Oreo

Chapter 9: Decisions

Romeo's POV~

Large, fluffy snowflakes slowly descended from the sky, swirling in the wind and fogging up my vision.  Our feet crunched through the six inches of snow as we walked down the street.  There would likely be more by the time we made it back to the apartment.  Not that I had anything against that fact.  It probably just meant school was canceled anyways.  And seeing how it doesn't want to let up anytime soon, there won't be any school tomorrow either.

In all truths, I don't think I've ever had phö before.  I know what it is, I've just never tried it.  Though seeing how cold it is today, it's understandable that he would want some.  And even though it felt like forever, moving through the heavy yet mild blizzard, it probably hadn't been that long before we finally reached the restaurant.

"Ahhh~" Orion sighed after taking a deep breath of the rooms aroma once we'd entered and we stomped the snow from our shoes.  It had a distinctly brothy scent.  We were motioned to seat ourselves anywhere, so we did. 

We were soon greeted by a young woman with straight, jet black hair tied up, monolidded brown eyes and an ethnically vietnamese look.  She wore a white button up shirt, black slacks and a red apron.  "Hello, welcome to Phö U." She handed us our menus.  Her accent was just barely understandable.  "Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink?"

"Just water, please." Orion smiled.

"Water.." I replied shortly with no style whatsoever.  I don't like saying anything more than I need to as far as communicating with strangers.  Although I realise sometimes I must seem bland...

She nodded.  "I'll return shortly." Then, she walked away.

I opened the menu and read through it.  Orion seemed to ready know what he wanted and didn't even bother to open his.  He's likely been here enough times...  I examined a few different options for soup that interested me most then narrowed it down to the one that see.ed most appealing.

Just as I had made my decision, the waitress returned with the water.  "Have you two decided?"

"Yes, I'll have the number nine regular." Orion stated surely.

"And I'll have number six, regular.." I answered, handing back my menu.

She nodded, writing down the orders then took our menus.  "Thank you, I will bring your food out when it is ready." She left again.

The silence did not live long before Orion spoke.  "Have you ever had phö?"

I shook my head.  "Nope."

He grinned.  "Oh, then you're gonna love it!  If you thought instant Ramen was good, just wait until you've had this. It's phö-kin delicious~"

I deadpanned at his pun.  "Okay then."

Several more painfully awful jokes later and our soup finally arrived.  They had already delivered the spring roots, limes, basil and jalapenos.  The bowls were larger than I expected but it helped that I certainly felt hungry enough.  It smelled so good, to be honest, that my stomach growled and I could feel my mouth watering.

Orion squeezed one of the two lime slices into his and added some of the sprouts.  Then, he ripped up some of the basil. Monkey see monkey do; I did exactly as he had done, then grabbed a pair of chopsticks and one of the soup spoons.

"They put the beef in raw and it gets cooked by the broth." Orion explained.  "So just don't get to eating the red ones right away."

I nodded and mixed the contents, making sure any bright red slivers of meat got buried by the long, thin rice noodles.  Then, pinching some noodles and a slice of brisket on my chopsticks (with a few sprouts), I took a bite.