Secondhand Embarrassment

thirty two: the last night

lennon || noah || billy

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"what else can i get for you, miss?" the waitress asks lennon as she comes back from her latest round. a notepad filled with scribbled orders rests in her hands, traces of sweat lining her brow. exhaustion has turned her naturally dark complexion pale.

"just another lemonade please," lennon responds with a small smile to show her gratitude.

the waitress nods before she says, "it'll be right out."

lennon pushes her empty glass forward on the counter and glances around, taking in her surroundings. every table in oliver's surf shack is occupied with waiters and waitresses running back and forth during the evening rush. the lights are dimmed and the sun is setting in the background, leaving a splatter of colors against the sky.

a sigh escapes lennon's lips when she notices the time on the clock next to the flatscreen tv mounted on the wall. it's five minutes from eight, and she doesn't know how longer she can keep ordering lemonade.

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noah glances at the watch on his wrist as he steps out onto the deck, feeling his heart tighten under the walls of his chest. his friends pile out behind him on the verge of intoxication, a side effect of the beer bottles they all tried to finish only an hour ago.

"it's past five o'clock!" travis had offered him the last bottle, but noah doesn't want to be drunk tonight.

not yet, anyway.

the group of friends stumble down the boardwalk, heading to the seafood restaurant at the end of the path. noah only hears snippets of the conversation being passed around, latching onto complaints about their early morning flight and the inevitable return to reality. his mind is elsewhere, his thoughts belonging to someone else.

on their way to dinner, they pass oliver's surf shack. even from a distance, they hear the crowd inside, a sharp contrast to the empty chain restaurants on the other side of the boardwalk.

"jeez, maybe we should just go to oliver's tonight," travis suggests. he moves his head from left to right, trying to understand the commotion inside.

"that sounds good with me," billy says. "didn't you say the lemonade was good or something noah?"

"noah, you've been awfully quiet tonight," travis points out after noah fails to respond." i know that thing with that girl didn't work out the way you wanted it to, but there's gonna be other girls. you can't let this one bad experience taint you."

"lennon," noah mutters under his breath, her name just seeming to find its way into the conversation.

"what?"

"it's just you called her 'that girl,' but she has a name."

"oh," travis pauses, playing along with noah's game, "my bad. so what do you say about oliver's?"

before noah even realizes it, he's walking up to the entrance. his fingers curl around the door handle for a moment, his eyes focusing on the girl with long brown hair and innocent green eyes sitting at the counter. when the watch on his wrist beeps as the hour hand shifts to the eight, his heart clenches.

he can't believe she waited for him, but no matter how many deep breaths he takes, he can't bring himself to open the door. so instead of confronting her, he releases a heavy, defeated sigh.

"we're probably going to have to wait at least thirty minutes for a table here." noah turns around, releasing the door handle and lennon. "why don't we just go down to the seafood restuarant? we should try something new on our last night here."

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