The Echo of Abuse and Love

Chapter Ten

Shea

"Taste of life?" I ask?

"Yes, a little of everything. Sometimes the weirdest combinations make the best flavors. You need a little of everything to experience life at its best. You can't just expect to have the good stuff all of the time, sometimes you need the lows and the hard and the pain to appreciate the smoothness of the good things."

My stomach clenches with a swirl of emotions that I don't dare sort through right now. I take another drink, savoring the flavors as they hit my tongue, each one completely different but together, completely satisfying. 

I think Rosie says something to us, but I am too caught up in the swirl of thoughts and emotions that I don't think I quite hear her. Luke and I sit together, eating in silence. I'm grateful for his company at the moment and equally thankful that he doesn't try and fill the silence. I don't know how much time has passed, but once we finish eating, the silence continues. I sip my shake absently, turning abruptly in my seat to get a full view of the diner behind me.

It looks exactly like the one from the show Riverdale. old Neon and red vinyl booths line the walls. Small fogged glass partitions sit on the back of each booth, and most of the tables are topped by white and black checker print.

"Did you get enough to eat?" Luke looks at me over his milkshake.

I pat my stomach giggling at myself as I do it. "I feel much better."

Luke cracks a smile that about turns my insides to jelly. I don't think I've ever truly been on the receiving end of one of his smiles, and the warmth that spreads through my stomach is wonderful. 

 Just then Rosie walks back out from the kitchen. "You guys doing okay?" She asks, smiling widely when she sees our most empty plates.

"Just fine, Aunt Rosie." Luke smiles at her. "What do I owe you?" He starts fishing in his pocket for his wallet, pulling it out.

"Oh shush boy, you don't owe me anything." She says sternly, starting to clear our plates away.

Luke shakes his head, "You have to let me pay you someday."

"Nonsense!" Rosie says, batting at his hand lovingly. "As long as I'm running this place, you always eat for free."

Without thinking I go to pull money from my purse. I'm not even sure how much the food is, but after how amazing Rosie has been I want to give her something.

"You put that away sweetheart. I was talking to you as well." She winks at me, "Any friend Luke thinks is important enough to bring here eats for free as well." Without another word, she turns away with the dishes and heads to the back. 

Luke pulls a 20 out of his wallet and puts it on the counter anyway, standing and extending his hand toward me like he did to help me out of the car. "Come on," He says in a hushed tone. "We have to run before she tells me giving her money is against her religion again." He smirks, and without thinking I stand and take his hand. He chuckles to himself and we make a mad dash for the door.

As we head into the parking lot, I hear Rosie behind us yelling for Luke to come back and take his money back. As the door swings closed Luke turns back yelling, "Love you Aunt Rosie! I'll see you again soon!" He smiles at me, and opens the passenger door to let me in. 

"Thank you." I say quietly, feeling a bit fluhed after the meal and the quick escape to the car. Luke walks around to the drivers side and gets in, starting the car and getting back onto the freeway.

"How are you feeling?" Luke asks quietly. I can tell he doesn't want to push me, but his tone has turned serious. He glances at me out of the corner of his eye, and all of the sympathy that normally scares me coming from people, somehow warms my chest, coming from him.

"I'm okay. Thank you for rescuing me tonight." I feel my cheeks heat a little when he gives me a kind smile.

"It's no problem. That party sucked anway."

"I'm sorry if you helping me made Tiffany upset." I got the feeling that his phonecall earlier was more than what he said. I watched him for a moment when he was outside talking to her. His face looked agitated, and it seemed as if he was arguing with her. 

"Don't worry about it." He pushes his hair off his forehead, smoothing it back away from his face. "We are just friends."

"You didn't seem like just friends when you were dancing together." The words slip from my mouth before I can stop them, and I peak at him out of the corner of my eye. His jaw has gone rigid, and his knuckles look strained holding onto the steering wheel. A long silence passes, and I don't know what to do. I didn't mean to be offend him, I was just making a statement. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." I say, and my voice cracks despite my desperate attempt to keep it together. I hope I didn't just ruin the halfway decent night we were having. 

"You didn't upset me," he says finally. "It's just complicated."

We ride in silence for a while longer, but even though I brought up something he definitely didn't want to talk about, it isn't uncomfortable. 

Finally I build up the courage to ask the question I've wanted to know the answer to all night. "Did you know I was upstairs?" I realized sometime over dinner how random it was that he was there to step in. Not that it was super surprising, he could have just been going to look for a bathroom, but he managed to swoop in just when I needed him.

"I saw you walk up there as soon as Tiffany and I started to make our way toward you and Eva, but something looked off so I decided to make sure you were okay." His voice is monotone, and I don't understand it, but I decide its better not to dig too deep.

"I'm glad you were there." I say finally. Because it's true. Even though I really wish he hadn't seen my epic meltdown, my skin crawls just thinking what might have happened if Jacob had been left alone with me any longer. 

He nods, but doesn't say anything. I can tell he's thinking about something, but I hold my tongue, afraid to ask any more questions. I don't want him digging any deeper into what happened tonight. 

"Okay," He says. His cheery tone returning. "Lets play 20 questions."

My heart sinks a little, but we still have 20 or 30 minutes to go before we get back to town, and there isn't much else to do. "Okay."

"I'll go first." He smiles. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

I smile back, trying to seem much more lighthearted than I feel. "What's your first question?"

He pauses for a moment, "What's your favorite color?"

"Uh, Probably blue."

"I feel like that was a 'duh' question." He says chuckling. "Like your hair."

"Actually, like the color of the sky right around dusk. When it's blue but there is also a bit of purple and grey mixed in after sunset."

He nods. "Okay, your turn."

I sit a moment, contemplating what to ask him. "What's your favorite kind of candy?"

"Easy- Gummy worms. What's kind of music do you like?"

"All music," I smile to myself a bit. "But I really like British Invasion."

"Like the Beatles?"

"Yeah, and The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones." I have always had a love for old British classic rock. When I was younger my dad used to have a bunch of the music on Vinyl and when we it would rain in the summer we would sit on the porch with the windows open listening to music. It's one of my favorite memories of being a child, back before all of the s**t started in my life.

"Love a girl with good music taste. Your turn."

"Okay," I shift in the seat, turning so that my back is against the passenger door, and my leg is pulled up on the seat. "What do you think is the most interesting thing about you?" I ask.

"Oof, right into the heavy hitter questions." He glances over at me.

"Sorry, I've never been great at smalltalk."

"No," He pauses. "I like that. Let me think a moment." He looks straight ahead, and I can tell he's really thinking. Something about the way he takes his time is really attractive. "Don't tell anyone, but I keep a sort of journal." He says, almost laughing at himself. "I know it seems weird, and its not like some dramamtic thing, but I like to keep a log of important events in my life."

"I think that's cool." I say quietly. "Okay, your turn."