"Welcome to The Diner," a waitress says to me. "We're very busy right now, but a table should open up in about fifteen minutes."
"Thank you." Lissa smiles at the waitress, who nods and walks away to handle another customer.
"Fifteen minutes..." I stand on my toes, looking at people sitting in the booths. "This is gonna take more than fifteen minutes, I bet you anything."
"That's great, Gracie," Lissa sighs.
I continue staring down the customers, ignoring the fact that I'm not a five year old.
The bell on the door chimes, and a girl walks in. She looks exactly like the girl who walked by me earlier. Her eyes roam the room and land on Lissa and I, and she smiles at us. I feel a little off-kilter, like I just got on a boat or something. Which is bad.
"Hi!" Lissa says.
"Hey," The girl says. She looks around. "Wow, it's crowded in here."
"The waitress said a table would open up in fifteen minutes, but I don't buy it," I inform her.
"Well, it makes sense why they're all filled up." She points at the booths. "These tables are made for, like, four people, but they're only one or two people per table."
"So you're saying that if people learned to share their tables, I could be eating right now?" I ask.
She laughs. "Yeah, I guess."
"I feel like there's a life lesson somewhere in there," Lissa says.
"What? No..." I say sarcastically.
Lissa rolls her eyes at the girl, as if to say 'don't listen to Gracie. She's crazy.' The girl smiles at Lissa again, and I feel faintly annoyed at the person who's literally supposed to be my best friend. Which is also bad.
"Do you want to sit with us?" I ask.
"Sure!" The girl says. "I don't want to crash your party or whatever, but if you're cool with it..."
"Well, we were just talking about sharing tables to save her from starving, so how could we not?" Lissa says.
"True," She says. "What are your names, by the way?"
"I'm Lissa. Miss Food-Lover here is Gracie."
"I'm Addison," She says.
"Can I call you Addie?" I ask excitedly. I love nicknames, especially ones I give to girls like this.
She looks surprised. "Why?"
"Cause nicknames are cool, that's why!"
"It's like a friend-of-Gracie rite of passage," Lissa explains.
"So we're friends?" She asks, tucking a ringlet curl behind her ear.
"I guess?" I say hesitantly.
The thing is, I'm really not made for these kinds of interactions. I am not supposed to communicate with pretty girls who engage in playful banter and have cute nicknames. I should go hide under one of the tables until she forgets about me. This is all very bad.
"Cool!" Addison smiles at me again. She seems to do that a lot. I don't think she knows that smiles sometimes have the power to make me combust. I should have a sign to warn people about that. It's a serious health hazard.
❨ ♯ * ⋆ 💜 '𝟖𝟓 ❩ "So Gracie..." Addison says, leaning forward in the booth, "Where are you two going after this?"
"The moon." I say, trying to keep a straight face.
"Oh, really?" She asks, her tone playfully mocking.
"Yeah, we have the spaceship behind the building," Lissa says.
"No really."
I sigh. "Fine, Addie. We're going to Mexico."
She nods and raises her eyebrows. "That sounds fun."
"We've been planning it for months," Lissa says.
"It was either that or having Lissa drag me into her prom plans."
"Which I did anyway."
"Yeah. You still owe me."
Lissa gives me a look. I shrug innocently.
"Well... I hope you have fun in Mexico." Addison says.
"Thanks." Lissa sweeps a strand of chestnut hair out of her face. "Where are you going, by the way?"
"Nowhere right now. But next week I'm going to start driving to California. My cousin lives down there. She has a beach house."
"Really?" Lissa asks.
Addison nods.
"That's so weird. We have, like, similar destinations."
"It was fate!" I exclaim. "The universe wanted us to meet!"
Addison laughs. "Maybe!"
Lissa looks at Addison from across the table. She cups her chin in her hands, looking as if she were studying Addison.
"What are you doing?" Addison asks after about thirty seconds of intense staring.
"Thinking," Lissa says. "Shush."
She goes back to contemplating Addisons face. I stare at her theatrically too, not wanting to be left out.
Addison sighs, probably realizing that Lissa and I are undeniably insane. She looks at me for a second, and I notice that her eyes look a little bit like melted chocolate, warm, friendly, and cozy. Pretty eyes are probably not the best thing to focus on at the moment, though, so I try to snap out of it. I really wish Lissa would spill already.
a/n:
crappy cliffhanger, yay! so i have a favor i want u, dear reader, to do for me. roast my story. ur too nice to me, and i love u, but now i want you to go back through the chapters and criticize the hell out of the characters, police my grammar, call out cliches, and be the most brutal editor ever. i will love u forever, i swear. also: please, please, please call me out if i ever play into hurtful stereotypes! if i ever do, i promise it's an accident, but that doesn't make it ok and i want to be called out.
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