John, Peter and Rose

Chapter Six

John, who is now on his fourth chocolate milkshake of the day, has been sat at that booth for the past few hours. A few of the restaurant workers were clearly starting to get creeped out. They didn't think it was possible for a guy to just sit there and stare into emptiness for so long. One tall (around five feet ten) curvy waitress with straight dirty blond hair that reaches her shoulder kept on giving him glares with her green eyes clearly thinking that he's up to something bad. Another beautiful woman a bit older than John with light brown curly hair that reaches the middle of her back seemed to have mistaken John's long stay at the diner as loneliness. She would constantly ask to join him with pity in her eyes. However, he would always politely refuse hoping not to hurt her feelings. A group of high school kids, two girls and three guys, who seem to have just arrived from school, judging by their school uniforms and backpacks, kept pointing at him. Judging by how they would whisper to each other and laugh they probably thought that he got stood up. One chef even came by the table with a concerned look on his face to ask him if he was ok but John just replied that he was reminiscing of old times and enjoying the view of the ocean. Usually being constantly stared at and having weird look after weird look sent to him would've made John run back home and probably never return from embarrassment but this time he ignored them. Most the time he wouldn't even notice. He had a mission, and he wasn't going to leave until it had been completed even if that meant everyone thinking that he was a loner, loser, creep, killer or whatever other bad things people are calling him right now.

Anyways none of what other people thought about him matters. He only cared about one person in this building and she didn't seem to think anything bad about him. Rose never showed an ounce of judgement for John's prolonged stay. She never sent one weird look or shared one whisper to someone else. Instead, she kept on going to his table as cheerful as always. Her smile and the sparkle in her eyes would never dwindle down even after hours of serving him. She would always ask if he wanted another milkshake and John, of course, couldn't refuse. This made John fall even more in love with her. She wasn't a judgy person. She understood that others could have stuff going on in their life that no one knows about so why judge someone for doing something they could have a good reason for. Of course he despised himself for finding yet another amazing thing about Rose. He was supposed to have come here today to find a reason to hate her or at least not like her as much but all he has accomplished is finding more reasons as to why she is perfect.

He would watch her walking across the diner in her incredibly high high heels looking for a slight trip or stumble so he could judge her for her recklessness for wearing those kind of shoes on a job that requires so much walking but this never happened. She would walk with gracefulness and ease like she was born in high heels. Like those shoes which would look ridiculously uncomfortable on any other woman were made for her. He would watch as she somehow managed to stack up dozens of dishes at a time and bring them to the kitchen and would wait for her to drop one of them or trip because of the weight of it all so he could hate her for trying to show off with something that clearly wasn't possible and was a waste of effort but she never did. The dishes never even slightly slipped from their place on her arms. So, instead of her being a show off trying to do something near impossible she was a graceful woman with incredible balance and skill. He listened to her take all the orders without taking notes and waited for her to get an order wrong so he could hate her for thinking that she was more intelligent than she actually was but she never got one wrong either making her one of the most intelligent woman he has ever met.

John has now been at the diner for over eight hours and Rose just got off her shift. He was tempted to go home right away and just lay down on his couch after hours of sitting in the uncomfortable diner chairs, to put something in his stomach other than milkshakes and think over everything from today. Maybe thinking back on what he saw will make him see some flaw that he missed. He doubted it, but he wanted to stay hopeful. He instead decided to stay back at the diner for a while knowing that some people might think that he's stalking her if he leaves right after her, especially with everyone already being suspicious of him. Instead, he went back to watching the waves rolling in one after another. He watched the small group of people surfing through the waves and the families playing on the beaches. All the families looked so happy. He wished that he could be given the same happiness that they have but it couldn't be with Rose.

He came here to find a reason to hate her. A reason to let her go but all he found were more reasons to love her. Why must she be so perfect? Why can't she just slip up? He couldn't go back home and spend the next years hearing Peter talk about how much he enjoys being with Rose. He can't spend the rest of his life seeing them getting married and starting a family when he still loves her. It might take a lot longer than he originally thought but he had to come back every day until he finds a flaw. He has to come back until he falls out of love with her.