In Seattle

TWENTY HOURS

TWENTY HOURS

AUBREY AND Daniel sat down at their appointed table. Aubrey slouched back in her seat, then picked up the menu and hid behind it. Aubrey and Daniel had decided that it was probably time to eat. Daniel had asked Aubrey where she wanted to eat, and she’d said, “the fanciest place you know.” Daniel wasn’t particularly sure how to pronounce the name of the restaurant he’d chosen, but he knew it was French, short and probably meant something like dog crap. “What are you having?” Daniel said and Aubrey placed the menu flat on the table and sat up properly.

“I’ll have this crab soup thing,” she said, and began to run her fingers over the other delectable choices on the menu. “It sounds tasty.”

“I don’t understand how you like fish and stuff like that,” Daniel said and curled his upper lip in disgust.

“You mean seafood?”

“No ... I like prawns.”

“Whatever, Dan,” Aubrey said, then added smirking, “It’s because I’m asian, Dan. What do you expect?” Daniel rolled his eyes trying to brush away Aubrey’s remark, but he couldn’t. He found it so uncomfortable and it made him fidget around in his seat whenever she said something like that. Maybe it was just him being a little awkward round the edges, or maybe it was good that he felt uncomfortable when Aubrey obliviously encased and stereotyped herself.

“It’s not because you’re asian, Aub,” Daniel muttered and picked at the cream table cloth. “It’s because you like fish.” He looked up at Aubrey, and she smiled weakly at him.

“Okay.” A waiter came up with a little bit of sass to his step. His blonde hair had been slicked back and the groves of where his comb had been combed through could be clearly seen.

“Hello, do you two want any drinks?” Aubrey’s eyes scanned the menu quickly and she then looked back up at the waiter who was staring back down at her intently, with deep brown eyes.

“I’ll just have a tall glass of water please,” and then she added, “with a lemon on the side.” The waiter nodded and scribbled down Aubrey’s order, then turned to look at Daniel. 

“I’ll have the same thing, please,” he said. The waiter noted at a “x2” next to Aubrey’s order then he looked up from his pad at the two of them.

“Any starters, or ...?”

“None for me,” Daniel said, then he looked over at Aubrey. “Aubrey, any for you?”

“No, it’s okay,” she said politely. The waiter nodded, then left away with the same sass he had when he first came to take down their orders. Daniel waited for the waiter to be out of sight completely, then he straightened out his lap and got up. “Where’re you going?”

“Toilet.” Daniel walked past Aubrey, but she caught his arm and stopped him from going any further.

“What if they come back? I don’t know what you want to eat, Dan.” Daniel paused, then said,

“Prawn and noodle soup.”

“Cool.” Aubrey let go of Dan, and Dan made his way into the toilets. He weaved his way past circular tables, then walked into the door and walked straight into the toilets. There was only one person in there, and it was a young boy with dark skin and fluffy looking hair. 

Daniel couldn’t help feeling slightly jealous. Not of the boy peeing, but of the fact that girls didn’t have to pee as openly as guys did. They had their own cubicles and everything. I mean you got to take a dump in privacy, but Daniel wouldn’t have minded to have had the same privacy that he had when he was taking dump, when he peed too.

Daniel awkwardly edged to the urinal near the boy, unzipped his flier and kept his eyes to his own urinal wishing that his pee would just get on with it already. “Don’t you wish, that we could pee in the toilets as well?” Daniel froze and swallowed hard. He hated bathroom conversation in movies, and he despised it in real life - only because he wasn’t that good at it. He wasn’t too good at making conversation whilst he was peeing, it’s not something he’d practiced either.

“What?” He said, then turned to look at the boy. His eyes were wide and dark, and Daniel quickly finished and zipped up his flier.

“I’d like privacy, but people would find it a bit strange, wouldn’t they.” Daniel shrugged and made his way over to the sink. He washed his hands, and the young boy followed him and did the same in the sink next to him.

“Same, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it.” The boy shrugged and squirted some soap onto his hands and began rubbing it around on his hands.

“Why don’t you do it then?”

Daniel stopped rubbing his hands together, and furrowed his eyebrows. “I honestly don’t know.” He then looked at the boy again. “Why don’t you?” The boy shrugged.

“I don’t know either.”

“Huh,” Daniel said and rinsed the soap off of his hands. Daniel wiped his hands on this jeans, and waved the boy off. “Bye.”

“Bye,” he said and watched Daniel’s back until it disappeared through the door. Daniel made his way through the tables, then sat back down and faced Aubrey.

“Hey, are you okay?” She said after noticing Daniel’s quite blank face. Daniel looked at Aubrey, then smiled slightly.

“Yeah ... yeah, I am.”