[op] 9.10
"Get in, we’re going to Denny’s."
Heather looked at Leanne from behind her screen door. She recognized her friend’s crooked headlights and single soft blast of her car horn before even having to see it. She looked out the door before either of her parents called for her to do it. Leanne was sitting in the driver’s seat of her dark forest green Sedan with her windows rolled down, smeared mascara.
"It’s eleven-fifty at night," Heather said.
"I know. Are you coming or not?"
"Yeah. Yeah, give me a minute. I’m gonna grab my wallet." Heather’s parents were sitting in the living room watching late night television when she ran up the stairs to grab a jacket and her purple wallet. When she came back downstairs, her father called for her to come home at a reasonable hour and to remember to lock the door. She called back an affirmation and slipped into a pair of Toms. "Why the sudden trip?" she asked when she jumped into the passenger’s seat.
"Just a feeling." Leanne was wearing a tight pink dress, the type she would wear to go downtown to one of the lonely small city nightclubs. She was also wearing flats, an unusual combination. "I was going to go out," she said, when she noticed Heather giving her a once over. "But then when I was putting on my makeup, I just…felt like it was a waste of time. Like I’m wasting my life here." She stopped the car at a stop sign and sighed, laying her forehead on the steering wheel. Heather turned on the radio and it was tuned to an alternative station. The volume was very low, the song a dull murmur through the car stereo. "Some people just get stuck here, you know? I think I’ll never be able to get out."
"Hey," Heather said. "I’m going to community college with you too. Okay? I’m a few classrooms down from you. You want to go to big cities right? New York? San Francisco? Chicago? We can do that."
"I don’t think we will," Leanne groaned into the ether. They had been standing at the corner for five minutes. "We’re trapped here. We’re trapped here forever. We’ll grow old in this godforsaken neighborhood."
"That wouldn’t be so bad," Heather said. "We’ve got lawns and car dealerships and high schools. People join garden clubs and stuff. It’s small town U.S.A. There’s nothing wrong with that."
Leanne didn’t say anything and suddenly pulled her head up. “Let’s go to Denny’s,” she said.
At Denny’s, the booth was slightly sticky and the table had salt on the top. Leanne read her menu with sage-like focus, so Heather ordered two coffees from the high school waiter. She also ordered eggs and hash browns, but not a lot because she had work tomorrow and didn’t want to go to sleep on a full stomach. Leanne took a moment more and ordered a big stack of golden waffles. When they came, she poured a generous amount of maple syrup on them. The brown, golden liquid pooled at the top, filling up each square, before dripping slowly down the sides, glistening droplets.