Sweet As Honey

~Chapter 9~

"Oh God! You drive like an old woman! Please go a little faster." Peter groans, sinking in his seat as you look at the traffic.
"Please Peter, tell me how to go faster when we are stuck in traffic. I'd love to hear." You huff back angrily. He hasn't stopped complaining since you got on the freeway which he suggested. He goes to talk but you cut him off. "We are getting off two exits before and we are gonna follow the main road."
"Do you even know the area?" Peter asks loudly.
"Peter, we grew up in this area. Did you never take note of the things around you?" You ask, flicking your blinker on and getting into the exit lane.
"Nope." Peter says as he presses himself up against the window dramatically as you turn. "I'm gonna fall out! Stop the car!!" He screams laughing.
"Pete," You start. "How much coffee did you drink today?"
"Four cups. Two had triple espresso. I didn't sleep last night so I needed energy." You shake your head, this explains why he is being so impatient. The boy is practically bouncing off the walls with energy. And you, sadly, are stuck being one of the walls he is bouncing off. You then see him reach over for the radio system.
"Aye! You know I'm the driver. I pick what we listen to!" You smack his hand.
"I know! But there is way too much K-Pop in this playlist! How did Wren put you onto all that stuff so quickly! Can I at least put on one Corpse song!" He whines. You sigh knowing that when he has this much coffee if he doesn't get his way he will complain until he does. And it is nowhere near your responsibility to train this boy.
"Fine. But only one, and it needs to be White Tee." You instruct him as he nods, grinning like an idiot. As the song comes on he starts to scream the lyrics as he turns the radio up. "Bro! I need to be able to hear everything! Not just this!" You turn the car's volume down. You see Peter slightly pout but he quickly gets over it when he screams the next lyric.
This kid is going to kill you, and possibly the other drivers with his crazy movements. As you go through the center where the two towns connect you turn down the little side street Tiffany's is on. You are in a much wealthier area than where you live. Parking costs much more here so you have to drive down the street and go into Tiffany's parking lot on the other side. As you park your car Pete jumps out before you even stop.
"You are going to get hurt! Plus you forgot your hat." You say after you've parked and hand him the hat which matches yours. Both say 'Schlatt 2020'. The two of you don't hide the fact that you are both nerds very well.
"Oop. Thanks." He says and he places it on his head, checking his pockets.
"Don't tell me you are gonna pull the 'I forgot my wallet can you pay for both of us thing.' Because I won't. I'll leave you here." You jokingly say as you push his shoulder.
"No my phone. Aaand I have it, let's go!" He grabs your hand and pulls you into the restaurant.
"The scent of freshly baked goods fills your nose. It is amazing, you always forget how much you love this place. Even if you could barely afford it for a while. But Peter was right, you get quite a few donations, at least enough for your brain to rationalize getting yourself food.
"Walking up to the hostess Peter holds up two fingers and says "Table for two please." before pushing his mess of red hair back. You see the girl's eyes widen before she looks over at you and gives a sort of jealous glare. You realize why and almost gag. You could never think of Pete that way. You had known him way too long. She leads you to the table and gently places his menu down before smacking yours on the table, making you jump.
"Real mature, honey." You say trying not to get too angry at this stranger's antics. She scoffs and walks off. Peter opens his menu and begins to look through squinting as he reads each thing. "Did you not put in your contacts man?"
"I did." He says scanning over each thing with his finger. "So what was your little sassy moment about?" He glances up at you over the menu.
"She seemed into you. I guess she thought we were something and got all pissy. So I said something to get her to back off and let us be." You respond, sounding a little disappointed in yourself.
"Well, it's not like she has a chance. I am sixteen and she lives four towns away. But," He says, putting the menu down and grabbing your hand. "I'm glad you stuck up for yourself." He puts your hand down and goes back to the menu. You know what you want. You knew before you even started your car. The cinnamon french toast with strawberries. It was honestly to die for. Just thinking about it made your mouth water. "I'm getting vanilla pancakes with blueberries and chocolate drizzle." Pete says, throwing his menu on top of yours.
"I'm going to get what I got last time. Too good to pass up on them." You say organizing your silverware into their correct positions before gently placing your napkin on your lap.
"Too formal Y/n, just use the silverware as God intended." Peter reaches over to try and mess with your silverware.
Slapping his hands you put them back. "No! It needs to look nice." He just chuckles. As the time passes and you get your meal Peter looks at you. His eyes filled with sorrow and worry.
"Y/n," He looks down, "you're going to college this summer... Will we still be best friends? I can't help but feel that this is gonna be the end of us." As he looks up you see a single tear is rolling down his cheek and more are threatening to fall.
You reach over without thinking and wipe his tears away. "Yes. Of course we will, you never have to worry about that." You start to see what the true purpose of this lunch was, so he could spend more time with you before you left. Even if the two of you spoke everyday, he was worried it would end.
"Okay" He says softly. "I believe you. I trust you. I'm glad." He clears his throat and rubs his eyes. Suddenly he claps. "Welp, we can't let this go to waste can we." He starts cutting his food and then stabs it with his fork.
You start poking at your food. Knowing he was worried about this and just suffered through it without telling you until now chews you up inside. As the bill comes the two of you argue who is right on how much you give as a tip. You are right, as you almost always are when it comes to math. As the two of you begin to walk out Peter grabs your hand and leads you out.
"Just wanted to make the hostess jealous again. Don't worry." He says running over to the van. You unlock it seconds before he reaches it and he jumps in. You get in and start it up. Peter turns on the regular radio and starts singing along to the regular pop songs.
You know for him this will be another short drive but for you it will feel like forever. You hated not knowing he was hurting.