Stranger Arms

7:01 PM

Richie's hands are capable of fixing squeaky doors.

Having scarfed down a bacon double cheeseburger with special sauce, his fingers are glossy with saturated fat. Eating a large order of fries isn't helping matters.

He searches for a clean napkin, but only finds a pile of oily, soggy paper balls. He resorts to using his pant leg. "Eff it."

He takes a long sip of his Mountain Dew until all that's left in the cup is crushed ice.

You're such a slob. He chuckles to himself, free of shame, as he scratches his patchy attempt at a beard.

He observes the inside of the restaurant. As luck would have it, the place is empty. Burgersmith is never full before eleven at night, when every drunk in town demands junk food before bed.

The food is good, but Richie just wants neutral territory. His stomach was in knots all week, ever since he messed things up with Luke. All he wanted was his best friend back. He didn't mean to insult him and his girlfriend, at least not so much that his friend stopped talking to him.

But no amount of guilt can rob him of his appetite.

He dips his forth onion ring in honey mustard, then hears the sound of a generic ding-dong that alerts patrons that a new guest has arrived.

He looks up and sees Luke coming in through the front door.

Luke was the tallest twentysomething Richie knew. He's wearing his signature black hoodie, the one with the scruffy cuffs.

Queasiness takes over Richie's gut. How did he get so nervous all of a sudden? He raises his hand, even though he's the only person there. "Over here."

Luke only half-smiles. He slides in the booth opposite of Richie. "Hey, man."

Richie can sense his friend's defenses go up. A small voice in the back of his mind tells him this isn't going to be an easy conversation, but he tries to smile. "'Sup, Skywalker."

Luke makes a face at Richie's lunch. "Don't you have to be at the store today?"

Richie doesn't notice and checks his Samsung. "In, like, an hour. Do you want to eat anything?"

Luke shakes his head. "I already had lunch with Kelly."

Ugh. "Oh."

"Yeah."

Richie's appetite runs away. Even when she's not around, she ruins my day.

Luke sighs. "So, what's up?"

Okay, now's your chance. He licks his lips and takes a deep breath. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Luke shrugs. "For?"

"For the other night. It wasn't cool that I blew up like that. I feel bad about it."

"Yeah, well, Kelly's the one that's pissed, so..."

Just hearing her name makes Richie want to kidnap his best friend and steal him away forever, back to the days where all girls were unapproachable, for both of them.

Luke begins to clean the inside of his fingernails. "So that was it?"

Once again, Richie misses the signs that his friend's not interested. He wiggles his eyebrows in an obnoxious attempt to be quirky. "Aren't you forgetting that we have a trip to plan?"

Luke doesn't look up. His voice is flatter than the table below him. "What trip?"

The sides of Richie's mouth drop. "What do you mean what trip? Comic-Con, man. It's in, like, three weeks or something."