Collab with @Karamonnom James finished up breakfast quickly, knowing he had to get to the diner to unlock the place for Ron, and Mark, one of the few people who stayed on after ownership passed to Sophia. From how the day was starting, he was glad someone else was in to back him and Ron up. The diner was already going into the day short handed with Riley coming in late, and Sophia was likely to be hungover when she finally got in. For him to say he was a bit concerned about the situation would be an understatement; he was nervous that it would fall apart like yesterday which he kept mostly hidden. As he quickly rinsed his plate and put it in the dishwasher, he pulled out his phone, as it vibrated to signify a new text. It was from Sophi, “
How does she owe the IRS money? How much money?”
‘That’s exactly what I said! He replied, as he grabbed Sophi's car keys.
“Okay everyone, I'll see you later. Riley, get in when you can, Kylie find a job, Zoey, Ollie, stay in class today. I love, bye.” James sighed as he walked out the front door. As he unlocked it, he pulled Nathan's text back up,
"Good morning, Princess. Thanks again for leaving me alone with two beautiful girls. So I had a very... interesting night. If you aren't too busy, meet up with me after my class?"‘Good Morning Nathan. How did it go last night? Yeah I'll see you after your class, though I might still be at the diner. Today seems to be going to shit all over again. Riley is going to be out for who knows how much of the day, Kylie is going to be out looking for a job all day, and Sophi went over to Elliot's last night and isn't back yet. Did I mention that he's back last night?’ James shot to Nathan, as he vented slightly. He started the car and began to pull out of the driveway. He was frustrated that things seem to be going as well as yesterday.
~
Nathan had finally decided to drop by the diner. He had just gotten on the bus when he got a text from James. Nathan shook his head as he read the text. Poor, poor James. Things just are never easy for the poor boy.
“I guess it turned out better than I thought… kind of. Not really. But yikes. Sorry to hear about your rough day. Don’t worry, I’m dropping by the diner for breakfast, that will surely brighten your day! Remind me to get some groceries haha.” he texted back.
He relaxed into his seat and put on his ear buds to listen to some music until he arrived at his destination. He thought about how he still needed to ask James about Vanessa since he promised the girl. But his friend seemed like he had a lot on his plate already.
”What to do, what to do,” he wondered.
~
James had just gotten to a stop light when he got a reply from Nathan telling him that the date didn't go well. While he was sorry to hear that, he brightened up a bit when he heard that Nathan would be coming to the diner. Sure it would just be for breakfast, but he needed a pick me up with the all the stress he was dealing with first thing in the morning. He was about it respond, but the light turned green and he set his phone down to keep moving forward. However, about two minutes later, he hit another red light and could respond.
’Alright. You can tell me in person what happened. Fortunately I managed to eat this morning. I'm driving, I'll see you in a bit.’ He replied to Nathan. The diner wasn't far from the house, so he'd be there before Nathan, and could set up a bit for the day.
~
Nathan received a reply from James. He decided to not reply though as they were going to be seeing each other in probably less than five minutes. He did however, get a text from Rachel surprisingly.
“I am so so so so so so so sorry about last night! How embarrassing! Can I make it up to you?” she had said in her text.
He felt bad for the girl and who knows, maybe she could end up being his girlfriend.
“It’s fine really. It was a night I will probably never forget. Maybe we can do something this weekend?” he replied back.
She wasted no time texting him back.
“Sure! Sounds awesome! Let’s plan something!”He sighed and put his phone back. Soon enough he had arrived at his stop and started to walk in the general direction of the diner.
~
James pulled into Sophi's normal parking spot at the Diner and parked the car. He saw Ron and Mark sitting in their cars and he went and knocked on their windows and waved them on, before walking to the front door and flipping the lock open and pulls the front door open. Walking inside, he flips the light on and turns on the register. Ron and Mark walk through the front door and I nod to them and pull a few menus to the side of the register. As he pulled out Windex and some paper towels, he watched as Ron and Mark clocked in. James started spraying down a table and began to wipe it down as Ron entered the kitchen and Mark made his way into the back to grab an apron and a bill pad. Nathan hadn't responded yet, but that could be because he was already close to the diner. There was a bus pulling up to a stop just down the street as he parked.
~
Nathan arrived in front of the diner and waltz inside. He waited in the front for someone, most likely James, to get him a table. He looked around, realizing that he hasn’t dropped by in a while. But he sure had a lot of memories of the diner.
“James? Looks like I’m your first customer of the day,” he said cheerfully.
~
James rolled his eyes hearing his friend walking within minutes after he had himself. He stood up at the table he was finishing up on, just drying the last of the cleaning solution. He felt a slight flush come to his face as he looked at his friend, who keeps calling him princess, even though it's just a joke to him. James smiled and called out to his friend,
”Hey man, I'll be with you in a moment.” He finished with the table he was cleaning and walked back to the entrance and pulled Riley's sign out of the window and flipped the sign to “OPEN”. He then went to the register and grabbed a single menu.
”So, where would you like to sit? As you said, you're the first one here, and have a bit before things get crazy.” ~
[color=firebrick] “I’ll take a small booth then,” Nathan answered with a grin. He took a seat at the booth near the back. He had been at this diner a hundreds of times and had already pretty much memorized the menu, but it was more of a courtesy thing.
“You already know what I want to order, right?” he playfully teased before his friend could set the menu in front of him. He didn’t think James would know but it seemed fun to test his friend.
~
James froze for a moment trying to think of what Nathan would normally order. He had been working at the Diner part time even before their parents died, but he only had been the waiter for Nathan and his family a handful of times.
”Let's just do this properly, I'll write it down and pass it off to Ron.” He said, setting the menu in front of Nathan.
”So let's start you off with something to drink? Would you like coffee, tea, soda, orange juice?” he replied, smiling.
~
”Aw fine but this way is less fun,” Nathan whined, though his smile never left his face.
“I guess I’ll have some tea please. Do you guys have assam?” He then grabbed the menu and absentmindedly flipped through the pages.
“Two eggs, scrambled, with hash browns and white toast,” he said after making it look like he was trying hard to decide what to get.
“And ask Ron to draw a heart on my eggs with some ketchup please.”~
”Yeah, we have some Assam. I'll get the order right in. I'll be right back with the tea.” James laughed lightly as Nathan requested Ron to make a heart in ketchup on his eggs. With the order written down, he walked to the Kitchen window, where Ron was smirking as I handed him the order slip.
”What?” Ron just shook his head and took the order slip from my hand, smiling the entire time. James turned away from the window and went behind the counter down by the tea section and grabbed a tea bag of Assam. Grabbing a hot kettle of water, he placed the tea bag in a coffee mug, and brought the tea and water back to Nathan.
“So what happened last night? Was Rebecca a good singer?” He asked, hoping to get Nathan to tell what happened.
~
”Rebecca? You either mean Rachel or Vanessa. Either way, both girls were decent singers” he said. Then he blew onto the top of his mug to cool down his drink.
“Alright, so things were going well between me and Rachel. We might have had some things to drink and we were hitting it off. And we started kissing because boy, she was not a good drinker. It was really nice until… she puked on my lap.” He sighed, thinking back on what happened the night before.
~
“Knew it started with an R. For whatever reason I kept getting the name of the one girl back in junior year.” James cursed himself silently for mixing the two up.
“But she puked on you. Damn she's a light weight. How'd Vanessa do holding her liquor?” James asked quickly, but halfheartly.
~
“As one would expect, she was better. Oh and speaking of Vanessa, she is really interested in you. So what do you think?” Nathan took a sip of his drink. It was nice and warmed up his stomach. It was still a little too hot for him, but he continued to drink it anyways, even if it meant melting his tastebuds off. He tapped his finger onto the table in some sort of rhythmic manner as he waited for his friend to answer.
~
James was surprised to hear that Vanessa was interested in him, and while he thought she was quite beautiful, he hadn't been planning on dating anyone until after he finished transitioning.
“I mean I wasn't planning on worrying about dating someone quite yet, especially with so much to worry about at home, at school, here. I was going to wait until the end of the semester, at the earliest. But I think she's cute, and I'll at least give her a shot. But something tells me that it won't last, besides the fact that we're all still young.” James sighed, and just moments later Ron whistled him over. It was still quiet so it wasn't that hard to hear him at that distance.
“I'll be right back, I think your order is done.” James said as he got up. It looked like Ron finished up the order.
~
Nathan was a bit surprised that James said that he was going to give Vanessa a chance.
“I guess double dates are in order then,” he said. He was pretty sure that if James went out with Vanessa, Nathan was going to have to date Rachel. They seemed like a packaged deal. He watched as James left to get his food and then checked the time. It was still early and he had a while til his afternoon classes. He could relax a bit longer. Though if the diner started to get busy, he’ll be sure to leave. Wouldn’t want to be a burden or distraction or anything.
~
Ron had indeed finished making the breakfast meal, and was still smirking when James got up to the window again. James rolled his eyes again, and simply grabbed the plate and brought it over to Nathan.
“Yeah, I guess double dates are in order. Here you go, is there anything else you need?" James replied as he sat down across from his friend. He wasn't about to say so out loud, but Nathan was the only guy James had met so far that he had any feelings for. And to be sitting here with him, and sitting there last night at the movies were great, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. He'd have to see how things went with Vanessa and how things went between Nathan and Rachel.
~
“Yeah,” Nathan replied, looking straight into James’ eyes. Then without skipping a beat, he added,
“You.”He tried his best not to smile but failed after a good three seconds. He was just used to messing around with his friend like that. He kind of liked the reaction James had when he pulled stupid shit like that.
“Ah, Ron didn’t draw a heart on my eggs. Can you do it for me?” he asked, breaking the short moment of silence.
~
James’ face instantly turned bright red as his friend said that, and Ron just starts laughing from the kitchen. James shoots a look over at the kitchen window and Ron quiets down. Part of him wished he could just disappear, but another part of him enjoyed what Nathan had said. When Nathan asked him to draw a heart with ketchup on the eggs, James felt like his face couldn't grow any redder. But he complied and grabbed the bottle of ketchup at the end of the booth and began pouring it out onto the eggs in the shape of a heart, all the while the flush never left his face. But in the back of his mind the idea rang out,
Maybe he actually likes you back ~
Nathan’s smile grew wider as James’ face grew redder. It was just too easy to tease him and it was just too fun to stop.
“Thank you,” he said, very pleased with the whole thing.
“I think it’s like good luck or something when a princess draws a heart on something for you,” he mused out loud.
He grabbed the utensils and began to eat some hash browns. The food was always good. Props to Ron.
“If I had the money, I think I would start my morning like this everyday,” he sighed happily.
~
James was certainly rendered silent when Nathan said that it was supposed to be good luck for a princess to draw a heart on something for you. Was he trying to flirt with him? He just sat there as Nathan started eating the hash browns, no one else had come in yet, but it was only midweek. Then Nathan said he'd like to eat like this every morning if he had the money. Finally regaining the use of his tongue James replied,
”Yeah, Ron’s a great cook, and if we could bring him home to cook for us every evening, I bet the others would do so in a heartbeat.” ~
“Not just that. I missed hanging out with you like this. You’ve been too busy lately, you can’t even fit me into your schedule,” Nathan said nonchalantly. He then began to spread some of the grape jam onto his white toast.
“Well, I’m not entirely free all the time either. I still have work and school but still…”He took a large bite of the toast then grabbed a napkin to wipe his face.
“So, Elliot’s back in town? Never thought I would see him again. Soph’s probably pretty happy about that, huh?”~
James scoffed at that as he grew serious. Elliot had seriously hurt Sophi's feelings when he left abruptly like he had.
”Yeah, he's back. Apparently he came in here yesterday and Sophi slapped him yesterday. Which one would think would indicate the opposite, but I got a text earlier that said she went over to Elliot's place last night while drunk if Riley is right. So I don't know.” James sighed as he tried to explain that situation to Nathan. There was no way that he would let Elliot to hurt his sister again, not if he could help it.
~
Nathan shrugged in response.
“Sounds like some soap opera,” he said while finishing up the slice of toast.
“She’s a big girl though, I’m sure she’s fine.” He almost did not want to touch the eggs. The heart was somewhat nicely drawn on. He kind of wanted to take a picture of it first. He regrettably began to mix the eggs around so the ketchup was evenly mixed into it. He ate a huge bite. It was delicious as everything else he has eaten.
~
James nodded when Nathan said that Sophi was a big girl.
”Yeah, I know.” James was about to follow it up when some other customers walked in.
“I've got to get to work it seems. Why don't you hit me up later so maybe we can coordinate something for the double date.” James smiled slightly, the red coloration of his face finally starting to fade back to a normal skin color. Sliding out of the booth he started to make his way up to the front of the store.
Welcome to the Queen’s Orchid, how many people are in your group?” James asked the group with a smile.
~
Nathan waved as James went off to handle the other customers that have arrived. Then he finished up his meal. Of course he paid after he was finished and even left some tip. When he was all set to go, he took one last look at James, waved once more.
“See you later. Thanks for breakfast,” he said as he went out the door. He then made his way back to the bus stop so he can go to class.
~
James smiled as his friend waved and said goodbye.
”Alright, I'll see you later. Thank you for stopping by.” He replied as he guides the customers to another booth.
'I hope Sophi gets in soon. We need to talk about hiring people. That way we don't run ourselves into the ground and we do what our parents would have,' he thought to himself as he started taking the order of the people he just sat. He noticed the tip on the table Nathan had been sitting at and after getting the drink order written down, he walked over to the table and picked up the tip. He knew that Nathan knew he didn't have to tip him, being each other's best friend and all, that he would end up paying it back to him at some point, but it was nice.