“And the flower blossomed, then died...”
Reberta hung her head dramatically, arms out to the side in a T fashion.
“Thank you Reberta for that spirited poem,” Nathan, the MC, said coming up to take the microphone, bumping her slightly with his side, leaving a slightly accosted Reberta to come back to her senses. She stepped over and smiled at the audience, giving a slight curtsy, and headed off stage. Making her way to Loni, she sat down on the bar stool next to her. “I'm dying of thirst,” she said a little winded. “Hey, Rusty! How 'bout a rootbeer.” He huffed a little, but retrieved a bottle from the fridge, popped the top and slid it to her.
“You have cash this time?” he asked.
“Just put it on my tab.”
“I've told you every Friday since you've been coming here, we ain't got a tab. It don't exist. You either pay up, or I'll give it to someone else.”
“You can't, you already opened the bottle,” she said, taking a long swig.
“Fine, then I'll just kick you and your little friend out.” That got her to shut-up. She turned to Loni who was already digging through her purse and pulled out a wad of crumbled up ones.
“Don't worry, Rusty,” a voice sounded from behind them. “I'll pay it. And anything Loni wants too.”
“Sweet!” Reberta practically yelled. “I'm starving. We'll have two orders of cheese sticks, one order of fries and a lemonade.”
“Oh my gosh,Reberta,” Loni said under breath, her face turning three shades of red. Right behind her stood Aiden, gorgeous Aiden. With his effortless light brown hair, parted in the middle, falling loosely next to his hazel eyes. She willed her cheeks to stop burning, then mustered up the courage and turned to face him. “No really, we're okay, I'm not even hungry at all.” Unfortunately, her stomach chose this exact moment to make an audible noise. The betrayal ran deep.
“Rusty, you heard the lady,” he said. “Two orders of cheese sticks, one order of fries and a lemonade.” He looked down at Loni and gave her a wink. Then walked behind the bar to put on his apron.
“I thought he wasn't working tonight,” Loni hissed.
Reberta shrugged. “Maybe he heard you were coming.”
“What did you do?” Loni said trying to keep her voice down, but failing.
“One day you're going to thank me. Because one day you'll realize how ridiculous it is that the boy you're so desperately in love with actually knows you exist.” Reberta glanced over to a mousy brown hair boy who was sitting in a corner booth completely immersed in the notebook in front of him and sighed.
Thanks for sharing this with me! Loni has been a fun story to explore! If you would like to see what she has been up to so far, I have linked them below! For more info about freewrites, please visit @mariannewest!
Much love,
Stacie D
Image by Pexels from Pixabay