Young Writers Society

There was a man in a diner.

The diner was a rather generic-looking diner, one that admittedly seemed a little more out of a movie than an actual restaurant. It had the booths, the counter with a few stools attached firmly to the ground, and a tired waitress dutifully taking everyone’s orders while a gruff cook with an incredibly stained apron dutifully cooked everything to an edible averageness. The diner was mostly white and black, with a few splashes of red here and there.

The diner was never all that busy. It was just off the stretch of the highway, but in a Southern town that no one particularly cared for, especially not the residents. The only notable thing about the town was that it boasted a hotel with a notably more popular, yet also notably more expensive, restaurant. It was the type of hotel that could easily be used as a venue for events like conventions, but that was a story for a later time.

No one knew the man, but they knew he had a rather pleasant accent and voice, the kind that made people want to hear him say more, and also to listen eagerly to every word that left his lips. He was currently eating a juicy, thick burger. A modest helping of fries was still present on his plate, and he had a half-finished milkshake in one of those old-fashioned, tall glasses next to him. It was a miracle, really, that he had only gotten a few stains of ketchup or juice from his burger on his pristine, light tan suit, but someone else may have observed that those stains were there when he entered the establishment. His outfit choice wasn’t all that odd, seeing that sometimes businessmen stopped by for meals after work, but the one thing that stood out about him was the pair of sunglasses that remained on his face even after he walked in.

But the waitress didn’t get paid enough to ask, and the other customers were all too busy minding their own business at the moment, so no one questioned why the sunglasses were there.

Not out loud, at least.

He did get a few looks, here and there, but he did his best to ignore them. His stomach ached. There was too little to eat in a stretch of land like this. His choices were limited.

His burger, fries, and milkshake would have to do for now. He needed somewhere more…discrete to eat what he was truly craving, anyways.