All Roads Lead Here (Laurinah)

Chapter One: Starting point

Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

-Rascal Flatts

***

A week before her...

Dinah loved waking up to the sound of rain. 

It's these kind of days that make her want to trudge down to her kitchen, get some hot chocolate and lunge on her couch all day watching Netflix with her blanket wrapped around her to keep her warm while the rain continuously pours down outside, creating paintings of teardrops on her windows, coating the streets with a light glow and making the atmosphere so heavy and so lazy that maybe in these kind of days, she'd also like for her boyfriend Anthony to come knocking on her door holding a box of pizza.

But that's not happening today because it's five in the morning and Dinah has to be in the diner by  6'o clock or else Nick's going to fire her and she'd never be able to earn enough money to go home to California before Christmas.

Dinah laughs to herself after realizing that Nick wouldn't dare fire his best waitress and occasional singer in the diner. He wouldn't risk losing her because God knows she's the only one who can get the 'waiting' done right and besides, they were like family now after the 3 years that she'd worked there.

Though all of that didn't mean that her boss wouldn't yell at her, because Dinah was late for the 4th time in a row since she was put on the morning shift. So the Polynesian beauty gets out of bed and goes downstairs to make herself that damn hot chocolate before taking a shower.

She deserves at least that.

***

"Holy shit. She is early," Nick comments with a mocking grin on his face.

Dinah rolls her eyes before putting on her uniform – an apron and a name tag, spelled incorrectly as 'Dina' that Nick never bothered to have corrected because he's an asshole  – and clipping her little notepad on her belt.

"Think of it as an early Christmas present, boss," Dinah snickers pushing past him to set the condiments on the counter.

Nick laughs heartily, catching the attention of the few of their early regular customers, who smiled in return at the duo. In this small town of Senoia, almost everyone knew everyone.

"Well then! Shame. If you were late this morning, I would've let you off the hook," Nick sighs in mock-disappointment. "As an early Christmas present of sorts."

Dinah shoves him playfully but their little banter is cut short when the hanging door bell starts to repeatedly chime, signalling the start of the morning rush. So Dinah sticks her tongue out at Nick before plastering her sweet smile on her face and tended to her customers.

***

It was already afternoon and Dinah's shift is about to end in a few minutes but she finds herself still looking expectantly towards the door for her regular visitor. Dinah shakes her head. It's really odd – this is the third time this week that the woman missed eating at the Diner.

Dinah sighs and goes to the kitchen to clean up.

Then the door bell chimes and Dinah rushes to the counter in hopes that it's the person she's waiting for. Her face falls because it's only Ally who came to replace her for the night shift.

"Dinah!" The small girl waves at Dinah happily. "I got some cupcakes for you."

Dinah temporarily forgets about her disappointment as she takes the box from Ally.

"Ally! You shouldn't have! Thank you, boo, I love these."

"It's no big deal. I have like a hundred of those at home. You should come visit for more, my parents really miss having you for dinner," Ally says all at once as she puts on her uniform.

Dinah nods along to her friend. 

Ally was one of Dinah's first friends here in Senoia back when Dinah just moved in town three years ago after running away from home and finding herself driving non-stop to God-knows-where, making a right turn somewhere along the road and finding this small town and it felt like home... so she made it home.

And Dinah didn't have a family, considering hers is back in California, so she spent a lot of dinners and holidays at other families' table.

Ally's family is one of them, and they had been living in the town since forever.

In the midst of Ally's chattering, the door bell chimes again and Dinah's head snaps towards it.

Still not her... and Dinah sighs again.

"Waiting for Anthony?" Ally asks.

"Not him..." Dinah drags her words, her eyebrows furrowing because it was the end of her shift and the woman didn't come again today. "It's strange... Clara hasn't set foot in the diner since Wednesday. You know she comes here like literally every day."

"Is she alright?" Ally asks concerned. "You should probably visit her, see if she's fine?"

Dinah nods in agreement; she didn't know why she had this uneasy feeling in her gut but she didn't appreciate it one bit. Clara Jauregui is a regular in the diner and Dinah met her the first day she worked here. They've become very close over the years and Dinah, at times, even considers the woman as a mother figure.

She guesses that they gravitated towards each other so much because Dinah is living alone in Senoia with her family far away and Clara is living alone too with her family far away. So on holidays, when everyone was out of town or busy with their own family, the two of them would celebrate it together. She's basically Dinah's replacement family. In days that Dinah's sick  or in need of comfort, Clara is there to hold her like her mother used to, and in turn Dinah kept the woman company, helping her plant flowers in her garden or even help her in the kitchen when she's cooking, so Clara didn't feel too lonely.

But it's been three days since Dinah saw Clara's face and she's beginning to get worried. The last time the Polynesian girl saw her, the older woman was tending to her flowers because she owned a flower shop.

Dinah assures herself that Clara is fine, and she's going to visit her tonight. And she'll be fine.

"Michael!" Dinah calls out to their chef in the kitchen. "Burger and fries on the go! It's for Clara, you know how she likes it!"

***

There we go, finally got that out there. 

I've already written a lot of chapters for this particular story, btw, so the updates should come fairly often. I'm so excited for this! :D

Hope you have/had a wonderful day, dear reader! Drop a comment or vote, it'll make me super happy yey!

Thanks to my bff, Ross-lyn, for the cover and moral support! She's the bomb.