THE QUINN FAMILY AND COMPANIONS STOPPED at a nearby diner and settled themselves into a booth while the strange stowaway sat in a seperate booth. The teens sat in silence watching the adults argue over the stranger.
Saoirse ignored the group with a sigh, reaching for her boyfriends hand under the table and he immediately intertwined his fingers hers. Their joined hands sat on Saoirse lap as one of James' fingers strayed slowly and softly starting to draw patterns on her inner thigh causing butterflys to invade her stomach.
"He seems like a nice enough fella, Gerry." Mrs Quinn defends the man against her husbands wishes. "We have to walk away from this." Mr Quinn hisses at his wife in disbelief of what she was suggesting.
"What if we can't walk away, Daddy? What if we don't help him and he kills us all because we know too much?" Erin dramatically lets out with wide eyes. "I like him. I think he's a character." Her cousin dreamily speaks up lifting her head from her grandad's shoulder.
Before anyone could say anything else, a waitress walked over to the table. "Well?" She asked the table. Granda Joe, Mr Quinn and Mrs Quinn all order teas for themselves and Mrs Quinn also ordered Cokes for the teens.
"What do you fancy, Sarah?" Mary turned to her sister. "I wouldn't mind a wee vodka." Sarah softly spoke looking up at the waitress.
"Make that two." "Three." Both Michelle and Saoirse tried but the latter received a small glare and nudge from her boyfriend causing her to shrink down in her chair.
The waitress furrowed her brows at the three. "We don't sell alcohol." She scoffed. "I'll take a tea." Sarah merely responded to the irritated woman.
"Any food?" The woman huffed glaring at the group and the whining baby. "We're just looking." Mary's eyes widened at the bluntness of the waitress before slipping on her glases and glancing over the menu.
"Fine." The waitress sighed storming off. "Yeah, and at 2.25 a burger, looking is all we'll be doing!" Gerry stared at the menu in disbelief.
They were interrupted by the stowaway as he reached over their table. "Don't mind me, just grabbing a knife." He scanned the group searching their faces for any signs. "Take it you haven't decided yet?"
"Just leave it with me, son." Grandad Joe nodded to the man. "Aye, no pressure. Sure, I'll be over here if you need me." Emmett shrugs with a small smile before moving off to sit back at his original table.
"What the hell does he need a knife for?" Erinsays in pure fear as her eyes expand to twice their size. "He's eating his lunch." James simply answered while they all watched him.
"God, but he has great teeth, doesn't he?" Sarah deeply observed the man which Michelle also agreed to. "He really does, but tell the truth...The hair. Can you see a ginger tinge?" Michelle turned to the adult.
Realisation hits Sarah's face. "Now that you mention it..." She trails off tilting her head at him. "So Christ only knows what's lurking downstairs. And that is a concern." Michelle cringes just thinking about it.
"But spending the rest of your life with a fugitive is less of a concern?" Erin sarcastically questions scrunching her face in disgust. "Absolutely." Michelle flips her hair over her shoulder.
✞
The over confident teen made her way over to the unknown man and attempted to seduce the older man. The rest of the teens watched her, all except for Saoirse and James who sat and played noughts and crosses on a napkin.
Saoirse was determind to beat the boy after already losing to him 2 times already, she was very much a sore loser. She sent the boy a glare as he placed a circle completing 3 in a row.
The curly haired boy teased the girl and silently chuckled at her furious expression. A new game began and Saoirse could see where James was about to place his circle, if he did he would win again.
"I swear to god J, if you put that there I will break up with you" She whispered to which the boy assumed she was joking and quitely laughed before seeing how serious she actually was.
Scared by the small girl he decided to place his next move somewhere else leading to Saoirse being able to get 3 in a row. "Ha, I win" The girl smiles and immaturely stuck her tongue out at the boy who just shook his head and smiled.
Neither of them noticed Clare fidgeting beside them struggling to contain their secret as she saw Erin eyeing the two of them suspiciously with narrowed eyes.
Finally feeling Clare's legs bouncing next to her, Saoirse turned looking at the girl in concern to see her eyes darting back and forth from Erin to the table to the couple.
Upon noticing this Saoirse straighted her back against the chair and cleared her throat and James copied her after noticing the blonde staring them down.
The only teen not involved in this interaction or not off flirting with the stranger was orla who sat oblvious to everything as she doodled on another napkin and sang to herself.
"What's going on with you two?" Erin questioned with narrowed eyes flicking them between the two. " What are you on about?" Saoirse feigned confusion.
Clare burst and blurted out "Yeah, Erin don't be daft! Nothings happening between them? What would be happening? I wouldn't know!-" She was abou to continue rambling on when Saoirse elbowed her.
"Oh, you know what-" Erin was cut off as Sarah took over the table with tarot cards and botg Saoirse and James shifted their attention to her and Mary pretending to be interested.
Erin huffed at the two glaring at them knowing they were hiding something. She played along with their act but was determined to find out and seeing how Clare reacted she knew she could get it out of her.
"You really think this'll work? That they'll tell us what to do?" Mary asks her sister as they stare down at the cards. "Sure, it's worth a try." Sarah shrugs.
The older brunette lets out a large gasp. "Would you look at that." She anaylses the cards. "Well, what do they say?" Her blonde sister proded for an answer growing more impatient.
"I think...Now, I can't be certain, but I think they're saying you should leave Gerry." Sarah reveals looking up at the married couple. "I could have told you that years ago and I'm not psychic!" Grandad Joe comments in a sort of joking matter.
"You never know. You might be, maybe Sarah got it from you." Saoirse points out to the older man, Granda Joe raises his eyebrows and nods his head at her words with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"Okay, look, I've yet to hear anybody say anything to convince me that bringing that lad across the border with us is a good idea." Gerry looks amongst them just as said man walks out.
The man heads straight over to the group and reaches into his coat pocket. "Look, I really didn't want to have to do this..." He trails off still searching his coat for whatever he was looking for.
Suddenly, Erin drops to th ground, sliding under the table. "Jesus Christ! Get down! Everybody get down!" She yells in fear, assuming the worst. "Is there something wrong with her?" Emmett rhetorically asks the group in confusion.
"Stop that, Erin." Her mother scolds her causing her to crawl out from under the table. "Sorry, Emmett, you were saying?" Erin mutters sitting back in her seat."I didn't want to put you in this position, but I can't stress the seriousness of my situation."
"Anything else?" The waitress interrupts just as Emmett was about to say something else. "Oh, d'you know what? I wouldn't mind a knickerbocker glory." He responds to her sending her back off.
the stowaway turns back with a serious expression. "You need to help me out here." He tells them in a sort of demanding tone. "We do that and we're breaking the law." Gerry diagrees with the man stating the obvious.
"Oh, you recognise the legal system of a brutal imperialistic oppressor, do ya?" Emmett voice begins to be laced with aggression. "If they can put me in jail for 20 years then yes, Emmett, yes, I do!" Gerry again argues.
Obviously Grandad Joe didn't agree with Gerry, he never agrees with Gerry. "Listen, have you killed anyone, son?" The older man speaks up. "No. Well, at least not directly." Was Emmett's answer, which was apparently good enough for Joe. "Well, there you go. So that settles it."
"I don't think that does settle it, actually, Joe!" An outraged Gerry stared at his father-in-law in disbelief.
"You know what's wrong with you, Gerry? You're an awful wuss." Grandad Joe scoffs at him sending a glare. "I'm not a wuss!" Gerry hissed in denial.
"You're afraid of your own shadow."
"I'm not!"
"Well, then, grow a set of balls and help the fella out!"
The two adult men continued to argue with everyone watching them. "I have a set of balls, thank you very much!" Gerry whisper yells to the older man in anger. "Oh, seriously, Daddy." Erin scoffs and shivers in disgust.
"You're even afraid of that wee girl." Joe commented pointing behind them. "What wee girl?" Mr Quinn asked confused at his accusation "That waitress!" The white haired man shouted back.
They all muttered their complaints about the waitress and her service and pushed Gerry to say something to her. "I will! No problem! I'll say something. Excuse me. Excuse me, please." Gerry calls said waitress over trying to prove himself to Joe.
"What?" She sighs irritated by the whole family. "Erm, I just wanted to say that, er, I, erm...I ordered a tea, you brought me a Coke, and that's not acceptable." Gerry explained raising his eyebrows and placing both hands on his legs.
"But you drank the Coke." The waitress replies in a deadpan voice. "That's not the point. And your service has been nothing short of appalling, your attitude is worse. It's simply not good enough!" He shouts at the woman.
The waitresses face saddens as she swallows the lump in her throat. "I'll, er...I'll bring you a tea." She says her eyes brimming with tears. "You do that!" Mr Quinn yells causing the girl to breakdown.
"I'm sorry! I got a bit of bad news today. I haven't really been able to focus. I've been a bit distracted maybe. I'm sorry. I'll just take this..." She whimpers and sniffles resulting everyone to look at her with pity.
Saoirse cowers into her boyfriend, uncomfortable with the change in mood. "No, no, ignore all that." Gerry apologetically say shaking his head. "I'll bring you your tea right away, sir." She tells them taking a deep breath before leaving and sheilding her sobs with her hand.
"Well, there was absolutely no need for that." Joe immediatly scolds him after the waitress leaves.
"Jesus, Gerry!"
"Harsh."
"Awful."
"Poor girl."
"Aye, I can't believe you did that, Daddy."
"Shocking behaviour."
Everyone stares at him in shock. "I...You asked me to! How could I have known...? Will you all just stop looking at me? Fine...Fine. D'you know what? Fine! I've had it with the lot of ye! And just for the record, back there, I was being an Australian tourist, OK? Australian! And I happen to think that my accent was flawless! Excuse me, mate! Can you help us get outta here? Flawless!"
They stared at Gerry as he ranted on before storming off. "Okay...We have to decide what to do here, one way or another. Let's just vote." Mary brushes off the previous issue and returns to the more pressing question.
"Leave him!" Erin exclaims before her mother can even finish speaking. "I vote we run away and leave him." Leaning in she whispers upon realising Emmett was still there.
"I vote we take him for better or worse and all that." Michelle explains without telling the whole truth that being that she thinks he's her soulmate because Sarah's cards told her he was.
"I vote we take him." Joe voices. "Me too." Orla agrees speaking up for the first time since they entered the diner. "I can't decide." Clare lets out.
"I've decided-but I'm afraid to say what I've decided." James nervously answers meeting the strangers gaze, Saoirse grabs his hand and intertwins their fingers giving his hand a light squeeze.
Mrs Quinn's stared at the short girl next to him searching for her answer. "Oh, I couldn't care less." She simply shrugged slouching against the back of her seat.
"Why don't we just toss a coin?" Sarah suggest upon noticing the still undecided answer to the question. "So, heads, the wee 'Ra man comes with us. Tails, we leave him."
"Aye, ready?" Mary asks everyone holding up a coin. They all nod and she flips the coin, when it lands everyone hovers over the table.
"What is that? A fish?" The curly haired english man furrows his brows confused seeing the incarving on the coin. "A dolphin, is it?" Sarah tilts her head. "It sort of looks like Moby Dick, actually." Clare informs them moving closer to it.
"Ah, shite, I used a punt, didn't I?" Mrs Quinn realises her mistake. "What's on the other side?" Michelle queries the older blonde woman.
"A harp." Grandad Joe remarks supporting himself by leaning on the table. "So harp must be the head and fish must be the tail?" Erin states with a nod.
All of them had failed to notice Emmett sneaking off out the door. "Oh, well, that makes sense, yeah, because fish have tails." Orla observes stating the obvious. "We're leaving him then?" Saoirse' eyes dart around the group.
"Why don't we just do it again with real money?"
"This is real money, Sarah."
"You know what I mean - normal money."
"All right. Who has 10 pence?"
They were suddenly interrupted by a shout from behind."It was him! The mural on our house, the spray paint...It was Emmett. I can prove it." Gerry struts towards them.
"Sly wee bastard." Mary hisses in anger as she narrowed her eyes. "You bloody tout!" Joe says to Gerry. "Where is Emmett?" Sarah looks around for the man but can't find him anywhere.
"There he is." Orla points outside spotting him shuffling through the boot of their car lifting a jacket and the tent. "Is that Jim's tent?" Mary squints to see what he's holding causing James to sigh and squeeze his eyes shut.
They watch him from the window jump inside another car boot as it drives off. "I told you to look after that tent." Joe spins Gerry scolding him and glaring. "No, you didn't, you told him to look after it!" Gerry directs his finger at James who steps back anxiously.
"Oi, don't blame him! You're the adult." Saoirse defensively argues on behalf of James moving closer to him."Ah, blame the wee'un! Big man!" Joe adds on agreeing with Saoirse.
"Jesus...Jim's second best tent. How am I going to break it to him?"