The Deal || Luke Hemmings

A Thirty Minute Wait and a Slam On My Face

Luke

      I was surprised to see that no one paid attention to the huge wet spot on my pants. What surprised me even more was to see the person seated in front of me remain silent for the past ten minutes.

"You're, uh, really quiet now," I said. When taking a bite of my second burger, I realized that I should have asked them to remove the tomatoes on it. I only found out later when I bit in to a large chunk and worse, I couldn't even find a way to spit them out. They were so red and juicy and I was chewing a portion of it now! Cara wasn't watching anyway so heck with it.
I was free and successfully spat it out at the same time Cara looked at me to say, "Hmm?".

"Em, ish nuffing." I replied, covering my mouth full of food with my hand. I think I made it clear to her what I said.

The only sound that could be heard left was of me munching loudly while I ate the tiny bacon strips on my burger. Everything was a mess. I bit, and the lettuce fell on the floor, the sauce spilled on my shirt and I wasn't a messy eater! By the end of all this, I was sure to be left with only the bun of the burger.

"So, are you still having a date with Louise?" she looked at me shyly.

"Ngo adeeya." I swallowed the last piece of bread in my mouth so I could go on to narrate. "She has all these crazy "girls night out" gimmicks. Girls are weird." I said, showing no interest. But seeing how interested Cara was, I decided to continue the topic.

It was my first time, in a long time, to see her giggle at something I said.

"Girls aren't crazy, we just want some fun. You wouldn't understand, of course. I'd laugh if you'd go to a girl's night to experience it." she bit her lip, trying to calm herself before she would burst out with laughter.

"Hey, but I'd like to see you go on a boys night out."

"There's such a thing?" she said. "What do you do? Drink tequila and hire strippers?"

"That's what girls do," I laughed. "And no, there's no boys night out--not that we call it that anyway."

"I already live with my brother and I can't stand him sometimes. Boys are so..." she paused, trying to find the right words. "so unsophisticated."

"And you say that in front of a boy. How clever." I clapped my hands.

She hit my arm lightly as I pretended to get hurt. "You said girls were weird."

And we both laughed.

Halfway through fifteen minutes or so, I was already getting a good feeling about talking to Cara. It felt like I had achieved something huge just by seeing a tinge of a rosy pink color on the sides of her face. She was beginning to feel more comfortable when talking to me, and I with her.

But all of that stopped when Cara brought up someone else to the conversation.

"Louise? You should talk to her some time. Maybe you can chat about whatever. I don't know what girls talk about, but you two might get along. She's an easy going person, that's what I like about her."

Cara meekly nodded.

"How about you and Ashton? Are you two seeing each other?"

"N-no we're not," she said. "He's a good friend, that's all. But it's not that hard to fall in love with him, so whoever gets him is one lucky girl."

"Really?" I ripped the ketchup sachet and distractedly poured it on the empty burger wrapper. "Well, it seems that you've taken a liking for Ashton."

"I don't."

"It was a hunch." I leaned on the table and inclined towards her. "Now tell me," I cooed. "what else do you think of Ashton? He's the shy type, don't you think?"