Driving Doctor Mayhem

[17] Pizza Friday II

Cricket wasn't normally one for theatrics, which was why the whole put-on-a-blindfold-I've-got-a-surprise thing was so odd. This, coming from a girl who has gone cat shopping with a supposed criminal mastermind.

I followed Cricket's orders despite the nagging possibility in the back of my mind that he had finally snapped and was on the cusp of a mental break. Although I doubted the fact that any human could be as straight-laced as Cricket without having some serious closet skeletons, I was well aware of the fact that his straight-laced-ness also caused him to give the absolute best gifts. I was more than willing to risk it.

Both of those reasons were why, when Cricket said, "Banksy, you can take off the blindfold now," I whipped it over my head as quickly as possible.

Cricket's gift-giving record held up. I found myself standing in the newest, poshest, restaurant in town. It was so fancy, only the super sophisticated people could pronounce its name, and so everyone else referred to it exclusively as 'That New Restaurant Over There'.

"You, uh, haven't spoken for a while," Cricket prompted. "Did I do well?"

"Dude," I nodded dumbly, "You really outdid yourself this time."

"I know I've been sort of, hm, tough on you other lately, and I wanted to make light of things a little. I do think that it's great that you have a real job and, uh, everything."

I waved his self-deprecation off. "Please, I've been sort of an ass, too. But it's Pizza Friday. I thought you loved Pizza Friday."

"Well, it's mostly the, the company, not the food. Besides," he added, flattening out the creases I his shirt, "I know you love making fun of completely innocent rich people, so here we are."

"You're right; I do love that."

-•-•-•-

"Look at that lady's hair. Do you think it would dent if I threw something at it, or would it just bounce off, the coif still intact?"

"I think that beehive could survive an apocalypse," Cricket smiled. "You have to admire her commitment."

"You might have to." I chuckled, flicking a wet straw wrapper at him. It accidentally nailed a waiter and I tried to play it off.

"Hey, are you also filled with the, the overwhelming desire for frozen yogurt?"

I halfway pretended to gag. "Are you crazy? I haven't eaten this much in one sitting since that summer when I grew, like--" I froze. "I mean, since that summer when I grew a foot in a month. Do you remember that?"

"Oh, yeah, totally--" he cut himself off, eyebrows creasing. "Banksy?"

"What?"

"Uh, I think I ate some bad shrimp."