Vagrant

Chapter Three

Morning came sooner than the cigarettes butts from burning its last shred of ashes to the floorboards. The pounding construction was at its highest peak, drilling the wall into the room next door. Talia’s room.

Vega’s skin was soft against her, the light shimmery fabric of a bomber jacket that the girl wore, felt loose in her fingertips as she was cradling the other girl who sat on her lap.

The smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs came uninvited when the waitress brought it on their table. A scowl plastered on the waitress’ face, Vega pulled up the jacket to cover part of her shoulder and slid away to the empty space next to Talia.

“Alright, there’s your order, two eggs and bacon. Is there anything else?”

Vega chipped. “No, that’d be all. Thanks.”

Talia propped her arm up to scratch her neck, avoiding eye contact with the waitress who’d just walked away. She peeked glance at the plate and Vega’s hand twisting and jabbing at the meal in front of her, towards the curly-haired waitress whose hair was pulled up in a low bun, standing behind the counter. The waitress wore eyeliner as if her life depended on it: sharp and accentuated her stern eyes.

Vega interrupted Talia’s thoughts as she shifted her gaze. “You know the waitress or something?”

Out of daze, Talia widened her eyes. “What?”

“The waitress,” Vega motioned at the curly-haired waitress who was pouring coffee over a customer’s cup with a grin etched on her face. “Over there. She was staring at you.”

“Oh, that. Yeah. Um,” Talia stammered. Like a deer caught in headlights, she was yearning for whatever words lost in the pit of her brain somewhere. “You know what? We’ll see. Excuse me.”

She got out of the booth when Vega threw her a look of disdain and scooted over for her to make her way out. Dread spilled within her as she walked past the customers. Pulling up a stool by the counter, she watched the so-called waitress only glancing up for a split second, before going back to taking orders. She wasn’t even sure if the girl even saw her.

She started tapping her nails on the counter, repeatedly, as shivers jolted down her spine when the waitress slid into her way, only to grab a cupcake out of the display.  Grabbing enough courage that she tore out of Eva’s book, she finally declared.

“How long are you going to stand there and ignore me, Gigi?”

Everyone in the whole counter averted their gaze at her. But she was only looking at the waitress who’d stopped pouring coffee and now had their glance on her.

“What brought you to town? And how long should I wait for you to literally never come back?”

The universe had a term for when someone would go off on the other, and it all just snowballed on Talia as she was just giving one to Niki a while back. It sucked either way because she really wasn’t expecting anyone to grieve over her leaving. She had done it countless times, thanks to her father’s brilliant job, so getting people out of the way and saying good bye were the least of her worries. Their exact words were, “there’d be friends everywhere”.

Her shoulders tensed. The words hung in the air, mocking her senselessly. “Funny, I thought you’d be forgetting all about me by now.”

Gigi leaned over the counter to pick up a dirty cup and brushed her napkin against it. Her dark tanned skin glowed under the sun that filtered through the glass window overlooking the tables across from the counter.

“You’re right. I should forget the girl who knew all about my secrets.”

There was the siren. Ambushing into her like an incoming big bus towards her way as she was about to cross the street.

She’d have sleepovers on weekends and it’d mostly be at Gigi’s house. As the bell rang, she’d go on her bike to the girl’s house, instead of her own, sometimes without even alerting her parents because they already knew. The both of them were inseparable; even their houses were only one river away. Her house was on the opposite side of the river so she’d only need to cross the bridge. Even when she became the target of the joke in school, she knew that she could always count on Gigi. And vice versa.

Drawing circles on the counter as she looked down on her clammy hands, she heaved out a sigh. “I don’t know what you want me to say. You know how it is with my parents. My dad, mostly. When it’s time to move, we move. There’s no other way to stop it.”

A bitter snicker escaped out of Gigi’s lips, followed by a scowl plastering across her features. “You could’ve called. You know how humiliating it is to go to your house, knowing that there are already boxes and a house for sale sign upfront?”

“This is not just my fault.” Talia insisted, gritting her teeth as she felt her heart beat faster from the blood boiling in her veins.

“You stopped talking to me. Right after graduating elementary, a year into different middle school, granted it was next to each other still, but… you stopped going over to my house. Why? We usually rode our bikes together. Always.”

Gigi’s scowl disappeared from her face and she turned around to take a freshly brewed coffee from the pot. She took out a cupcake from the container and put it on a plate.

Breezing past Talia as Gigi walk by to deliver for the customers. Talia turned around and leaned her elbows against the counter, facing Gigi whose arms were crossed over her chest.

“Fine. I did drift apart too. But at least I stayed. Now what’s your excuse?”

The whole room glanced at them. Talia’s cheeks grew hot as she wasn’t used to attention. Looking down on her sneakers as she shoved her hands in her hoodie, she mustered a reply. “What do you want me to do, tell my dad to ditch his job so we’d all be homeless and out on the streets?”

“You know what.” Gigi snarled, going over to the counter as she slammed down the wooden divider at the corner. The tip of her curly hair fell just above her eyelids. She swept them behind one ear a little to harshly. 

“I have a lot of tables to wait on and so don’t have time to argue over this. If you’re really hear to mend whatever you think deserves mended, meet me at our spot tomorrow. That is, if you even remember what it is.”