Wish I Knew You Sooner

chapter thirty

A/N: this is the diner layout, but imagine it to be 50's themed;)

Oakland's POV

I felt my wrist tugged in the direction of a small restaurant; Harry dragging me in, since we have been milling about the streets with no direct plan.

It feels quite strange knowing that Harry began this day with no trajectory of what we would be doing, since he always seemed to have something up his sleeve when it came to our daily adventures.

I scuffed my navy converse on the sidewalk, kicking my legs behind me when my body was thrown out of alignment by Harry's grip. He swung the door open and we instantly heard A Teenager's Romance by Ricky Nelson.

Breaking through the threshold of the building, hand and hand, I could swear on my whole life that we traveled back in time. Every inch of the restaurant played a role in portraying the 50's diner theme.

The checkered black-and-white floor, the super sick jukebox in the corner, the accents of red all around.

Harry and I stopped the second we stepped foot through the door, shocked to see such a retro place on the small island. The large room was in the shape of a circle, having an upper level full of booths and seats, and a few steps down, there is what seems to be a dance floor in the center, but it was completely unoccupied.

I looked up to Harry right as he was looking down at me, both of us trying to suppress laughter from escaping. We were at quite the loss for words, to say the least.

"This was... not what I was expecting." he whispered down to me.

I rolled my lips into themselves, trying not to crack a smile. "Me either." I shook my head.

Right as the final word left my mouth, the hostess approached us, her lips painted a bright shade of rosy red, matching perfectly to the decor. She had a wide grin upon her face, clearly having the act of the kind worker down to a T.

"Just two?" she asked.

"Yeah, just us two." Harry responded, looking back down at me.

She led us to a booth along the circular loft, most of the rest of the tables filled with either locals from the island, or old couples. One couple gave me a suspicion that they have been together for as long as they could remember.

The looks in their eyes told each other that they would and could never love another person. They held a hand across the table as if it was just natural, and my soft heart trickled up my throat at the sweet sighting.

Once we passed them, I snapped out of my gaze towards them, having an unconscious smile drawn upon my lips.

We sat down once the waitress laid the menus in front of us, both of us thanking her politely. I am still full from the breakfast earlier, since it is only a few hours past, so both of us wern't very hungry for a full meal.

"What are you smiling about?" Harry asked with a slight chuckle leaving his lips.

I shrugged, looking back over my shoulder to the old couple a few seats down. "You can just feel the love radiating from those people." I said once I turned my head back to the man in front of me.

He leaned to his right to get me out of the way of the view, and I could see the second his eyes registered the sight across the room. His face completely softened, the edges of his lips tugging upwards so slightly that you would have missed it if you blinked.

He snapped his eyes back to mine, then down at his hands that rested on the table in front of him. Melancholy fell over his features.

"That's how my mother and step father would look at each other." he whispered ever so quietly.