Pizza: a great way for strangers to morph into friends.
Wow! It even has a fold-open menu like a real restaurant!
Hostess leads us to our booth. “You get in first,” he whispers.
I dutifully obey. Allie slides in next to me, nudges me to move over with a butt-to-butt tap. Following Steve’s lead, I help my woman off with her coat, put it against the wall. I’m a quick learner [ha!].
Waitress brings Cokes….she didn’t have to ask. So much ice on a cold night, just what I needed.
The menu offers other Italian treats I never heard of, like lasagna and what I guess are wildly exotic types of pasta like rigatoni and fettuccine. What the hell is a ‘stuffed shell’?
A brief sideline: In those days, pizza toppings could be listed on one hand: pepperoni, anchovies, mushrooms, meat, and onions. If anyone had mentioned pineapple, they would have been deemed an escapee from a state mental hospital.
We go for a large pie half plain, half mushroom (Steve and Allie want the latter). Sarah (thankfully) assumes the role of Conversation Motivator. Usual topics: teachers, our boring parents, friends. She tells what high school is like–the new large building (with air conditioning), the exuberant chaos of home basketball games, and snobby rich girls.
She refers to a girl named Donna as a ‘vaginal itch,’ Allie and I laugh hard enough to spit soda into the our glasses. Steve snickers, shaking his head.
Smoking pizza arrives, we dive in, eating from real plates using cloth napkins! I expect Sarah to eat very little, but she wolfs three slices while Allie chews one, picking at a second. Steve discusses new bands from England; Allie dutifully listens whilst shooting me an occasional smile.
I learn a fun fact: if a girl is quiet in a stall, she can hear girls at mirrors plotting vengeance and other misdemeanors. Sarah mentions how one girl uses the n word when not in class. More on that subject later.
Time to go, I give Steve money. Allie runs her heel down my leg as (I assume) a thank you. The cold outside is a a nest of needles.
Sarah: “Hey you guys want to hang out at my place for awhile? My parents aren’t home.”
I answer for us. “Yea, sounds great.” Allie squeezes my hand.