“Ineedto do this. With everything going on in…” She glances around, leaning in closer, then whispers, “RAGE, I can’t afford to be hours away. Besides, like you said, this way we will graduate in half the time.”
She has a good point. My head snaps up when theentrance door opens, jingling the bell. An elderly couple walks in, the wife’s arm hooked through her husband’s as they mosey their way to the desk. I notice the husband’s tremor in his hand that’s caressing her arm. She gently presses her hand over his and glances up at him with the most darling grin. The love they have for one another radiates off of them, causing my eyes to burn with unshed tears. Oh, the things I would give to have that kind of love.
The hostess greets them with a bright and warm smile, then leads them to their booth. The old man guides his wife to her seat, helping her in. He sheds his light jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders before he takes his seat on the opposite side of the table.
“How are you girls doing?” the waitress, who appears to be in her fifties, with graying brunette hair and shining blue eyes, asks attentively.
“It was great, thank you!” Jessie responds, but as I watch the elderly love birds in awe, a thought occurs to me.
“I would like to pay for their meal,” I point at the couple’s table, and the waitress turns to me with a beaming smile and winks.
“You got it, Hun!” She picks up our finished plates and slides our bill on the table. “I’ll be right back with their total, but I already know they’ll order the same thing they always do.”
Jessie is eyeing me curiously, probably wondering what the Hell I’m doing now.
“They’re regulars?”
“Mhm, every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday! Theirorder has rarely ever changed. One barbecue tray to share and two coffees.”
“Is that so?”
After the waitress walked away, Jessie dug into me with questions.
“You going soft?”
“No! They’re just adorable, I mean, look at them!” She turns her head at the same time the old man looks at our table, he gives a welcoming smile and nods his head, I smile in return.
Talking through my teeth, “Geez, Jessie, you couldn’t have made that any more obvious?”
“Dude, you told me to look!” Okay, I did, but not right that second.
After the waitress came back with our receipt and I paid for the elderly couple’s meal, we booked it out of there and to the car. One good thing about this little blue debit card Ryder gave me is that I can use it for good deeds like this. He never did specify what I could and couldn’t purchase with it.
Turning onto the white pavement, the rev of the engine is amplified by the trees encompassing the mile-long driveway. I get a little anxious about what Hayden has in store for us. I’m thankful that our friendship has strengthened, and he’s become another best friend to me. His free spirit is so refreshing, and he encourages me to let loose, which heals me piece by piece. Ryder is my protector, no doubt about it. He watches over my every move, and if he can’t, he has one of the guys do it for him. Not that I can’ttake care of myself now, but for his own peace of mind, and I refuse to fight him on it and take that from him.
Knowing what I know now, the Langley house is so much more beautiful than before. Ryder poured every bit of his energy into making sure his sister and Hayden would live a comfortable life, while their parents were out doing only God knows what. I wonder if they even speak to them or if their parents really just dropped off the face of the planet. I will never understand how people can have kids and never care for them. Those are the people who should be permanently sterilized from childbearing. I truly lucked out with the parents I have. Sure, they were strict as fuck growing up, and that caused its own set of problems, like sneaking out and setting up pillows in my bed to look like I was sleeping or drinking and smoking at the ripe age of fourteen, but they tried their best to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Their air on the porch is stale with the lingering scent of weed, so I know Hayden is here somewhere. Likely in the garage working on a car. I wave bye to Jessie, and she gives a thumbs-up for good luck.
The garage isn’t a very big area, I mean, it could be, but it’s line with shelf after shelf of tools, tires, and car parts and pieces, leaving just enough space to work on a single car in here. The brightly lit garage smells of gas, burnt oil, and rubber, and right in the center, hunched over the open hood of a dark cherry red classic is Hayden.
“You got it?” I ask in awe, circling the back of the car as my fingers gently trail the glimmering paint job.
“Shit!” He hisses, popping his head over the open hood. “How long have you been here?”
A smile at his utter shock, I guess you could say payback for all the times he’s snuck up on me. “Just got here, I figured you heard me.”
He pulls an earpod from his ear and shimmies it in front of him. “Nope.”
I was wondering why it was so quiet. He usually has heavy metal bursting from the speakers in here. “Weeell,” I drawl, “You ready to go?”
He nods, slamming the car hood closed before going to the driver’s side door and holding it open from behind the door.
“Hop in, sweetheart.” He eyes me seriously.
“I’m driving?” A huge grin pulls at the corners of my lips, reaching my eyes. “Your new car?”
“Your new car.”
