somnolescent

hour three - salvator spills hot cocoa all over a waitress

"A poet could write volumes about diners, because they're so beautiful. They're brightly lit, with chrome and booths and Naugahyde and great waitresses. Now, it might not be so great in the health department, but I think diner food is really worth experiencing periodically" - David Lynch

☾ ☆ ☽

the diner was by far elyshia's favorite place in causter oaks, except for the coffee shop of course. everyone here liked her (the staff, at least) and whenever she came to visit every friday and the weekends, they would always offer her free hot cocoa. while causter oaks coffee shop made amazing coffee, no one made better hot cocoa than causter oaks diner.

when salvator and elyshia walked through the doors of causter oaks, once again a brilliant blast of hot air met them. they both let out a sigh of relief, quickly closing the (frail, wooden) door behind them to preserve the heat.

"so this is where you eat breakfast for dinner, huh?" asked salvator, looking around with interest and ely nodded.

it was a very old diner. not old-fashioned, or old-school, just old. like elderly-person old. the linoleum floors weren't checkered, like those cool 80s diners, but rather plain old speckled beige. a black counter stretched across half the diner (it was set horizontally rather than in a square or rectangle), dotted with shakers and napkin dispensers here and there. behind the counter were coffee makers, grills, ice cream makers, and anything else you basically saw at a diner. there was a door leading to the interior kitchen where the majority of the food was made. there were stools mounted firmly on the floor with green leather seats and booths with shiny plastic maroon backings on the window side of the diner. the seats of the booths also had green leather. there were maybe ten of those booths lining the side of the windows.

elyshia liked it best for its cozy simplicity, unlike johnny rocket or whatever, who went for classy and hipster cool.

"ely!" greeted salma, the elderly hispanic lady who ran causter oaks diner. she was working behind the counter in her all-white uniform and white paper hat, that also happened to match her snow-white hair. "what are you doing out? didn't you hear about the weather? it's supposed to snow!"

"i heard, but a little too late," elyshia said with an easy smile. like she said earlier, causter oaks diner was the only place she could feel like she actually belonged to this town. because salma respected her and quite frankly treated her like her own granddaughter, the rest of the staff grew to treating ely like family. "this is salvator, he's supposed to be taking me out on a date." she grinned mischievously when salma turned her attention to salvator.

"you're paying, i assume?" she said with a frown at the boy. he looked taken aback before nodding quickly.

"yes, ma'am, of course."

"elyshia's twenty. how old are you?" like ely said, salma was like her grandmother. salma knew basically everything about her. that also meant salma had to check up on every single boy that ely hung out with.

"um, twenty-two ma'am," said salvator and elyshia looked at him in surprise. she didn't know many twenty-two year olds, but she knew they definitely didn't dress as cool, for lack of a better word, as salvator saxon.

"that's interesting," said salma, narrowing her eyes and scrutinizing the boy carefully. salvator shifted uncomfortably and elyshia was fighting down the urge to laugh hysterically. "are you still in college? did you finish your education?"

"still in college," he replied curtly, and elyshia allowed a grin to escape from her lips. he was practically sweating under salma's piercing stare. "causter oaks university. i just moved to town."