him. Even without me saying it, we’ll be eating over at Wong’s anyway, as usual. It’s been a tradition since freshman year.

“Is your new hall coming with?” I retorted, referring to this week’s armcandy-I mean girlfriend. He shrugged and walked away, leaving me to contemplate whether or not I will have to deal with another score.

I went through my flow of classes and waited for Lark’s text confirming where we were going to meet.  I set my book bag down on the green grass and plugged in my earphones, blasting Lorde’s White Teeth Teens.

I wasn’t even finished with the song when Lark’s message arrived. I stood up, gathered my things and walked towards the parking lot, where Lark was wasting daylight waiting for me. My footsteps were timed with the music on purpose, damn Lark. He can get a tan while he waited. I was snapped out of my Lorde state of mind when a tap on my shoulder made me remove my blue lego earbuds.

I faced the person, hoping it wasn’t a teacher because I do NOT want to be asked to do another errand for a while, thank you very much.

I turned around and in front of me were two girls, taller than me but also younger, judging by their taste in clothing and hesitation.

“Umm, excuse me- I mean us! Yeah, us. We-we saw the back of your shirt that says ‘Press’ and we were wondering how we could sign up for the club.” The taller one said, her companion shying away behind her.

I gave the two a small smile and replied. “Well, to join, you have to fill up forms that you can get outside the faculty room, and show up during screening. You can go ask Mrs. Macy for more information on the matter as I have an important adventure to return to.” Both girls nod, the tall one more haphazardly than the other, as if she was a dog shaking water out of her fur.

“I really hope to see you at the screening! We’re in dire need of new talent and my co-editor quit on me and I’ll be looking for a replacement soon.” That’s it, give them what they want to hear.

The complete lack of interest in actual journalism is annoying. I really am going to need them. I nodded at the two of them, crossing my fingers and walked away, plugging my earphones back in and listening more Lorde into my system.

When I got to Lark’s car, he was leaned against the trunk, looking cool and collected, as usual. And then I noticed that there was no other girl in sight. I neared him and pointed to the back seat.

“Is it inside?” I asked, my face contorting weirdly. Lark looked at me, completely confused. “Your girlfriend. Is it inside because if it is, I swear on my life, I am not going to Wong’s with you.” I clarified, using big hand gestures to get my point across.

He mouthed ‘o’ and then shook his head. I’ll assume that he means we’ll be dining alone. Without some gaggle-brained, Victoria Secret walking perfume stick and actually chill for once.

“I shall cherish this day forever!” I told him, putting my arms in the air before getting into his car with its black leather and no name band cd’s.

“Shut up,” he replied, starting the engine.

The ride to Wong’s was fairly silent. Well it was silent up until I changed the song that was playing. “Put. The Boonies. Back. On.” Lark threatened, his eyes alternating from the road to my grinning face as a Halyse song came on.

I smirked at his mad face and winked. “Make me.” I taunted, sticking my tongue out at him. He childishly responded with a grunt.

Using his free hand to slap my shoulder. I screeched in fake pain. “you meanie!”

It was Lark’s turn to smirk as we neared Wong’s.

The moment the car was properly parked and shut closed, Lark had me in a headlock.

“Thought you could get away with it, now did you?” He mocked, whispering in my ear.

“Let. go.” I rasped. To outwit an idiot, you must act like an idiot.

Lark instantly let me go like the idiot he was. It pays to have an idiot best friend, ladies and gentlemen.

“Quit it. We’re wasting precious Wong time.” He ordered, pulling me towards the place with my elbow.

He dragged me to the usual table we occupied, right beside one of the big windows that gave us a great view of the parking lot so Lark could guard his precious baby as he sat eating Asian cuisine.

Besides the fact that Lark can be a proper b*****d to girls, excluding a few, he was a good chap to chill with. A waitress approaches us and I let Lark order for us both while I observed a couple from another table.

The lady who owned Wong’s saw me and waved. I poked Lark and we waved back. “What do you think she’ll give us this time?” Lark asked. I shrugged in reply. Knowing Mrs. Wong, it could be anything.

Weirdly enough, her weirdness contrasts to the food she served. With her husband, she’s Filipino-Chinese and moved here to start up a restaurant to share their knowledge of Filipino AND Chinese food. She calls us her ‘suki’ which she explained to us meant ‘regular customers’ in her olden country.

“I ordered us steamed dumplings, fried pork rice and some sort of thing on the menu called ‘lechon manok,’ whatever that is.” Lark told me. I glared. Something was missing. “Chill. I didn’t forget our weekly fortune cookie, kid.” He assured me.

Lark rolled his eyes as my glare retracted and I eased my clenched hands.  Mondays were always for Fortune cookies. Tuesdays, we have icecream, Wednesdays we head out for a slurpee, Thursdays we grab a pancake and Fridays we get tea sandwiches and ever chocolate anything on any of those days.

As we waited for our food, both of our phones were out as we scrolled through articles about the weirdest things ever in an attempt to outdo each other.

The waitress soon came to serve the food.

Apparently, ‘lechon manok’ was just roast chicken.

Wordlessly, we dug in, forgetting about the empty space on the table meant for fortune cookies.

As we chewed, I could feel eyes staring at our table. I looked at Lark and hoped he could sense it too.

He kept eating, the pig. I guess it’s nothing then. I kept feeling the stares throughout the rest of the meal and I had enough after a while.

I kicked Lark underneath the cloth-covered table and gave him my phone with the thing open on memos telling him what I was feeling.

He typed something into it and gave it back, returning to his pork rice.

‘I can feel it too.’ Was on the bottom of the text post.

The menacing letters echoed in my head, spoken by Lark in his deep and serious voice. I could feel my heart beating faster as time slowed down. I  lay my phone on the table and tried to continue eating. I was in a funk, eating at a mechanical pace and I think I looked normal but the feeling has yet to leave.

Sticking to me, as I think it is sticking to Lark, like superglue on paper.

Then the waitress came, her face was the same as always as she gave Lark and I two cookies each on a porcelain plate. Her face was painted as white as foundation could go and her lips were redder than an apple.

And then I see it. The corner of her lip. A small drop of red. Not really visible unless you were looking for it.

We thanked her and she left.

I kicked Lark again and casually pointed to my lip as casual as I could fathom. He nodded, his eyes dead serious. My vision darted from Lark’s brown irises to the food on the table. It seemed as though the cookie was moving.

My companion seemed to have noticed this too and we both stared at the moving baked good. Lark readied his knife and gripped his fork in his other hand. Willing me with his eyes to do the same.

When we both poised to strike, Lark’s knife attacked the moving cookie, breaking  it apart and revealing a small cockroach. We were too engrossed in the escaping cockroach that we didn’t notice the inside of the cookie.

When we did notice it, what we saw could not be unseen.

Baked into the inside was half of a cockroach. And wings. We looked at each other, positively horrified. I knew it was a possibility that the others were contaminated as well.

I cracked open another cookie. This time, it had a fortune.

While Lark examined the cookie, I read the fortune it told.

“Nothing is what it seems until you take a second look.”

“Two legs and an antenna.” Lark clarified, taking a bottle of hand sanitizer from his pocket and squeezed a good amount onto his hands and lathered it thoroughly.

I raised my hand and gestured for the bill. I noticed that the blood on the girl’s lip was gone and there seemed to be a faint yellowish tint to the area.

We paid the amount and nodded at the girl and left.

As soon as we were both inside his car, Lark opened his mouth and uttered the words I already knew he was going to say. “Never again.” And I nodded and we went on our way.

We bid each other goodbye when we got to school and parted.

I guess officially, Mondays were going to be for revelation.

On Thursday as Lark and I were eating pancakes, he said, “Sushi?” and I knew we had filled that empty space for Monday. Replacing fortune cookies forever. Never to return to Mrs. Wong’s Restaurant of Cockroach cookies and free fortune.

A month later, Lark murmured that ‘It’s done.’ And that afternoon, I walked by Wong’s and saw that it was closed and condemned.

Poor Mrs. Wong.

Author's Note

Probably one of my best works, yet! This is an old story I wrote in the middle of the year, waaaay better Patricke but after Chris Ramirez. XD

Reviews

[CLBombay]

Yeah, this was pretty funny and I really enjoyed it. Definitely did not expect what was going to happen at the end.