✯⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏɴᴏʀ ᴏꜰ ᴡʜᴏ ⋆✯

✯𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑰𝑿𝑻𝑬𝑬𝑵✯

"Well, that was... unexpected," Ben said as we drove away from the scene.

"I don't want to talk about it. At all," I said, clenching my hand around the steering wheel while Ben lounged in the back seat, snooping through his things.

"Why not?" Ben asked, studying a receipt he found under the seat, chewing on gum he found in the center console that I warned him against eating.

"Because that's just going to lead to another argument, and I don't want to right now," I said, peering at him through the rearview mirror.

"Okay, yes, I get it, it was pretty awful that I brought you to a Nazi that stole your necklace. I didn't know. No one spoke Latin in my group. But," Ben said, only making me angrier the more I thought about it, "at least we caught him! That's pretty wicked cool."

"Yeah yeah..." I said, half-heartedly agreeing with him. I'll go back and get my necklace someday.

"So... were you really going to floss his teeth with his intestines?" Ben asked after a bout of silence.

"...Why are you asking?" I said, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

"Oh, you know, just asking..." Ben said, hopping into the passenger seat.

"No. I was exaggerating, but I still beat him up kinda bad," I admitted. "He threatened my friend, and that is not cool."

Ben was quiet, staring out the window at the sunset peeking out from behind the tall North Carolina trees, orange and pink splattered across the sky, almost perfect for a painting.

"Remember when we painted sunsets with Philly for her birthday?" Ben asked, a big smile on his face.

"I remember that. Yours was ugly and we got to vandalize it. Why?" I replied, leaning my seat back.

"Oh, just saying... and then we got to eat spaghetti. And Selah made the strawberry cake? And then the hot little caesar pizza came at 2am? And I ate the last piece you were saving?" He asked.

I knew exactly what he was doing. He was hungry but too afraid to ask to stop somewhere, so he wanted to make it seem like it was my idea by making me hungry.

"What do you want to eat, Willter?" I sighed, my head slightly bowing in defeat.

"... I didn't say I wanted to eat anywhere. Are you sure you aren't hungry? Because I didn't say anything about eating. You're so hungry you've gone delu-"

I tore off the highway, onto the nearest exit I possibly could, the car almost tipping over as Ben let out a slight yelp, bumping his head on the window.

He silently put on his seatbelt as he rubbed his head, carefully avoiding eye contact as the seatbelt clicked into place.

I pulled into a diner, grabbing some money out of Ben's backpack and stuffing it into my pocket.
"Let's make this quick," I said, hopping out of the car.

He shortly followed, opening up the door to the diner for me.

The smell of cigarette smoke and bacon grease filled my senses, the waitress greeting us with a smile.

A badly-designed sign with watermarks on its graphics instructed us to seat ourselves, so we found a corner booth right across from the jukebox and under a light switch that probably hadn't been cleaned since the day it opened. And by the state of the place in general, I'd have to guess 80 years ago.

"What can I get y'all?" She asked, flipping open a notepad with her blue nails, her gaze lingering on mine, then to Willter's.

"I'd love a glass of chocol-"