Sitting in Caffeine Eden, Jake waits out the rain for a bit before he has to walk over to start setting up the polling place in the basement of the church down the street. He stares down at his cup of coffee and realizes that he probably shouldn't be drinking it, since after getting the polling place set up he has to go right to bed in order to wake up bright and early to open up the polls. Fortunately, he's staying at his parents' house tonight so he won't have to get up even earlier in order to drive across town.
"Hey, Jim," he hears a familiar voice say behind him.
Jake looks up to be greeted by Larry's wrinkled but smiling face, and Larry sits down at Jake's table. "Oh, hey there! How are you doing?" Jake says.
"Not bad, not bad. How about you? I haven't seen you much lately," Larry says, taking a sip of coffee.
"Oh, I moved to the East side," Jake says, beginning to plan a graceful escape.
"Huh? They're all assholes over there! Why'd you move there?"
"Uh, you know, I guess I wanted to get my own place," Jake says, then chugs some coffee so he can use the excuse of finishing his coffee to leave, but he burns his tongue, so he spits out some coffee and it lands on his jeans.
"You OK there?" Larry says, looking somewhat alarmed, "The special must be strong today, huh?"
Jake slaps his chest with his right hand and coughs. He waves his left hand in front of his face, "No, no. I just had a tuna burrito at Fish Taco King. It must not be playing nicely with the coffee in my stomach."
"Fish Taco King. You ought to be careful with that place."
Even knowing he'll regret it, Jake still feels compelled to ask, "Why's that?"
"Ask yourself this, my friend. You know the food there is really cheap. How can they sell it so cheaply? How do they make money? Well, they don't care about making money on it. If they thought that no one would get suspicious, they'd give it away for free. It's the drugs. They put drugs in their food which sap the will. That's why they have so many corporate sponsors. Look at all the advertising in the restaurant. Have you ever seen another restaurant with advertising everywhere?"
"Well, I have noticed that, but I thought that was just their business model. That, you know, they sell food cheap, but the customer also gets a sidedish of marketing."
"Must . . . buy . . . car. Have you ever felt like that coming out of there?"
"Uh, no."
Larry takes a sip of coffee, "Actually, all this talk of food has made me realize that I'm kind of hungry myself. I wouldn't ever eat that fast food thought control shit though, no matter how cheap they make it. Hey, I heard a good joke the other day."
Jake doesn't say anything, knowing Larry will carry on whether he says anything or not, and, of course, Larry does, holding up his coffee, "You know what would go good with this?"
This time Larry waits for a response, and, after an awkward silence, Jake finally says, "What?"
"Pussy," Larry says, slapping his right knee and laughing.
Jake decides not to wait for the rain to stop anymore.
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel.
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