chapter 14

Wanting to slip away and out of sight from the noisy cries and cheers from a seemingly endless sea of faces, Lucy could be found sitting alone at the far back booth in one of the many foodcourt-like restaurants at the amusement park with nothing but a diet root beer soda to keep her company. The bitter taste of the bubbly beverage reminding her of how she truly felt about Johnny, briefly recalling her senses and memories of how he appeared out of nowhere just to drain her mentally like a blood sucking parasite. And now here she was, trapped in a mental prison of social turmoil, living a lie of having that same parasite as a "boyfriend" just so she wouldn't feel pathetic in front of her old friends.


"Aww, if you wanted some more snacks you could have just asked~"


She felt her teeth sink down into the plastic of her straw hearing his voice, Johnny leaning against her side of the booth like a pesky little devil that needed to be swatted away if one wanted to retain said sanity.


"Go...away," she hissed, leering at him from the corner of her eye, her voice like a rattlesnake's tail end.


"Aww, you really are mad at me?"


"Hmph!...."


"....Look, I'm sorry I told your friends you are scared of rollercoasters, that was really uncool of me and I'm a huge dick for it."


Now at first Lucy would immediately think he was indeed full to the brim with shit, but there was something about the tone of his voice. There was too much emotion, it just sounded too sincerity to think he was just saying that. Did he really feel bad about it? Soon turning her head to face him she simply stared directly at him, her wide doll-like eyes fixated on him as if trying to channel a hidden power of reading his mind. Then again, on second thought...this was a guy who wants nothing more in the world than to fatten her up into a total blimp, whether or not she was even willing. She knew his games, his true motive for even being around her, but for some reason Lucy couldn't bring herself to tell him to *** once and for all. And it wasn't even because he was black mailing her still since it hadn't once crossed her mind as of lately, so what else could it possibly be?


Before the goth could fully gather her thoughts Becky and David soon arrived as well, both looking a bit concerned, clearly worrying about the current whereabouts of their friend.


"Oh good, Johnny, you found her. We were really starting to like...freak out, thinking you gone and ditched us or something so we started looking for ya." Becky explained as she and David took the opposite side of the booth. "Kinda surprised you would be at a joint like this, what with you being all "pro-vegan" and all that junk."


"Yeeeea….I remember when we BOTH agreed to be vegans, you know...back in college?" Lucy inferred with a suggestive sip from her root beer.


"Yeeeea, I remember. But ya know, I mean...I dunno, I guess it's the same reason why I got passed the whole lesbian phase. I mean, sure it was fun for the first couple of times but after a while it's like….where's the beef?"


Johnny tried his best to hold back his laughter now sitting next to Lucy as she was resisting the urge to kick him out the booth on his face. Just then, one of the restaurant waitresses walked by before stopping at their booth.


"Hey y'all, how's everyone doin'? Everything peachy over here? Can I get you guys anything?" She would ask the group, Lucy was just about to send her away when Johnny noticed one of the flyers hanging off the wall behind the waitress, it was a picture of a large tower of both cheesy nachos and loaded fries coated in a thick layer of melted butter sauce.


"Hey….what's that poster about?" 


"Hm? Oh that poster right there? That's our latest promotion, the Fat Friar's Super Gut Stuffing Challenge! If you can finish it within the time provided your entire meal will be on us, plus the bonus prize: free week long movie passes at your local theater."


"An eating challenge, you say?" Johnny would say, flashing Lucy a sharp tooth grin that even the devil would be weary of and Lucy groaned a bit under her breath.


"Geez, the name alone was a total mouthful, hehe." Becky laughed a bit, before giving it some thought. "We should try it."


"I second that, we gotta try it." Johnny immediately declared in agreement only to see the goth shoot a death glare at him. "What? I want those week-long movie passes," he insisted to her, but she knew him too well at this point to tell he was clearly lying through his teeth just to mess with her.


"Yeah! Come on David, let's try and get those passes!" Becky greatly insisted tugging at her attending boyfriend's sleeve, David simply shrugged his shoulders with a thumbs up not really finding any reason to oppose a good old fashioned eating challenge.


"Alright then it's settled, we'll be taking the Fat Friar's Super Gut Stuffing Challenge, please."


The group of friends (excluding Lucy's obvious lack of interest) excitement suffered a heavy blow upon actually coming face to face with the monster that was the Fat Friar's Platter. A literal miniature mountain of nacho chips and fries with the works: jalapeno pepper poppers, bread and butter pickle slices, hot sauce, and melted butter being placed on the table with a heavy -THUD!- sound silencing the group as they realized the image in the poster, was NOTHING compared to this. The same waitress from before walking up to the booth pulling out an oven timer seemingly from thin air twisting the knob winding it up before placing it on the booth table, the ticking sound starting to count down from that moment on.


"You have one hour, begin!"