A STORY by LILAH SOUZA
Cheese Fries
Shay had just gotten off the train to get home. When she reached the exit, she suddenly heard her stomach growling. She rubbed her stomach with annoyance and went over to the food stand by the stairs.
Wait… Cheese fries? Aww man! I’ve been craving cheese fries for ages!
Shay got to the front of the line and waited for her long-awaited cheesy dish. She pulled out her wallet in anticipation.
She strolled up and down the street to find a place to eat her cheese fries. She entered restaurant after restaurant and immediately in each, she was told to leave because she can't bring outside food inside.
"I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't have bought cheese fries..." she lamented, staring down at her bag of cheese fries, which were slowly but surely beginning to get cold.
Until she finally reached what looked like a conference building.
Crap! It’s too crowded. And there are no chairs to sit in…
She walked in, scanned the room and walked over one of the walls so she could sit on the floor. Just as she was about to open up her box of delicious cheese fries, a hefty security guard walked over to her.
“Ma’am, you’re not allowed to sit on the floor,” he said with a heavy accent.
“Oh… really? Okay. I just saw that there were no seats available and so I thought it was okay…” Shay said gingerly.
“No, it’s not okay. Security saw a girl on camera sitting on the floor and they sent me over here immediately. What are you here for, anyway?”
Shay felt a wave of shame wash over her. She had come in just to eat some fries. Now, she was being interrogated by a security guard. Over some fries. She knew a day like this would come eventually.
“I-I’m, uh, here to meet with a friend…” she managed to say nervously.
“Well, okay, then.”
She walked over to the other side, and saw a couple sitting in one of the benches. There was barely an inch of space for her. She shuddered and muttered to herself, “Never mind, I’ll just stand…”
A few minutes go by and the hefty security guard comes back.
“Miss, there’s a seat right over there,” he gestured to the seat where the couple was sitting.
Shay looked over to the bench uneasily. Her heartbeat went into overdrive.
“Don’t be so anxious; just ask them if you can sit down…”
She gingerly walked over to the bench and gestured to the couple, who moved and made room for her to sit. Once she sat down, her eyes darted from side to side before she finally opened her bag of cheese fries.
She opened the box, her fries were mushy and lukewarm, but at this point it really didn’t matter. At last, she would have her cheesy treat!
Lilah Souza is a Brazilian-American writer from New York. She is a sci-fi and fantasy lover who has been weaving her daydreams and nightmares into all sorts of chilling and thrilling tales since she was 5 years old. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Wagner College, a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from LIU Brooklyn, and studied Film during her high school years at G-Star School of the Arts. When not writing, she is usually reading, painting, playing video games or getting up to other shenanigans. Find her on Twitter or Instagram.