We drive for a good twenty minutes until we get to Brooklyn. At least there wasn’t much traffic this time of night.
We stop in front of a place with a bright neon blue sign that says Bill’s Diner. I look at Brett. “This place looks like a dump.”
“Don’t be acting all spoiled,” Brett laughs. “It’s a grease pit but it’s good.”
“Good Wolfe isn’t here to ream our asses about eating shit food,” Kaleb chuckles.
His comment reminds me of the good old days back at Westfall U. Wolfe always ate clean and worked hard. He taught me to do the same. Some things don’t change.
We pile out of the Uber. A homeless guy is sitting on the ground with a blanket over him. I pass him a fifty. He does a double take when he’s realized what I’ve given him.
“Thanks man,” he says to me.
We head inside the diner. It’s 1:30 am and there are maybe five tables with patrons. There’s a sign that says seat yourself. We go ahead and pile into a booth. The place reminds me of one of those diners you see in an eighty’s movie. The booths are all pink with grey tables. There are juke boxes at each table. I pick up the menu.
“What do you recommend?” I ask Brett.
“I’m getting the bacon double cheeseburger,” Evan says.
After a night of drinking that sounds good, but all that grease is going to be bad for my gut and we have a bus ride tomorrow.
“I’m getting the steak and baked potato,” Brett says.
I cock a brow. “This doesn’t seem like the kind of place to get a steak.”
“If you wanted a five-star restaurant then you should’ve gone to one,” he deadpans.
“Steak it is.” I nod.
“I’m going for the steak too,” Kaleb says. “You better not disappoint,” he says to Brett pointedly but he’s clearly joking.
I give my head a shake. How am I still so drunk? “I need to take a piss. If the waitress comes order my food for me, will yah?” I say to the guys sitting around the table.
I walk off to the back of the diner where I see a sign for the restroom. After taking the world’s longest piss I wash my hands with soap, dry them and leave the bathroom. I head back to the table focusing on my feet because I want to see if I can put one foot in front of the other. Shit! I can’t walk a straight line. I really can’t make it a habit of drinking like this. I still have to prove myself. When I get back to the table there’s a woman dressed in one of those old server style outfits. It’s a frilly white apron which makes me laugh. No clue why. The waitress has long auburn hair that’s pin straight and falls down her back.
“Are you all going to really eat steaks at 2 am?” she asks the guys. Her voice seems familiar.
Each of them assures her they will.
“I’d like you to pay up front then. No way I can have you bolt on me with three steaks on the order,” she says. It doesn’t surprise me that this is the kind of place where people would dine and run.
“That’s no problem. We’re good for the money,” Brett tells her.
I get why Brett likes to come here. He’s treated like any regular Joe.
“For drinks I got three cokes. Will that be all?” the waitress asks.
“I’ll have a coke,” I say to her back. If I’m getting the steak then I could sure use a sugary drink.
She turns to look at me and my heart skips a beat. I blink. Then I rub my eyes. No, it can’t be her.
“Skylar?” I ask with confusion. “It’s not you. It can’t be you. How drunk am I exactly?” I begin to mumble because this chick looks a whole lot like my girlfriend from high school. The one I dated for four years and who I told I didn’t love on prom night. She dumped my sorry ass and picked up with a loser from our class, named Carter Lewis. He ended up on a rival division one hockey team while I was in college. Last I heard she was still dating him.
Her green eyes widen as she watches me.
Brett covers his mouth and starts laughing.
Skylar stands frozen in front of me. This girl who I fell completely head over heels in love with. A girl whose heart I broke and didn’t look back. Her lower lip quivers and her eyes grow pained and then she stalks off.
“What was that?” Brett asks.
I give my head a shake. Seeing her just threw me off big time. “My ex from high school,” I say dryly, and I slide back into the booth.
“She better not spit in our food,” Evan says laughing.
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” I say although I can’t be sure.
The guys break into a conversation about our game tonight. We lost the game which totally sucks but you win some and lose some.
While the guys are talking shop my mind drifts to Skylar. She’s been my one and only girlfriend. I never saw a point of committing after her.
A waitress named Betty brings our drinks over and tells us the food will be right up. I look over to the food counter where the waitresses are collecting the food and drinks and I don’t see Skylar.
What is she doing working as a waitress? She should be in law school by now.
“Dude why are you being so quiet?” Brett asks.
“Ah it’s nothing. Just the waitress was a blast from my past,” I say. A blast I haven’t stopped thinking about in the past four years.
Brett nods. “I didn’t date anyone serious in high school.”
“Neither did I,” Evan says.
“I mean the whole team knows my dating history,” Kaleb chuckles.
The guys like to joke with him about him being a virgin his rookie year. I mean the guy did draft at age eighteen. Not everyone has sex in high school. I don’t laugh at Kaleb though because I was on the same boat when I started Westfall. I never admitted it to any of the guys back there though. We had plenty of girls coming after us. It didn’t take long to lose my v-card. It was a meaningless and exactly what I wanted at the time.
Before our steaks come out the waitress slaps the bill on the table, and we pay it off along with a nice tip. When the steaks are served, we all dig in. It’s pretty good for a grease pit. Brett wasn’t lying. At the end of the night, we Uber home together since we live in the same apartment building on different floors.
Evan lives next door and when I put the key in my door, he stops me. “What the hell has gotten into you?”
Obviously, he knows me better than anyone here in New York. We played on the same team at Westfall for years and lived in the hockey house off campus together.
“Seeing Skylar threw me off is all,” I confess. She didn’t just throw me off though. I feel like I was hit by a tidal wave.
“I’ve never seen you give a chick a second thought,” he says.
That’s because at Westfall I never did but Skylar is different.
“She was dating Carter Lewis from the Saklan Bulldogs,” I tell him.
I see the wave of recognition fall over him. “That guy was a prick. He had it out for you,” he says remembering the history. He just doesn’t really know why Carter had beef with me.
“Yeah, he did,” I say. “He plays for Colorado now,” I tell Evan. We haven’t played Colorado yet, but the time will come soon, I’m sure.
“It’s funny seeing these guys we played with in college on the ice now,” Evan says.