On a Whim

Chapter 1: And Off They Go

If there was one thing Liam absolutely hated, it was children. Those screeching, good-for-nothing money sucking parasites. He hated them especially when they were at his workplace, in a job area he applied for in order to get away from his younger siblings.
  Liam worked at McRoger's, a buffet resteraunt that served seafood and coloring pages that came with only three crayons. He was making his rounds table to table, gathering dirty plates with uneaten fishsticks on them along with miniature bowls still full of horseradish.
  Jesus Christ, I need a better job, Liam thought.
  Liam had such a hardtime dealing with food that people had touched, drooled and sneezed on, but that wasnt as bad as some of his coworkers.
  Janice and Antony were just basic bitches who only cared about clothes, drugs, and not much of anything else. Ricky was alright, but he only played polka when he had dish duty which Liam found very odd. The others, he couldnt really form an opinion on because he never talked to them.
  Liam, with a headache thanks to not getting enough sleep last night, was already slightly pissy when it had started. The Screeching. Sounds like a cheap horror film.
  A parasite around the age of five was screaming at the top of his lungs. His cries of fustration sounded like a banshee gargling expired milk, which was hell on Liam's and everyone elses ears in the resteraunt. The parents of said parasite where doing a poor job of comforting their child because they couldnt pry their eyes from their phones. Taking a deep breath, Liam braced himself and went to the table of the screaming child. It was the last table he had to bus before he could go into the kitchen to unload the dishes. Into the santuary of Ricky's polka music.
  Liam pulled his buscart to the table. "Do you have any plates I can take?", he asked over the screaming brat. Taking a moment to process the heavy amount of information they were presented, the couple, who both appeared to be barely 20 years old, looked over their table and took their time gathering their trash. They piled the plates on top of one another, utensils and half-eaten rice sandwhiched between the sailor themed plates, and handed it to Liam, thinking they had made his job easier. They went back to playing on their phones, inattentive to their child.
  Fuck you too, assholes.
Thats when it had happened. The kid had stopped crying. Liam sighed in relief until the parasite started up again, somehow unimaginably louder than before. Liam's grip had faltered and the filthy plates had clattered onto the floor, causing the eyes of the patrons and the shitty parents to focus on him. Liam knew he had messed up big time when he saw his his manager, Mr. Carson, enter from the kitchen with his bushy caterpillar eyebrows scrunched together on his beet red face.
  "What in the sam hell is wrong with you, boy?!" The manager looked upon the mess on the floor then at Liam's fear stricken face.
  "I-i-i'm sorry, sir.."
  Liam had a hard time with confrontation to the point where he wouldn't talk back to anyone, even if he was right. Technically, in this case, he wasn't, but it's not like Liam enjoyed throwing food onto the floor where he would have to clean it up because others would be too lazy to do so.
  Mr. Carson took a deep breath while still intensely staring into Liam's eyes. Quietly, Mr. Carson said, "You are an absolute fuck up, Liam. You've been here for only two weeks and this is the fourth plate you dropped." He put his thick finger in Liam's face. "What, do you dip your hands in the butter before your shift starts? Or do your hands still have lotion on them from when you were jerkin' it to some sissy porn, huh?"
Liam bowed his head, the embarrassment too much for him. The eyes of the patron where locked on to this sight of a grown man talking shit to his employee. Even the kid was silent.
  "Ay! Im talkin' to you, boy! Look at m-"
  Mr. Carson's words were drowned out by a sudden splash. Liam's head snapped up and saw Mr. Carson fall facefirst into the mess on the floor with a thud. An empty, large plastic cup of soda bounced and roll to Liam's feet. He looked in the direction of where it was thrown and saw someone he hadn't talked to in a long time.
  "Xander?"
  "Liam!" Xander ran up to Liam and hugged him.
  Liam was shocked to see him. He had thought Xander forgotten him after not hanging out with each other for the past year.
  "What're you doing here?"
  "I just wanted to say hi and all that, but thanks to this prick..." He gestured towards Mr. Carson, who was slowly getting up with a look of pure hatred on his face.
  Both of them went wide-eyed. "Well, thanks to this prick, I think we need to take our leave!" They turned and bolted out the front door with a livid manager in pursuit. They hopped into Xander's beat-up car and drove off as fast as they could out of the parking lot, taking a right. Liam looked out the window and saw Mr. Carson, staring at him with those volcanic eyes of his, with a cellphone to his ear, probably calling the police.
  I'm so fucked when my parents find out.
                                ...
 
  They took the next few minutes to catch their breath and enjoy the cool air coming from the AC. They drove down Shelter Oak street, a road going down the middle of the suburbs, and then took a left down a road which took them to the highway.
"So," Xander started, "how're you doing?"
  "I'm doing well, just trying to think of a reason why you would throw a drink at my boss." Liam looked Xander with smile on his face.
Xander grinned like a jackal. "Because he was fuckin' with you. I don't tolerate that shit." A pause. "Also because it was funny. It looked like a waterfall pouring down on a rock when my drink hit him. Bald ass bitch."
  They both chuckled at that, especially Liam because he had missed these conversations. They hadn't stopped talking because of something petty or stupid. They just didn't have any classes together their junior year, not even the same lunch period, so they just drifted apart. It really didn't matter though. Liam was just happy to be laughing with Xander again.
  There was something on Liam's mind that he had to find out though. "Where are we going?"
Xander pursed his lips. "I have yet to figure that out."