Normality, Thy Name is Lynette

Chapter Eleven

The staff of Red Lobster surrounded our table and broke into “Happy Birthday” as annoying as that was it was the only way to get my free desert. I was the only one that was getting desert and incidentally the only one that was done eating their actual dinner. My dad had snow leg crab, Sharron had live Maine lobster, and I had the shrimp trio which was their Walt’s Favorite Shrimp, shrimp scampi, and shrimp linguini Alfredo. Darian got something called the Ultimate Feast which ended up being a combination of everything we had gotten: Maine lobster tail, steamed snow leg crab legs, garlic shrimp scampi, and Walt’s Favorite Shrimp.

          The last waiter in the whole Red Lobster came up to the table at the end of the song with a desert called the chocolate wave. The menu said it was warm, rich chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was true and it was good. My dad and mom finished their food right after it came and Darian finally finished when I had just a couple bites left. He began eyeballing my desert.

          “Would you like a bite?” I questioned.

          “Pwease?” He whined.

          I made sure to get cake and ice cream on this forkful and then fed Darian. “Better?”

          “Yes.”

          “Now please stop staring at my food, drooling.”

          “I don’t know it is so good.” He teased.

          I passed the plate over to him. It had maybe two more bites on it. “You may have it.”

          “Are you sure?”

          “Yes, go for it.”

          “Awesome, thanks Lynette.”

          The cake didn’t exist three seconds later. Sharron went off to the bathroom and my dad was trying to find his credit card. I watched Darian wipe some chocolate sauce off the plate. I didn’t think much of it, until he poked me in the face with the same finger.

          “Happy birthday!” he said.

          “Thanks.” I replied, wiping it off with my napkin.

          “Stop, you are making it worse.” He informed me.

          “It’s your fault.” I threw the napkin on the table.

          He licked his thumb and then rubbed my cheek. “I got it all off, don’t worry.” He promised.

          “Thanks.”

          Sharron came back and we were sitting in silence waiting for the waiter to come get the check. Sharron asked Darian, “Do you play any sports?” In Sharron’s world, you had to play some kind of sport to be someone. She was expecting him to be a hockey player since he was from Canada.

          “No, Mrs. Adkins.” He kept it simple.

          “Do you get good grades then?”

          “I do okay. I get a bit above average.”

          “What are you good at Darian?”

          “Umm…” The question took him by surprise. He knew my step-mom could be straight to the point but she usually was somewhat tactful.

          “Lynette, how is he going to support you if he isn’t good at anything?”

          “Mother! We’re in high school! Who said anything about him supporting me?” I retaliated.