Chapter 2

He had arrived at his destination about half hour ago. His grandmother had picked him up at the bus station and, although he claimed he'd just eaten and wasn't hungry, she insisted she'd buy him something to eat, even if it was just one little ice cream.

They stopped at a small diner in her neighbourhood and, after convincing his grandmother that he could go in alone, he went into the diner. He walked up to the counter and was looking through the menu when the waitress came up to him.

"What can I get you?" The dark-haired girl asked him.

"Uhm… I'll have one hamburger and… some french fries… with coke" He said, his eyes still focused on the menu in front of him.

"Coke… we'd probably go to jail if we had coke here" The girl joked.

"Oh, I must be at the wrong place then" He shot back. He looked up at the girl and smiled at her. She was cute, had dark-brown hair and blue eyes.

"Yep, you must be" She said, smiling back at him. She ripped off the order and gave it to the man working in the kitchen. "So… you new here?" She asked him.

"No… just visiting" He told her.

"Well, I've lived here all my life… It can be nice at times but on other times it sucks." She rambled on. "So, were are you from?" She asked, "Oh sorry… I'm so rude. You don't have to answer that. In fact I don't want you to answer that"

"It's okay…" He started when he was cut off by the waitress.

"No. I always ask such personal questions. I mean, I just met you two minutes ago." She said

"I had a friend back home who used to ask people we didn't know all kinds of personal questions… so I'm kind of used to it by now" He told her.

"You had? Did you break up with him or something?" She joked.

"Uhm no… she died" He told her sadly.

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry. Why do I keep doing that. And I'm sorry for your friend too"

"Thanks" He said, and with that his grandmother came up to him.

"I'm sorry dear, I was in the car waiting for you when I suddenly realized that I forgot to give you money for the food" His grandmother told him, picking up her purse.

Ryan looked at her; his face was red as an apple. "It's okay. I've got it"

She looked at him and saw that he had been talking to that girl there and decided to go back to the car. "Well okay dear. I'm going to go back to the car then" She told him and walked off to the car.

The waitress smiled at him. He picked up his wallet and was about to ask her how much it was when she cut him off. "No. It's on the house" He gave her a confused look and she continued: "It's the least I can do after being so rude to you earlier"

"Well… A free meal. Who can argue with that?"

"Certainly not me" She flirted with him.

"Well, maybe I'll run into you sometime and I can arrange you one free meal" He flirted back.

"Yeah I'd like that. Everything for a free meal…" She said, shooting him a smile. She walked into the kitchen as the chef had called her in and reappeared few seconds later with his food. "Here you go" She said, while handing him his food. "So, are you staying long?" She asked him.

He stood up and took the food in his hands. "Haven't decided yet" He said as he started walking off towards his grandmothers car.

"Hey!" She shouted out at him, "I didn't catch your name"

"That's because I didn't throw it" And with that he left her there, with a huge smile appearing on her face.

After he had left the diner they had gone straight to his grandmother's place. She had shown him his room and he claimed he was really tired and wanted nothing else then to go to sleep. But truthfully, he wasn't anywhere close to being tired. He couldn't stop thinking about what would happen tomorrow. He was going to see his therapist, whom he really didn't want to meet. He didn't want to talk to some stranger about his life. Therapists get paid to listen to people ramble on about how much their life sucks. Honestly, how can she help him? She probably won't even listen, or care for that matter.

He thought about that girl in the diner too. He had just met her but somehow he felt like he had known her for an eternity. He wasn't one for the talking but, for some reason unknown to him, he found it so easy to talk to her. He wondered if he'd ever meet her again. He hoped he would but, if he wouldn't, he could always just go to that diner she worked at. Or would that seem too desperate? No, why would it? He's just going to eat there, why would that seem desperate?

After hours of thinking he finally let himself fall asleep, completely obvious as to what was about to happen the following day.