The Consequence

waited all my life for a kiss like this

The restaurant was packed. It seemed every boy had the same idea. Tables were taken up with an endless string of couples. Some were loved up, staring into one another’s eyes, others were a little less happy ever after. Those were the one’s who could barely look at each other, snapping at the waiters and not even trying to make any kind of small talk. They were the kind of couples Sophie always wondered why they bothered anymore.

She was sitting on a cushioned bench beside Brian. They’d been handed a menu to show them what they could have and were told they’d probably be waiting another half an hour. That had been almost forty minutes ago. She could feel her stomach rumble every few moments.

“My stomach thinks my throat’s been cut,” she mumbled, scanning the menu again. She wanted to eat, to have a fun night with Brian, instead of getting grouchy and irritable. But the latter seemed like it was going to happen much sooner than the former.

“Sorry,” Brian leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. This date probably wasn’t the most disastrous he’d ever been on, but it ranked up with some of the worst. He internally cursed himself. He should’ve known it’d be like this. Friday night, of course every single restaurant in Scottsdale was going to be jam packed.

“Don’t apologise. It’s not your fault,” Sophie insisted, plastering on a big smile, although her stomach churned again. She looked around as a couple in front of them were escorted to an empty table. There were still two parties in front of them.

Brian leaned back and looked at her. “What do you want to do? We could wait here and maybe starve to death or we could go someplace else. I can’t promise it won’t be the same everywhere else though.”

Sophie shrugged. “I’ll be honest with you, Brian -” But she was cut off by the sound of someone shrieking Brian’s name from across the room, and a blur crossed her vision. The shape had jumped on top of her date and thrown it’s arms around him, temporarily choking Brian for a moment.

“Garza, hey,” Brian gently pushed the shape, which was now distinguishable enough to see it was a boy of about their age, from his lap.

“What are you doing here?” He glanced at Sophie, “and who is this?”

“We’re waiting for a table, I’m kinda on a date here, Justin.” Brian motioned towards Sophie, who simply smiled up at Justin.

“Oh, okay, sorry man,” Justin smiled at the pair turning around as a dark haired girl appeared by his side.

Sophie narrowed her eyes at her. She felt like she’d seen the girl before. Her face felt familiar, the hair, long and brown with a tint of red. It shined under the low lighting of the restaurant.

“See you later,” Brian smiled politely at Justin, who threw his arm around the girl’s shoulder and guided her out of the door. “Well apparently the food is simply delicious.”

Sophie chuckled and pulled her knees up to her chest. “How do you know him?”

“He’s in another band we kinda know. He knows Stephen the most, I guess. The Season Premire, they’re called.”

“Oh. And the girl he was with, I feel like I’ve seen her before.”

Brian chuckled. “You probably have. Garza used to have a different girl on his arm every single week, till he met Charis. And I know that sounds all cliché rebellious boy meets perfect girl, but it’s true. She’s changed him in some way. She’s a model, that’s probably why you’ve seen her before. She does all those hair ads, you know when they swish.” Brian flicked his head in an over dramatic way.

“Oh. You really do know some characters.”

“Certainly do.”

Sophie sighed heavily and glanced again at the taunting menu. She wanted to be seated at a table and reel off a long list of the things she wanted. Onion rings, chips, greasy, fried food that wasn’t usually acceptable on a first date, and then desert, something covered in chocolate and filled with calories.

“How does fast food in the car sound?” Brian’s heavenly suggestion cut through her thoughts and she glanced up at him, his eyes twinkling.

“Perfect.” She jumped to her feet and followed Brian out of the restaurant and into the car park. The pair got into his car and left the restaurant, heading for the closest fast food building. Brian went through the drive through and reeled off their lengthy order to the person at the window. He paid, handing over a twenty in exchange for a bag filled with greasy goodness, which he handed to Sophie.

“I feel like I’ve not eaten for weeks,” she mumbled, breaking into the bag and retrieving a chip, shoving it into her mouth and closing her eyes, savouring the salty taste. “I never knew McDonalds could taste as amazing as it does right this second.”

Brian chuckled and they drove off. “Don’t eat anymore though. I’ve had an idea.”

Sophie pushed the bag away from herself and folded her arms across a chest, a pout forming on her lips. “Don’t push it Dales, I’m starving.”

Brian ignored her and they drove in a comfortable silence. The city melted around them and they were driving up a hill. It was only at the top, in a dusty opening that Brian cut the engine and got out of the car. Sophie snatched up the bag of food and joined him, sitting herself on the hood of the car and reaching into the bag for her cheeseburger. She unwrapped it hungrily, taking a bite and savouring it, before looking up to see what Brian was looking at.

When she saw the view, she stopped chewing. Jumping down from the car, she walked over to stand beside Brian. Scottsdale was glittering below them. Streetlamps and shop signs illuminating the ground. Their flickering was mirrored by the shining stars in the black night sky. Sophie swallowed down her chewed food. “Wow,” she breathed.

“Beats any old stuffy restaurant doesn’t it? No matter how delicious the food is.”

Sophie smiled up at him. “Honestly, Brian, I’d rather be sitting up here, with this perfect view, eating greasy McDonalds than sitting in some top notch restaurant, eating lobster and drinking champagne.”

“Good, cos this is what you’ve got,” Brian grinned, walking back towards the car and sitting himself on the hood. He reached inside the food bag and produced a carton of chips, which he began to devour.

Sophie followed him. “How did you find this place?”

Brian swallowed his mouthful of food, “ages ago. In the summer we wanted somewhere to just hang out, y’know away from it all,” he motioned to the glittering lights below them, “this place is perfect if you want to think or forget about everything. We’ve not been here for months now, and we never told anyone else about it.”

“So I’m an exception, am I?”

Brian smiled and nodded. “You know what, Sophie? You definitely are.”

She stepped closer to him and gently pressed her lips towards his in a salt drenched kiss.
♠ ♠ ♠
Thank Charis for this. And the fact I'm supposed to be going out when my friend gets his arse in gear, if that ever happens.

Home tomorrow for two weeks before Lanzarote, soooo I'm gonna try and get as much as possible written up in the next week in between doing my uni work and having fun and such.