On A Mission

Exploration

          It was about 7:45 AM and Lana was driving on the highway, looking for an exit. She saw an IKEA and thought about just walking around and doing some window shopping. She drove a little farther and saw a Dave & Buster's and thought about waiting until they opened to play a few games. Suddenly she remembered that there was Denny's not too far from where she was. She drove a little farther and saw the restaurant in the distance, but she slowly came to stop when she saw the traffic light ahead of her turn from orange to red. While she waited for the light to turn green, she looked around at some of the other drivers. The only people that were up and ready for the day at this hour were people on their way to work. The light turned green after a minute or so. Lana drove into the parking lot of the restaurant. Not a lot of cars were parked there. Lana went inside and was seated immediately, since no one was there.

          Lana looked at the menu attentively. While she was staring at the menu, she didn't notice the waitress walk up to her table, getting ready to take her order. "Hi ma'am. Welcome to Denny's. Can I get you anything to drink?" The familiar voice rang in Lana's ears. She looked up to respond to the person who said it, but got caught on her words when she saw the familiar face. It was the girl she bumped into at the gas station. She finally pushed out a response. "Water, for now." "I'll get that for you right away beautiful." Lana froze at the last word the girl said. Beautiful. She had never heard anyone but her parents call her that. She stared at the girl as she walked away. Lana snapped herself out of her thought and focused back on the menu. After she decided on what she wanted, she unlocked her phone and opened Twitter. After scrolling for a bit, the girl came back with her drink. She sat the glass on the table. "There you go ma'am. Now, are you ready for me to take your order," the smooth voice said. Lana's order consisted of pancakes, some hash brown, bacon, and sausage. The girl wrote down her order. "Alright, I'll be right back with your order," the girl said with a wink. Lana blushed a little as the girl walked away. By this time, more people were starting to arrive at the restaurant. A few more waiters and waitresses started to seat the people and take their orders.

          A few minutes later, Lana sees the girl bringing what looked like her order. The girl sat Lana's food on the table. "Thank you," Lana said in a soft tone. Lana was about to start cutting her pancake into pieces to make it easier to eat when she noticed that she girl sat down on the other side of the booth she was seated at. Lana started to get nervous. After a few moments, the girl spoke. "So, we meet again, huh," said the girl in the same smooth voice that she used earlier. "I-I guess so," Lana said with a anxious tone. "I really like your hair." "Thanks," Lana said with a bright smile that she hid by looking down at her food. The girl got a worried look on face. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable-" "No, you didn't. I just haven't been complimented in a long time. I mean my parents compliment me all the time, but that's just their job." "Well, what do they say?" There was a pause for a few seconds as Lana thought of things that her parents say to her. She thought back to this one time where her mother found her in her room, crying her eyes out because a group of boys at school kept talking about how she looks.

~Flashback~

"Mommy, am I really that ugly?"

"No, baby! No you're not!"

"I must be or else they wouldn't say those things about me."

"Lana, listen. I don't know why those little boys say those things about you, but they're wrong. They're all wrong! You are the most beautiful young woman I have ever seen in my entire life, inside and out. You make me and your father so happy. We are so proud of you. I don't care what they said. I don't want you to believe any of that mess."

"Mom, they say it so much. It gets hard not to believe."

"Lana, it'll get better. Trust me. But let me tell you this. You are powerful. You have a powerful mind. A powerful soul. And you are powerfully beautiful. And if some nappy-head boys can't see that, then that's their loss. They're missing out on something amazing."

~Flashback Over~

          Lana snapped out of her thoughts as she remembered that she was having a conversation. "You know. Things to try to cheer me up." "Well, I never caught your name. I'm Casey." "I'm Lana. Nice to meet you." Lana held her hand out to shake Casey's hand. Casey smiled. Lana was met with the same soft and delicate hand that she had felt when Casey handed her glasses to her at the gas station. They shook hands, but paused for a few seconds, still holding each other's hands. They were snapped out of it when Casey's manager yelled at Casey. "What the hell are you doing? I don't pay you to sit around and flirt all day, do I?" "No, you don't sir," Casey said as she scrambled out of the booth. Her manager walked away from the booth. While her manager wasn't looking, Casey quickly wrote her number down on piece of paper and slid it to Lana. "Text me. I wanna know more about you." Casey quickly walked away to get back to work. Lana stared at her as she left.

          No one ever wanted to get to know Lana before. This girl was the first to ever want to look deeper than what Lana looked like. Lana quickly finished her food. She saw Casey come out of the kitchen a few times to take people's orders. She didn't notice Lana watching her. After paying for her food and leaving a tip, Lana walked out of the restaurant. After getting into her car, she sat there thinking. Why did that girl find her interesting? Why does she get so nervous around her? Lana started her car, plugged her aux cord into her phone, opened Spotify, and started playing "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. Even though it was about 9:20 AM, Lana was starting to head home. Lana felt that she had accomplished enough from her exploration today. She made a friend.