Chapter 22: Twenty

They pull into a parking spot near the corner of a street. Ian turns off the car and takes his keys out. Liam and him get out at the same time.

Ian sticks his keys in the pocket of his shorts before leading the way inside the small diner. There's a big glass window to the right with the name and a little painting of a tangerine at the end on it.

The door is wood and painted white. There's a bell that rings when they open it. The place on the inside is pretty small. They have clean, white tile flooring and light red booths set up around. There's a bar where you pay on the other side of the diner from the door. It's cute.

Ian takes a seat at the nearest booth and Liam slides in across from him. There's two menus already on the table so Liam picks one up. Ian does too.

"I've never been here before." Liam mumbles because Ian probably already knew that. "What should I get?"

"A cheeseburger. Not only because you've never had one, but also because it's the only thing that's always edible as far as I know." Ian says. "Do you want everything on it?"

Liam pauses to think. "Um. What's 'everything' include?"

"Oh, right." Ian nods once, as if just remembering that Liam wouldn't know that because he doesn't get to eat burgers. "Um tomato, pickles, usually ketchup, lettuce, and sometimes onion I think."

"Oh." Liam swallows as he thinks about it. "And you don't have to get everything on it?"

"Nope." Ian shakes his head. "I usually only get pickles and ketchup. I don't like the texture of tomatos."

"Oh, okay." Liam nods. "I think I'll just get pickles and ketchup too, that sounds good."

Ian smiles. "Okay then. Now, what flavor of milkshake do you want?"

"Um, I don't know."

"Oh, right. Of course you don't." Ian says blankly again. "Okay, I got it. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Assuming you've had ice cream before."

The last bit is added on jokingly. Liam chuckles a little. "Yes, I've had ice cream before."

"Thank the Lord."

"I like vanilla." Liam hasn't tried very many flavors. Vanilla is a safe choice though.

"Alright so just get a vanilla shake then." Ian grins.

Liam nods and then he sees the waitress approaching them. She's wearing a 50s style waitress dress that's orange and white. Her hair is tied up in a messy bun and she has light bags under her eyes. She looks like a tired college student.

Liam swallows his nerves and starts running his order through his mind. He's a seventeen year old boy that gets scared to order food. How pathetic.

Although, he doesn't totally blame himself for that. His mother always orders for him when they go out to eat because she likes to control what he eats. He doesn't really ever go out to eat with anyone else either so he doesn't have any other chances to order food.

The waitress stops at their table. She smiles tiredly and Liam feels it as his throat dries up. His mental preparation goes out the window.

"What can I get y'all to drink today?" She asks and Liam opens his mouth but closes it again. It's okay though because her eyes are on Ian.

"Um a water and..." He glances over at Liam but after one look keeps talking. "Two waters is fine."

"Alright." She writes it down. Then, she looks down at the folded up menus on the table. "Already know what you want to eat?"

"Yeah. Two cheeseburgers with just ketchup and pickles. Fries on the side." Liam releases a small breath of relief as Ian orders for both of them.

"Alright-y." She hums and scribbles it down. She picks up the menu and spins around to walk away.

Liam looks over at Ian and he's smiling. "You looked like you were about to die when she walked over here so I figured I'd better order."

Liam looks down at his lap. That's embarrassing. He manages to mumble out through his embarrassment a thanks. He is grateful.

"It's no problem. I have to order for Lucas all the time. That's actually why we call him puppy, er one of the reasons, because I told him that he looked like a kicked puppy and he got all defensive about it. That was back when we were freshmen, so he's gotten used to the nickname now."

Liam nods. "That makes sense."

At least he didn't have to feel embarrassed now. He still is but that helped.

"So, if you don't get to eat burgers what do you eat?" Ian asks with curiosity. "Some rich boy food?"

The waitress comes back and drops off their waters. Liam's grateful for the break in this conversation. It's a very short break though, as soon as she's gone again Ian is looking at him with his eyebrows raised.

"I don't know, I eat different things. My mom just doesn't like things like this because of all the grease and she claims it's super unhealthy." Liam shrugs. "She's a nut when it comes to what I'm allowed to eat."

"What you're allowed to eat? That's a weird way to phrase it."

"Yeah, but it's the correct way. She completely controls what I eat as much as she can." Liam says. He doesn't know why he's being so open but he doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't be.

"So... what would she do if she knew that you were eating a greasy cheeseburger right now?" Ian asks with genuine curiosity.

Liam nibbles on his bottom lip in thought. "She'd change the meal plan for the next week. We'd have some kind of healthy shitt as the main course and every single day we'd have salad as one of the first courses."

"Why salad specifically? Like I know it's healthy and all, but every single day?"

"She knows I don't like it." Liam shares, he takes a drink of his water. "I usually eat less when we have salad because I can't stand the taste of lettuce. I'll start feeling sick and leave dinner half way through. So, if she serves salad all that week then I'll eat less."

Liam looks up to meet Ian's eyes. His brown eyes are wide while looking back at Liam. "Are you being serious? Like, she purposely does that?"

"Um." Suddenly Liam feels unsure if this is something he should be sharing. Although, it's too late to back out now so he nods. "Yeah sometimes."

"Liam, that's messed up." Ian says like he's in shock. Liam's eyebrows furrow.

"I know it's not the greatest but she's always been like that." Liam mumbles. "It's okay, she just has issues about that kind of thing. It's because of how she was raised."

"Li, that's not an excuse." Ian's voice is soft now. His eyes are concerned.

Liam feels like shrinking in on himself. He shifts in his seat. At his discomfort, Ian sighs.

"Don't worry about it. Sorry, I'm prying."

"Uh, it's alright." Liam says awkwardly. He then spots the waitress coming towards them with food. That was fast. Then again, they are the only ones here.

He takes a bite out of his burger. It's really good.

They finish eating their burgers in peace. The radio in the diner is playing soft country music in the background. It's oddly peaceful.

Liam finishes his cheeseburger and moves on to his pile of French fries. There's a whole little mountain on the left side of his plate. He doesn't think he'll be able to eat them all but that doesn't matter at the moment.

Ian reaches across the table with the ketchup bottle. He squeezes it and make a little puddle on the plate. When Liam looks up he's grinning.

"They taste way better with ketchup. Also, salt them. The chef never salts it enough so you gotta do it."

Liam nods and picks up the salt. He sprinkles it around the fries before picking one up. He dips it in the ketchup and eats it.

"That is good." Liam smiles. He looks up and Ian's smiling back.

"I know." Ian's grin is contagious. They're both grinning while eating fries in the middle of the night. It may be a bit weird but Liam loves it.

Liam only gets through about half of the fries. He gets full pretty fast. Once he feels like he can't eat anymore he slides the plate a little closer to Ian's side of the table.

Ian looks up and smiles. He reaches over and starts eating Liam's fries. Liam sips at his water while Ian finishes up the last of the fries.

"So, you've missed out on quite a bit huh?" Ian starts after eating the last bit of the fries. "Anything else you have yet to experience that I should plan on helping you out with?"

Liam's eyes widen at the question. Ian wants to help him out with this kind of stuff? He furrows his brows in thought. What would be considered normal that he hasn't gotten the chance to do?

"Uh, I don't know." He shrugs. "I've already had a lot of new experiences with you guys."

"Really?" Ian's interest was spiked now. "Like what?"

"Um, well like staying the night at someone else's house. That was new for me. Oh, and swimming in a lake. You already know about the movie theater. Riding the fourwheelers and going to the arcade was new to me as well."

"Oh, wow." Ian nods. "Okay, so is there anything you want to experience?"

Their conversation gets interrupted by the waitress coming to the table. She takes the plates and then nods at the two of them. "Anything else I can get for you boys?"

"Yeah, can we get two milkshakes? A vanilla and a caramel." Ian asks politely. The waitress smiles and nods. She writes it down and starts to walk away.

Ian's attention moves back to Liam. Liam thinks about the question from before. After a moment he smiles a little. "I mean, really all I used to want was to have friends I could hang out with freely. I guess I got that now."

Ian's smile was soft. He lets out a laugh under his breath. "Well, that's good." When he smiles it's lopsided which is cute. "If you figure out anything else you really want to do just let me know. I'm always open to doing stuff."

Liam smiles too. It's a genuine one. He feels good.

"I'll keep that in mind."

The waitress comes back with their milkshakes. Liam takes a drink of his vanilla one and feels like melting in his seat. He takes another big drink and Ian chuckles.

"It's good isn't it?"

"Amazing." Liam grins. Ian laughs.

They both drink their milkshakes and then get up to leave. At the counter, they split the bill. With that done, Liam follows Ian back out to the car.

The drive home is peaceful. They don't talk but it's comfortable. There's a few moments when Liam feels like he's going to fall asleep.

Ian parks outside of the gate, on the grass by the road, just like he had before. They both get out and start the walk back up Liam's driveway. It's darker now, by a lot. There's no street lights to brighten it up and so Ian has to pull out his phone and use it as a flashlight.

"I'll climb up first and help you up, okay?" Ian looks over at Liam once they reach the tree by his bedroom window.

"Okay." Liam nods. Ian hands him his phone so he can direct the flashlight beam. He then starts to climb up.

He gets on a sturdy branch and reaches one hand down to help Liam up. Liam climbs up after him and then goes the rest of the way by himself. Ian climbs up right behind him up until they meet the branch right by his window.

"Well shit, I didn't think this through." Liam mumbles while staring down at the fall.

Ian chuckles from behind him. "It's alright. Just jump."

Liam swallows thickly in fear.  "If I fall, you're paying my hospital bills."

That makes Ian burst out laughing. The tension eases in Liam's shoulders at the noise. He slowly laughs too.

Eventually he jumps over and grips the top of the window. His feet land on the edge and he almost slips. Once he's confident he isn't going to fall, he slips in the window and collapses onto his bedroom floor.

Ian laughs behind him and comes in through the window too. "Dude, you okay?"

"Yeah." The blue eyed boy mumbles and slowly starts to stand. He looks over at Ian and then out the window. Staring at the tree that he just jumped from brings a smile to his face.

Suddenly he bursts out laughing. He isn't sure why, there's nothing funny about this situation. He doesn't know why but he laughs loudly. Ian starts laughing too. They both just stand there laughing like maniacs.

Eventually, the two boys get their acts together. They both agree they should sleep and make their way over to the bed. Liam collapses on his side of the bed. He's really tired all the sudden.

Ian lays down too and they both lay down in silence. It isn't until he's half asleep that Liam suddenly remembers he's wearing Ian's hoodie.  He contemplates sitting up and taking it off, he doesn't though. In the end, sleep wins and takes over.

He passes out while being completely relaxed and sleeps the best he has in awhile.

•○•○•○•○•○•○•○•○•

Love you ♡

- Z