another chance

the hangover

*Just Another Chance*

*1. The Hangout*
Anna had just finished dressing up—putting on a crop top and slim fitted light green jeans and packing her recently washed hair in a bun—to meet her friends at the Royal’s Taste by 4pm. She had checked her golden braced wristwatch to see it was already the time to meet them. Right then, her iPhone 12 blasted, indicating an incoming call. She picked it from her dresser and answered, not bothering to see who it was, before picking her lady’s purse.

“Anna, where are you?” yelled Tricia, the closest to her of her three friends. “We’re out here already.”

“I’m on my way already,” Anna replied as she rushed out of her room. “Just give me five minutes and I’ll be there.” She ended the call and hastened out of the house into the garage. She got into her black 2018 Toyota Camry and drove out of the compound.

It didn’t take long for her to reach downtown LA. It almost took some time to find a space at the parking lot of the Royals’ Taste though. She had to park at the far end of it.

Anna headed for the entrance of the restaurant watching through the glass wall if she could see Tricia and the twins: Benita and Rachel. Unfortunately, they weren’t in sight. As soon as she entered, she searched the place for two light brown-skinned girls and a dark brown-skinned girl.

It wasn’t hard to find them sitting at a corner at the far end of the restaurant: their skin color stood out really well as they were the only colored people in the restaurant at the time. Their hairdo was distinct too: Tricia had her hair in Bob Marley braids while Benita and Rachel, despite being fraternal twins, had their hair packed up in identical curly ponytails. Oh and also, Tricia waved her hand high up in the air.

She walked glamorously towards them in her heels, her head high as though she were contesting in a pageant. To her, it was no longer time to ignore her appearance. Now that her friends had seen her, she could carry herself the way she normally did.

As she walked towards them, she noticed they shook their heads and giggled. Knowing they were going on and on in their minds about how she loved causing attention to herself, she smirked, feeling satisfied at their reaction.

Once she got to them, she pulled out a seat from the square table, making her sit opposite Tricia and having Benita on her left and Rachel on her right.

“You so know how to attract attention to yourself,” Rachel said once Anna was seated.

Anna giggled. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Tricia and Benita chuckled too while Rachel rolled her eyes as she smiled.

“So what’s up?” Anna said as she exchanged glances between the table and girls. “Aren’t we making any order?”

“Well,” Tricia said, “we would have already if you showed up at the time you were supposed to.”

“We couldn’t make any order without you,” said Benita. “Now we can, right?” She looked at Anna and the others.

“Yeah,” they all said, nodding.

Anna called out to the waiter who was already on standby. He came, dressed in a white short sleeved t-shirt well tucked in khaki pants. He had a small notepad and some menus of which he presented some to Anna and the girls.

Anna glanced at the menu, searching for what she and her friends would most likely agree on.

“I think we should order some pizza,” Rachel said.

Anna scanned the menu quickly, searching for the options of the kinds of pizzas available.

“A pepperoni pizza would be alright, right?” Tricia said once Anna sighted the list of pizzas.