Stand And Be Strong

Riley’s P.O.V.

Casey arrived in Surrey around noon the next day. Once she was settled in and had explored the apartment, we got in her car and took a trip to Croydon. We needed to go to IKEA to get a couch and a table and some other small things for our apartment- well, it was really more of a loft. The ride seemed to take forever to pass and it was almost 4 o’clock by the time we got there.

We roamed the store in search of the things we needed but being two teenage girls, we got distracted more often than not. Casey made a game out of hiding in closets and jumping out to scare people. She nearly got us kicked out. We finally decided on a couch and some other things for our living room and decided we should get going. The rest of things we needed we could probably find somewhere closer to home.

We got home around 10 pm and we both agreed to go and find something to eat. The furniture would be delivered sometime tomorrow morning so we couldn’t stay out too late. We walked around the town for a little bit, exploring and looking for somewhere to go. I had personally never been to Surrey before this, and Casey had only come to look for apartments. We didn’t know of any restaurants around here or how good they were so we settled on a little shop we had found.

Once inside, the cool air hit us and we were shown to our booth. The inside looked like a diner from the 60’s. The booths and the tables were bright blue and pink. The walls were painted baby blue with a pink stripe going around the middle. The three waitresses behind the counter looked like they were tired and bored. They each wore yellow and white uniforms. Our waitress handed us our menus and went back behind the counter.

“this place is kind of nice” I said to Casey.

“yeah. The customers in here don’t seem so bad either.” She smirked, looking behind me. There was an old couple in the back and about halfway between the two of us was a group of guys. I recognized one of them as Dan. He helped me with the key yesterday. The waitress returned a few minutes later.

“hi, I’m Gina. What can I get you?” she asked giving us a small smile and then returning to looking as bored as ever.

“ummmm, I’ll have a cheeseburger and a coke” Casey told her.

“me too.” She took our menus and walked away. She brought our food to us about 10 minutes later. While we ate, Casey and I talked about our plans for tomorrow after we moved some things around.

“It’s my new neighbors!” someone shouted at us enthusiastically as we stood to leave the diner. Casey and I both turned to see who it was, and I saw that he was in the group with Dan. He must be Max. I gave him a small, nervous smile and group came walking towards us.

“um, hello” I told him.

“hi! I’m Max. I believe you just moved in on my floor” I glanced at Dan. “I think so. You’re max?”

“yepp. And I do not know your name.” he stated.

“I’m Casey and this is Riley” I saw her eyeing Dan with a smirk on her face. No doubt she found him attractive. It made me a giggle a little that she was already going after people we had just met, well, people she had just met.

“I’m Max” he repeated with a smile, “and these are my mates. Chris, Matt, Josh, and Dan”. I liked Max so far. He seemed friendly enough and i think he’d be a fun guy to hang out with.

“how’s your key working?” Dan asked with a smile. “it’s better now, thanks for helping me.”

“we’re just on our way to the bar. come have some drinks with us, yeah?” Chris spoke up.

“we can’t” I told him and Casey explained why. I really would have liked to, but we had to be there for the movers or we wouldn’t get what we ordered. They seemed like fantastic friends though, so I hope we can hang out again soon. They understood and walked us back to the apartment building on their way out. Max pulled Casey and I into a bear hug. The rest of the band said goodbye and they started to walk away.