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Actually, before that, she looked kind of pissed.
“You okay, Sum?” I ask.
“Yeah. I just hoped the guys would be here by now. I mean, we were almost late so they’re definitely late.”
“Can you text one of them?”
“Sure.” She rummages inside her small clutch for way longer than necessary, like her tiny bag has secret Tardis-like pockets that her phone will magically fall out of. Eventually she huffs, gives up and slams her bag closed. “I must have forgotten it.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’ll be here. Soon.”
“Okay.” I’m not sure what else to say. Summer takes a deep breath and plasters a bright smile onto her face.
“Anyway…what do you think?” Summer gushes, looking all around the room. I take my time responding. I know that there’s a correct, acceptable answer here, and an honest one.
“It’s…” I hesitate.
“I know, right,” Summer continues to gush, obviously mistaking my indecision for speechlessness at the sheer grandeur of the place.
“This feels like it should be an intimate date. You know, just you and…them. It’s too nice for just meeting me.”
“Hush, Malia. You need to stop putting yourself down.”
I don’t point out that I wasn’t. I just don’t understand why I’m here. Summer is seeing five guys who all – apparently – are eager to meet me. Well, they could have swung by my room at any point and said hi, or waved over Summer’s shoulder on a video chat.
Whatever. I don’t see the need for all this pomp and circumstance. Love that march though. It starts playing in my head, and I hum along until Summer gives me a sharp look and it dies mid note.
“Can you just try, for one night, to be…normal?” she asks on herthis is a futile questionsigh.
“I need the loo,” I whisper to Summer, ignoring the rhetorical question because we both know I can’t do normal, even drugged up to my eyeballs.
It feels like a whispering sort of place, though nothing like the quiet sanctity of the library. There I whisper because the stacks are revered, here I whisper because I fear being judged for having something so common as a bladder and bodily functions. And being nervous makes me need to wee. Thank goodness I’m not a nervous bowel kind of person; I think they’d ask me to leave.
Summer huffs but points me in the right direction of the toilets – hidden in the far corner behind giant ferns apparently – so I quickly slide back out of the booth and make my way over there.
The toilet is actually really nice. Well lit with plenty of marble countertop, and clean enough you could probably eat your dinner off the floors. Best of all, it’s empty. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself and run both my wrists under the cold tap to cool off. Whenever I get nervous my body overheats. I don’t think Summer would appreciate me perspiring all over her dates or her dress.
When I exit and return to our table, the booth is full. Summer’s guys have arrived, and I’m taken aback.
Ever since Summer mentionedfive guys, I’ll admit, in my head I’ve been pictured five bodies with burgers for heads. It makes no sense, but hey I’m crazy, so what does it matter?
“Malia! There you are. I want you to meet my boy—”
Is it weird that one of the guys jumps in to speak before she can use the term ‘boyfriend’? Probably. They all look sketchy as fuck, in my not-so-professional opinion.
“Charmed to meet you, Malia-Tarni Van der Zee.” The first guy, probably the leader or most confident in their group, is fast to thrust his hand under my nose.
Do I sniff it or shake it? It’s a little high for the latter, but I’m sure the former isn’t acceptable in polite society. And apparently this restaurant is the epitome of polite society.
Instead I just stare. Broad shoulders, dark hair, dark eyes, even darker expression on his face. I’ve already forgotten him before my eyes have slid onto burger guy number two.
“We’ve heard so much about you.”
I don’t respond to that. Guy two looks a lot like guy one, only slightly less intimidating.
“All good, don’t worry!” Guy three jokes. I stare back at him blankly. It’s a horrible joke. If they’ve been patiently waiting for me to ‘get better’ then they know all about my…issues and there’s nothing good to be said there.
