The smell of bacon wrapped around my nose like a ghost. I loved bacon, but Kai hated bacon. He was a vegetarian that sucked the life out of every good food there was.
The booth we got was dirty and the floor was sticky. They didn't seem to notice, they already sat down. I didn't want to complain, so I followed suit.
I sat next to Kai and Violet sat across from us.
"Okay, where are you?" Violet ran her finger down the menu.
Kai closed his menu with a huff. "I'm just going to get the side salad."
As they look over the menu, I looked around to see where the exits were. You should always know just in case some psycho man crashes through the building and robs the place. Now that I think about that, I do sound pretty insane. I don't mind being insane anyway. Sometimes you just have to balance out all of the boring parts.
The waiter was already there when I snapped back to reality. She looked down at me with red eyes.
"Are you going to order?"
I tried not to make eye contact. "Um, I'll have the spaghetti, please."
"Side salad, for me."
She wrote down our order then stomped back to the kitchen.
"You can have salad when you're dead," Violet swayed her head back and forth.
"That's not how that works, Violet," Kai snapped.
"Damn, all that salad is making you grumpy," Violet sat sideways and put her feet up on the booth cushion.
"Can't we all just get along?" I was starting to get a headache.
"What in the cheddar cheese was that?"
"Your food..."
We all look up at our waiter, terrified. She threw the plates down on the table. Half Kai's salad was in his lap, Violet already started eating, and I was pretty sure my plate broke in half.
"Enjoy..." She muttered as she walked away.
Kai looked down at his lap. "I'm not paying for a lap salad. A lap dance maybe, but not a salad."
I was trying not to start laughing at how serious he said that.
Violet finally looked up from her half-eaten plate.
"Are you guys going to eat?"
We looked at her with disbelief.
"Do you not see my lap salad?" Kai blinked.
"Or my floor spaghetti?"
Violet shrugged her shoulders. She looked down at her meal. "I think I'm done," She said rubbing her stomach.
"How wonderful," Kai said clearly agitated.
The mean lady came back and handed me the bill.
"Are you fucking serious?" I screamed.
Kai looked over, "Forty-five dollars?"
"I also accept tips," She grinned.
"Well, we can't pay that," Violet said in a surprising calm manner.
Our waiter rolled her eyes, "Well, somebody better pay me or I'll call the cops."
We all looked at each other. We were basically communicating with our eyes. We had to a very calculated decision.
Violet threw her fork across the room. Soon as the lady turned her head, we were out of the door and safety in the car.
All of us were heaving trying to catch our breath. Kai and Violet reached back for a high-five.
"That was so close, " I spoke in between dying.
"Yeah, we might go to prison tonight, but it was worth it," Kai grinned.
"For sure," Violet added on.
Silence fell for a second. I wanted to get this off my chest for awhile now. I just needed to find the right words to say it, but sometimes you don't even have to make sense. Your friends will just know and that makes me really grateful for Violet and Kai. I didn't really want to sound dramatic or anything like that, but I pretty sure I found my two loves of my life.
"My dad never writes to me from prison. I say it doesn't bother me when I know it does," I was starting to tear up. I hated being vulnerable, but I knew I could talk to them about anything.
Violet took off her seat belt so she could climb back and hold me.
"I wish I knew what to say," Violet admitted. "I just don't want to say anything wrong and make it worse."
"When my mom kicked me out, I tried to stay at my friend Lenny's house and he told me he didn't want me to turn him."
"That's absolute bull-shit, "Violet shook her head. "I guess I got lucky. Both of my parents accepted me. They're just never around for me," Violet starts to tear up as well.
"We got that strong trauma bond," Kai chuckled.
"We probably should get out of this parking lot though..." Violet said while climbing back to the front seat.
On the road again, just taking in the fresh air and trying not to get bugs in our mouths.
I just kept thinking about Milo. If we would've git there sooner, the little guy might still be alive. I don't think I should take that on, though. I had way too much already going through my mind and all of this change being thrown at me.
I threw my head back on the seat rest and screamed, "I'm going through changes!"
Kai noded his head in approval. Violet rolled down her window and screamed, "I'm going through changes!"
"We're going through changes!" We all sang together.
And in that moment everything just felt so right.
