Chapter 189: The Diner Waitress
Enzo
The way that that girl stared back at me almost seemed to awaken something in me. It was as though we knew each other somehow, as though we knew each other really well. In a strange way, I felt incredibly sad looking at her. It seemed as if she felt the same way, too. But what was even more odd was that she somehow looked almost exactly like Selena, as though she was Selena’s twin.
“Baby?” Selena said, causing me to tear my eyes away from the girl. “What are you doing?”
I quickly turned back to face the hockey game, shaking my head. “Nothing,” I said. “Just thought I saw someone I recognized.”
Selena laughed. “That’s silly,” she replied, squeezing my arm. “You’ve never been here before.”
“I know.”
At least, I thought I knew. But even as the game ended and we headed out to have a drink at the local bar, I still couldn’t stop feeling as though all of this was oddly familiar to me. In fact, the longer I thought this way, the more I began to realize that I did know this town, and I did know that girl. Her name was….
But I couldn’t remember her name. Maybe I was just seeing things after all. Selena and I made our way to the local bar. The town seemed quiet and cozy, which I enjoyed. It was one of those towns where everyone went to the local bar after dark, and everyone seemed to know each other.
Maybe, I thought to myself, that was why that girl looked at me in such a strange way. Maybe she was just trying to figure out who these two strange students were, coming into her close-knit town.
When we stepped into the bar, it was packed to the brim with students and townspeople. I glanced around while Selena led me over to the bar to order our drinks; my eyes eventually landed on a table in the corner, and there she was again. The girl.
She was with a group of other people. I recognized them as the hockey team. The boy who had kissed her after the game had his arm on the back of her seat. Was he her boyfriend? For some odd reason, thinking about their kiss made me oddly jealous – but that wasn’t the only thing. As I studied the faces of the other people that the girl was with, I couldn’t help but feel as though I knew all of them, too. What was happening to me?
Suddenly, Selena grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me down to her level. She locked our lips together tightly, pushing her tongue into my mouth almost too roughly. When we pulled away, there was a look in her eyes that almost seemed jealous and angry, but it was mesmerizing at the same time. And when I glanced back at the girl in the corner, I realized now that I really didn’t know her at all.
Selena and I spent the night together in that dorm on campus. I still found it odd that she wanted to stay there instead of a hotel or something, but I decided not to question it. If this made my fiancee happy, then I didn’t mind one bit. Besides, this dorm seemed familiar, and I felt oddly comfortable in it.
The next morning, Selena woke me up early. I had a hard time sleeping the night before with all of this strangeness going on in my mind, and would have much preferred to sleep in a little longer.
“Baby, wake up” she whined, shaking my shoulder and causing me to wake with a jolt. “I want coffee. Let’s go out.”
I rubbed my eyes and sat up, yawning. Before I could ask her to give me a few minutes to wake up fully, Selena was already jumping out of the bed and getting dressed. Without a word, she tossed some clothes down on the bed for me and waited impatiently while I got dressed myself.
“I heard there’s a cute little cafe around here,” she said, tugging me along by my hand as we made our way across the campus and toward town once more. “I want coffee from there.”
“Anything for you, love,” I said, although I was still rather sleepy.
Now that it was daylight outside, I could see that some of the stores in town were boarded up, which solidified my theory that the Crescents must have had something to do with the state of the town. But the people here seemed to have bounced back relatively well, which made me oddly more happy than I expected it to. It really did feel as though I had some sort of connection to this town.
The cafe was warm and comfortable when we arrived. Selena slid into a window seat and waited grumpily with her arms folded across her chest while I got us coffee and something to eat, she had never been much of a morning person, so I bought her a sweet pastry to cheer her up.
As I walked back to our table, however, my eyes suddenly caught something through the window.
It was the girl, walking on the other side of the street. She was wearing what looked like a blue waitress uniform underneath her coat and had a leather satchel slung over her shoulder. There was a bright red scarf wrapped around her neck, billowing in the wind as she walked briskly. She looked like she was going to work.
She didn’t look at me; of course, she couldn’t see me. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her – at least, not until Selena suddenly banged the table with her fist, causing me to jump and nearly spill our coffee.
“Why do you keep staring at her?” she snarled, her blue eyes slightly glowing with rage. “I don’t like it.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I muttered, shaking my head as I set down our food and drinks. “It’s just… That girl kind of looks like you, doesn’t she? It’s uncanny.”
Selena whipped her head around to get one last glance at the girl before she disappeared from sight, then scoffed as she turned back to glare at me. “You really think I look similar to a lowly diner waitress?” Her voice was low, almost a whimper, and she was pouting now with her arms folded across her chest.
Once again, I shook my head vehemently. I slid into the booth seat next to her and wrapped my arms around Selena, pulling her close and planting a kiss on the top of her head. ” Of course not, my love,” I whispered, putting my hand under her chin and lifting her face to meet my gaze. You’re nothing like any girl I’ve ever seen.”
Selena’s frown turned into a smirk then. She reached up and planted another wet kiss on my lips before returning to her coffee and her pastry.” Ooh!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly. “Pain au chocolat! My favorite ” While Selena ate happily and drank her coffee, however, I couldn’t seem to stomach mine.
I kept catching myself staring out that window in the direction of where that oddly familiar girl disappeared to. And each time I did, I felt more and more sad. In an inexplicable way, I wanted to leave Selena here and follow the girl who looked strangely like her.
I just wished that I could understand why I felt this way about someone who I had never met.
