The Steakhouse was really something different. Sure, It served good food, but there was defiantly something different about the place. For starters, the place was run by a four year old. Not literally, but the owner insisted that he had an age less than 10. While that seemed highly unlikely, at least legally, the restaurant's interior design did give you vertigo.
None of this seemed to detract Needle, as she sat a lime green beanbag chair, waiting for her shiny friend to show up.
That's a bit odd, he should be here by now, Needle thought, checking the clock on the wall. She had only sat down for a short while, but still, Coiny was running late.
Just as Needle was about to pull out her phone and call the guy, Mr. Coin Creature came blasting through the door looking like he was about to drop dead. An employee ran up to him, offering a glass of water. Needle was suddenly very concerned. Had something happened?
She considered walking over and checking out what was really going on, but in a few moments the employee lead Coiny over to her table. She let out a breath of relief, although it came out more like a squeak, with her unusually high voice.
"Mind if I sit here?" The penny asked, flashing a charismatic smile.
Needle opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She had seen Coiny at parties, and they had talked online a lot, but one-on-one in real life? She panicked, trying to form speech that was at least comprehensible. She felt warm. Maybe a bit too warm for comfort.
"I- um- su- uh-" She sputtered.
Coiny's expression faded to one of concern. "Uh, you okay? I don't know much about needles, but usually when they start turning red around the edges it's generally not a good sign."
"Yep! I'm most certainly fine and not tripping over my own words," Needle managed to speak.
"I'll just take that as a yes," he concluded, "here, have this glass of water I just have. You look like you need it."
"Thanks," Needle took the cup of water from Coiny, and drank it all in one shot.
She suddenly felt a lot better. Ever since she began running. water seemed to have this magical effect on her. She suddenly felt a lot more confident to be talking to Coiny.
"Woah, slow down there!" Coiny joked.
"I'm fine. Now are we going to have lunch or not?"
<=======>
Turns out, even in the aesthetically challenged restaurant, there was still a lot of people who thought that it was the best place to eat. By the time the waiter had arrived, Needle and Coiny had gone so far down the "Cheesy Icebreakers" list that they were talking about what they'd do on a competition for a luxury island.
"Hi, what can I get- Hey! What are you doing here?" The waiter spat.
"What do you- oh. It's you." Needle grumbled, realizing who it was. "Listen Firey, whatever happened then is over. We both agreed that we'd never talk about it."
"What's going on? Did you two break up or something?" Coiny asked in a confused manner.
"It's nothing, Coiny. I'll tell you later," Needle turned to Firey, "Just give me anything."
"Uh, I'll have whatever she's having," Coiny added.
"If you say so," Firey mumbled, scribbling something down, and walked away.
Needle relaxed. It had been a really long time since the whole fiasco with Firey, and she was really glad that he had gotten over it. From now on, she could enjoy a nice lunch with the one she had risked so much for. Just looking at him gave her a giddy feeling.
"So, you mind explaining what's going on between you two?" Coiny murmured.
"Oh, with Firey?"
"Who else would it be?"
"I guess so. It's nothing much, just some stupid old rivalry."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, in high school we were both in the finals for a running event, and I won."
"That's it?" Coiny sounded skeptical.
"Well, it may have caused him to lose out on a scholarship for university that was worth $7,000. And ever since then we constantly slapped each other."
"Slapping, really?" He giggled to himself.
Needle realized how dumb and childish it sounded, and laughed too. It had been so long that, at the time, it was perfectly acceptable to walk up to someone and just slap the life out of them. Technically, people could still do it. Not like he'd allow it, Needle remembering what her father had said after her championship in the race.
"Moving on, what did you end up doing with the scholarship?" Coiny wondered, snapping out of the chuckle.
Needle suddenly faded into a scowl. "Nothing."
"You didn't go to college?"
"I did, just not with the scholarship money. After all, why would you engage in barbaric physical exertion when you could become a proper young woman?" She retorted in a near-perfect imitation of Mr. Needy's accent.
"Wait, I'd recognize that voice anywhere! That means," he contemplated about it for a bit, "Oh my mint, you're the daughter of Mr. Needy?"
Several heads turned at the notion, going from looks of annoyance to looks of shock. Then they just went back to their meals.
"I am so sorry for not recognizing you, Needle- I mean, Ms. Needy!" Coiny corrected.
Something ticked inside her at that point. Maybe it was the overly saturated dining space, maybe it was the shine from Coiny, maybe it was the recent encounter with Firey. Most likely, however, was Coiny's new name for her. Ms. Needy. Needy. The last thing she wanted to be known as was Mr. Needy's daughter; to be associated with the man that ruined her life. And in a moment of newfound territory, she did something that would most certainly become important later on.
"DON'T CALL ME NEEDY!" She yelled, whipping her round hand across Coiny's face, creating a sound like hammering a nail.
The loud noise had caused even more objects to turn their heads, examining what the child of the richest man in Yoyleland had done. Some of them even let out a yelp. Needle glared at them, and soon all of them decided to turn away. After all, being related to such a powerful person still had its perks, not that Needle enjoyed using them.
She looked back at Coiny, who seemed unfazed by the aggressive response. Had she ruined her chances of forming a meaningful relationship with him?
"I... I apologize for that." She slowly retracted her arm back.
"It's fine. I mean, I probably deserved that. Plus, something tells me that I'll be slapped a lot more in the future." He weakly smiled, and it made Needle feelings improve a lot after just assaulting the guy.
"Oh, there comes our food!" Needle exclaimed, noticing the burning fellow holding two platters.
"Here are your two 'anythings'" Firey laid the orders in front of the two. "Also, Coiny, I hate you."
"What do you mean?" Coiny challenged.
"I don't mean anything. Just know that, from now on, we're enemies."
"Weird. Can you leave now?"
"Oh, I'll leave alright. And you can enjoy your date with your girlfriend. Goodbye Coiny!" The oxygen absorber stomped away.
"What's that guy's problem? Let's just eat. I'm starving!"
As things come to be, Gelatin seemed to be really good at making very vague orders taste good. His interpretation of "Anything" turned out to be a T-bone grilled to a medium-rare, sided with crispy thick-cut fries, yoyleberry coleslaw, and (strangely enough) Jell-O. Coiny had essentially the same thing, but then Needle noticed something about the salads. They had a slightly yellow tint to them. Not much, but it was there.
"Uh, Coiny, you might not want to eat that salad," Needle warned.
It was too late. The copper doubloon had already inhaled the berry mix.
"Is anything wrong?" He questioned in between bites of steak.
Needle sighed, "It's probably nothing."
She gingerly picked at her food, not having as much as an appetite as the object sitting next to her, who just devoured a basket of fries in five seconds. After a while, she got around to eating the food, avoiding the salad. Just in case there was indeed something fishy going on that she wasn't aware about.
All of a sudden, a vibration buzzed its way up her metal back, sending a tingly feeling through her body. Again, and again. It took her a surprising amount of time to realize that her phone was producing the signal.
"Please excuse me," Needle gestured toward her phone.
She took a loot at the screen, and the fires of rage built up. It was her dad. Better yet, it was a chance. A chance to finally cut ties with him. It was time to take it.
"Oh, you finally picked up," he pronounced, "listen, I need you to come back right now. Something's gone wrong."
Needle was almost tempted to go back. She couldn't believe it. Something gone wrong, with Mr. Needy of all people? Nothing ever went wrong with her dad. In a way, putting the words "wrong", and "Mr. Needy" in a sentence together was like putting tomatoes in fruit salad. Sure, they're both words, but they were worlds apart from each other.
"Do you think I'm interested based off my actions from this morning?" She growled.
"Well, not exactly. But this is an urgent matter! I need you back at the Yoyle Needy in 30 minutes."
"I'm sorry, Dad, but I've got better things to be doing. Goodbye. Forever."
She immediately ended the call before she could hear any more blabbering, then blocked his number. A massive load had been lifted off her shoulders, and it felt as if she was going to fly away, into the sky.
"You really just did that?" Coiny looked at her.
"Yeah, I guess I did. So, you mind if I come over to your place tonight?" She looked back.
"Sure, originally Snowball was going to come over for some gaming, but then he called it off. Something about being rejected? I dunno."
The mention of Snowball made her start to sweat. She was suddenly very aware of the text that she had sent that morning, and really hoped that Coiny kept up his short-term memory loss, else she'd be in a lot of trouble..
"I'm sure it's nothing, you want to leave now?" Needle smartly added.
"Yeah, sure. I'll get the bill."
"Please, I insist."
"If we continue like this it would become too cliche."
"Pointing out something is cliche is cliche in of itself."
"Eh, you're right. Let's just split it 50/50."
"Sounds like a plan."
They called over someone, this time not Firey (for obvious reasons), and each paid their share. Just as they were about to leave the steakhouse, Coiny stopped.
"Something is wrong," he felt his gut.
"Told you not to eat that salad."
He looked concerned for a bit, then shrugged it off. Needle wasn't so sure. After all, her father had never called her for assistance. The problem had to be really serious. Disastrous, even. Whatever it was, however, most likely had nothing to do with Coiny's stomach problem.
"I think I'll be fine."