weak wi-fi

8.5 hayden

        After teaching Alfie how to tie a tie (something Nancy taught me long ago), he ungracefully excused himself to use the bathroom. I had his mustard tie awkwardly wrapped around my neck, contrasting horribly with my gray t-shirt. I watched him walk away as I loosened the grip to escape its horrible color scheme. In the midst of me doing so, though, a wild Daniel appeared and sat in Alfie’s spot. My nervous guts subsided and suddenly an ugly tie was the least of my worries.

            “Hey,” He greeted in a raspy voice. I guess all those cigarettes finally got to him.

            “Uh, hi,” I replied.

            “I heard about the accident from Penny, sorry I couldn’t send my condolences, but it didn’t really seem like you wanted anything to do with me anyways.” He smiled apologetically. I shook my head, assuring him that was not the case. Before the accident, sure, but afterwards, my “anger” toward him seemed to vanish along with the movement of my legs.

            “That’s Alfie, right?” He pointed with his thumb over to the men’s bathroom.

            I nodded reluctantly, “Mhmm.”

            “So, what, did he finally give you an answer?”

            My body deflated a little at the question, but I tried my best to conceal my disappointment and answer sufficiently, “In his own way, yeah.”

            Lie.

            “In his own way?” Daniel laughed.

            “Yeah”—Lie—“what’s so funny?”

            “Because,” Daniel said, “You’re a horrible liar, Hayden.”

            I munched on a fry slowly, trying to keep my mouth full in order to avoid any further conversation. I don’t hate Daniel but not seeing him again wouldn’t bother me either. He was a mistake I made when I couldn’t do anything right, or rather, nothing was going right. We were both going through similar things, I guess, which is why we crossed paths in a sloppy mess.

            “You’re acting as if I’m about to propose. Jesus, Hayden, I just wanted to know how you are,” Daniel assured with sincerity.

            I smiled weakly, “I’m fine, you?”

            Daniel picked up his broom to show me, “Well, I’m not so sure, but I’m getting there.”

            “Good answer,” I complimented solemnly, knowing exactly what he meant. He laughed anyways, as if I were joking.

            “Well, I have to get back to work, but I missed ya, Hayden, we—“

            “Hey,” a familiar voice interrupted, “He’s my date for the night, you can have him next week.”

            We both looked up to find Alfie seeming impatient and hungry for more fries. Daniel’s face flushed—a habit of his—and quickly sprang from the seat cushion. He apologized quickly, grabbed his broom, and continued to clean the rest of the place. Alfie sat down, noticed he was out of fries, grabbed one of my fries, then finally looked at me.

            “What?”

            I narrowed my eyes, “This isn’t a date.”

            “Oh?” Alfie’s eyes glowed of amusement, “Is McDonald’s not good enough for you?”

            I laughed but he stayed quiet. I shriveled back into silence quickly afterwards, too. That’s just the thing with Alfie, I don’t know if I’m supposed to laugh or take him seriously. There is no sure pattern with him and he’s as bipolar as the weather, sometimes. I just want to know, I need to know. And when I glanced over Alfie’s shoulder and saw Daniel leaning against the broomstick tiredly, he smiled and gave me a thumbs up.