Ghostly Image

The Gravy Boat

Hunter's POV:

I felt a little insecure as we started to walk back through the woods. She stumbled over a tree branch and grabbed onto my arm. She immediately laughed and I helped her right herself. She took a seat on the branch and I helped her dig her shoe out from under the branch.

She tried to grab the shoe away from me, but I bent down and put it on for her. When I touched her foot, I almost pulled my hand away because my hands were sweating so badly, nervous tension surged through me, but I pushed through and wiped some of the dirt from her foot. “Let me my lady” I bowed, acting like a knight.

We both laughed “Well sir, I see chivalry is not dead”. I helped her back as we started to walk again. She stumbled again and we both knew that it was going to be impossible to walk in those high heels.

She smiled at me and turned her head back toward the party. “I probably should have thought this little escape through first”

I walked in front of her and turned my back toward her. “Come on, jump on.”

She laughed “Are you serious you are going to carry me out of here?”

“Yeah I am, so get on.”

She laughed as she jumped onto my back. “I’ve heard of a knight in shining armor, never have I heard of a knight carrying. lady on his back though.”

I turned to look at her. “We’ll, that’s because I am not a knight, I was looking for a reason to be close to you and I was just handed the perfect opportunity. Must be my lucky night”

She laughed softly in my ear as I carried her as she jumped on. “Well then, where do we go from here, sir, not so much knight”

“I’m new to town. I don’t know of any place.”

“Fine, how about our local diner, The Gravy Boat?”

I burst out laughing, “Seriously, that’s what they call the diner, The Gravy Boat.”

She acted offended. “Oh no, no, no. You should never judge. The Gravy Boat, I will have you know, makes the best burgers in town, not to mention their shakes. Then there is, of course, their famous gravy, which is honestly to die for, and they put that gravy on just about everything they serve.”

“Well then let’s go and, judge those burgers and gravy”

I kept carrying her until the streetlights came into view. A car drove past us and I could immediately feel her tense. “You can put me down now.”

I reluctantly put her down and let my hands drift over her legs as she slid down my back. I swear for a split second I thought my heart stopped.

As we strolled toward the gravy boat, some of my nervousness was back, and I could see that she was feeling very uncomfortable as well. I guess under the harsh streetlights and with the town now staring at us, this was bound to end.

I turned to her, “Look, you don’t have to go with me to the burger place” another car passed, and again the occupants stared at us, especially me. I watched the woman in the car shake her head as they passed us. “Yeah, I am not considered good company, especially with my dad being in prison.”

She stared at me and for a moment, I saw relief cross her eyes. Her eyes followed the car as they stopped at a traffic light in the next block.

Then I saw something else cross her face, resolve. “No, we might as well start a scandal now, it’s already going to be across town that I was seen with the new boy, whose father is in jail for killing a family of four.”

I turned my shocked expression on her “How did you know that?”

She gave me a sad smile and grabbed my hand. “Yeah, you’ll get used to living in a small town. News spreads like wildfire here, but you’ll be happy to know they almost always add on a new detail to that story, which means by tomorrow morning, the story will have evolved to us having s*x in the street, while you were wielding a knife”

I gave a small nervous laugh as she came to a standstill in front of the diner. She turned toward me. “So what do you think?”

I took a step back and took the whole diner in “Jesus, it’s so yellow”

The whole shop was decorated yellow with red lines here and there, breaking the color. A huge gravy boat was painted on the window with the name ‘Gravy Boat’ written in yellow and red just above it.

She started giggling. “I know right, it’s f*****g awesome. It’s like we traveled back to a ‘70’s horror movie and everyone inside will soon be slaughtered.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what it looks like. Eerily actually.”

We stepped inside, and the place was serving a few families and teenagers inside, probably the ones that were not invited to the party at the abandoned house in the middle of the forest.

She guided me to a booth with mustard yellow seats.

A waitress in a similarly colored uniform brought our menu’s over.

Jenna looked up at her and the waitress gave her a small smile. “Hi Rachel”

The waitress nodded and turned to Jenna, “The usual, right?”

Jenna nodded her head, “Of course, but make that two orders please”

The waitress grabbed the menu's again and rushed off toward the kithchen. I stared at Jenna “I hope whatever you ordered there is edible.”

She smiled, and I watched as two dimples appeared in her cheeks. In the light of the restaurant I could make out the color of her eyes, they were the palest green, almost ethereal, and against her dark hair she looked just about perfect. I was transfixed by her looks and couldn’t take my eyes off her face.

I saw her mouth moving and realized she was speaking to me.

I gave myself a small shake and looked up into those eyes again. “Sorry I didn’t catch that.”

“Yeah I wanted to know what grade you are in. According to the town gossips, you are starting as a junior, you and your twin sister”

I shook my head. “f**k me, these guys are good. Where do they get all this info from?”

“Who knows, they are pretty good though, right?”

“Yeah and pretty accurate”. I stared at her, realizing something. “So at the party, you knew who I was?”

“I didn’t know for sure, but I had a pretty good idea”

“And yet you still decided to leave with me?”

“Yeah, call it a moment of madness, which sitting here now, I am happy I made”

I smiled at her and noticed the waitress walking over with our food and drinks. “Here you go the gravy boat special, 2 x onion and bacon burger with cheese, gravy fries and two butterscotch milkshakes.”