A Cup of Coffee

c h a p t e r 2 4

Adam

"Elizabeth," I gently shook her as she started to shift in her seat. She had fallen asleep half an hour ago after singing multiple songs and having her own mini concert on the passenger seat. I think I surprised her with my knowledge of Taylor Swift's songs but after having girlfriends who were obsessed with her, it wasn't hard to memorize her songs.

She stirred in her sleep so I shook her again with my free arm as I tried to focus on driving. After visiting the orphanage, we ended up having our 5th date. We came back to the dorms and watched horror movies. We stayed up till 3 in the morning, laughing our ass off because of how dumb the decisions the actors were making, in the end most of them died. I ended up going back home to Phoebe and grab a couple more things and do some laundry for our trip now.

Elizabeth was so adorable with her mouth slightly open and all her guard was simply down. It's not all the time she's like this. In the week of truly getting to know her, she tend to want things under control and I think that's why she's very orderly with her life. We haven't gone around to talk about what made her like this. Today, however, all I want her to feel is happiness. I'm taking her to a theme park in California and I was thankful she's a great road trip companion because it took forever to get here because of the traffic.

"Hey," she half groaned while she stretched.

"Hey sleeping beauty, how was your sleep?

"It was good, I'm sorry. I will try to stay awake. You're probably tired too,"

"No El, don't think about it. We're near the pit stop so get your things ready."

"Can we get hot dogs?" She asked eagerly whilst she gathered the trash and all her belongings, stuffing it into her purse. I smiled back at her, not realizing how much I was admiring her at this moment.

"I think they have hot dogs, let's see." Soon, we were in the parking lot of a small diner, which reminded me of Pop's Diner in Archie's comics. I made sure to park near the entrance since there were no cars around anyway. We were greeted by the aroma of coffee beans and bacon but there was a slight rotting smell coming from the kitchen. It was past lunch time already and the diner wasn't packed, in fact it was deserted when we entered. Elizabeth proceeded to slide into one of the empty booths near the window. She beckoned me to follow as I looked around the place. Neon signs were hanging around the counter, there were no servers around and there were dishes left unattended on the tables around us.

I was going to sit across Elizabeth but she grabbed my arm and pulled me to sit beside her. I slid into the booth and placed myself by her side. She pulled herself close to me and whispered softly.

"Is it me? Or does this place seem sketchy?"

"It does, but do you wanna use the toilet at least or something?"

"I can still hold it,"

"Should we just go and find a gas station instead?" I replied, keeping my voice low in case anybody hears us. Soft jazz music started playing in the diner yet nobody was around except for the two of us. Elizabeth looked at me with wide eyes and pushed me out of the chair hurriedly.

We quietly slipped out of our booth and headed to the door when Elizabeth violently collided with my back.

"There's a guy in there!" She half whispered, looking terrified as she glanced behind her and was now smacking my arm repeatedly. She bolted to the car whilst grabbing my arm. I didn't know how to react but to follow her as her small frame dragged me out of the diner. I quickly opened up the driver's door and she climbed into the driver's side and dragged her body to the passenger side without hesitating. I climbed after and jammed the keys into the ignition. Before we know it, we were back on the main road. We were silent for a while but I could feel how tensed Elizabeth was.

"You okay?" We asked simultaneously causing her to giggle slightly. I could feel her relaxing now.

"Yeah. I'm just glad we got out of there," I decided to speak after a few seconds of silence that followed our question.

"He was watching us the whole time,"

"What do you mean?" I turned slightly to her as I continued driving.

"I though it was just a shadow of the door but as we were talking, he poked his head out a little bit before hiding in the shadows again. Then the music started playing, he was dressed like a clown but without the crazy fun hair. He had this sinister smile on his face and I just had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach."

"Thank God we left before it's too late. There was literally no one there and the place was a mess,"

"We need to go somewhere crowded. Anything could have happened to us," she quickly took out her phone and started typing away as I punched in the nearest pit stop into my GPS. I looked over her from time to time because the expression on her face was terrifyingly worrying.

"Adam, shit. There's been multiple crimes in that area of the diner because of people dressed as clowns. And tons of missing persons ever since last month."

"Looks like we got to drive to the next town, this is messed up."

"You need to rest Ad, can we find the nearest gas station and we switch?"

"Sure but I'd feel safer if I drive till we're out of this town before we get out of the car."

"Okay, meanwhile, let me find us something to eat." She agreed and then shifted in her seat as she rummaged through the basket on the backseats. Elizabeth came back with a bottle of Gatorade for me and a bag of potato chips. She opened up the package and slipped some chips into my mouth as I drove. We continued chatting about the terrifying possibilities that could have happened to us if we stayed much longer in the diner.

"I almost peed my pants," she kept saying as she continues eating chips and feeding me from time to time. We were eating dried banana chips now and we were half an hour away from the nearest gas station. We ended up driving two towns overs before deciding to stop.

"I really need to pee now," Elizabeth said as she peered at the GPS.

"I'll speed up a little, 63 plus 78 times 2?"

"What?"

"63 plus 78 times 2?" I repeated as Elizabeth took a few seconds to answer me.

"219," she answered, a confused look on her face.

"45 minus 23 plus 56 divided by 3?" I asked again, we were closer to the gas station now. I went to the overtaking lane and was now speeding across the highway.

"26?"

"Yep, I was trying to distract you."

"Thank you Ad, but are we close?"

"Yes 5 minutes away, please just hang in there,"

"Okay I'm still good, by the way, I came up with our next date!"

"We haven't had our 6th date. But what is it?"

"So instead of us going back home immediately. Let's just drive to wherever this coin takes us." She held up a penny in her hand and showed me, explaining how our date was going to be.

"That sounds awesome. Let's do that," I smiled at her brilliant idea and we were now driving in a crowded pit stop with vans that held families with little children. Elizabeth dashed off to the toilets and I opened the engine to let it cool down a little bit.

That's when I noticed that she was here. My first love from years ago, Ashley. She was sitting on the hood of the car as a man about twice her age place himself in between her legs. I stared at them for a while and I could remember the heartbreak I felt from years ago.