Detention 13

CHRIS

“Is there anything else I can get you?” The waiter asked.

I was sittin’ at a table by myself, after finishin’ eatin’ a hamburger, just lookin’ out the window at the people walkin’ along on the street, when I saw him standin’ over me, smilin’ at me with those perfect-ass white teeth of his. He looked like one of those clean-cut model-lookin’ dudes you would see up in those girl magazines; he was kinda tall and thin, but not too skinny. His little name tag said “Aaron” on it. He didn’t look like somebody who would be named Aaron. “No, nothin’ else,” I told him.

Aaron smiled at me. “I haven’t seen you in here before,” he said to me. “Everybody else in here comes in everyday. But you, you’re different.” His voice kinda sounded like he was from Mississippi or Texas, or one of those Southern places. But this was Cali, so I don’t know where he got that accent from.

“Never been in here before,”

“You from `round here?” he asked. I could tell he was definitely interested in talkin’ to me. I really wasn’t up for talkin’ to anybody at the moment.

“No. Six hours up north. Oakdale.”

“Really? What you come down here for?” Aaron asked. 

“Nowhere else to go,” I told him. “Had to leave and there wasn’t nowhere else to go.”

“That’s why I’m here too,” Aaron said. “Somethin’ bad happened back where you came from?”

I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him. I think he got the hint. “Sorry if I’m askin’ too many questions,” Aaron said. He looked all embarrassed and shit. “I’ll be back with your check.”

“Good,” I said. When I looked around the small, fucked-up looking restaurant, I saw that I was there wasn’t that many people, maybe about six: two big trucker lookin’ dudes, stained shirts and beards bigger than their faces; a cracked-out lookin’ ho-type broad with high heels and a crooked blond wig drinkin’ coffee with this other broad that look like she had on clown make-up. I didn’t realize how fucked up the place was when I first walked in. The place was dirty as fuck and smelled like they kept a bunch of fuckin’ dead cows in the kitchen or somethin’. I wanted to leave right then, but I really didn’t have any fuckin’ where to go. Aaron came back with my check. He didn’t have that cute smile on his face like he did before, he kinda looked like he was scared of me or somethin’. I found myself actually feelin’ kinda guilty. 

“Here you go,” he said in that cute little accent of his. Aaron turned to walk away, but I stopped.

“Where you from?” I asked. “You don’t sound like you’re from around here either.”

Aaron turned around slowly. He looked at me for a few seconds, and then that smile returned to his face. “Louisiana,” he said.

“Long ass way from Louisiana,” I told him. “Why’d you come all the way out here?”

The smile disappeared from Aaron’s face again. “Had to get away. Couldn’t stay there anymore.” He lowered his eyes. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a twenty, stickin’ it in the little leather check-book Aaron placed in front of my table. 

“I know what you mean,” I said.

Aaron looked at me again for a couple of seconds. “You mind if I ask you what your name is?”

A part of me didn’t want to tell him, but there was a part of me that wanted to. “Chris,” I said.

“I had a friend named Chris,” Aaron said softly. He looked off into space for a quick second like he was rememberin’ somethin’.

“That your real name?” I asked, looking at his name-tag.

Aaron looked down at it and then back at me, a bit of worry on his good-lookin’ face. “No,” he said. “It’s my middle name.”

“What’s your first name?” I asked.

Aaron didn’t answer me. “I’ll be back with your change,” I said. He walked away and I watched him. He looked really good from the back; the khaki pants he was wearin’ really made his ass seem nice and round. Not that it looked better than Brandon’s, but it still looked good. Brandon. I’d been tryin’ to not think about his ass (literally and figuratively) but the more I tried, the more I thought about him. By now, he should’ve been in detention, do what fucked up things Wilson had him and the others doin’. I wondered if B was thinkin’ `bout me, if he missed me bein’ there. I missed seein’ his face, even though it was only about half a day since I last saw him. I wish shit hadn’t gone down like the way it did between us. I wished I was with him now instead of at this junky-ass place, eatin’ stale-ass hamburgers. I wanted to go back home, but there was no home left me back there. There was nothin’ left for me back there, especially B. I had to deal with shit all by myself now. For a while, I just sat there daydreamin’ when Aaron finally came back to my table.

“Here’s your change, Chris.” I’d almost forgotten that I told him my name. Now I wished I hadn’t, since he didn’t tell me his. I gave him two dollars as a tip and took the rest. I was gonna need to spend the little cash I had wisely, or else my ass was gonna end up really fucked. I got up from my table and was about to head out the door, when Aaron asked me, “Will you come back?”

I turned around. Some of the other people in the restaurant was lookin’ at me like I had did somethin’ wrong or somethin’. For some reason, all eyes were on me. “Don’t think so,” I told him.

“I thought so,” Aaron said. He pulled a wet wash cloth out of his apron and started to wipe the table clean. I watched him for a few seconds, and then left.