I got to the restaurant 3 minutes early, and was somewhat surprised to find a woman who resembled Ema waiting there. I guess she wanted to see what time I would get there.
"You're Apollo?" She looked at me up and down, and I immediately felt intimidated.
"Uh, yeah." Come on, Chords of Steel, don't fail me now! "So I'm here for part two?"
"Oh, we'll get to that. First, you might as well eat something."
"Do they have waitresses here, or do I have to go up to the counter?"
"They have waitresses." My bracelet tightened a bit as I saw the corners of her mouth curve upwards just slightly. There's some secret to these waitresses, that apparently is funny.
"All right." I decided not to ask about the waitresses- I had the feeling that the secret would be out before long. "Are you going to order anything?"
"No, I already ate." I did too…
"I'd pay for you if you wanted a drink, at least," I offered.
"Oh no, that's fine. I'm not thirsty." A waitress approached our table… Not a typical waitress, though. She wore barely more than a white bra and skirt, accented with orange. I could feel my face flushing against my will, and I tried my hardest to stare at her face.
"Hello, sir! What can I get for you today?"
"I'd just like some coffee, please."
"All right, sweetie!" She smiled at me, and I turned abruptly back to the woman in front of me. The girl whose name I still didn't know.
"Oh, I never caught your name."
"Lana." She looked at me blankly, and it seemed as if she was staring into my soul. I didn't like that feeling, to be completely honest.
"So, um…" I tried to come up with something to talk about. "The weather's pretty nice, huh?"
"It's cold." She's as bad as her sister when it comes to shooting down a conversation.
"I like it. Given, I normally wear long sleeves and pants, so they get pretty hot in warm weather."
"That's nice." Maybe if I ask a question, she'll answer it in more than two words.
"So, are you into science?"
"No." Maybe not.
"Oh, really? Then how did Ema get into it?"
"She didn't tell you?" She looked at me unbelievingly.
"I thought she just liked science class or something."
"Oh, no, there's a much bigger reason." My bracelet tightened up, and I grinned inside.
"Could you say that again?" I began to perceive her actions, hoping that it didn't look like I was trying to check her out.
"There's a bigger reason."
"You're lying."
"Oh?" She looked genuinely surprised. So she does feel emotion.
"When you said the word 'bigger', your fist clenched into a ball. So I'd say that the reason isn't all that significant."
"If you're going to accuse me of lying, I'm assuming you have a different reason why Ema's interested in science?"
"Before we go down that road, I'm more interested in why you would lie."
"I didn't lie."
"You clenched your fist again." I grinned as the seemingly unbreakable girl broke, becoming incredibly flustered. I knew it wouldn't win me any points with her, but I certainly enjoyed watching her squirm.
"I think the goal was to fluster me, all things considered. That's why you brought me to this restaurant, and that's why you weren't answering my questions, and that's why you lied." I smirked, arms folded.
"What would be the point behind me flustering you?" That took only a second of thought.
"I told you I was awkward?" I said with a blush, running one hand through the spikes in my hair. "I said it was the worst part about me, so you were testing how far you could push me."
"That's a nice bluff you've got there," she countered. "But it's all based on the premise that I lied about Ema's reason for loving science. Can you prove that?"
"No, I can't," I admitted. "Not yet, anyways." At that moment, the waitress came back, and placed my coffee on the table. I cringed as I felt her hand go through my hair. "Excuse me, what are you doing?"
"It looked soft," she giggled. "We don't get too many cute guys in here." I flinched, only to look up at her.
"I'm sorry, I'm not interested," I told her, as dully as I could.
"Why not?" She placed her hands on her hips. The hips that didn't have any clothing on them. I blushed, and looked back at her face. "Oh come on, just admit it, you're as smitten with me as I am with you." I felt my bracelet tighten as she said her last words, and I knew there was only reason she would lie.
"How much did Lana pay you to flirt with me?" I asked with a smirk. The waitress gasped.
"How did you know?!" I heard a smack from behind me, which I assumed was Lana slapping her own forehead.
"You looked away from my eyes when you mentioned being smitten with me."
"I did? Huh. Well, I hope you enjoy your coffee, smarty pants." To complete the childish tirade, she stuck her tongue out at me.
"I think you need to find some better accomplices, Lana. That waitress was a bit of an air head." I grinned. Who's awkward now? I picked up my coffee, and took a sip. As soon as the liquid landed on my tongue, however, I covered my mouth with my hand. Is this even coffee?! I had never tasted anything so disgusting in my life, which was impressive given my past as an orphan in Los Angeles. While I tried to prevent myself from puking, Lana managed to regain her smug persona. Yeah, I'm definitely the awkward one. I managed to swallow the "coffee", but just barely. "Did you put her up to this, too?"
"No. The coffee here is always terrible." She smirked at me, and I felt my face turning red in embarrassment.
"How is this place still open?!"
"The waitresses." Looking around, I noticed that the only other customers in the restaurant were old men, and I realized that I wanted to leave. Immediately. It was all I could do to shrink back into my chair. Ema. Remember Ema. Lana laughed.
"Yeah, restaurants like this don't always attract the nicest crowds, do they?" She ducked her head as soon as she said this, and something suddenly pelted me in the face. I looked down at the small projectiles.
"Is this… Bird seed?" I asked. I thought I heard someone say "darned whippersnappers!" in the distance, but I wasn't quite sure.
"He probably thought you were a bird, seeing those spikes of yours," Lana laughed.
"You know, I've been called a lot of things, but bird is a new one." This caused Lana to laugh again.
"You're funnier than I expected."
"Trust me, I know about as much about comedy as Ema does about food safety. If I say something funny, I probably didn't intend it to be." This made her laugh another time, and I was beginning to think I was better at the whole comedy thing than I originally thought. "So, did I pass stage 2 yet?"
"You still have to finish your coffee," she responded with an evil smirk.
"You seriously expect me to drink this?!"
"You mean that you wouldn't drink awful coffee for Ema's sake?"
"There is absolutely no situation where I would have to drink horrible coffee in order to benefit Ema," I retorted. She thought for a second.
"What if she tried to make you coffee, and it was bad? Would you tell her that?"
"I'm pretty sure that not even Ema doing scientific coffee experiments could be worse tasting than this." Lana laughed again, and I grinned, an evil idea popping into my head. "If I have to drink a cup of this for Ema's sake, you have to, too. Would you drink this for your sister's sake, Lana?"
"If I had to, but not as a test."
"I'm glad to see we're on the same page."
"Oh, right. I never told you why Ema got into science, did I?"
"No, you didn't."
"I used to be a detective, and she would come along with me sometimes. She fell in love with the fingerprinting powder and luminol, I suppose."
"Used to be? What are you now?"
"Ah, that's not important." She paused, clearly looking to change the subject. "You pass stage 2, I suppose. Are you ready for round 3?" More humiliation and ego killing?
"Yeah, that sounds great." She got up to leave, and I decided to take a quick last sip of my coffee before I went. The horrible coffee that I had completely forgotten was absolutely disgusting.
As I spat it out into a napkin, I heard Lana comment, "You're really lucky that you already passed round 2, or you probably would have been disqualified for that."
"Yeah, I'm a little awkward."
