Ten Seconds of Crazy
By Randileigh Kennedy
To my CM3, my FBP’ers, the Midnight Vixens, and my Mission: Destroy stealths – my life would’ve been dull without you. Thanks for all of the crazy memories.
CHAPTER 1
“Do you want to run away with me?”
My confused eyes darted up from the faded Carl’s Diner order pad I was scribbling on.
“I think you misunderstood my question. When I asked you what you wanted, I meant for breakfast.” I studied the handsome guy sitting in the cheap upholstered diner booth. He had short, dark messy hair and light blue-grey eyes. His perfectly dimpled smile and straight teeth told me he wasn’t a local. I’d never seen him around, that’s for sure. Guys with broad shoulders and chiseled jaw lines didn’t usually frequent my place of employment before six a.m. Or ever, for that matter.
“Why do you let that guy talk to you like that?” he asked skeptically.
I looked around the diner. It was mostly full of elderly people but one of the regulars, Jerry, was sitting on one of the barstools by the kitchen. He was rugged and dirty, and his right construction boot had a sizeable hole in it.
“He’s still drunk,” I said with a shrug. “He’s a townie. He’s harmless.”
“A drunk guy making inappropriate suggestions for you to undo a couple more of your uniform buttons? That doesn’t sound so harmless.” He stared back at me, sipping on the cup of coffee I poured him minutes ago when he first sat down.
“Well you asking a stranger to run away with you sounds a bit homicidal. Maybe you and Jerry should hang out,” I replied sarcastically.
“Cassidy,” an irritated voice said behind me. My boss Carl seemed annoyed by me chatting with this guy. Carl brushed past me and went back into the kitchen, and I knew better than to make him call out my name twice.
“Look, what can I get for you? Something on the menu,” I clarified.
“What’s the best thing here?” he asked, still not looking at the food options in front of him. His gaze was still on me as I shifted uncomfortably in the dumb white apron they made me wear over my pink uniform dress. I looked more like a maid than a waitress.
“The best thing here is the door closing behind me when my shift is over,” I muttered. “So the answer is freedom. Freedom is the best thing that eventually happens here when I leave. But for you, it’s pancakes.”
I walked back to the kitchen and ripped the pancake order out of my notepad, placing it on the designated clip near the prep counter.
“Who is that?” Maria asked, eyeing my stranger across the diner. She was double my age, probably around forty, and although she was pretty her face looked worn. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the guy in the booth.
“Not from around here, that’s for sure,” I whispered back, grabbing some extra sets of silverware to place around empty tables for future guests.
“Ladies, do I pay you to talk?” Carl sneered, waving his fingers around us in a fluttering motion. He walked past us and I knew he would be in a pissy mood for the rest of the day.
“He pays us?” Maria said mockingly.
Townie Jerry asked me for some extra coffee stirrers, which I had to dig into a low counter for. He whistled and made a derogatory comment under his breath.
“The booth felt cold so I thought I’d sit up at the counter,” the handsome stranger said, pulling up a barstool next to Jerry. I eyed him suspiciously.
“My name is Reid Carson,” the dark haired guy said to Jerry with an outstretched hand, clearly hoping I would hear him.
“What are you doing here?” Jerry sneered through his unkempt straggly moustache, ignoring the handshake gesture.
“I was just trying to convince Cassidy here to run away with me. How are my odds looking?” he asked, genuinely awaiting Jerry’s reply.
“This ice princess doesn’t recognize a good opportunity even when it’s sitting right in front of her,” Jerry responded, referring to himself.
I grunted and rolled my eyes, relieved to hear the kitchen chime telling me an order was ready. I grabbed the stack of pancakes and set them down in front of Reid.
“Thank you,” he replied sweetly. I hated how much I liked looking at his face.
“You should bend down a little lower when you set the food down, sweetheart,” Jerry said in a snide tone.
I could see the anger in Reid’s handsome face as he opened his mouth to speak. I quickly cut him off.
“Jerry, stop overcompensating with rudeness for whatever part of you is small and unworthy,” I said confidently, staring at him so he would know I was serious. I saw Reid’s lips turn up into a slight smile as soon as I said it. “I’m not putting up with your mouth again. Men get one warning from me and that’s it. Consider this yours.”
“Or what?” Jerry asked, surprised by the tenacity in my voice.
“Why don’t you check my probation records to find out what happened to the last guy who messed with me.” I didn’t take my eyes off of Jerry as he slowly stood up with a bewildered look on his face. He looked at Reid, then back at me.
“Good luck with that one, man,” Jerry said towards Reid as he walked backwards out of the diner.
“So, you still want to run away with me?” I asked Reid with a sarcastic smirk.
“Even more so now,” he replied genuinely. He studied my face, probably trying to figure out if anything I just said was true. “What are you doing for lunch?”
“Working,” I answered honestly, unsure of why this guy was even wasting his time on me.
“What about dinner?”
“Still working.”
“How’s that possible? The diner closes at three,” he said curiously, sounding a little offended as if I was lying to him about it.
“I have a second job. I don’t get done with that until seven-thirty,” I said dismissively.
“What about the festival tonight?” Maria chimed in on her way out from the kitchen, carrying two omelet plates for an elderly couple across the diner. Clearly she had been listening to our conversation. “It doesn’t start until eight. He can just meet us there.” She winked as she continued past us, and I wasn’t sure if her gesture was aimed at me or Reid.
“Great, so I have a date tonight with your mother,” he said playfully once Maria was out of earshot. His joke couldn’t have been more ironic considering Maria was a Latina woman with frizzy short dark hair, while I had blue eyes and a long blonde ponytail.
“Make sure you have her home by midnight,” I teased.
Carl came out of his four-foot-wide office and I quickly made myself look busy, refilling condiments and wiping down counters. As I handed Reid his bill, I mentioned to Carl that I was heading out back for my smoke break.
I stepped out the back door of the diner, pulling a light sweatshirt around me. It was already the middle of June, but the sun was slow to rise over the snow covered peaks in Mountain Ridge, Nevada. Nestled near California in the trees near Lake Tahoe, the diner was towards the outskirts of town, so we didn’t get much traffic from the downtown lake tourists. It was mostly just the locals who couldn’t afford to live anywhere near the water.
Reid walked around the corner of the building, and I was happy that he picked up on my declaration to head outside for a break. I sat down on a cold wooden picnic table and Reid sat beside me.
“Isn’t it a little cold to be outside smoking?” he asked inquisitively.
“I don’t even smoke,” I admitted. “But it’s the only excuse Carl will accept to get me out of there for a few minutes.”
He smiled. “So what’s this festival tonight? I’m not from around here,” he said sheepishly.
“I figured that out,” I mused. “It’
s just a local rib cook-off. They have some local bands, stuff like that. Where are you even from? And why on earth are you in Mountain Ridge? Around here you’re either a townie or a tourist. Unless you’re running away from something.”
“I’m from Sonoma, but I spend my summers in Michigan,” he explained.
Figured. A preppy rich boy with a vacation home, how relatable.
“I’m taking a little road trip of sorts,” he continued. “I have a bunch of stops planned along the way. I’m supposed to be rafting down the Truckee River today, but judging by the sky that’s not going to happen.” He gestured up to the thick dark clouds above us, and I remembered hearing the weather forecast over Carl’s office boom box. It was supposed to rain most of the day, but it was expected to clear up by the evening.
“Well that sounds like a nice little vacation,” I mused, pretty certain I had nothing in common with this guy. I thought back to my childhood in that moment. Every time my mom moved us around, she always said we were going on vacation. She thought it sounded more exciting that way than the reality of her simply wanting to move away from another failed relationship. Sometimes we didn’t even have a destination in mind. We would just drive from town to town aimlessly until the right For Rent sign caught her eye. Or a man in stone-washed jeans and a muscle t-shirt. Gag.
“Cassidy?” he said softly, breaking my thoughts.
“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve been on vacation. Carl’s not big on time off,” I said jokingly, as if that was the sole reason I hadn’t been out of town since I moved to Mountain Ridge.
“So come with me,” he said with a shrug, staring at me as he said it. “I know that sounds insane. But what are you doing in this crappy diner anyway, busting your ass all day for people like Jerry?”
“I need the money,” I answered honestly. “I’m hoping to take some classes in the fall. Tuition isn’t cheap around here.”
“Cassidy!” a booming voice called from the diner’s back door. Carl’s face didn’t look pleased to find me sitting on the back table with a customer.
“Just giving the tourist directions,” I shot back at Carl as I stood up from the uncomfortable wood. “I’ll be right in.”
“Well, I’d love to see you tonight, but I think I’m already promised to someone else,” he said with a shy smile.
I narrowed my eyes in his direction, taking him in. His running pants and thin sweatshirt made him look relaxed, but his face was too handsome to look casual. His hair was the right kind of messy and I couldn’t look away. I could see the shape of his body through the form-fitting fabric of his shirt, and I hated that I wanted to touch his chest as I stared at it.
“By the way Cassidy,” he stated, slowly taking a few steps back to head towards his car, likely parked in the front of the building. “I wouldn’t consider myself a tourist.” He smiled at me and turned around the corner of the brick diner, out of my sight.
Obviously not a townie, and self-proclaimed not to be a tourist. Was that comment an omission that he was in fact running away from something? I shook my head, slowly walking back into the diner.
“Do you want to explain this?” Maria said in the kitchen hallway, holding up a receipt. As I looked closer at it, it appeared to be from Reid’s pancake order. For some reason there was a blank check attached to the bill. The name line was made out to me, but the amount was blank.
In the memo line, it simply read “freedom.”
CHAPTER 2
Maria and I lived in a small apartment complex across the street from the diner. She was my neighbor, which was how we met, and she got me a job at the diner shortly after I moved up to Mountain Ridge. Other than our occupation though, we didn’t really have much in common. She was born and raised in the area, and had worked at the diner since the nineties while she was a single mom. I, on the other hand, was a transplant. A wandering girl just trying to turn my life around from my mother’s mistakes.
“Something shorter, Cassidy,” Maria insisted as we got ready together for the rib festival. She was my only real friend in the area, so we often did things together outside of work despite our lack of common interests. “If you’re really meeting up with a billionaire tonight, you need a shorter skirt.”
“That guy is not a billionaire,” I commented, shaking my head at her. “The blank check was an inside joke. He was wearing Nike pants and was probably only a few years older than me. And he didn’t have a watch on. Rich guys always wear nice watches, that’s their mark. It’s like their version of a tramp stamp tattoo. But in gold.”
“Well if that boy shows up in a watch tonight girl, I may put the moves on him myself,” she teased.
We finished getting ready and I ignored her advice, settling on an A-line skirt that hit just above my knees and a fitted v-neck t-shirt. I brushed my long blonde hair and opted to leave it down for the evening, satisfied with the little bit of natural wave I had going from the rain earlier today. I grabbed a light grey sweatshirt just in case it got cool later, and we finally headed out.
We walked around the rib festival, enjoying the food and our mutual love of people watching. These festivals brought out all types. It was mostly locals; there were families, unsupervised teenagers, and young couples everywhere.
Sometime after eight-thirty, I spotted Reid sitting on a bench watching a local country band. He looked even more handsome than I remembered from the morning, and he’d changed from his athletic clothes into some dark blue jeans and a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his forearms.
“Did you make it down to the river today?” I asked, surprising him as we walked up on him from behind.
“Nope, that rain was brutal this afternoon. So I’m here at least one more day,” he replied, standing up to greet us. Earlier at the diner I hadn’t realized how tall he was either, but as he stood before me I guessed he was well over six feet. Certainly a lot taller than my five-foot-eight frame.
“Do you know what time it is?” Maria asked Reid, waiting in anticipation for him to check his watch. Instead he pulled out a phone from his pocket and read the time off the screen. I smiled at her, knowing we were both thinking the same thing. Although I had to admit I was more relieved by it than she was.
“It’s not quite nine yet,” he said nonchalantly.
“Oh, I knew it. It’s late for me,” Maria commented. “I have the early shift tomorrow. I should be getting back.”
“We both have the early shift. Every day,” I chimed in. “We’re always up later than this. How about another hour?” I tried suggesting to her with my eyes that I wanted her to stay, but she either didn’t understand my plea or she was ignoring my suggestion on purpose.
“No, Carl’s been on my case lately about how tired I look. I’m going to head back, but you should stay out,” she said with a nod. “Have fun.”
She gave us a quick half-wave and turned to head back to the apartment complex, which was thankfully within walking distance. I awkwardly shrugged at Reid, not sure how this would go.
“Well that was the worst date I’ve ever been on,” he teased, breaking the moment of silence between us as we watched Maria walk away. “Are you hungry?” He had such a polite tone to his voice.
“Maria and I ate already. You?”
He put his hands in his pockets, almost seeming a little nervous to suddenly be alone with me. “Nah, I ate already. Do you want to just listen to some music? I’m not a big country guy, but this band actually sounds pretty good. Or we can go somewhere else if you want.” People passed around us as we stood there.
“Why don’t we just sit over there on that hill for a bit?” I pointed over to an open grassy area across the sidewalk from the festival. It was out of the way from the crowds of people, but still close enough for us to hear the music in case we needed a buffer for any awkward silence.
“Perfect, let me grab some drinks.” He gave a guy in a nearby beer hut ten bucks and handed me a golden frothy cu
p. We walked across the street and sat down on the grass. It felt soft beneath us and was more comfortable than I even suspected. It was like that moment you see in a movie where two familiar people lay down in a grassy field to watch the clouds pass. Except of course the sky was dark. And worse, this guy was the opposite of familiar. Other than his name and his road trip expedition, I didn’t know anything else about him.
“Do you think it’s okay to drink these over here? In Nevada can you just drink wherever you want? Or are there rules about that?” he asked with concern, unsure if we were breaking any laws.
“You can’t just drink anywhere you want,” I laughed, “but we’re probably fine here. They’re pretty cool about that stuff with outdoor events going on. They probably wouldn’t be thrilled that I’m not twenty-one yet though.”
He almost spit out his beer as I said it.
“You’re not twenty-one?” he asked, genuinely surprised. “I feel like an idiot for not asking, but I just assumed.”
“I’m nineteen, that’s close enough.” I looked into his grey-blue eyes, wondering why I was even sitting here with this guy. “I’ll be twenty next week though, June twenty-eighth. How old are you?”
“Twenty-three,” he replied, taking a sip. “So what’s your story? Are you a ‘townie’ as you call it?”
“Nope. I’m definitely not from here,” I said hesitantly, not sure how much information I wanted to give this guy. Sure, he was attractive as far as strangers go, but he was still a stranger nonetheless.
“Then why stick around?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I guess I just feel stuck.”
“So run away with me. I’m being serious. You’re not stuck. Maybe you’re just not going anywhere. There’s a difference.” He looked into my eyes and I wasn’t sure how to even respond to his wild idea. “I know that sounds crazy,” he continued, clearly reading my mind. “But don’t you feel like you need to do something drastic to get your life moving? To make a change?”
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