Cat Got Your Tongue?

“I have reservations under Sykes,” Oli spoke to the waiter that was going to seat us.

We wait a few seconds before he located Oli’s name on the list and marked something next to it. “Right this way.”

He seated us at a round table near the back. Oli pulled out my chair for me and pushed me back in when I’d sat down. Tom was to my right and Oli was to my left.

We ordered drinks and looked at our menus while we waited for the guy to come back with our drinks. I pointed out to Oli what I wanted and he nodded. Tom ordered his food and Oli spoke for me and himself.

After that the table was quiet. Although Oli and Tom seemed to be having some sort of silent conversation. It was interrupted by a cell phone ringing. It was Oli’s.

“’ello?” he answered.

I would have liked to listened to the rest of the one-sides conversation. But my attention was directed somewhere else. “Are you feeling okay?” Tom asked.

I nodded. The bruises were still there of course, but they were starting to not hurt as much. My black eye had faded, which I was very happy for. I would have never come to such a fancy restaurant with a black eye. The greenish yellow bruises on my arms and legs were hid by my long sleeve shirt and pants.

“I am really sorry for leaving yeh that night. I just left the room to get another drink and when I got back yeh were gone,” he explained.

I reached down and picked my purse that I’d sat by my feet. I grabbed the notepad and sat it down on the table and dug around in the bottom of my purse for a pen. Once I found it I flipped the book open to the next clear page and started writing.

It’s fine Tom. Really, I’m ok now. Stop thinking about it. It wasn't your fault that it happened. Don't blame yourself. I wrote then slide it over to him so he could read it.

“Sorry, guys but I ‘ave to go. Tom ‘ere’s my wallet, I’ll see yeh at ‘ome,” Oli explained shoving his pocket and throwing his wallet and car keys at Tom.

Tom tried to ask him why he was leaving as he walked out of the restaurant but he didn't take the time to turn around and answer him. Tom sunk back down in his chair and looked to me as I slid the notepad over to him.

That was quite weird. I wonder where he went.

“Who knows,” he laughed taking a sip of this soda. “Probably a girl askin’ ‘im to come over.”

I couldn’t say that I didn’t agree with him. Leave it up to Oli to actually do something like that. It didn’t bother me much though, he tended to just make things awkward for Tom and I when he was around.

“What’d yeh say we ditch this place and go get some ice cream?” he asked opening Oli’s wallet and pulling out ten pounds.

I nodded my head vigorously, I felt terribly out of place here. They hadn’t told me where we were going, and I’d expected to just be a burger joint or something. This was clearly a place you wore your best clothes too and here I was, dressed in a plain t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

“I’m fairly sure I remember how to get to the place Oli took us to after we went to the park that one day. You’re okay with me driving right?” he questioned as we made our way to the car. I nodded to him and he walked to the driver’s side and I went to the passengers.

Oli’s music started blaring as soon as Tom turned the key to start the car. He immediately turned the volume down drastically. “e’s gonna go deaf one day. I swear, Tori! So, do yeh want to go inside to eat or just stay in the car. Either is fine with me,” he said giving me his phone to answer him on.

I typed in that the car was fine then gave it back to him to read. He muttered an okay then slipped the phone back into his pocket as we came to a stop at a stop sign.

Within a few minutes the brightly lit up sign that read ‘The Dairy Shack’ came into view. “Strawberry again?” Tom guesses. I nodded.

He pulled up to the speaker a woman’s voice began speaking. “Welcome to The Dairy Shack, what can I get for you?”

“I need a medium strawberry cone and a medium vanilla cone” Tom said.

“Your total is 4.24, please pull up,” she replied.

Tom handed her the exact amount and she gave us our ice cream cones and we were on our way. Of course I didn’t know where exactly our way was, but Tom sure did.

Only a few minutes after that a swing set came into my line of vision. We had arrived at the park.