Mona Liza Lies

9 | Burgers Would Never

"Thank you," Dennis whispered, after taking a bite of the burger in front of him. The wound on his forehead and the way he limped had made the person behind the counter ask them some questions, but Mona claimed he fell down the stairs, while the real reason — Lucien — grinned from behind.

Disha was gobbling down her milkshake, while Lucien had nothing in front of him. Mona did order fries but she lost her appetite when Dennis decided to pretend that she hadn't just pulled him away from his first barfight and pushed them all to a nearby diner. Seconds ticked away, and the silence thickened.

"I need another one of these!" Disha yelled to the waitress, pointing at her empty glass.

"You're gonna die of teeth decay,"  Dennis remarked.

"You're gonna die of murder. By Mona. Tonight." 

At this, he finally did look up to his friend. She was still glowering at him.

"Who orders fries at night?" He looked betrayed.

"At least my fries won't decide to turn violent and attack someone when they're high."

"At least burgers wouldn't look at you like you killed someone." He shot back.

"At least fries don't make me want to stab myself because of how vague it's being!"

Dennis gasped. "Burgers would give them a chance to calm down."

"Burgers suck." 

"Don't talk about my burgers like that!"

"Can I have this if you're not—" Lucien reached his hands towards the fries and Mona slapped it away.

"You better start talking right now or I'm stuffing that burger down your throat along with cockroaches to add to the flavor!" She hissed.

Disha's phone ringed before Dennis could say more. She glanced at the screen with a frown.

"Shit, I forgot about meeting up with Torrin. Gotta take this." She slid off the booth to answer her call outside.

"I didn't know." Dennis started before Mona would decide to throw the ketchup bottle at him. "I saw the pills in my nightstand, I knew Liza left them there from the nights she stayed over. She said they were for her headaches. She has been having them a lot lately so I didn't pay much attention to the pills."

"She left the pills in your house?" Mona realized that this was why the cops couldn't find anything in her apartment. She also felt some of her guilt fading away. "You saw them, didn't do anything, and when she died, you came barging into my apartment saying I knew about the drugs? Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."

"You're not hearing me!" Dennis snapped. "I didn't know. I thought they were just normal meds. Even after she died, I thought so! Would you leave illegal stuff in plain sight?"

"The best secrets are the ones out in the open," Lucien murmured.

"Shut up," Dennis said while Mona exclaimed "fuck off" at the same time.
Lucien folded his hands in defeat.

"Why were you using them after she died?" Mona asked. "Did you happen to have many 'headaches' too?"

"I was going through stuff." Dennis snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, it's my girlfriend who died. Forgive me for having headaches, Your Highness."

"You have been taking benzodiazepines, Dennis. Do not make it sound like I'm being overdramatic."

"Wow, you think I don't realize that now? I'll send you pictures of the bottle if it's of any use. And it doesn't matter anyway, I took the last pill in the morning."