Dinner and Death

 Flashing lights and the murmur of scared people were the only things keeping Max from thinking this was all some kind of late night fever dream. There was no way he could imagine all of the technical words that were currently flying over his head, as the doctors milled around and tried to coax a reply from him.

A particularly bold officer walked up to him with an annoyed expression. “Sir, we need you to answer our questions”, he huffed.

Ignoring the man, Max thought about what had just happened, trying to pluck out any detail that didn’t make sense, so that he could confirm that this was all a wild hoax. Maybe if he was right, John’s dead body would sit back up, signature playful smile on his face. He would announce that this was all just another one of his pranks, and they could go back to their weekly meals together at Paul’s.

But somehow, Max could feel that hope slipping through his fingers. Reality was crashing down on him as his heart sank in despair. John would never play another one of his tasteless jokes on him ever again. Today’s was the last one.

Already, he could feel the memory of it playing in his mind, like an old record player. It felt like so long ago, even though it was just a few hours ago. He had been sitting right here, at Paul’s, their usual booth in the corner of the diner.. 

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Tapping his fingers on the table with no particular rhythm, Max felt annoyance rising in him. He couldn’t help a twitch of his eyebrow when he checked his watch, probably for the fifth time in the last fifteen minutes.

Letting out a sigh of frustration he looked towards the entrance of the diner. But, just like the last time he checked, there was no hint of the bright blue shirt that his friend always wore to their weekend meet-ups.

Tearing his eyes away from the door, he cursed John under his breath. “Why can’t he be on time for once?”

“It’s just too much fun to see you be annoyed at me!” replied a familiar voice from behind him.

Heart jumping into his throat, Max couldn’t suppress a full-body flinch, hand coming up to his heart. He whirled around to see John standing behind him, black hair, cheeky smile and all.

“Why do you keep doing that? Quit scaring me.” he sighed, too accustomed to the strange greeting to muster up any substantial feeling of anger. However, he did give a token glare of annoyance  when his friend sat down next to him with no remorse, and slung an arm around his shoulders and ruffled his blond hair with the other, which he smacked away.

Seeing the glint in his eyes and the widening of his smile, Max could already predict what his reply would be. “Aw, but Max! I thought you missed me! I wasn’t able to see you last week, after all.” he whined, tilting his head in mock hurt.

With a roll of his eyes, and a heavenward plea for patience, he pushed John’s other arm off him. “And I expect you to tell me why you left me here alone last week, without a word of warning that you wouldn’t be coming. But first, I really need a drink. After waiting for so long, I’m thirsty.”

Nodding in understanding, John turned away and flagged down a waitress. Moments later, a girl stood ready to take our order. By the look of annoyance on her face and the loud smacking of bubblegum, they could hear the unsaid words: make it quick.

Max smiled nervously at the waitress, and quickly scanned the menu on the table. Nothing in particular caught his eye, so he decided to be simple. “Uh, can I have a water? With ice please.”

“Sure.” the girl replied, a nametag on her shirt identifying her as ‘June’. Quickly scribbling on the clipboard she had clutched in her hands, she looked back up with a raised eyebrow. “You want anything?”

There was a brief moment of confusion from Max, before he realised she was talking to John. Turning his head to look at the seat beside him, he went to ask the same question as the waitress, but stopped short in confusion. There was nobody sitting next to him.

“Get me the same as him! We’ll order the food itself later.” said John’s voice from across the table. A glance over there showed he was now seated across from Max instead of next to him. How he got there without Max noticing, was a complete mystery.

Noticing Max’s confusion, John said nothing, and only gave a wink and laughed to himself. The waitress seemed like she couldn’t care less about the strange interaction happening in front of her, and left them without another word.

He had stopped questioning his friend about how he kept sneaking around without notice. It was one of those things which he would never answer, no matter how much he was pestered about it. By now, Max was certain that the black-haired prankster was part of something less-than-legal. He always had the strangest schedule, and would mention a job with no specifics, but he lived comfortably in a house of his own. Paired with his strange skills, Max was half-convinced this man was a government super-spy or something.

But in all reality, it was probably more likely that John had simply served in the military for some time, maybe Navy. He probably had some money saved up, so he didn’t have to work anymore, which explained why he didn’t talk about his job. And it wasn’t exactly strange for someone to just be late.

With a sigh, Max decided he should probably be less paranoid. He leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Now, tell me why I should forgive you for ditching me last week.”

John replied by rubbing the back of his neck and laughing sheepishly. “Well, I had an unscheduled business trip. My boss didn’t tell me until the last minute. Sorry, I couldn’t refuse, and had no time to tell you.”

“Where did you go?”

“Russia.” He replied with a shiver. “It’s so cold there, man. I didn’t have time to pack or anything, so I had no sweaters or jackets.”

“Oh, what did you do there?”

They fell into an awkward silence, John not answering. Max noticed his friend’s fingers twitching under the table, a motion he was very familiar with. John often got the urge to fiddle with something when he was nervous, usually a rubber band he had in his pocket. But as his hands came out empty, it seemed he had forgotten to bring it today.

It seemed that since he didn’t have his usual method of stress relief, he reached for the nearest thing to play with. The idiot sitting across from him reached for a knife on the table. Picking it up in one smooth motion, he began twirling it between his fingers. 

Max flinched, not being able to help it, as the sharp cutlery flashed a menacing silver under the dim light of the restaurant. One wrong move and he would be going home in an eyepatch.

“Stop that. You’ll hurt yourself, idiot.” he warned, fear coursing through him..

Just then, he heard a yelp of terror from beside him. The waitress from earlier stood there, tray in her hands, mouth gaping, and bubblegum left forgotten. Before he could say anything to her, she was already gone, not wanting anything to do with what was going on.

It seemed like John had noticed the waitress as well, because he had stopped his tricks. Knife still clutched tight in his hand, he looked warily at his friend’s face.

“Sorry, I was kinda nervous. Just had to do something with my hands.” he said with a stiff smile. Noticing Max’s gaze, he quickly placed the piece of cutlery down, as if it had burnt him.

The blond scoffed, crossing his arms. “Didn’t know that telling me about your job was so nerve-wracking. Who even goes straight for a knife when they’re a bit nervous?”

There was no reply, just an even stiffer smile, and a closed-off expression. Max was starting to get annoyed by the secrecy and hesitance. Letting out a sigh, he stood up from his heat, making John look up at him in confusion.

“I think I should leave. We’ll meet up again next week or something.” he answered the unvoiced question with a small, fake smile.

In one panicked motion, the man across from him stood up in a hurry, sending some of the cutlery crashing to the floor with a loud clatter. Ignoring the murmurs of the people who had been alerted by the loud sound, he pleaded. “I’m so sorry. I’ll be more honest.”

Less because of his plea, and more due to the eyes of strangers burning behind him, Max quickly sat down. Slowly, he could see people looking away from them and going back to their own conversations. Now that the spectacle had ended, there was no more entertainment to be found.

The awkwardness was so thick it could be cut with a knife. He averted his eyes from John and continued fuming. If he said he was going to be more honest, Max certainly wasn’t going to make it easy for him. He would have to start the conversation himself.

Even with his promise, it didn’t seem like John was too eager to begin speaking. His eyes were darting around, looking for any way to escape whatever he had to say. Max leaned back against the cheap plastic of his chair. With a look of consternation at the raised eyebrow pointed at him, John finally looked like he was going to gather the courage to speak.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, John was interrupted by a loud clatter. A tray with drinks had been placed not-too-gently on the table, by a very severe-looking man. By the suspicious look on his face and the wariness, it was easy to guess that he was here in place of the teenager from earlier.

“Two waters for the gentlemen at table 6. Would you like some ice as well?” asked the man, glaring at them to try something out. Seeing as he was pretty well-built, he probably could handle himself if anything happened. Was that why he was the replacement?

Deciding to take pity on his friend, Max broke the self-imposed silence. “Yeah, ice would be great, thanks.” By the expression on John’s face and the immediate relaxing of tension from his shoulders, he was relieved that he hadn’t completely ruined his friendship with his secrecy.

The waiter, Nick, according to his nametag, quickly took the ice out from the bucket, and placed one the size of a baseball in both the glasses. Just as he finished putting one in John’s, he paused and his eyes narrowed. Pointing at the black-haired man’s hand with his ice tongs, he asked. “What’s that?”

Both the friends glanced down to look at what the waiter was gesturing at. Following the line of sight, they saw that he was talking about the tattoo on the back of John’s hand.

It was a circle, from which many lines branched out. The branches wrapped around his hand, eerily resembling the legs of a spider. In fact, Max was almost sure that was what it was supposed to be.

“Oh this?” John laughed. “Just the result of a dare I was given in high school. Now I’m forever stuck with it. Teenage stupidity, am I right? Don’t worry, it isn’t a gang symbol or anything like that.” He waved his tattooed hand in the air, the waiter flinching away from it.

The waiter had already been very uncomfortable, but it seemed that this was the last straw. With a quick turn, he legged it away from the table. The guests at table 6 tilted their heads in confusion.

With a sigh, John pulled Max’s attention back. “Well, I did say I would explain, right?” He muttered with a grim look, making his friend feel rather wary. “Act casual, do something to hide any facial expressions you might make.”

Acquiescing to the strange request, Max prepared himself for what would surely be an unbelievable story, if the hesitance was anything to go by. He picked up his glass of ice water and quickly began drinking it.

“I’m a spy for the government.” The man began, already shattering all expectations. With a snort of incredulous laughter that almost sent water flying from his mouth, Max couldn’t help but make a comment. “Of course you are! What is this, a James Bond movie?”

“I’m serious.” John replied with narrowed eyes.

The person across from him had to take a moment to digest this information. It wasn’t completely beyond belief. In fact, hadn’t Max made a joke about the same thing earlier. Though, he didn’t think it would actually be true! Suspending his disbelief, he gestured for his friend to continue, as he resumed acting casual by drinking his almost-empty glass of water.

“I had been to Russia for an emergency mission. Some guy named Nikolai Volkov had stolen important information from our country.” He explained, keeping his voice low. “He was known for either evading people being sent after him, or following them across countries before outright killing them. Me and my team were sent after him, but didn’t find him after he escaped into the snowy mountains.”

This odd retelling of a mission felt a little like the introduction to a horror movie. It sent goosebumps down Max’s skin, and he couldn’t help but believe that what his friend was saying was true. Setting down his now-empty glass, he looked up at the man across from him with a strange sense of wonder.

“Man, you are really living in a James Bond movie, huh? So, what’s with the tattoo? Some kind of super-secret-spy identification thing?” He asked with excitement, a hundred questions flying through his brain, but only a few being voiced.

With a small chuckle, John shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it really is what I said it is. Stupid teenage dare.”

There was a moment where neither of them spoke. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, unlike earlier. It was warm, and the awkwardness from earlier had dissipated thanks to the eager questions. For a while, they were both content to keep the quiet. It had been a very shocking reveal, for both of them. They needed a moment to process everything.

John picked up his glass of water and swirled it around. Deciding to quench his thirst, he took a sip from the glass. Just at that moment, his hand shook, sending the glass falling to the floor with a loud crash.

Silence filled the restaurant as everyone turned to look at the table who had caused a ruckus for the second time that evening. Just as Max was about to turn around and send the other guests a sheepish grin of apology, he heard a strange sound from across the table.

This story is incomplete, and I don't think I'm going to be finishing it any time soon. I feel like I have put too much time into this, and have begun to lose interest in it. I might write a continuation to this, but will try to write other stories instead.