The Restaurant

CHAPTER 3

SWORD wakes up feeling like he got the worst sleep in his life, yet somehow feels much healthier. He lays in bed and thinks about yesterday's events. Sword realizes he left Random by herself and jumps out of bed, “Oh shit! That was rude of me, wasn’t it? I gotta make it up to her!” Sword rushes to the bathroom and cleans himself off, he takes a shower, brushes his teeth, sponges his hair, and puts on some of his Dads good smelling cologne. He rushes back to his room and puts on his signature clothes, dark grey pants, his light grey shirt, and his green hoodie. He runs to the door and puts on his white shoes, he goes to grab his sword off the table and sees a coupon laying there. “What’s this? A coupon for Aphy’s? That’s the restaurant by the forest.” Sword flips it over and reads the back, “Dinner for two, paid by the owner!? Yeah right, where’d this even come from?” Sword slips the coupon in his pocket and rushes out his apartment.

Sword runs to the forest and sees Random in the spot training by herself. “H-hey Random.” He says nervously, startling her.

Random turns around and greets Sword, “Hey Sword.” She waves.

“I’m sorry for leaving you like that yesterday, I don’t know what happened.”

“It’s okay, it looked like you were in pain, are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah I am, thank you. I wanted to make it up to you though, I feel bad for leaving you. I got this coupon for the restaurant Aphy’s, would you like to go?”

“Right now? Sure I guess, I am pretty hungry, I’ve been training all day.” Random wipes the sweat of her forehead.

“Sweet!” Sword walks with Random out of the forest thinking about their fight from yesterday. “Uh wait. Random? Yesterday you said I teleported?”

“Oh yeah it was really weird! One second you were talking about getting serious and the next you were in front of my face ready to strike, I don’t even know how you got your sword.”

Sword stops in his tracks, “Wait, you didn’t see me run up to you at all?”

“Nope! One second you were far away, the next you were all up in my face!”

“What the heck? That's real weird.”

“That's what I’m saying!”

The two continue walking and Sword thinks to himself, What the heck happened, was Random actually frozen and why did my chest burn? The two get to the front of the restaurant and Sword holds the door open for Random.

“Thank you.” She says doing a curtsy bow.

“You’re welcome” Sword chuckles. The two head inside and are greeted by the receptionist. She was wearing a black vest, white buttoned up shirt, rolled up to her elbows, fashioned with a yellow tie, and a black pencil skirt, finished with black flats.

“Hi!” She says, “Table for two?”

“Yes please.” Sword says

“Okay great!” She says smiling and grabs two menus. She walks us to our table and places the menus down. “Okay here you are, thank you for dining with us and someone will come to take your orders shortly.”

“Okay thank you!” They both say in unison as she’s walking away. They pause and stare at each other, they then laugh together over what just happened.

“This place is…” Sword takes a moment to look around and study the place. The restaurant gives a dark coppery feel with dark brown walls, black shiny floors, and pretty gold chandeliers making the walls look shinier. Sword looks around and notes there’s mainly two seater tables with a few four seaters, and minimal booths. The chairs are a light black with dark red cushions and tables covered with a dark tan tablecloth. “Nice.” Sword finally lets out.

Random picks up the menu and scans it over, “Yeah and this menu is…huge.”

Sword looks over the menu and agrees with her sentiment, “It’s like they have every meal that’s ever existed! Ooh however, there is one meal that I’m thinking of trying.”

“Oh me too! I’d like to get,,,” Random leads

“The Bacon Cheeseburger!” The two say in unison. “With fries! and a soda!” They say with excitement. They laugh again, amazed at this phenomenon.

“There’s just no way!” Sword exclaims

“We’re on a roll, you know what they say,” She snickers, “Great minds think alike!”

The two laugh again and a male waiter walks up. “Hi. welcome to Aphy’s, I’m Be and I’ll be taking your order.” He says unenthusiastically. Be was wearing a similar outfit as the receptionist but with black pants, and black dress shoes, his sleeves rolled down and a blue tie. His hair has two spikes on top and one spike on each side of his head.

“He must use a lot of hair gel to style his hair like that.” Sword whispers to Random. She smiles covering her mouth so as to not laugh.

“I’m assuming you two would like a bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries and a soda?”

“Oh you heard that?” Random asks, blushing with a little chuckle.

“Well you guys weren’t exactly being quiet, and there’s not many other people in here.” Be says flatly.

“Yes, that's fine.” Sword says glaring at Be for his rude tone.

“Great, that'll be right out.” Be leaves and quickly comes back with two sodas for them. “Here you go.”

“Oh thank you.” Sword says.

“That was fast.” Random comments

“Yup. brb.” Be says then leaves.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, you said your Dad owned your sword, where’d he get it from?” Sword asks Random.

“Oh he was a veteran in the forgotten war, it’s one of the only memorabilia he still has from that time.” Random answers.

“Whoa!? Really? That’s awesome! Oh that reminds me, I already told you my Dad found this sword by studying battlefields but he also found...” Sword pulls out his necklace and shows it to Random. “This necklace! He gave me the task of trying to find its owner!”

“Aww, that’s sweet. We could try asking my Dad if he recognizes the necklace, but he doesn’t really like talking about that time. He doesn’t remember anything but still tries to forget as much as possible.”

“Awesome, I was just about to ask if you didn’t mind.” Sword returns his necklace under his hoodie.

Be returns and places down their sodas. “Here’s your drinks, our other waiter, Cee, will bring your food shortly.” Be leaves and the two continue talking.

“So who taught you how to sword fight? Or did you teach yourself?” Random asks.

“Uh, kinda, My Dad would monitor what me and my brother did, but after my brother stopped it was just me alone who trained.”

“That’s cool! Your Dad sounds like an awesome dude.” Random says.

Sword to winces, which he tries his best to hide, despite it happening a while ago, it’s still a tough subject for Sword.

“Uh yeah, he wuh-is. Um, How’s your family? What are your parents like?” Sword says nervously, trying to shift the focus off on him.

Random gasps, “My family is AWWEEEsomeeee,” she says in a sing-songy voice. “I live with just my mom and my dad and they’re the best mom and dad anyone can ask for! They’re VERY supportive of everything I do and always pushing me to do the best I can, they’re really loving.” Random says excitedly.

“Awesome.” Sword chuckles, “ I can tell your family means a lot to you.”

“They are my EVERYTHING! What about you Sword, what’s your family like?”

“Uht-oh uh…” Sword stutters. As if on queue, the waiter Cee, comes out with their food.

“Here’s the two burgers, enjoy!” Cee says. Cee looks similar to Be. He’s wearing the same outfit but with a blue bowtie, he has his sleeves rolled up like Em and he looks like an older version of Be. His hair is a slightly dark brownish color with two hair spikes on top and none on the sides, he has dark blue eyes and a patchy beard matching his hair color. “Just let me know if you need anything else.” He says then walks away.

“Delightful!” Random says. The two scarf up the meal, never continuing the conversation from earlier. “Now that, that was delicious!”

“Quite splendid if I do say so myself. Would you like some desert?”

“Oh nah, it’s okay.”

“It’s fine, I’m sure I could pay for it. I found these coupons today that say I get a full free meal for two. I don’t know how I got them though, I was pretty out of it going home yesterday, I stopped in front of this building and I could’ve sworn I heard someone talking, maybe they dropped these coupons.”

“That’s great and all but there’s no way I’d be able to finish the desert, I’m so full!” Random chuckles

“Haha ok ok. I guess I’ll just cash these in and we’ll get out of here.”

Em approaches them this time around, “I take it you guys are ready for the check?”

“Yup. I got-”

“Great!” Em says cutting Sword off, “I’ll just take your coupons and you guys are good to go.” Em takes the coupons and sees Sword reaching for his wallet, “Oh don’t worry about the tip, these coupons cover that.”

“Oh, well that’s convenient, I guess we’ll just get going then, have a good day.”

“Bye bye,” Random says.

“Good bye, come back soon.” Em says, the other two waiters stand by Em's side and wave goodbye.

The two walk outside and Sword notices a flyer on the window of the restaurant. “Hey what’s that?” He asks, “Was that always there?”

“What?” Random asks as she turns to look at the flyer. “A regional sword fighting tournament? And it’s starting soon!?”

“Wait…WHAT!? Since when!!?? How did I not know about this!! I can’t believe they’re even enough sword fighters to host this tournament!” Veterans could be there as well, I could find the owner of this necklace! Sword thinks to himself. “We have to go Random! We have to!” He exclaims.

“Uhh sure, but I’m definitely gonna need more training.”

“That’s okay! I do too! Who knows how good the people are gonna be. Okay! We’ll meet at the forest tomorrow and we’ll practice together!”

“Oooh that sounds like fun!”

“Oh MAN, I’m so excited! I gotta go Random, I have to prepare some things at home, but I will see you tomorrow! Goodbye!!” Sword yells running off.