Tears

03 » ketchup

.... { " I love Ketchup. " }

I pulled into an empty parking space just in front of the new family restaurant that opened a few weeks ago and killed the ignition. As the car's rattling engine died down, I got out of the car and walked towards the building's automatic sliding doors. Soft music played throughout the restaurant as I entered and the lights were slightly dimmed, creating a relaxing appeal. The inside of the restaurant had a retro image and I would've mistook it as a diner if it weren't for the clean kitchen, friendly waitresses and slightly classy tables. There weren't many customers inside, maybe because of the lousy weather, and that it's past lunch and too early for dinner.

I walked up to the front counter where a young girl with straight blonde hair- about the same age as me, maybe a little older- greeted me with a toothy smile. "Hello, welcome to Manny's Grill."

"Yeah, hi." I muttered back, scanning the menu board above her.

After a few minutes staring up at the menu board, debating with myself as to what I felt like eating, I settled on chicken and vegetable soup because it was the cheapest meal and it seemed perfect for this horrible weather. I told the worker my order and she lead me towards a table for two, even though it was just me. I sat down and tapped my fingers on the table to the song that played in the restaurant. It was very catchy, but it wasn't my style of music.

The blonde waitress came with my order. "Here's your chicken and vegetable soup. Will there be anything else?" She asked, her voice bubbly and cheerful.

I shook my head as I looked upon my meal. Chicken chunks and vegetable pieces floated in the steamy, murky green water. It looked like she just opened a can of soup and microwaved it for two minutes. Now that's a quality meal.

I grabbed a spoon and fiddled with a few wrinkly peas before tasting the soup. My nose cringed at the bland taste. My tastebuds weren't tingling with flavour like I had expected.

You know what would make it a whole lot better? Ketchup.

The idea may have sounded weird, but I guess ketchup would help make the soup more edible. And besides, I love ketchup. I looked up from my bowl to find a bottle of ketchup as there was none at my table, and I found a tall red bottle on the front counter. I waved to the blonde girl that served me but she was obviously too busy talking on the phone to notice me, so I stood up and headed over to the bottle.

Walking over towards the counter, I began to think that maybe putting ketchup in my soup was a terrible idea, but I was already there before I could turn back. I grabbed the red bottle, shooting a glare at the blonde for making me get up from my table, and I turned around while taking a step forward when my face hit something hard.

It took only a second for me to completely freeze, my eyes glued to the guy I had just bumped into, and another second for my body to flip into uncontrollable motions. As I attempted to take a huge step back, the bottom of my converse gripped the floor and my foot twisted. A sharp pain shot through my ankle and I yelped, my body tilting to the side.

Suddenly, gravity was no longer my best friend.