Dance With the Devil

I had been to this diner before. It wasn’t exactly close to home, but my mom and dad would sometimes stop here on our way home from my grandmother’s house. It was one of those cute little classic diners, not much to it, just some tables, chairs and booths. There was a big dessert counter when you first walked in, I guess so it enticed you to buy something once your meal was done. That counter had always been my favorite part about this place when I was younger. It was filled to the brim with cakes, cookies, and all sorts of chocolate treats. But I hadn’t been here in years. The last time I had been here was with my dad for father’s day.

I hadn’t noticed how late it had actually gotten until Axel and I got inside, and a big clock sat on the front desk. It was nearly 10:30pm. Most of the seats were empty, given the time, but when you lived around here, people could really be at diners at nearly any time and it would be considered normal.

A waitress with long curly blonde hair and boobs way too big to be natural sat me and Axel at a booth that was meant for two people; we sat across from one another. It still hurt me quite a lot to walk, but I managed to limp my way over without Axel’s help. I didn’t like how we were sitting. It was too close, too casual, and it had a date feel to it, which made me hate it even more. I slowly began regretting letting Axel bring me in here, and being in the car with him, and talking to him at all.

The waitress, who made it clear that her name was Hannah, asked us if we wanted beverages. Her personality, much like her boobs, was way too perky for this time of night. She was all smiles and tried making jokes with us. It was horrible in all honesty. I had spent one summer as a waitress. It really is a horrible job, well horrible if you're not a people pleaser.

Hannah kept eyeing Axel, like he was a piece of meat and she was a hungry lioness, which might not be a far off metaphor, given how trampy she looked. Her curly blonde hair was up in a messy ponytail, though not without half of it falling out for “style.” Her eyes looked like a raccoon, and her lips might as well have been smeared with blood given how red they were. Her white blouse was inappropriately low-cut, with a disgusting amount of her boobs showing. The very sight of her made me want to vomit. Her eyes were practically glued to Axel, which I really didn’t care about, but I thought it was quite rude since I was her customer too. Even though I had just met the girl, she was already pissing me off. But I kept my tone conversational.

“Hot tea, please.” Tea was one of the only beverages that really soothe me. My mother makes the best tea I had ever had, and I was really wishing I had a cup right about now. But I suppose this makeshift crappy diner tea will have to do.

“Coffee.” I heard Axel say from behind the menu. To my own surprise, and I’m sure to Hannah’s as well, Axel hardly even looked at her, as he was more interested in the menu in front of him. It genuinely shocked me that Axel wasn’t feeding into a girl, who some might call pretty, that was basically gawking all over him. With a rejected smile and a staged giggle, Hannah moved off to get our drinks. I looked down at the menu for the first time since we got them. “I think I’m just going to get a sandwich. Probably a BLT. I haven’t had one of those in ages.” Axel said as we looked through the food. I skimmed the menu, though nothing in the way of dinner caught my eye. I laid the menu back down on the table without a word and began to look around for Hannah. I was quite thirsty, and I hadn’t had a good cup of tea in weeks. As I scanned the room however, something over on the dessert counter caught my eye. It was a container of muffins nearly as big as two fists. My face remained plain, but I smiled in my mind. I remember those exact muffins, in that exact container. I used to get those muffins when I was younger; it would basically be a meal for me. I always got the banana nut muffins. I turned back towards Axel, who at this point had put his menu down as well and searched for our waitress.

“I’m just going to get a muffin.” He looked at me with a crooked eyebrow.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. I’m not overly hungry. Besides, their muffins are massive. It’s nearly as big as my head.” He shrugged me off when he noticed Hannah coming over.

“Whatever.” Hannah placed both Axel’s and my drinks on the table, and threw us packets of sugars and creams to go along with it.

“Well,” Hannah started, way too loud for being someone who stood right next to me. “What can I get for you two?” She made it a general question, but she looked at Axel first.

“A BLT. No coleslaw please.” She quickly and incoherently scribbled words down on her pad of paper.

“Alrighty then.” Very noticeably, she reluctantly tore her eyes away from Axel and looked over at me with a lesser, displeasing look. “And you?” Her tone had dropped as well.

“Just a banana nut muffin.”

“Oh good choice. I love them.” Her false kindness was a good try, but ultimately failed in the end, even though it didn’t have far to go. I tossed her a throwaway smile as she took the menus from us and scampered on her way over to another table. I stared at her as I ripped a sugar packet for my tea.

“Dumb bitch.” I mumbled to myself, though loud enough for Axel to hear. I heard him chuckle.

We sat in silence for a bit, though it wasn’t as easygoing as it was in the car. In the car there are other things to look at, other things to keep your mind on. Sitting here in this small booth across from each other, you're basically forced to talk, and it makes things painfully awkward if there are no words. The silence was thick, and the only thing I could think to do was to just take sips of my tea. I took so many sips that nearly a third of it was already gone. Axel periodically took sips of his coffee as well.

Nearly getting desperate for some sort of social exchange, I reach into my bag and pull out a five dollar bill to pay for the muffin. I tossed it across the table at him, where it landed right next to his cup of coffee that he kept black. He stared at it like it was play money.

“What’s that for?”

“The muffin.” He pushed the bill back towards me.

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m going to pay for it.” Normally I wasn’t one to argue on payment, but I felt the need to do it this time. I pushed it back at him, harder.

“No. I don’t need you to pay for me, thanks. I’ve got it.” He scowled at me.

“Why won’t you let me just get it? Its five bucks. It’s not going to kill me.” He flicked the bill at me this time, as if it wasn’t even worth a shove. I crossed my arms at my refuse to take it.

“Because I want to pay for it. I don’t need you to do anything for me.” He gave a humorless snort. It was obvious this wasn’t about the money anymore.

“I disagree.”

“I don’t care.”

“Oh so you're saying that you don’t need me to do anything for you? That you’ve got everything under control? Is that what you're saying? Cause it really doesn’t seem that way to me since I practically rescued you when you were stranded out in the forest after you ran off like a lunatic.” I glared at him, anger started to burn up inside me.

“I never asked you to come find me. I just needed someone, not you. I would have picked anyone over you. I would have rather crawled back than had you come and get me.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hannah making her way back over to us. Neither of us said a thing while she sat our food down. She tried making cute comments, and tried horribly to make eye contact with Axel, but his eyes were locked on mine; his green eyes a deep mossy color. She seemed to get mad that neither of us was really paying attention to her, Axel especially. I felt a sense of victory in my mind. It was quiet between Axel and I for a few moments. We both took a couple of bites out of our food, but the appetite wasn’t really there anymore. After a bit, Axel looked up at me with a cold expression.

“Do you not want to me pay for you because you think I’m poor now or something? Cause I told you about my parents?” I could feel the chill in his voice. My voice rose as my patience dropped.

“No. It has nothing to do with that. Not everything is about you and your problems. I want to pay because I don’t need you to do anything for me. I’m very capable of doing everything on my own. And you know, even if you hadn’t come and gotten me in the forest, I would have been just fine without you. I could have called someone else, or I would have spent the night there. Either is better than having to deal with you.” I felt like I didn’t even have control over my mouth anymore. At this point, it was running on its own gas. “I don’t even know why you brought me here or even said yes when I asked to be driven home. I guess I momentarily forgot that you're an asshole.” Axel looked at me like he was confused, but scowled all the same.

“Why the hell are you so bitchy to me all the time? If you haven’t noticed, I've been pretty damn nice to you all night.” His voice was getting louder, like he was going to start yelling. “I went and carried you out of the forest—and you're not the lightest thing ever— I’m taking you home, I got you food, and I even told you pretty personal things about me. I’ve been nothing but nice to you, and you return that with acting like a bitch!”

“Don’t try and yell at me like I'm a child. I don’t need you to be nice to me, Axel. I don’t need your charity.” I had completely lost my appetite at this point, and I think Axel had the same feeling.

“It’s not charity. It’s called being a decent person, you should try it sometime.” I mock laughed at him.

“Being a decent person? You weren’t anywhere near a decent person until me and Nick broke up! Remember those times, when you and I hated each other? Maybe we should just go back to that.” My voice had ended up elevating higher than his had, and a few eyes, well more like the few eyes that were in the room, were now on me and Axel. Once again, I was a main attraction. He looked off at the empty tables and booths, the other people. Basically everything but me.

“I never hated you.” His voice dropped, though it still had an icy chill to it.

“Then why were you always so mean to me?” I dropped my volume as well, but I kept my stern tone. He quickly turned to look at me.

“Because you were so stupid! You still are!” He didn’t sound as angry anymore, he sounded more annoyed. Slowly I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to make sense of his words.

“How?” He took a deep breath and looked at me, for only a split second before he looked away again. I could see an older couple who sat begin Axel was listening in on our conversation.

“Because he talked about you. And not in the way that you think he did.” He turned to face me, his face hard and stern. “There was a big part of him, the bigger part of him I should say, that you never saw. The only Nick you saw was boyfriend Nick. And that’s only a quarter of who he is. And that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt. With you, he was all lovey-dovey and shit. But I saw another Nick. Best friend Nick, I guess you could say. And he talked about you, and the way he spoke, and some of the things he said, I didn’t even want to hear them most of the time.” He paused for a moment. Part of me wondered if Axel was just making stuff up, but the other part of me was too curious to ask.

“Like what exactly?”

“I don’t even want to repeat most of it.”

“Do it anyway.” He sighed again. His finger played around with the fries that were on his plate.

“He used to say how he hated that you didn’t want to do anything physical yet. He would complain about it constantly. He hated how much you whined about your mom. He hated when you talked too much in general. He hated how you would get upset when he ignored you. He would come to me with all of this stuff and bitch about you. He basically hated everything about you. And that’s why, Karlee. That’s why I was mean to you. Because it pissed me off how stupid you were. To believe him. To think that he was this great guy when he complained about you, and talked behind your back, and didn’t even care about your problems more than half the time. There you go. There’s your damn answer. Hope you’re happy.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out multiple bills, most of them being fives, and threw them on the table. “Don’t bother paying. I got it.” He slide out of his seat and walked out the door.

I felt bad. But I shouldn’t really. I didn’t do anything wrong. I wasn’t the one who threw a hissy fit and got up and walked away all pissy. I said what was on my mind, and I asked him honest questions. I didn’t do anything wrong and I shouldn’t feel bad.

But I did.

I stared at the food in front of me, be that mine and Axel’s a little ways across the table. I doubted he was going to come back in here to finish his sandwich, which he had only taken maybe two bites out of. What a waste of food.

I didn’t see her until she was standing right at the end of the booth. Hannah was standing there, arms crossed, and her eyes looked worried, but she smiled at me. I didn’t feel like have to deal with little Ms. Malibu Barbie here.

“You and your boyfriend have a fight?” She said through chews of gum. I laughed in my head.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” My words were so cold, she should have turned to ice. She uncrossed her arms and leaned slightly on the table. I hated that she looked relived to her that.

“Brother?”

“No.” She began to gather up our food, even though it had barely been touched.

“You going to want a doggy bag for this?” I was about to say no when I thought that I should at least save my muffin. After all, Axel had been kind enough to buy it for me; which reminded me to take my own five back that was still sitting crumpled on the table.

“Just the muffin.” Hannah’s hands were full, but she managed to slip a hand into her apron and pulled out a brown paper bag and placed it in front of me.

“Hey, you should at least go out there.” I looked up at her, my face stuck between a glare and a cocked eyebrow. “Make sure the kid is alright.” She turned the other way, arms full of dishes and foods, and walked away. I wasn’t giving her a tip.

I sat at the table longer than I should have. I put my muffin into the bag, but I still didn’t stand up. It made no sense to stay where I was. Whether I wanted to go talk to Axel or not, I couldn’t stay here. I sighed and picked up my doggy back, and tried to stand up with the littlest pain as possible. But I didn’t do too well on that aspect. Once up, I slowly, and painfully, limped myself across the room to the door. It wasn’t raining as hard as it was before, but it drizzled still slightly. Axel was standing by my car.

Walking on a sprained knee is the epitome of discomfort. Granted, it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did back in the forest, but it still didn’t feel better. I limped myself across the parking lot carefully to my black car. It only then dawned on me that I didn’t have my own keys. Axel did. Technically, he could have driven away and left me stranded here. Part of me wishes he did. He looked at me as soon as I walked over.

“Before you say anything, I’m sorry.” I crossed my arms.

“Is it true?”

“What? Yes it’s true. I am sorry.”

“No, not that. What you said about Nick. Is all of that true?” He looked like I caught him off guard with my question. I might have, honestly. Apparently all he thinks about is himself.

“Yeah. Why would I lie about something stupid like that?” I shrugged, and took my eyes away from him. In the blaze of the nearby streetlight his eyes were emeralds. And they were very distracting.

“I don’t know.” He let out a sigh, though it sounded like one out of annoyance.

“Well it’s true and I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to say it, but a nagging insistence in my brain made me.

“I’m sorry too.” Now, if this had been any other two friends, they might have smiled at each other, or hugged, or done something to show that everything was alright. But this was me and Axel, and me and Axel were not friends.

I began to limp myself over to the passenger side of the car. The rain from before had made the pavement pretty slippery, and along with limping, well that’s just waiting for a disaster to happen. I heard Axel sigh. “Wait.” I began to turn my head, but before I could even turn my head to know what he wanted me to wait for, he was right next to me. He put his arm around the small of my back, and with his other grabbed my wrist to balance me. I thought about saying something, but I didn’t feel like arguing with him again. Besides, it wasn’t the worst thing he could do.

Once I was next to the car he let me go and opened the door for me, then made his way back around to the driver’s side. He didn’t say anything as he started the car and made his way back onto the main road. And I didn’t say anything either. Somewhere lost in the silence, I managed to fall asleep.