Darkness had begun to fall by the time the group arrived at the steakhouse, which initially masked the realization that Charlie's information was more than a little accurate. The parking lot was packed to the brink like a giant sardine can. Because of the fullness, John was forced to park almost a whole street away from the building. Meaning that the three of them were forced to run to it in the cold.
Normally Charlie would have playfully proposed a race between them, but the lowering temperatures destroyed her sense of playful competition. The focus now was on just getting back to some warmth. Although the experience did have the benefit of making her rethink Jessica's early comments and Charlie slowly found herself agreeing with her points. Judging by how much John was shivering she didn't doubt he'd object. To the idea either.
Once they'd reached the entrance their running turned into a steady walk as Charlie walked right over to the host. After a quiet exchange, she motioned for John and Jessica to follow the host back to one of the tables. To their delight, they were immediately seated and given menus as well as drinks,
"For a place that's packed they got us in pretty quickly," Jessica said, looking about the sea of patrons before glancing back to Charlie. "Though something tells me your little conversation played a hand there."
Charlie played around with her straw and grinned triumphantly. "I might have called ahead and paid a bit extra to reserve us a table; It was something I thought of doing just in case Kevin was telling the truth about it being very packed."
"Well cheers to your intuition because otherwise, I doubt we'd have even gotten through the door," John said while looping his arm around Charley's shoulders. She flashed Jessica a smirk while leaning into John and winking.
"See, I've learned how to think ahead." She teased, which earned her a chuckle from the taller girl.
"It's a start But I'm going to wait till we have our food and then I'll determine if it was worth your extra money," Jessica spoke in a mock posh tone and flicked her hair in an exaggerated manner that elicited small giggles amongst them.
After the giggling died down, Jessica looked over at John then leaned closer to him. "So how have you settled into being a college boy John,"
"It's been a little up and down, some classes are easier than others harder. Not too different from high school actually." He drummed his fingers along the table with a little chuckle. "After everything the career counselors described, I thought it was going to be a warzone."
"I've never put too much thought into what they tell us," Charlie said while leaning a bit further into John's shoulder,
"Yeah, someone once tried to convince me to become an actress." Jessica looked down at her drink and used her straw to swirl it around in circles. "Most of em just look for superficial things and grades to try determining your future."
"Don't forget how they sometimes push you towards whatever your family does too." John chimed in before glancing aside. "At least now my only massive hurdle is trying to pass the poetry parts of the course."
"Oh? So you're not going to try making Charlie swoon with passionate verses about your love for her?" Jessica dramatically placed a hand to her forehead while Charlie bit back a grin and flushed.
"Well if that's his plan then I hope he tries a bit better in the future … his attempt to win me over with a haiku wasn't too impressive."
"Those things are so limiting," John muttered before taking another sip of his drink.
"Couldn't be any worse than what I read in Donnie's notebook," Jessica said, mentioning the crush she'd told Charlie about last year. Charlie instinctively grabbed hold of the hand John looped around her shoulder and squeezed it.
"Don't you dare break John like you did Donnie, I like him just the way he is now,"
"Wasn't planning on it, so aside from listening to John's poetry what's the rest of your life like right now?" Jessica asked and then took another sip from her drink. "The nine to five work going okay?"
"It's alright for what it is; it's a discount store after all so there's never a lot going on." Charlie shrugged
"No workplace gossip to share?" Jessica teased while Charlie shook her head "no"
"I just like to keep my head down and avoid drama, besides I get along well with almost everyone there so I've yet to have any real problems" Jessica looked over towards John to judge his reaction, but he continued to remain calm besides taking a drink while also running Charlie's shoulder with his thumb. But Jessica could tell he was avoiding her gaze, at least he was trying to give off a better poker face than Charlie,
"So have there been any no so "real" problems then?" Jessica innocently asked, causing Charlie to half sigh. 'There's no hiding anything from Jessica.' Jessica tilted forwards a bit further smirking slyly while Charlie tried to think of a way to change the subject. Workplace drama wasn't something she liked to engage in or talk about, especially outside of work but she knew that the more she avoided it the more persistent Jessica would become.
"It's no big deal, I'm just dealing with some kid that's kind of annoying there, and he's a bit too persistent about wanting my attention."
Jessica hummed loudly then slowly nodded her head. "That's a classic sign of a crush if I've ever heard of one, you've told him about John already right?"
"Yeah and I think that may have finally settled him down, I hope it did at least." His crush was something that Charlie had always known about and she'd responded by not entertaining it. After it's finally clicked why he wanted to talk, she opted to just treat him like a normal co-worker in the hopes he would eventually lose interest.
"So what's your take on that?" Jessica directed her next question at John, who gave Charlie a supportive glance.
"Honestly it's not something I feel the need to get worked up about."John had been perhaps the only other person Charlie had mentioned Arty too outside of work. But while the interest Arty had shown was a little concerning to John, he was confident that Charlie knew how to handle him.
After that, John switched things around and asked Jessica about her own classes, but as she started talking Charlie suddenly began feeling watched. She pulled away from John to look around the restaurant and try to spot whoever was staring at her. After a brief moment of scanning though, she couldn't see anyone until she looked towards the main entrance. It was then she found herself locking eyes with an all too familiar face.
'Arty?'
The curly-haired boy grinned warmly and waved to her before then turning to address the man next to him. He said a few quick words to him before the man walked back towards the kitchen and Arty started walking over to Charlie's table. She lowered herself and hoped that with the packed restaurant he wouldn't be able to find them. But unfortunately, her earlier luck did not extend to this moment.
"Charlotte? What are you doing here?" John and Jessica both looked up at Arty as he meandered over to their table. Jessica looked from him to Charlie, shocked that he'd addressed Charlie by her full name. Charlie meanwhile was doing her best not to groan while composing herself.
"Hey Arthur, I'm just having dinner with a few friends." She said with a forced smile and subtlety motioned for John to place his arm across her shoulder again. The action coupled with the mention of his full name caused Arty's smile to fade, but he was quick to put it back on his face.
"Oh right, my bad, Charlie. It's good to see that you're getting out." Arty said but kept his gaze firmly locked upon Charlie without bothering to acknowledge John or Jessica. He pointed his thumb back towards the person he'd walked in with, who was entering the kitchen. "I'm tagged along with my cousin for the night and then going out on the town later," he said without any sort of prompting or question from the group,
"That's nice, so he works here as a cook?" Jessica asked, trying to be at least a little polite. However, her question was ignored as Arty's face suddenly lit up.
"Hey, would you and your friends like to come with me so I can show you all around?"
"That's nice Arty, but I already have plans with my friends." Charlie quickly said, but then grimaced as Arty's face fell as well as his demeanor.
"Oh...are you sure?"
"Yeah but thanks anyway." Charlie attempted to sound encouraging and Arty rolled his shoulders before once more putting the smile back on his face.
"Alright then, I hope that you have a good time with your friends and that you stay safe out there." He gave them all a little wave goodbye before walking off into the restaurant and left behind an unnerved Charlie. Along with a slightly confused John and Jessica, who kept her eyes on Arty until he was out of sight, then looked back to Charl
"That wouldn't happen to have been the kid you were talking about, was it?"
"Yep that's the one," Charlie said, leaning back into John's shoulder. Jessica shook her head before once more swirling her straw with a look of unease.
"So I take it he's not a fan of your name then?"
"He likes my full name, but as long as he insists on calling me Charlotte I'll be calling him Arthur." Charlie smiled when she felt John's hand move over and squeeze hers.
"Well, I think Charlie sounds much better anyway." He said, causing Charlie to look up and tap him on the nose.
"You don't get to talk; you did the same thing back when we were kids." She smiled as John flushed. Which had the extra benefit of relieving some of the tenseness leftover from Arty's earlier intrusion Then all further conversation was put on hold as a waiter brought over their menus and after ordering their food, John excused himself to use the restroom. As he made his way over it, he walked past a booth with a single occupant who rose and started following behind him.
Upon reaching the bathroom, John was dismayed to discover that a small line had gathered outside it. But without any other options, he resigned himself to waiting with everyone else. He leaned against a wall and decided to let his mind wander, not really interested in making conversation with the others who were waiting.
"I guess everything about this place is packed tonight." He quietly murmured but jumped as he was approached by his unknown follower
"Yeah it gets this way on the weekends, but this is one of the better nights," John looked sharply to the right as Artycame up beside him.", my cousin once told me about a night where one of the cooks had to walk out and shoo out several customers because they didn't have enough food."
"Well, I'm...glad this isn't one of those nights." John looked away from Arty and back towards the bathroom, silently hoping that the line would speed up.
"Yeah the weekend can be a pretty bad time to come, but hey ya know it's probably very hard getting time out to do stuff like this." Arty gestured about the room and then chuckled to himself. Reaching out, he patted John on the back and caused him to jolt from his leaning position.
"Course working hard is something we can all relate to, right?"
"Well yeah though thankfully college isn't too hard on me," John rubbed his neck but Arty looked at him with a confused expression.
"Collage? Charlotte told me that you were a published writer...I mean since I assume that you're John because who else would she be out and about with?" John shifted away from Arty before thinking of a reply.
"I am published but it was just some magazines back home and yeah I'm taking classes. But that's just because I can always find a way to get better y'know."
"Oh, so Charlotte's the one making all of the dough while you go off to classes then?"
"I guess you can say that, but I'll probably get a job of my own once summer comes along." John moved with the line while Arty inhaled sharply then let out a curious sounding hum.
"Oh well, it's a start but you'll need something more than that to get by."
The line began to move again and John tried to put some distance from himself and Arty. The conversation had taken a turn John was all too familiar with thanks to similar ones with father, bringing back a slew of unpleasant memories.
Thankfully his turn came up rather quickly and entered to do his business. Though it was a little concerning that by the time he existed, Arty was gone. He walked back to the table and tried to put Arty out of his mind but for the rest of their dinner but the entire time both Charlie and John felt more than a little uneasy. They only relaxed when they left the restaurant to go looking for stores to pick out winter clothing, as Jessica had finally won them over the idea.
All the while they hoped that interaction with Arty would be their last for a while, a hope that was unknowingly hoping in vain.
-
The best way Carlton could think of to describe the atmosphere in the Burkes dining room was awkward, although he knew that John, being a writer, would have a better one. The air about them had intensified as soon as Clay arrived home from work and brought with him take-out from one of Carlton's favorite restaurants.
From the looks that his aunt and mother had given Clay, Carlton knew this was as surprising to them as it was to him. When he came into the house and set the bags down, he greeted Carlton with a warm and tight hug. "Welcome back little soldier." Clay whispered, and it took all of Carlton's willpower to not immediately shove Clay away from him,
"Little Soldier" had been his nickname his dad used for most of his childhood. But it was always said it after a command and never with love. To be "brave" and to "behave" tended to be the comment uses associated with it. Carlton never saw it as a nickname, but more his father trying to incorporate part of work into raising him.
Giving him commands disguised as advice and compliments to trick him into following them. This resulted in Carlton always becoming tenser whenever the name was said, But this went unseen by Clay who happily handed him the food he'd brought home.
"I got your favorite tonight Carlton, I thought you'd miss having this stuff living with your aunt."
"Thanks, Dad, but I thought this weekend was about mom." Carlton looked over towards his mother, whose expression bore a mixture of apologetic and guiltiness. Cynthia, however, did not attempt at all not disguise her displeasure.
"It's about coming together and being a family, which we've been missing a big part of with you gone." Clay said before hugging Carlton again and headed off into the kitchen to fetch some a result, the joyous atmosphere that Clay had been hoping for was replaced by silence with awkwardly idle between the adults. Carlton was content to tone it all out when a question was finally directed towards him.
"So have you had any luck figuring out your next steps?" Clay innocently, which made Cynthia give him a hard look. Carlton leaned back in his seat and shook his head.
"Not really, but I'm thinking about getting a job at that one theme park." His father nodded in approval.
"A good start to your working career, though it won't get you very far so always keep your prospects open."
"He'll be fine no matter what he does and he'll always have a place to call home," Cynthia interjected. Before Clay could tell Cynthia it was just friendly advice, Carlton spoke up to both of his parents.
"So have either of you two had any interesting things happen at work lately?" He paused when Betty and Clay flinched and exchanged glances. It seemed as though they were prepared for this question and Clay nodded to his wife before answering Carlton's question.
"Well I can't say there has been, everything around here has been quiet on my end. While he spoke, Betty not so gently shoved her fork into her meal before adding in her own comment.
"Even when it's quiet though I'm still busy." She humorlessly chuckled and absently dug around her food. Carlton decided to keep his focus on his own meal, but he knew his parents were trying to hide something. Like Carlton, Cynthia just kept her eyes on her food and just took in the conversation while picking at her food.
"Besides even if we had something active, we wouldn't be allowed to tell you much anyway." Clay shook his silverware like he was pointing a finger. "It's like what they told my uncle in the Navy, "Loose lips sink ships."
"Well I don't think we're in any danger of sinking around here, we're kinda landlocked," Carlton said dryly, causing Cynthia to laugh while his mother snorted. Clay enthusiastically chuckled before staring back down into his meal.
Carlton went to add onto the joke but was cut off as a loud yawn escaped from his mouth instead which startled everyone else at the table. Once he was finished, Carlton shook his head while also rubbing at his eyes.
"Woah, guess the drive here tired me out more than I realized." This was met with another yawn from the direction of his aunt.
"Now that you mention it, I'm feeling more than a bit tired myself." Pushing away his plate, Carlton stood up and stretched with another yawn before pushing his chair. "If it's alright with everyone I think I'm going to call it an early night."
Clay leaned back into his own chair before standing up. "That's quite alright don't think anyone wants you falling asleep in the cake, especially Betty.
"That's funny I didn't even know I was getting a cake." Betty sarcastically said and shot her husband an annoyed look. Clay sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he realized he'd given away one of his surprises for tomorrow.
Deciding to not stick around any longer lest things turn into an argument, Carlton quickly said his goodnights and made his way back to his old room. Doing his best to tune out anything he might have heard his family said. But beneath the tiredness, there was a sense of urgency and nervousness rising.
He was so close, but he knew he needed at least some sleep before he set out on his task. Both to recharge his batteries and also to give everyone else time to fall asleep. If they found out about his plan then that would be the end of it. There was no going back now, tonight would be the last night of Micheal's torment. Maybe then he could focus on putting his family back together.
It was a distant dream, but perhaps maybe once Freddy's shadow was gone they could all start again. It was this small yet imporbable hope that continued to push Carlton forward.