1001 Insomniac Nights

I sighed. “Fine, fine,” I muttered. I crouched down and, getting a good grip on the box, lifted it up, revealing the second behind it. “Brent,” I said as I made my way to the door, “Holly’s dragging me to the recycling center. We’ll be back in about fifteen minutes.”

Holly paced from one end of the main room to the other, which only took about five steps. “So, if his car is still here, that means he can’t have driven anywhere.”

“Which is why I said laundry,” I explained. “There’s a laundry room downstairs.”

She frowned at me. “And leave his slice of pizza just sitting there?”

I shrugged. “He can be eccentric like that sometimes.”

Brent surprised me then. He didn’t turn and walk towards the door, he didn’t whine about feeling awkward; instead he took a deep breath and took a shaky step towards the girl he had seen. He managed to walk steady all the way to her table. Whatever he did, she didn’t throw her drink in his face, so I’m assuming he didn’t make an idiot out of himself. In fact, she asked him to sit down. I ordered myself another beer, and got ready to wait for him to come back with her number.

I couldn’t believe I was here again. It seemed no matter how much I tried to avoid it, no matter how much I went out of my way to avoid this place, I always seemed to find myself here. Here at this lowest of restaurants, this haven of late night vagrants.

This… Waffle House.

Cassie smirked. “Right is right. Anyway,” she waved at Holly with her hand, “your girlfriend here was just telling me about your disappearing roommate.”

I sighed. “So?” I asked, ignoring the “girlfriend” bit.

“So…” she said. Then she stopped smiling and her eyes narrowed at me in a glare. “Will you believe me this time?”