Charlie didn't miss the sound of the girl's stomach rumbling, but she did try to disguise her laugh with a quiet cough. No doubt Ashley was embarrassed and self-conscious enough as it was, a laugh could be terribly misinterpreted. Finally seated in the small, brightly lit fast food restaurant, Charlie let herself relax a lot more. “I'll take a water, please?” she asked the waitress, offering her best smile. 

Once the woman walked away to fetch their drinks, Charlie turned back to her dining partner. The longer they went without talking, the more she knew things would become awkward, and it was already darting about in her mind that maybe kidnapping this girl and taking her to get food was a stupid idea and might make her uncomfortable. 

“Sorry about my friend, she can be a bit much sometimes.” She paused briefly, rubbing her wrists where the glow sticks had been, then mumbled the rest, “I hope you're not weirded out by any of this, or, um... you know.”

Painfully aware of the old, scuffed book still in her hand, she stashed it away in her lap and looked back at Ashley. It started to feel as if self-consciousness was contagious, and Charlie began fiddling with her curls to distract herself, determined to rid herself of the feeling. While the angel on her shoulder told her she'd feel better when she wasn't hungry any more, the devil on the opposite shoulder told her she was a freak and that Ashley would certainly feel the same, especially if she opened her mouth again. 

The waitress arrived to save her from her thoughts, placing the sprite and ice water on the table. “Thank you,” Charlie said, smiling again. She leaned back, wobbling on the back legs of her chair to reach the straw stand, and plucked a pair of straws from the tin. She set one of the straws down beside Ashley's sprite and went about studying the menu.

She managed to read one line before she started up again. “What you said, about having someone like that in your life... don't you have anyone like that?”