Mile Marks

An open sign was blinking in the window of Hal’s Pizzeria, the N was flickering, and then it went out. The place was sketchy, but when we got inside, it looked like a family restaurant. There were kids running and jumping on all of the furniture.

We were standing by the hostess stand, waiting for the girl to come back and seat us. I was holding onto my phone, waiting for someone to tell me what was going on back home. I’d asked Rian for updates, and expected there to be something, given that it was the day before school started.

“Hello, welcome to Hal’s, table for two?” I looked up to find that Alex was nodding at the girl, but wasn’t paying a great amount of attention to her. She was somewhat plain looking, brown hair, brown eyes, average height. “Booth or table?”

He turned to ask me before answering, “Booth.” She showed us to the booth in the front of the restaurant, looking out toward a busy street.

“Your waiter, Lucas, will be over in a second to get you something to drink.” She walked away.

“So, I thought of another condition.”

“Yeah?”

“You drive more than me.”

“That’s cool.”

“Hello, guys, I’m Lucas, and I’ll be your waiter. Can I get you a drink?”

I looked up to find a really, really attractive guy, maybe a year older than me. “I’ll have an iced tea,” I said, smiling up at him. I cursed myself for not putting on anything other than my candy corn pajama pants.

“Yeah, and I’ll have a coke,” Alex told the guy.

“I’ll get that for you, and you can have some more time to look at the menu.”

I was smiling at him as he walked away, and he was smiling back. “Rome!” Alex whisper-shouted, breaking my attention. “What do you want? I’m thinking pepperoni.”

I laughed. There was an ongoing fight between us, which was the better pizza: pepperoni or just plain cheese. “I’m thinking cheese.”

“Rock paper scissors,” he said. We did that, and he lost with rock. “Best two out of three.” I still won. “Half and half.”

“Yeah right. I won, I get to choose the pizza.” He pretended to cry, and I just sat back, pleased with my superior rock paper scissors skills.

Lucas, the waiter, came back and set the two glasses on the table. “Did you find something that looked good?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said, smiling. “We’ll have a cheese pizza.”

“Just cheese?”

“Yeah, just cheese.”

“I’ll be back with that soon.”

“I think he likes you,” Alex said sarcastically.

“You think?” He was waiting another table, but was still glancing over at me. “I wonder why? I look like shit.”

“No you don’t.”

“Says who?”

“Says your best friend.”