The bell above the door chimed a happy tune, a man dressed in a light grey suit, with a dark tie and shoes. The diner was stuffy, which was surprising seeing as it’d been raining not too long ago. Sure, it was only a light drizzle, but rain none the less. That’s probably what he gets for living in Oregon, maybe he should’ve moved to California or Florida when he had the chance; just so he could avoid as much rain as he could. The diner had quite a lot of customers, it is, after all, one of the best in Astoria.
The raven haired man walked casually up to the last remaining seat at the counter. His seat, nobody would dare take something from a serving military man; especially not with the threat of joining the Europeans at war with Germany (yet again). As he sat down he could see people around him tense, they all knew that one day he’d no longer be here, that he’d be off in Europe shooting at the bad guys. None of them knew how long he’d have left at home, but they sure as hell wouldn’t be the ones that pissed him off before he left.
The man picked up the menu that was always stationed by the sugar. He knew the menu by heart of course; he’d been here far too often not to know it. He heard something being placed in front of him, looking away from the menu he looked and saw it was a coffee mug that was being filled. He smiled and looked up. The woman was short. Well she was around 4’11”, but that was still shorter than his height of 5’7”. She had shimmering strawberry blonde hair, warm chocolate brown eyes and curves that would make any man go wild. She was plain, but by God was she beautiful.
“You should be at home,” she said sternly as she finished pouring the coffee into his mug. “Resting”
“I’ll have the cheese burger with extra onions and pickles” the man put his menu back by the sugar, ignoring the sugar jar completely, and brought his hands up to his coffee mug. There was no way in hell would he be at home “resting” when he could be here.
“You’ll ruin your supper” the woman sighed, but wrote down the man’s order none the less “Cheese burger with half onions and pickles, please Billy”.
The man frowned; he really wanted his extra onions and pickles. “Stop worrying woman. Nothing has happened, and we don’t know if it ever will”
“Do not start with me John. I worry about enough as it is, do not add the threat of war to my worries” The woman snapped, looking at John like he was a mouldy rat.
“Lillian… sweetheart, please. Let’s not do this, not here” John begged, his eyes met Lillian’s ones and silently pleaded. Lillian glared at John, but was brought back to reality when a customer shouted at her. He hated fighting with her, after all they have been together since they were seventeen and now they’re both twenty-two (and no longer teenagers), but nothing she could say would change his mind about being in the army. He wanted to make his dad proud, proud that John was his son – a war hero. Was that too much to ask for? John loved Lillian like the flowers loved water and the sun, he needed her in so many ways that words could not describe. John wasn’t a wordy person and that was okay, since he always says that his actions will forever speak louder than his words ever will. He will prove to Lillian that if America were to be called for, then he will answer and fight. For himself, his father, his country and for his love. That’s all he needed.
John was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice a plate being placed in front of him, only did he notice when a hand was placed in a reassuring grip on his arm. It was Billy, the cook.
Billy was a great kid, only seventeen and was working as the cook in his parent’s diner for the summer. Billy, like most kids, had acne. Not terrible acne, but he had it. He had asthma, alongside with many other health issues. John knew how badly Billy wanted to join the army, but he also knew that they wouldn’t accept him. It made him sad knowing that this kid’s dream weren’t going to come true because of who he was born as.
“I heard Lil giving you a tough time again, so I gave you triple onion and pickle” Billy and John both laughed at each other, they both knew what Lillian was like when she was upset.
“Billy, my man, you’re my hero” John smiled a sincere smile at the boy, in which Billy returned to him.
John picked up some of his fries, shoving them into his mouth as fast as he could. His eyes rolled back into his head the moment he tasted them - they were seriously that good. Billy always put the right amount of salt on them, and god he must be a magician or something because they tasted divine.
“So is this your last meal or something?” Perked up an old man, John recognised him as Mr Steele, a lovely man of the age of sixty-seven - who’d lost his two sons in the First War with Germany, and his wife a few years ago to a disease called Polio.
“No, Sir” John say up straighter “two weeks remaining before I head out to camp, trying to get as much edible food I can before I leave”. He honoured the man, idolised even. John never knew what Mr Steele went through when the telegrams arrived at his door, informing him of his only two son’s deaths. He was all alone now, both of his children long dead, and his wife following their children not too long after. John wouldn’t want to wish that pain upon anybody.
“Well then, good luck son” Mr Steele said sternly as he put down some money on the counter. ”Have a good day, ladies, Billy” Mr Steele said just before he walked out of the door, the bell chimed happily to announce his departure.
John went back to his food, picking up his burger and taking a large bite. It tasted heavenly, the triple onion and pickle really made the burger worth it. But, like many things, the burger came with a price. For example, he could see Lillian’s glares in his peripheral vision, but he really didn’t care. Oh, and the burger was falling apart with every bite he took.
He was half way through his burger and fries when Lillian came back over, coffee pot in hand. John looked up at her, he loved this woman, he truly did. Lillian filled up his coffee mug silently; she quite clearly had something on her mind.
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I know you worry about me and I apologise for making you do so. I love you, sweetheart, I truly do. And seeing you like this hurts me, but if I don’t do this now, then they’ll eventually catch up with me and I’ll be drafted anyway. I don’t like the thought of you here by yourself, but the sooner I go, the sooner I can come home. To you.” John wiped his hands on his napkin and placed them over Lillian’s hovering ones. They were soft, softer than human skin could be. John knew that Lillian tried to keep busy with work whenever John was busy with his own; but how she managed to keep her hands perfect with all the work she did he’d never know.
Lillian looked forlorn, looking into John’s cornflower blue eyes. Her chocolate brown eyes looked conflicted and hurt, like she had so many words she wanted to say but just couldn’t say.
She moved away from John to refill the coffee pot, there weren’t any more customers coming in the Diner, so it was quiet. “John, darling,” Lillian turned back to John and held onto his hands, like she was scared that they wouldn’t be there anymore. “I don’t mean to upset you, please understand that. I know how much you want to do this, but it scares me. We are on the brink of war, and you’ll be on the frontline and anything could happen to you,” Lillian took a deep breath, moved one of her soft hands away from John to wipe tears that were threaten to fall from her pretty eyes. “And if anything were to happen to you, I don’t know what, or where I’d go from there.” She finished. She couldn’t look at John anymore; for fear that she may actually start sobbing.
“Hey, look at me” John whispered as he used both his hands to gently bring her face closer towards him. “Something may happen, something may not. We can’t tell, if we do go over it may not be as bad as we all think it is.” John rubbed his thumbs across Lillian’s cheeks, reassuring her. She let out a small nervous laugh and leaned forward slightly and rested her forehead on John’s.
“You are a pig” Lillian pointed to the half-eaten burger as she pulled away. Her eyes showed love and adoration; there was hardly any sign of worry remaining in the brown orbs.
John gave her a wide grin, his teeth shined a brilliant white and said “but you love me”. Lillian nodded with a smile, who was she to disagree? “I’ll have the rest to go home, please love”.
“Okay” Lillian said as she picked up John’s plate and brought it into the kitchen to pack its contents. She returned moments later with a Styrofoam container that had the remainder of his burger and fries.
“Thank you, sweetheart” John sighed as he put $15 on the counter to pay for his meal and coffee; he grabbed the container and got up off the stool by the counter. “I’ll see you later, darling” John leaned over the counter and gave Lillian a small peck to her lips, which he heard small gasps of “awws” coming from a group of high school girls in the corner. John got up, leaving the counter, and winked at the girls. This caused the girls to giggle and blush furiously. He remembers when he used to do that to Lillian long before she became his sweetheart; the memory always makes his heart swell with happiness.
John slowly walked over to the door, finally opening it when he got there; before he left the diner he looked back to Lillian, whom he saw looking at him under her lashes. “Love you,” he mouthed towards her, causing her to blush and smile and turn away from him simultaneously. ‘Victory’ John thought as he opened the door, bell chiming in happiness as it was opened.