Lunacy

by Dan Dillard

  Chapter 14

  Becca skipped class and went straight to her apartment. She showered until the hot water ran out and then emailed her professor an excuse.

  "Damn!"

  She stumbled into the kitchen and found Jason's phone number magneted to her refrigerator. It rang more times than she wanted, but then he picked up.

  "Hello?"

  "Jason. It's Becca, you busy?"

  "No. What's up with you?"

  She paused for a second, holding her hand over the microphone while she ridded her voice of its shudder.

  "I'm good. Just don't feel like going to class today. I thought you might want to get some breakfast?"

  She closed her eyes in anticipation of his answer.

  "Sure. I'm not starving, but I'd be glad to chat with you. See you in a few?"

  "Great! I'll be there in half an hour."

  She stuffed the phone into a small purse on the counter and rushed to change from her bath robe into jeans and a t-shirt. When she arrived at his house, he was sitting on the front steps and she had calmed down considerably. Still there was a look of concern on her normally stone face.

  "Good to see you again," said Jason.

  She smiled.

  "You ok?"

  "Fine. Just had a weirdo at work this morning."

  "How so?"

  She warded off the question.

  "Let's get some food first. And coffee. I need coffee."

  The two hopped in her car and drove to a small gas station just up the road. Inside was a counter and a grill where an old man fried everything he served. Becca's smiled.

  "I'll have the biggest plate of breakfast you have. And some strong coffee."

  The man behind the counter flashed a toothless grin.

  "If it's weak, ain't coffee. How you want your eggs?" he said.

  "Over easy."

  "Done, sweetie. How 'bout your boyfriend here?"

  Jason sat up at the suggestion.

  "Oh, he's not my boyfriend."

  He cracked some eggs on the griddle and they sizzled and turned white. Next he slapped three strips of bacon on another part of the grill.

  "Too young to have a husband, surely," he said.

  "We're just friends, sir. Just friends."

  The old man scowled, "Then you ain't working hard enough, son. Potatoes?"

  Becca nodded vigorously to the question, not the statement.

  "I'm not sure I'm good enough for her," Jason said with a playful smile.

  "Damn right!" Becca said.

  The little man laughed heartily. "Dat's right! Damn right."

  Her eyes widened when the rather large plate was placed in front of her. Jason's eyes widened at the rate with which it disappeared. He cringed at the first taste of coffee.

  "You could stand a spoon up in this."

  "At's the good stuff," the old man said and slid a bowl of sugar packets across the counter.

  Then he looked at Becca and rolled his eyes. She smiled through a mouthful of food. Once they were alone, she put her head down on her arm.

  "What a morning."

  "So what happened?" Jason said.

  She sat back up and finished chewing.

  "Right, the guy. He was a starer, and filthy. And thanks to Ryan, now he knows my name."

  Jason smirked. "Who's Ryan?"

  "Another guy at work. He called me by name in front of that freak."

  "So, some dirty guy looked at you?"

  "Typical man answer. Your type always boils things down to some worthless simplicity."

  "It makes things easier," Jason said.

  She pointed her fork at him. "It makes things seem easier."

  Jason bobbed his head side to side. "Whatever. Back to Ryan and the filthy dude."

  "It was the way he stared. And the things he was looking at," she said, punctuating the sentence with a glance at her chest.

  "You don't know that feeling." Her body shook as if she had a chill and she shook her head to rid herself of it. Then she took a long slurp from her coffee mug.

  "No. I'm afraid that is something only women experience. Besides, no one ever stares at me." Women stared at him, but he knew why.

  "I guess you're just nothing special."

  He punched her lightly on the arm. To his delight, it brought a smile, and then a laugh from her. Anxiety kept the laugh going longer than it should have, given the joke, but it was contagious and before long he was laughing with her.

  "Thanks for that. It was exactly what I needed," she said. "Well, that and this food. You're buying, right?"

  "Sure. I mean you invited me, but who's counting."

  Jason played with the wrappers from the sugar he'd poured in his coffee while Becca finished her plate. They stared at the ancient grill behind the counter for a time.

  "Anything else you notice about the guy?"

  She looked at Jason and contemplated his face as she scraped her knife through the egg yolk left on her plate

  "He smelled bad. Like sweat and cologne."

  "Fantastic. Any good points at all?"

  "None."

  "And you'd never seen him before?" Jason asked.

  "No. I saw him come in the hotel about five. He sat and flipped through every magazine we had in the lobby, then when I left, he followed me out and just stared until I was gone. I almost killed somebody getting away from there. I'm a little nervous about going back there tonight."

  Doing his best to be supportive, Jason said, "I'm sure it'll be fine." He wasn't.