The Party (of 10)

"Welcome to The Nightingale," says the host. "How many are in your party?"

I look around at my group of friends and do a quick headcount.

"Ten in total. We're still waiting on three of them."

I catch a fleeting grimace on the host's face.

"I'm really sorry, but we are extremely busy this time of year, so I can't seat you until you have everyone. You can wait for them over there."

This time it's my turn to grimace. I head back to my friends and sit down with them, slouching into the provided couch. I hear my roommate, Lia's, stomach give a loud grumble.

"Ughhhh, where are theyyy," she groans.

"I don't knowww," I groan back at her.

Ella and Nina are slumped in the armchairs across from me, looking equally as starved as the rest of us. We had originally planned to go to Jewel, downtown, but it turned out that we had to reserve a table. Everywhere else downtown was completely full, so we had to turn to The Nightingale. The food and service at The Nightingale are good, the only problem is that it's out in the middle of nowhere. It had taken us another hour to drive from downtown to The Nightingale. On a normal day it would have been at most forty minutes, but the holiday traffic was insane. Once we finally arrived at the restaurant, we were eager and more than ready to just sit down and order, but of course nothing was going to go right today.

"That's it," Ariel announces, after what feels like forever, "I'm calling them."

She grabs her phone, dials Nora's number and puts her on speaker. Then she waits for Nora to pick up, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Hi?"

"NORA! Where in the world are you?! You were supposed to be here like twenty minutes ago."

"Be where?"

"THE NIGHTINGALE!" we all shout.

"Oh. Right. Um. Well... see, the thing is..."

"You forgot, didn't you?"

"Perchance."

We collectively groan.

"It's fine though," Nora says, reassuringly. "I already cooked pasta at home. Y'all can go eat without me."

"Okay, bye," Ariel says, hanging up on Nora, absolutely fed up.

We all look at each other, knowing the torture isn't over. Elise and her girlfriend, Kylie still aren't here yet. This time, I grab my phone to shoot Kylie a quick text.

You

KYLIEEEEEE

WHERE ARE YOU AND ELISEEEEEE???

Kylie:)

WE'RE ON OUR WAYYYY

CHILLLLL

You

I literally can't

I'm starving

We've ALL been starving for two hours

Kylie :)

Well blame the traffic

I can't control it

You

Ughhhhh

Just please try to hurry up

Kylie :)

We can try

But no promises we're getting there anytime soon.

I let out the hundredth groan of the night.

"She said they're on the way, but they're still stuck in traffic."

By now, everyone is too tired and hungry to even react. We just sit around, some of us falling asleep, others just scrolling mindlessly. I just stare into space, daydreaming about the delicious pasta dinner Nora is probably enjoying right now. Ella has somehow teleported over to the couch with me and is now taking a nap with her head on my lap. Every once in a while, we hear a loud grumble from one of our empty stomachs.

Then after who knows how long, we hear the restaurant doors open. We turn to look at the beautiful sight of Elise and Kylie walking through the doors hand in hand.

"Our saviourssss!!!" shouts Nina. She runs over to tackle Elise and the rest of us rush back to the front desk.

"We're all here now!" I exclaim with my last ounce of energy.

"Oh. Um, sorry. We're closing in half an hour," the host says sheepishly.

"WHAT?!"