“Want a bite?” He offers it to Waylynn first, but she just shakes her head, so he eats half of it in one go.
When our lunch arrives, Waylynn stares at the massive amount of food on her plate for a solid ten seconds, then looks up at me. “What’s country fried steak?”
I start to chuckle, but she looks completely serious. I can’t blame her for asking if she’s never had it. There’s a mess of gravy dripping off the side of the dish, making the meat indiscernible, and the hash browns are smothered too. “It’s beef, fried like chicken, covered in gravy.”
Waylynn looks down again and swallows. The waitress rushes back to the table and sets two more plates down with buttered wheat toast. “Does everything look okay?” she asks with her hands on her hips.
“We’re good,” I tell her dismissively.
“I’ll check on you in a few,” she adds, but I’m already ignoring her.
“You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it,” I tell Waylynn as she takes a deep breath and unravels her napkin wrapped silverware and places the napkin under the table, probably over her lap.
Waylynn
“It’s so good.”Oswald elongates the word and cuts a hunk of turkey with his fork before shoving it in his mouth.
I can feel Memphis watching me as I cut a sliver of meat from the steak and bring it to my lips.
“Well, do you want something else?” he urges after I chew a few times.
I bring my napkin up and dab my lips. If I would have known this was so messy, I would have definitely picked something else, but I was too busy wondering how well Oswald knew the waitress to think about food. “No, no,” I reply when I don’t have food in my mouth. I wouldn’t order anything else even if I hated this, and I don’t. I like the pepperiness of the gravy. I just wish the meat wasn’t so chewy and dense. “It’s good,” I finish.
Memphis narrows his eyes on me and accuses, “You don’t lie well.”
“I like the gravy,” I say instead, and he nods his head once as if he believes me now.
“Do you want some of mine?” Oswald kindly offers with a bite already on his fork.
“No, eat your lunch. I’m good.” I reach for a triangle of toast and dip the corner into the gravy.
“Just try it,” he coaxes while moving the fork closer.
“Fine.” I can’t remember a time when anyone has ever fed me, but I might as well get it over with, since neither Oswald nor Memphis give up when they want something.
Mickey, the waitress, appears at the side of the table as soon as I open my mouth. This entire time, she’s been staring at Oswald, but now she’s looking at me. Perfect timing.
I close my mouth around the fork and pull back quickly. “It’s good, right?” Oswald says, seemingly unaware that the girl with the obvious crush is back. Not that I blame her, Oswald is more than crush worthy.
“It’s good,” I agree, even though I can’t even recall what it tasted like. I just wanted to get it out of my mouth as soon as possible.
“How is everything?” she asks with a plastic smile.
“We’ll let you know if we need anything,” Memphis tells her in the no-nonsense voice I’ve heard him use in class.
“Great,” she mumbles and leaves the table hurriedly. I don’t know if I should feel sorry for her or relieved that Memphis dismissed her.
“Tell me about your math class. What are you having trouble with?” Memphis says between bites.
“I’m not,” I tell him. “I just don’t want to get behind.”
“Standard level?” he asks.
“Yes.” Although, anything with the name calculus in the title does not seem standard to me.
“If you need me, all you have to do is call, but first you’ll have to unblock my number.” Memphis’ brows rise in a clear challenge.
I want to pretend I don’t know what he’s talking about, but that would be a lie. I could try to act like I didn’t know the number belonged to him, but again, I think the effort would be wasted.
