I watched him carfully, being mindful not to scowl and attract the attention of my family. I noticed he did not tend to anyone else, but pretended to be busy as he bustled about, smiling politely at people, moving too fast around the crowded restaurant to stop for the people who hollered after him for a wine refill.

Shaking my head, I directed my attention away, only to have it brought back when a basket of breaksticks were placed on the table by the imposter waiter. He gave a brilliant smile, asking if there was anything else he could get us. I stared at him, whispering under my breath “Why?...”

“Such a polite boy!” My Grandmother smiled adoringly at Andy the way she might look at her own Grandkids. I was just waiting for her to reach out and pinch his boney cheeks. “You must enjoy working here.” He eyes sparkled as she held him up to have an easy going conversation with him.

“Yes, ma’am, I do.” He smiled back, he deep voice setting off his cuddly, faked personality. In real life, he was the boy who called me an ‘emo bitch queen’.

“How long have you been in the area? I’ve never seen you here before.” My Grandmother wondered, confusion creasing her forehead.

“Only just recently.” Andy replied with only half a lie. “Four months or so, I think. Only started the job a few weeks ago.”

“Well, you’re one of the kindest boys from this generation I’ve ever met.” She said matter-of-factly. “So many of them are disrespectable. More interested in their devices than their elders, they can’t even pull up their baggy pants.” She shook her head in disgust. “Almost all of them have a dozen tattoos and piercings, and dye their hair.”

Andy only smiled back kindly, his lips pursed firmly to prevent the laugh from destroying the stepping stones he’d built so far. The long sleeves and stiff collar of his white button down covered his tattoos, and he hadn’t held his hands out long enough to expose the ones on his fingers and on the sides of his hands.

“You could be a martyr for the generation. You’re very good looking, as well.” She patted his arm, then smiled at me knowingly. I ducked my head, pretending I hadn’t heard her. I peeked up to see the look of shock and surprise in his expression and almost laughed at how taken off guard he was right then.

“Er, thank you, ma’am.”

He stepped back from the table, pretending to be needed elsewhere. I thought my Grandmother was already over the encounter from the fond, hazy smile on her face until she spoke up again a few moments later.

“Ash, how come you’ve never dated anyone before? That boy is’a looker.”

“Grandma!” I exclaimed in embarrassment, looking around in panic to be sure Andy was nowhere nearby. “I’m not intohim.” I mumbled, picking at the stitching of my dress for something to do.

Luckily, my parents appeared to be in their own little bubble for the time being, and had missed out on the encounter, thank God.

~~~


It was twenty minutes before I saw him again, and around that time, a rather confused looking male waiter came our way with our food.

“You ordered?” He wondered. My Dad nodded and settled it. I looked behind the man, at Andy, bent over in a fit of gut busting laughter, his hair falling out of place, sleeves rolled up.

“Oh...” The waiter paused, then shook his head. “Do you happen to know who your waiter was?”

“He was the nice boy, Dennis.” My Grandmother replied with a smile. The waiters’ confused frown deepened.

“Dennis? Huh... Didn’t think anyone worked here by that name. Apologies.” He headed back to the kitchen to gather the rest of our food. All I could do was watch Andy laugh until he was silent, squeaking every few seconds, unable to make any other noises, while he clapped like a drunk man.

I shook my head, sighing, a giggle bound to burst from my lips unless I could distract myself. Looking at my Grandmother’s confusion, and then at Andy, he proceeded to cripple to the floor and roll around, kicking spastically, laughing silently, clutching his ribs.

“Get up.” I whispered to him with a smile. He pulled himself together slowly, wiping the tears of joy from the corners of his eyes, heaving a pleased sigh, he crossed the floor and dropped into the empty seat beside me. “Wasn’t that good fun?”

“You’re positively psychotic!” I whispered back, still smiling. “Yes, unexpected, but amusing.”

He changed the subject abruptly. “How come you always talk like that?” He wondered curiously. I paused, trying to recount what I’d said to figure out what he meant.

“Huh?”

“You always talk like you’re in a book, like a very intellectual character. Using these huge, descriptive words.” He used his hands to describe what he meant. “Like positively, unexpected and amusing. They’re all words no one really uses anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered back, looking at my parents quickly before peeking over at him.

“It just amazes me how weirdly different you are.” He says with a proud grin.

“Is that a compliment?” I chuckled, my parents talking about the plans of the move to California, sidetracked.

“I hope so.” He replied with a sheepish laugh. “Seriously, though. You’re weird. I like it.”

“You mentioned once I was weird... I think it was the night we snuck out to dig up that box.”

“You also called me weird, so...” He countered with a challenged shrug.

“It’s not shameful to be weird.” I say with a slight nod. “It sets you apart from everyone else, but also makes you a target to be bullied because you’re different.”

“Do you know why people bully?” He wondered out loud. I had a pretty good idea, but I figured his theory was probably different than mine, so I shook my head.

“Because they’re so insanely jealous that they’re not brave enough to do the same.” He concluded with a thoughtful smile. I stared at him for a moment, contemplating his words as they spun in my head. I had never thought of it that way, always in a rational way. That most people only bullied because they thought it was funny or attention-getting.

But it very well could have been the same, and it brought a privledged smile to my face as for the first time in weeks, I embraced my weirdness. The indifference I had towards everyone else, I held it close to my heart with a discreet smile and thought about all the weird things I had done already, but had never classified as weird. At least, not until now, when I really, truly thought about them.

“Better quit smiling or your parents will suspect something is up and will keep a very close eye on you for the rest of the week.” He nudged my arm and nodded towards me parents, my Dad looked at me straight on. Curiosity and confusion in his eyes.

I dropped my eyes quickly before he could see the startled fear and slowly forced the smile to disappear, but I still felt the amusement. Once his gaze had drifted elsewhere, I nudged Andy again.

“Why exactly did you do this?” I wondered, pulling at the sleeve of his nice white waiter’s shirt.

“I warned you.” He replied with a wicked smile. “I warned you the night I cut my hair that I had plans, oh such wonderful plans!”

“Wonderful plans.” I echoed with a quiet scoff.

His grin only grew wider in response. “Unfortunately, that’s the end of my pranking for today. But there’s still six more days!”

“Oh no...” I sighed, shaking my head, looking up at the vinery draped around the wooden beams. Slanted splinters of brilliant, warm sunlight shining through. I could only imagine what other things he had in mind. The pranks... Then again, I would be seeing my evil twin cousins in a few days, maybe he’d put his ghostly powers to work? I smiled at the idea of Daryl and Danny shitting themselves over a vase hovering in the middle of the living room with no explanation.

Notes

It took me four days to figure this chapter out for some reason haha.
Shoutouts!

- Fallen_Savior
- Andley_Coma
- blackveilkitty
- anathema
- Ana Lace

It continues to blow my mind everytime I log on here and see all your comments, and the number of views on this story. As I've mentioned before, 95% of my creative writing works have always been posted to Mibba, and I feel extremely lucky to gain twelve readers there. I'm glad you're all liking it so far! More to come, I plan on writing in between camp workdays, since the next three weeks will be hectic, with most of my day hours spent in town. I'll try for around 3-4 updates a week, daily if I can, it's a touchy thing haha. Thanks for all the support!