Birthright

"More coffee..?"

The Searchlight Nugget's only late shift waitress was a tired-looking, bony woman with frizzy gray hair and a thousand-yard stare. She stood at the end of Elian's booth, one hand on a hip, the other holding a fresh pot of coffee. She bore down on her patron and peered at him expectantly.

"I would love another cup, gorgeous," came the cheeky response, which was punctuated by a wide, sleepy grin.

A flat, un-buying look came from the older woman, hand methodically extended to pour the bitter beverage. "Don't care much for yer sass, Elian," she stated, giving the young man a disapproving glance. He'd come in here all blue-eyed and charming sometime last summer after his silver Airstream appeared in town, and suddenly every hot-blooded girl in this dustbowl couldn't seem to get any damn work done.

"Now that just hurts my feelings, Agnes," Elian replied, matter of factly resting his newspaper on the table. He looked up at her with an earnest expression on his handsome face. "You're my favorite, you know that." He finished his statement with a wink.

"You're unbelievable," Agnes muttered as she walked away.

There were no other patrons in the diner. Not this late at night. For Elian, it had been the fifth evening in a row where a full night's sleep didn't seem to be an option. The weird dreams he'd been having recently didn't help, either. After the third night, Elian had conceded that maybe the heat had been getting to him and instead of tossing in and out of sleep, he'd try and tire himself out by going for a walk. He normally ended up at the Nugget.

Elian let out a yawn as he haphazardly poured a decent amount of sugar into his coffee. His faded Garfield mug made a clinking noise as he stirred his spoon inside, the only other sound to be heard in the empty diner, save for the constant hum of the lights overhead.

[thread: Echo]