Haven't Slept Since Sunday - Anderperry

Milkshakes

Todd and I laughed after I finished taking a long swig of milkshake, creating a foamy moustache on my lip. "Oh come on Todd, you're a great singer," I said, a wide smile painting my face as I wiped away the sweet strawberry milk from my top lip. Todd smiled shyly, the way he always did, peeling the label off his coca-cola bottle. "I don't know...Maybe..I don't think I really need a job though," he responded, slowly turning the bottle around. "It's not a job it's a-it's a...I don't know, it's a gig. It would be good for your confidence." He laughed at this,
"You sound like my parents." I rolled my eyes.

Silence fell over us, Todd took a sip from his bottle and still said nothing. Neither did I, but nothing had to be said. The silence was comfortable, all of our silences were. "So," I began, looking at him and taking in his features. "You got a girlfriend yet?" I asked, drinking more of my strawberry milkshake.

Continuing to look at him, I thought about how easy it would be for Todd to get a girlfriend. He was very handsome, light brown - almost blonde - hair, ocean blue eyes. He even had two tiny dimples. Those are all things girls find attractive, surely? And Todd had a great personality, I mean yeah he was shy but he was also sweet, and an amazing singer. I'm sure he could be very romantic as well, if he really wanted to. After he was clearly thinking hard about what he wanted to say for a while, he shook his head, "No..No I don't, not really," he said, glancing at me before going back to picking at the bottle's label. "Not really?" I said, raising my eyebrows. He laughed, seeming a little nervous, "Well, I don't know, I'm sort of looking but it's hard at an all boys school."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." We sat in silence again.

Looking around the little diner we were in, I held tightly onto my glass. I'm not sure why, maybe it was nerves or something. Which might seem a little odd, but often felt nervous around Todd. It wasn't out of the ordinary for me, it was just...a thing.

I smiled once my eyes landed back on Todd sitting in the booth opposite me. I loved this diner. Todd had found it not long after he had come to Welton and told me about, so we decided it would be our place and we visit every second Saturday. We also normally visit after I've done a play, with the others too of course. Charlie had loved it so much, he got a peanut butter flavoured milkshake or something and a massive pepperoni pizza, claiming we should do our meetings here and we all laughed. Todd always gets the same thing, a coca-cola with a blue straw and a cheeseburger with one tomato on it. I don't think he ever noticed, but it seemed to be a weird preference he had. Like how he preferred hardback books to paper ones, and if he were to pour coca-cola into a cup or a glass, he would always try and eat the foam before it bubbled away. And he also preferred to eat fries - if he had them - before eating his burger.

Anyway, as I looked around I noticed how out of place we looked. I looked at the empty stage and thought about Todd up there, singing like he so often did. Todd had actually sang in front of people before and he was wonderful, the crowd loved him every time and he got some money out of it. Watching him sing, getting lost in the music, was my favourite thing to see. It was like wonderful melodic poetry. I looked over at the booth on the other side of the room to us. A girl and a boy sat opposite each other just like Todd and I, I assumed they were on a date of some sort. The girl was leaning in and giggling at everything the boy said. It made me cringe a little.

"What about you?" Todd asked, bringing me out of my trance as I looked at him. He looked back at me with a small smile, "I doubt you've got a girlfriend yet."
"What? Why do you say that?" I laughed,
"Well, surely if you had a girlfriend you'd tell everyone about her, no?"
"No not necessarily, I'm a very private man." He laughed, "you are far from private and far from a man," he said, putting his hand over his mouth and giggling. I gasped but laughed again, "I'm more manlier than you'll ever be, Anderson."
"You know, for a poet and an actor you're really quite illiterate." We both laughed.