Tik Tok

Chapter Three: Omega Omega

DiRezzo's was a sandwich shop that I'd looked at but never gone into. The windows were curtained shut, and there was a sign out front telling me to wait to be seated. In my opinion a sandwich shop meant you walked in, got your sandwich and left. I'd seen the place a couple of dozen times but I'd never been in.

Against the door there was a young woman, she couldn't have been taller than 5'3 on her tiptoes. She hid her fire red hair under a blue hood. Her jean jacket was pulled tight around her waist. The fog streaming from her mouth clouded the mirrored glasses that she was wearing.

I went to walk past her, and I felt my feet become heavy. I turned to look at the girl.

"Toby," she said with a smile and a song in her voice. She didn't bother taking off the glasses yet.

"Zoe?"

"Glad you could make it," she said. Zoe peeled herself off of the wall and held out a hand to me. As she did her, sunglasses jumped off of her face and neatly folded themselves into her pocket. I held out a hand and shook it. She had a weak grip. "Not too hard to find the place?" she asked as she walked inside. She pushed the sign telling us to wait out of the way.

"Yeah, it was fine," I said. I looked back to the sign; nobody seemed to mind that she had just strode past it. Zoe took a sharp left and led me up a staircase marked with photos of celebrities that had eaten here. I counted eight different people marked as the chef.

We hit the top of the stairs and waltzed past a row of small tables and into a back room. A server left the private room as we walked in, pulling away a reserved sign. Zoe sat down at the table in the center of the room, and her hood folded itself back. She looked up to me, and the chair across from her pulled out, "Sit."

I complied, and one of the two menus on the table threw itself at me. I caught it before it smacked me. Zoe shrugged as kept her eyes on her copy. I looked over the different sandwiches and sneered. Who the hell would pay fourteen dollars for a sandwich?

"It's worth the upcharge," Zoe said.

"What?"

"How did you think I knew you were planning on spaghetti?" she asked as she kept her eyes on the menu.

"You said pasta on the phone."

"Did I?" she asked. Zoe let go of the menu, and it drifted gently down to the table. Just as I went to speak, the waitress poked her head into the room and asked if we were ready to order. "The usual Karen," was Zoe's response.

"I'll, do that too," I added, and the waitress turned around without a word. Zoe pulled the menu away from me and folded it on top of hers. She turned her gaze to me; her eyes were a piercing blue. "Thanks," she added, "I like my eyes too."

"Are you going to stay in my head?" I asked.

"I can barely help it," she replied, "if I want to know anything I need to know everything."

"So you're just going to-"

"Hang out, yes," she finished the sentence and answered the question for me. "So," she dragged out of the word like a curious mother, "what happened last night?"

"Do I need to answer?"

"Yes."

"Why? You're just going to read it out of me."

"Because people have conversations Toby." Zoe brushed her hair out of her eyes; it fell back down to where it had been. "This is more about you playing along than it is about me finding anything out."