Enlightened

"Yeah.......that wouldn't be crazy at all", Ryan said with a forced laugh as if pretending that he truly had done something wrong and was trying to get on Amy's good side. He'd let her chew on that for a while. As she mentioned that he could choose where they could go eat he had to think for a few moments. "I'm feeling Red Lobster", he said before pulling out and beginning to drive there.

-----

About thirty minutes later they had arrived and were already sat down, now looking at the menu that was placed before them. "I feel like going for the lobster fettuccine", he said to himself before glancing over at Amy. "Anything look good to you?", he asked curiously as he saw his own menu down. Their waiter would come back in a few minutes so they still had a little bit of time to decide.

Amy cast him a dirty look as he acted like he really had done something, but dismissed it quickly enough. He was probably joking. When he mentioned going to Red Lobster she very nearly did a double take.

“Feeling extra rich, huh?” she asked with a smile. “I won’t argue with that!”

Once she finally had a menu in front of her she actually looked absurdly pensive. She’d never eaten at the restaurant before considering she’d never really had a date with so much money and she was a penny pincher to extremes. It was known to have stupidly high prices and so she’d never even given it a second thought. She had to think hard on what she wanted considering most everything available she’d never actually tried before.

“I guess… I’ll just take the standard lobster meal…” she spoke up slowly. “I’ve never actually had a lobster before so this’ll be an experience. I’ll have to pray for his poor arthropod soul before they dip him in the boiling drink.”

"I can't say that I've ever had one either", Ryan admitted. "I've always wanted one because I like seafood in general, but I've never really had the chance to have one myself", he said as he looked up to Amy and put down his own menu. "Looks like I'll be having the same thing", he said. In a few minutes the waiter came back and took their order before quickly heading off again.

Ryan was quiet for a moment before looking at Amy. "So......when do you think that guy will ever get into contact with us again?", he asked curiously. They hadn't talked about it much since it had occurred so Ryan couldn't help but ask where her current mind was.

Amy shrugged laxly with Ryan’s question posed to her.

“Maybe never. I can’t really say that it matters to me when I have free money in my bank account.” Obviously she hadn’t thought too deeply on the matter. Aside from her general ‘go with the flow’ attitude, she also didn’t want to dwell on the fact that he could perv on her in the bathroom. It could really give her the creeps…

"Fair enough, can't say that my feelings are that different", Ryan admitted as the drinks that they ordered arrived along with some fries as an appetizer. He took a few and munched on them, glancing up at Amy once he was finished. "But hey, if there's more money like this I can't say that I wouldn't mind another visit from him", Ryan said with a laugh as he leaned back in his chair.

He glanced over at the others in the room before looking back. "He said that there were others like us, like him..........how many do you think there are?"

“Really how slim are the chances of someone actually paying us to be super heroes anyways?” Amy asked with a shrug. “He could have just been a rich old guy who was really into some Heroes style role play and we were unfortunate victims. If it really is something in the drinking water though, there could be thousands like us. If not, then who the hell knows.” She laughed.

Ryan just gave a nod as Amy pointed out that the whole thing might just be some freak's idea of fun. Still, the way that he had talked and presented himself just gave Ryan the chills. When he looked at you, it was like he knew everything about you. He had never felt that from anyone else before.

Ryan just shook his head as if that would actually help at making the negative thoughts leave his mind. "Sorry I brought it up, let's just enjoy our evening", Ryan said before smiling and taking a long gulp from his drink.

Amy raised her own glass in a mock toast, lowering it quickly to take her own drink.

“Here’s to creepy old guys who give away free money to people they kidnap.” She looked to him expectantly, waiting for him to add his own piece or at least agree and laugh. She didn’t want anyone to be dwelling on something that could be so dumb.

"Here here", Ryan said simply. He wasn't really sure what else to add on to Amy's description of what had happened to them. Still, for the moment they didn't have to worry about it and there was no sense in distracting them from the good time that they were currently having.

"So Amy, you need any help studying for your next few tests?", he asked curiously. "If you ever need a hand we could always meet up to study or something"

Amy actually got a bit of a laugh at Ryan’s question, doing her best to keep it down in the quiet restaurant.

“You’re joking, right?” she asked quite seriously. “When have you known me to ever study for a test?” Truth be told, she wasn’t much of a studier whatsoever. “If you ever wanna meet up for a good time, then I’m your gal, but you can keep your studying.” She smiled widely.

Ryan couldn't help but let out another one of his signature nervous laughs. "Yeah, I suppose that you got me on that one", he admitted before raising an eyebrow at the last part of her statement. Knowing her, she had purposefully phrased that part on purpose just to mess with him. "I'll make sure to keep that in mind", he said.

After a bit more of their conversation the food eventually arrived, hot and fresh. "About time, I thought it wasn't ever going to show up", he said before quickly getting his utensils and starting to carve into the crustacean.

“It takes awhile to boil a writhing animal alive you know,” Amy stated in response to Ryan’s comment about how long it had taken. Despite the comment she seemed to pay almost no mind to possible animal cruelty as she went about attempting to figure out how one would eat a lobster anyways. She’d never really taken lessons or had how to eat a lobster come up in any of the conversations she’d ever had in her entire life. This… could get interesting… and messy… very messy. Utensils for… people not her, even in a fancy restaurant like Red Lobster.

Ryan glanced up with a single raised eyebrow. For a moment he wondered if perhaps he had offended her. Amy definitely wasn't pro animal cruelty but he didn't think that she would mind a place like this. Of course, his fears seemed to die down as she began to look at how to eat the lobster. She seemed uncertain of herself, as if trying to find the best way to tackle the situation at hand. "Need some assistance?", he asked with a tiny smile on his face.

“No, no… I got this,” Amy dismissed his assistance with a quick wave while she puzzled over it before finally just deciding to crack it open at the tail and suck the meat out. It required ignoring the obvious sexual innuendos, but she did that every day without incident anyway.

“Not too bad… Very fishy,” she analyzed the lobster once she’d actually managed to get a piece. “I could get used to this.”

Ryan just watched as Amy finally managed to get the meat away from the shell of the lobster. It wasn't quite how a pro would do it, than again Ryan didn't care for that kind of thing so long as he got his food. "Well I'm glad you like it. If you're hungry for anything else feel free to get what you'd like"

“You kiddin?” Amy spoke up with a look of shock. “I doubt I’ll even be able to eat all of this!” Lobsters were pretty damn big for being sea bugs after all. “Thanks though. I appreciate you tossing your money every which way for me. Makes me feel special.” She smiled widely, acknowledging the fact that that was a joke.

"Well your my friend, if I can treat you like this than I should right? It's what friends are for", Ryan said with a simple smile as he continued to go about his food.

For the rest of the night they talked about a lot of things, life, school, family, the works. Eventually they left the restaurant and moved back to the car. Ryan started the car so that they could get some heat, but afterwards looked towards Amy. "So do you need to head home or do you feel like doing anything else wild and crazy tonight?", he asked jokingly.

“Let’s…” Amy started thoughtfully, kicking back and relaxing as she put serious thought into what she was going to say. “Let’sssssss… uuummmmmmm…. I… can’t think of anything!” she finally smiled sheepishly with a quick shrug.

Ryan just let out a laugh as Amy finally admitted that she had nothing to suggest. "Alright, let's just call it a night than", he said as he switched the car to drive and pulled out from their spot. "I'll take ya home and we can just hang out tomorrow or something", he suggested as they continued to drive. "If you think of something on the way though feel free to mention it, I'm in no hurry to leave just yet"

"Naked water balloon fight," Amy randomly blurted partway through their drive with a decisive nod of her head. She looked entirely serious.

Without even missing a beat Ryan made sure to respond. "Come on Amy, you know that I hate making people feel inadequate when I show off", he said in an equally dead pan voice. Of course that only lasted for about five seconds before he could hardly hold his smile back.

Amy smiled, but continued to keep a mostly straight face.

“I’m sure you’d draw quite a crowd. I’ll amend my statement then. Private naked water balloon fight.” She crossed her arms over her chest at this point, doing her best to continue to seem serious.

"And where exactly does one have a private naked water balloon fight?", Ryan asked with a curious glance over towards her. "Last I checked they don't rent places out for that kind of thing, but I don't exactly keep up with the topic", he admitted as he turned down a familiar road that he always used to get back home. It was lined with several drug stores, each selling something different.

There didn't seem to be that many people around tonight.

“Your kitchen! Duh!” Amy replied in short order. She was definitely on the ball on that one. “Where else would you have a naked water balloon fight in private? …Well I guess you could have it in the bathroom too if it was big enough…” she corrected herself thoughtfully. “A guy and a girl naked together in the bathroom might be a little weird though.” As if it wasn’t weird already. Now her mind seemed to be wandering randomly. “What do you think?”

Ryan thought about the question for a little bit. "Well the bathroom area is smaller, so you'd more than likely bump into each other several times. Plus it'd be a bit too easy to hit each other in a bathroom, there wouldn't be much challenge in it", he said with a small shrug. He wasn't sure how to give a better answer to her question.