From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 14: One Good Thing

The excitement of it all makes them laugh. As they look at each other across the booth table, they realize that it's honestly hilarious that they even raced to the booth in the first place. After calming their laughter, Simone picks up the large menu that was left on their table and looks it over. She's wondering if she's even hungry, but why pass up on a free meal, hungry or not? Damon observes her looking over the menu, only being able to see her eyes wondering across the menu. He places both hands on the table, locking his fingers together and leans forward. "You know you do that every time right?"

Simone peaks over the menu seeing Damon leaning forward, waiting for her response. She puts the menu down. "And what is that?"

"Act like you don't know what you want to eat when you really do."

Before Simone can respond, their server approaches the table. "Hey y'all, I'm Sherry! I'll be your server tonight. Y'all want a run down of the specials or do y'all already know what you want?"

"Imma have a deluxe combo extra mayo with a coke and a strawberry shake. She's gona have a deluxe combo no tomatoes with a chocolate shake and a sweet tea light ice. Make sure our fries are crispy please." Damon picks up the menu handing it to Sherry.

"Okay, I'll put that order right in for you! Holler if you need me!" Sherry walks away.

"Thanks," Damon says in response.

Simone gives him a shocked look but she's quite impressed that he remembers her order. It's been a minute since they came here to eat together. She was never going to admit that she loved how he did that though.

Damon recognizing her facial expression says, "What? I just ordered what you get every single time we come here. You might have a lot going on now, but you ain't changed that much."

"You don't know that... maybe some things have changed since the last time we were..." Simone's voice trails off remembering that the last time they were at the diner, she was telling him that she needed to figure things out with Jordan.

Damon realizes where her train of thought was going, so he clears his throat and redirects the conversation. It's not something he wants to get into either. "So, you excited for spring break? The trip is only a little more than a week away."

"Yeah, I can't wait. I need a break REAL BAD," she says as she leans back in the booth seat.

Damon sighs slightly while leaning back in his seat too.  "Yeah me too."

"You don't have to play it calm. I know you're excited. Your birthday is over the break and the whole trip has pretty much been planned just for you. This is the one time you get to really make everything about you just like you like it."

Damon twiddles his fingers. "I wanna be excited but I'm kinda over everything being about me or everyone making things about me."

"Nah, when it's your birthday you get to pop your shit. It doesn't matter what anyone else says or how anyone else feels about it." Sensing Damon's continued apprehension she reaches across the table and places her hand over his. "Plus you've been through so much this school year. You need to take this time to appreciate getting through it all. Don't worry, It's gonna be fun. Fuck everything else."

Damon is over talking about himself now. "Since you mentioned 'everything else.' I just need to say one thing... about Lando."

Simone tenses up pulling her hand back. "Now why'd you have to go and ruin a good moment?"

Damon throws his hands up. "It's not like that, I promise. It's just that since you didn't respond to my text the other night, I wanted to make sure that I make myself clear. I'm sorry about what I said. I shouldn't have come at you like that. What he did, or what I thought he did isn't your problem and I shouldn't have made it yours."