comfortable silence. I had taken three bites of my burger and was chewing it before he spoke up again. “Hey, there’s 20 letters in the alphabet, right?” he asked, frowning slightly in confusion at me.
I raised an eyebrow at the random topic, but bit my lip in thought. “No,” I replied, “I’m pretty sure there’s 26.”
Allen’s frown deepened, before his eyes lit up slightly. “Oh. I must’ve forgotten U, R, A, Q, T!” he said with a straight face, before breaking into a cheesy grin. I almost spit the water I had taken a sip of during his reply, all over the table, before swallowing it and erupting into a fit of loud laughter, the pickup line bringing tears to my eyes.
Once my laughter died down enough for me to form a response, I threw a chip at him. “You’re such a douche!” I exclaimed, still laughing softly at the joke. He chuckled and waggled his eyebrows at me, making me laugh even more.
Once my breathing became normal again, I replayed the letters he mentioned in my mind and frowned. “Wait, you only mentioned 5 letters,” I pointed out in amusement.
“I know. I’ll give you the D later.” Allen winked, making me choke on whatever was trying to travel down my throat. I banged my hand on the table and coughed a few times before taking a large gulp of water and swallowing it; bursting into another series of loud laughs. Allen chuckled at my reaction as I began to cry tears of laughter again, and threw another chip in his direction before laughing even heavier than before.
The door of the diner suddenly burst open, banging against the yellow coloured walls before the sound of glass cracking filled the now silent diner; making my laughter instantly die down as I turned around to look over to the person who made the commotion and cracked the glass door that I pushed open every day.
My blood froze in my veins.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TOGETHER?” Adrian’s deep voice roared as he angrily made his way towards our booth with his fists clenched to his sides. I couldn’t move. I just stared up at his angry expression as he towered over Allen and me, looking like he was about to explode.
“Adrian-” Allen began, but was rudely cut off.
“Don’t fucking ‘Adrian’ me, mate,” he snapped, “What the fuck are you doing with her?!” He glared furiously at Allen before his eyes briefly flickered towards my still frozen state.
“We’re just having lunch,” Allen tried again, “It’s nothing-”
“NOTHING?” Adrian’s voice boomed, growing louder and angrier by the second. “YOU’RE PRACTICALLY HAVING EYE SEX IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE STREET!” He grabbed a fistful of Adrian’s black Starbucks shirt, and roughly pulled him out of his seat, bringing them both face to face. “Why are you with her, Allen?” he asked in a low, deadly growl.
I watched as Allen’s jaw clenched before he pushed Adrian’s hand away.
“Because,” he replied calmly, glaring right back at his best friend, “certain assholes were treating her like fucking shit and wouldn’t get over their little bitch fit.”
My eyes widened in shock before they briefly flickered around the busy diner. Every single pair of eyes was on us – even the chef had stopped cooking in the small window and was peering over the tight space to observe what was going on.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Adrian snapped back, making my gaze land on his furious expression once again.
Allen rolled his eyes before resuming his seat on the red diner chair and plopping a piece of fries into his mouth while shrugging. “Anyway, where were we, Emily? Oh that’s right, I was going to give you the D.” Allen spoke up, and I watched as he tried to keep his expression neutral.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Adrian roared again, making Allen burst into a fit of laughter.
I looked back and forth between Adrian’s furious expression and Allen’s laughing fit rapidly, growing even more confused at Allen’s behaviour. Adrian, on the other hand, didn’t just watch his best friend laugh. He punched him square in the jaw.
I let out a surprised gasp as I heard something in Allen’s face crack sickeningly. Allen stopped laughing and groaned in pain as the palm of his hand flew up to this jaw to cradle it soothingly. Neither of us had any time to react before Adrian turned over to me and lifted me out of the tight booth by my waist before throwing me over his shoulder.