Roy orders the fries. He knows by now that his cheapo friends, Megan, Scott, and Wendy, will eat most of them, so he makes it a double. He wishes for once in their goddamn lives they would offer to chip in. Okay, maybe not Megan, who he hopes, like he does every other night, to drop off last when he drives them home in his 20-year-old Dodge Dart.
***
When the fries come, Roy will put a bouquet of them on Megan’s plate without her even asking. Megan is too pretty for Roy, and everyone knows it. She has puff dark hair and witch black eyes. A snake tattoo on her midriff dives into her low risers. Roy, on the other hand, is too much hair gel and fake leather jacket. He tries to look like Scott, who is “natural handsome,” as Roy’s mother would say. Dip-hair and muscles, and he has been getting every girl that Roy has ever wanted ever since the third grade. Roy has a better job than Scott — hotel concierge at the Best Western. Okay, he’s an intern as part of his Econ class project, but still. Scott pumps gas at his uncle’s Quicky Lube over on First Street. He doesn’t even care about college or what he will do with the rest of his life.
***
The waitress brings the fries which are just past burnt and soggy with oil. They are what’s left at 2 AM and good enough for a bunch of stoner freaks who come in every night and order fries and nothing else. Where are their parents? Don’t these kids have school? She looks at the geeky one who is always leaning into the one who looks like Morticia Addams. No one here to tell him that that will never happen. She’s wayyyy too hot for the likes of him. The other guy’s not bad, the waitress thinks. Nice and muscled, even if he always smells like motor oil.
***
Megan is trying to figure a way to not have Roy drop her off last. He is such a sad puppy, and she knows Roy will wait to be invited in. What she wants is for Wendy to be dropped off first. That way, when Roy drops off Scott, Megan could say she has to use the bathroom – can’t hold it one more minute and then she could get out of Roy’s scabby old Dart, and hang out with Scott like she’s been wanting to. Of course, Roy would ask stupid questions like how will you get home, and do you want me to wait? Megan knows that this won’t happen, but she knows she hates Roy, how he puts those fries on her plate. Like they have some kind of intimate bond, like it’s some kind of French Fry sex.
***
The parking lot is kind of a graveyard at 2 AM. A few rusty trucks and that old Dodge clunker those kids drive in on, probably bought it for 50 bucks. In the glove compartment is a map of the US folded up wrong. The kid who owns the car, the geeky one, wants to run away so bad, quit high school so bad, become someone other than himself so bad. Each night after he drops everyone off, especially that last one, the girl with trouble eyes who always says “no” even without saying it, he sits for a moment outside her house. The neighborhood is a closing eye all around him. He sits there in his car, opens the map, traces his fingers along the blue vein of roads. In the dashboard light, for just a few seconds, he feels like he could really go somewhere.
***
Scott grabs a handful of fries. His mind is tap tap tapping. How to tell Wendy not to keep the baby. He smiles weakly at Roy. I’ll get the next batch, Scott says, same as every night. Hell, Scott thinks, Roy would be home playing with his Game Boy if not for me. But back to Wendy, he could say how do I know the baby is mine, he could say, you’re young, you can have more. He watches Wendy grab a handful of fries. For the smallest of seconds he wonders if that is any good for the baby.
***
The fries are gone now. Only a pool of oil at the bottom of the bowl. The four of them licking their fingers clean. A month from now they will graduate, all except Scott who will have overslept the morning of finals. Wendy will have broken up with Scott because she found out Megan hooked up with him the night before finals. Wendy will decide to have the baby anyway, because she figures a baby won’t go and sleep with your boyfriend. Megan will reluctantly agree to go out with Roy, because it didn’t work out with Scott because the motor oil smelled different that close up.
***
The night after graduation Roy will, once again, order the fries. Single order now, since It’s just him and Megan. And it’s 9 PM, not 2 AM, and they’ve just been to a movie. Megan watches Roy put fries on her plate, slightly less than a bouquet now. He doesn’t have to worry anymore about when he drops her off. He enjoys watching her long fingers as she pops a fry into her mouth. When the waitress comes, she will oddly understand how the too-hot girl is with the geeky guy. How it’s the same as when the waitress was young and pinballed from bad boy to geek to bad boy. The waitress hopes that the geeky boy enjoys this moment before the too-hot girl gets bored and looks for her next bad boy. When the check comes, Roy will ask Megan if there’s anything else she would like, anything at all. When she shakes her head, Roy will take out his wallet because somebody has to pay the bill.
~
Francine Witte’s flash fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals. Most recently, her stories have been in Best Small Fictions and Flash Fiction America. Her latest flash fiction book is RADIO WATER (Roadside Press.) Her upcoming collection of poetry, Some Distant Pin of Light is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. She lives in NYC. Visit her website francinewitte.com.