Last Player Standing

Chapter Seven

Ah yes, Wallflower's Diner.

A fucking blast from the past.

I steel myself and walk into the diner, memories flooding back as I walk through the glass doors. The last time I was here... I'm not sure I really want to remember that. It hasn't changed much, I muse, glancing at the ornate wooden wall covered with plants.

Wallflower's Diner was less of a diner and more of a cafe. It was cozy, with comfortable booths, couches and colorful plants. I'd loved it since I first found it when I was 10. When Lucas was still my best friend, Wallflower's had become our go to spot for everything after we found it. Lucas and I would come there at least once a week, and even started helping out with waiting on tables for free when we were 13. After our big fight, I hadn't been back in years, but I often walked past the diner on my stress walks. It had become a sort of pressure reliever for me, grabbing a hoodie, my phone and earplugs, then simply walking. No direction in mind, no plans, no ideas of where to go, just walking to find another path, another adventure. I'd walk until I no longer remembered what was worrying me, until I could breathe without a weight pressing down on my lungs. Then, wherever I ended up, I'd sit and think until I felt ready to come home, back to my responsibilities and expectations.

I could really use one of those walks now.

A stab of anxiety goes through my chest as I scan the diner and see Lucas sitting on the table of the booth in the furthest corner of Wallflower's. He's leaning back, legs crossed and checking the time on his watch. I watch as he takes out his phone, and suddenly my phone starts ringing softly. We both look up at each other, and I stop walking in the middle of the diner stunned, even from this distance, at the intensity of his eyes. It seems the rage from our earlier conversation hadn't died down yet. Turning my phone over in my hands, I notice that he cancels his call as I continue to approach. I feel Lucas's eyes studying me as I come up to stand next to him. Considering everything that went down four hours earlier, I'm not sure how to break the silence but he does it for me.

"You're late." He collapses into the booth, slumping.

"By 3 minutes." I fire back. I check my watch to make sure I'm right, before loosening the ponytail I had my braids in.

"My time is precious darling. Don't waste it."

I had barely calmed down from the earlier events, and as usual, Lucas was raising my temper. I narrow my eyes and respond with all the frustration I could muster in my voice. "I doubt that. If it was so precious, you wouldn't have wasted so many years on me."

He stays silent, searching my face for something I don't know. An emotion? An expression? Whatever he sees doesn't seem to be what he wants to.

He tilts his head and smiles gently, but it doesn't match the brief sadness in his eyes.

"Why do we do this every time we speak?"

Lucas had a terrible habit of closing his emotions off from his eyes, letting you see only what he wanted you to. It was one of the most irritating things that had changed about him, knowing I used to be able to read everything about him from his eyes, until he started putting walls up, and shuttering his emotions in. Lucas's green eyes had become shallow and blank in the past few years, until I forced an emotion out of him with one of our petty fights. I close my eyes and pinch my nose bridge trying to fight the headache forming between my eyes. Breathing in and out I feel the pain fade slightly. I'm too tired for Lucas and his mind games. I'm dehydrated and stressed and I want nothing more than to go home, finish my homework and take a long nap. I'm not sure I want to wake up again actually. I've had the worst headache I've ever had throughout today, and if my headaches continue any longer, I might break.