We stopped in a sea of cars as she pointed over to a cute red two-door. “That’s me right there,” she pointed. “Where’re you?”
“Right there,” I replied. I pointed over to my ’08 Honda Accord and walked in the direction of my car.
“I’ll drive out to the exit and wait for ya so ya can follow me,” Lisa shouted behind me.
“Sounds good,” I shouted back.
I slid into my car, starting the ignition right away so I could open up the windows. The heat that had built up inside was unbearable. Sweat was already dripping down my face again. I won’t be able to handle this for very long, I thought as I turned my A/C on full blast. I might have to take my dad up on his offer to fix it.
Leaning over to the passenger’s side, I opened my glove box to pull out some restaurant napkins I had stashed. I wiped all the sweat off my forehead and tossed them on to the floor with the rest of the trash I needed to clean up. Then I backed out of my parking spot to head to the exit so I could follow Lisa.
~*~
I pulled into a parking spot next to Lisa at the Family Diner. I thought she was just referring to it as a family diner, but the name of the place was actually Family Diner.
Turning my car off, I opened up my door, opting this time to leave my windows open. I stepped out of the car and into the heat, eyeing Lisa. “Is it always this hot?” I asked as I wiped at my forehead.
She let out a short laugh. “In the summer? Hell, yes!” She looked down at my jeans with a raised eyebrow. “I would suggest puttin’ all of your jeans away during the summer, unless you are going to cut them into shorts.”
“If you had a pair of scissors on you, I’d go to the bathroom and cut these right now,” I gestured to my jeans as we made our way into the diner.
As soon as we walked in, a cool blast of air consumed my body and I sighed out in relief. Taking a look around, I noticed the diner had a fifties feel to it. There were red vinyl booths all along the windows, with tables that were scratched up and worn down, and a bar lined up with black vinyl stools. In the middle of the bar, was a baked goods display case filled with pies, cakes, puddings, and cookies; everything that made my sweet tooth happy.
The sign by the door said for us to seat ourselves so I followed Lisa to a booth. I slid into the seat and continued to look around. There were quite a few people in the diner for a Tuesday afternoon.
“This place looks very retro,” I stated, looking at her.
“Yeah,” Lisa smiled. “This place has been here for a long time. The same family has owned it since they opened. They actually just remodeled.”
I looked around again and then looked back at her confused. It didn’t look newly remodeled.
She laughed at me. “I know, it doesn’t look like it, but they closed for a week and had the floors redone along with the booths and stools. They said they’d never touch the tables though,” she said eyeing the table in front of us. I looked down and noticed all the signatures and notes on the table. “These tables have been here a long time. They didn’t want to toss the memories, so every decade or so, they have the legs replaced, but they keep the tops,” she pointed to the signatures.
I read a bunch of ‘I love you’ notes and ‘Betty hearts Joe’. “That’s really cool.”
Lisa smiled. “This is the place you’ll find most people our age. We’ve all been comin’ here for so long, that there’re designated age days,” she laughed when I gave her my ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ look. “I know, it seems silly, but there are days for the old people, days for families, and days for the teens and wanna-be teens; then there are days for the college kids and the car buffs.”
“Car buffs?”
“Yeah, you know, guys who spend way too much time and money on their cars, and with girls who hang around in slutty clothes. It’s kind of like The Fast and Furious around here, minus hottie Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, but we’ve got some hot southern guys instead.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me with a smirk.
“Nice,” I replied. I really wasn’t into the whole car scene. I never understood how someone could spend so much money on their car. What was the point? Like the cars that drove down the interstate trying to show off with their exhausts, sounded like high-pitched farts to me. Sometimes, I wanted to ask them how they felt about spending so much money on something that made their car sound like it was passing gas constantly. “So do you hang out with the college kids or the car buffs?”
Lisa was cut off from her reply as our waitress approached our table. “Hey, Lisa.” The waitress smiled as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She was short like me, probably around five-six, with a blonde bob and flawless makeup. She was really pretty and seemed way too peppy for me.
“Hey, Sarah,” Lisa smiled back. “This is Sadie,” she said pointing to me. “She’s just moved here.”
Sarah looked over at me with a smile. “Hi, I’m Sarah.”
“Sadie,” I replied with a short wave.
“So what can I git y’all to drink?” she asked in a deep southern drawl. She stood poised with her pencil and pad up, waiting for us to reply.
I realized I hadn’t even looked at the menu yet. Looking to the side, I noticed them stuffed behind the napkin dispenser, so I reached over and pulled one out to look at.
“I’ll take a coke, please,” I answered without looking up from the menu.
“I’ll have a sweet tea and put in an order for the burger special,” Lisa told Sarah. “Do you eat meat, Sadie? You aren’t a vegetarian or anything?”
I looked up at her to see her nose crinkled up as if she was disgusted by the idea. I smiled at her and shook my head. “No, I eat meat.”
She smiled. “Then you definitely need to try the burger special. You can’t go wrong with it. It’s what the diner is famous for. If you don’t like it, I’ll pay for your meal.”
I shrugged my shoulders and nodded my head up at Sarah.
“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Sarah said as she walked off to the next table of occupants.
Folding the menu I no longer needed, I put it back behind the napkin dispenser, and then rifled through my purse for my phone. I needed to text my mom.
“What are your plans for the summer?” Lisa asked as I set my phone down on the table.
Sarah arrived with our drinks, set them on the table, and sauntered off to take care of her other customers. “I actually need to look for a job,” I said as I picked up the straw Sarah had placed on the table, tore the paper away and stuck it into my glass.
“Oh, what’d ya have in mind?”
I had no idea what I was looking for. I just knew I needed to make money. I didn’t have any friends here to keep me occupied all summer long, so I needed to work. I’d never be able to just sit around all summer and do nothing, especially by myself. “I honestly don’t know what I’m looking for. I know there is a mall nearby, so I’ll probably see if there are any openings.”
She started shaking her head at me and pursed her lips. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are in a college town. Summer jobs go fast. If ya wanted to get a job at the mall, you’d have to apply in the spring. Most fast food joints don’t even have any openings.”
Well, shit, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “I’m sure I’ll find something. I’ll just have to spend the rest of the week looking,” I stated as Sarah approached and set our plates down.
“Can I git y’all anything else?”
I looked at Lisa then back to Sarah and shook my head. “No, I think we’re good. Thanks.”
“Enjoy, it was nice to meet ya, Sadie,” she replied.
I watched her walk away and noticed how she greeted everyone with a smile. I could definitely never be a waitress. Being peppy and happy-go-lucky every day was not me. I’d end up getting shitty tips or fired. “She seems really nice.” I turned back to Lisa who was already putting ketchup on her plate for her fries.
“Yeah, she is,” she said as she stuffed a fry
in her mouth that she had doused in ketchup. “I think I might have an idea of a place you could try to get a job.”
I grabbed the ketchup bottle and poured some onto my plate. “I’m all ears,” I said as I dabbed a fry in the ketchup and devoured it.
“Well, if you don’t mind getting up at the crack of dawn or getting a little dirty, I might be able to get ya a job up at the Johnson Farm.”
I stopped lifting my burger that was halfway to my mouth. “A farm?” I scoffed.
She let out a short laugh. “Come on, it’s not that bad. Although, I’m sure it’s nothing you would be used to, being from a big city and all, but it’s good money and the days are short.” She shrugged and took a bite of her burger.
Looking down at my own burger, I contemplated what she had told me as I lifted it to my mouth and took a big bite. Working on a farm isn’t something I’d ever thought I’d do. I’m not a morning person at all, but I wouldn’t mind knowing my hours would be the same every day. You can’t really farm at night, right? If I worked at the mall, my schedule would be different all the time.
Letting the juices and spices marry with the bun and condiments in my mouth, I moaned in appreciation at how well the flavors worked together. It was so good, and not because I missed breakfast and was so hungry I could probably eat a whole cow. After taking another bite, I set the burger down on my plate and looked up at Lisa who was watching me with a smile.
“I told ya it was good.”
I laughed at how stupid I must have looked. “Yeah, this is probably the best burger I’ve ever eaten.” I picked up my coke and took a sip. “So, tell me about this farm job. Beggars can’t be choosers, right?”
“Well, basically you’d be baggin’ corn, pickin’ through beans, givin’ the horses new hay, and cleanin’ up the horse shit.”
I had just taken a drink of my coke and tried to gasp and swallow at the same time causing myself to choke and cough as it went down the wrong pipe. She laughed as she got up from the table, walked to my side, and started slapping me on the back. I spat the rest of the coke out everywhere, unable to swallow. I could feel it dripping down my chin.
“Oh, my God, are you goin’ to be okay?” she laughed, still patting my back.
I held up my hand and pushed her arm away as I got my coughing under control. Feeling slightly embarrassed and feeling the flush over my face, I reached over to the napkin dispenser and pulled one out to wipe the coke and spit from my chin.
“What’s going on over here?” a deep, sultry voice asked.
I looked up to see a good-looking guy eyeing me as he stood next to Lisa.
“Oh, hey, babe, you’re early,” Lisa said as she slid over in her booth to make room for who I assumed to be her boyfriend. He was tall with a slim build, sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and a cute face. I wouldn’t say he was sexy. He had a baby face that knocked him out of the sexy category, but I could see why Lisa would find him attractive. Even with his slim build, I could tell he was fit under his form-fitting t-shirt.
With my face clean of any leftover soda residue, I wiped at the table where I had let it all spill out of my mouth, and then I looked up at Lisa, embarrassment written all over my face.
“Yeah, Landon said he’d take care of the rest of the stuff that needed to be done today so I could come meet you,” he directed toward Lisa, and then looked at me with a smile. “I’m Derek.”
I cleared my throat. “Hi, I’m Sadie.”
“Sadie just moved here from Chicago and is going to start at A&M this fall.” She smiled at me, before looking back at Derek. “We met today at registration.”
Derek nodded at Lisa and looked at me. “That’s cool. You’ll like it. What’re you majoring in?”
“Just general for now,” I said as I shrugged. “I still don’t know what I want to do.” I wanted to throw in that I wasn’t being allowed to take the courses I wanted to take, but I kept that to myself as I looked longingly down at my burger. I felt weird just picking it up and eating now that Derek was sitting with us. I didn’t want to start shoving my face with food while he was talking, but it was too good to let it sit there uneaten. So I picked it up and took a bite as Derek continued to talk. To hell with letting meaty goodness go to waste.
“Well, at least you get a choice in the matter. I feel obligated to major in agriculture,” he said, tapping his index finger on the table.
“Yeah, but you love it. You’re starting to sound like Landon.” Lisa raised her arm, resting her hand on his back and rubbing up and down. “How was your day at the farm?” she asked him.
“It was like any other day,” he said, looking at her as a smirk crept up on his face, “except you weren’t there for me to molest on my breaks.”
“Derek,” she shrieked as she slapped him on the back.
I sat there and watched the banter. This was the kind of thing I missed. It was the kind of relationship I had with Jason, before things turned sour.
“Speaking of work,” she said eyeing me, “I was just tellin’ Sadie that she could try to get a job up at the farm, since big tits quit last week.”
I slapped my hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t spit food everywhere as I laughed. Lisa looked at me with a laugh of her own as Derek sat there and shook his head. I swallowed my food and set my burger down. “Big tits, huh? What a name!”
“You have no idea, Sadie. The skankage that tries to work at the farm is comical. They have no idea what they’re doing. They dress inappropriately and do whatever they can to check out Landon as he works. It’s quite pathetic.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “And this Landon guy,” I paused to take a sip from my coke, “he’s your brother?” I asked Derek.
He nodded at me as Lisa continued. “I think we’ve been through fifteen new hires in the past five years. None of them last because it’s hot and they don’t like to sweat. But the main reason is they only apply for the job because of Landon. They don’t realize he doesn’t work on that side of the farm. They’re so stupid. But if you really do need a job and you don’t mind the heat, then you’d be perfect. Plus you’d be working with me. It’d be nice to have someone else to talk to. Then I wouldn’t have to endure Marco singing Elvis songs to me all the time,” she said with a sigh.
If she was trying to convince me, she wasn’t doing a good job. I definitely didn’t want some strange man singing Elvis songs to me either.
“It’s not that bad,” Derek said with a laugh. “Marco’s just old and loves Elvis. He doesn’t sing to her; he just sings. He just happens to be by her when he does.” He laughed harder when Lisa punched him in the arm. “But seriously, it’s not bad. My mom even provides lunch every day. You should come by tomorrow and check it out. We could use the help. I think Dad would be happy to actually have someone there who will work and not drool over my brother too.” He said the last part rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, just come by and check it out,” Lisa persisted with both eyebrows raised.
I let out a short laugh and shook my head with a smile. She reminded me a lot of Erin. “Okay, but I’m not making any promises. I draw the line at horse shit.”
They both laughed.
Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I looked out of the window at the traffic passing by. The town wasn’t as small as I originally thought, but that was a good thing. I was used to the hustle and bustle of a big city so I was sure I’d get used to this new way of life.
“So,” I said to Lisa, “what is there to do around here?” I asked as I popped a fry in my mouth.
“Hey, guys,” Sarah interrupted as she came to a stop at our table. “Can I git y’all anything else?” she asked without taking her eyes off Derek. “Can I git ya something, Derek?” she asked with a little bit too much seduction in her voice.
My eyes widened in surprise as I looked from her to Lisa, who was completely ignoring her. Derek, however, was looking right at me with a bored look on his face.
“Nah, I’m good. Thanks,” he replied.
> “I’m good too,” I told her with a smile.
“Ok, jus’ let me know if ya need anything,” she said with more of a southern accent than she had before. “Here’re your checks. Jus’ let me know when you’re ready.” She set down two receipts and walked off with too much sway in her step.
What the hell was that all about? I cleared my throat. “That was a little awkward. Does that happen a lot?” I asked them both. Seeing as how they both reacted, I assumed it did.
Lisa flailed her hand at me. “Girls do it all the time. There’s just something about the Johnson boys,” she said sarcastically as she bumped her shoulder with Derek’s. He laughed and shook his head as he played with the straw wrappers we left on the table. I wasn’t sure I’d be so nonchalant about it. “We just ignore it. They do it all the time, so there’s no reason to bring more attention to it.”
She was a bigger person than me for sure; there was no way I’d let something like that slide by without saying something. I wouldn’t care if it started a fight or not.
“So,” she said changing the subject, “you asked about things to do around here. There’s the movie theater, a couple of clubs, and Stan’s Arcade. And since you’re in the south, there’s also mud boggin’, farm parties, and of course, the car club,” she smiled brightly.
What the hell was mud bogging? I was going to ask, but I honestly didn’t want to get her started. The first thing that popped into my head was girls wrestling in mud. I was sure that wasn’t it, but I wasn’t that interested in finding out. “Farm parties and the car club, what does all of that entail?” I asked as I took a sip of my coke. “What do you do at farm parties?”
“The parties are held on the family farm,” Derek stated. “There’s a portion of the land that was used as camping ground when we were little and it’s not used anymore. So Landon and I have parties out there, and we usually always have a bonfire. You just drive out there to hang out and bring your own beverage. We bring a stereo system out there too.”
I’d never been to a party that was held outside at night. Although there were those frat parties Erin always dragged me to where people congregated outside, but I was sure this wasn’t the same. “You don’t get in trouble with your parents for the parties?” I couldn’t see any parent being happy about their kids having a party with underage drinkers.
Drifting into Darkness Page 2