Final Short Story

Kelsey Schile
Final Short Story

It was a Friday night and it was my birthday. So I got together with some of my best friends and we went to go celebrate at Applebees. Everyone came over to my apartment around 7 and we hung out there for a little bit and talked about how our lives are going and what was new. We left my apartment around 8:30 at night and car-pooled to Applebees. Once we got there it was not busy at all and we all thought that was strange. It was a Friday night and there was basically no one at Applebees when usually there’s a lot of people there around this time.

So the host took us to our seats and said your waiter will be here to take your order in a minute. Well about twenty minutes past and our waiter hasn’t shown up yet. We thought that was very strange. There were eight of us and we all stood up and looked around, Applebees was empty. We all became worried; we didn’t know what was going on. Many questions were running through my mind like, “should we leave? Where’s our waiter? What’s going on?” So very slowly and quietly we grabbed our jacket, purses, and other things and slowly slid out of the booth and stood up.

I turn around and our waiter is standing there. He was dressed in all black from head to toe; black pants, black shirt, black tie, and black shoes. He asked us why we’re leaving. We all froze. I stuttered several times and said, “w-w-w-we’re not h-hungry an-anymore.” He just looked at me with a blank stare across his face. We stood there for about five minutes just in silence. My eight friends, me and the waiter all staring at each other and nobody else is in sight. At this time we didn’t really know what to do, it was 10:00 and I told my husband that I would be back before 10. I was rummaging through my purse and was looking for my phone to call him, the waiter belted out in a loud voice, “STOP!” I froze; I didn’t know what to do. My friends and I quickly sat back down and we all looked like ghosts. The waiter glared at us and walked back to the kitchen. We all started whispering and plotted on how we were going to get out of there and fast. We heard the door open, it was the waiter. Of course it was we were the ONLY people there. We all went back to our ghostly looks and silent. He put down nine glasses of water and walked away.

We started whispering again. I’m sure that he could hear us because some of them were talking really loud because they kept getting more and more nervous because they thought we were never going to get home. About twenty minutes later he came back with a basket of chicken fingers and a basket of french fries. He stood there for five minutes and slowly started to walk backwards towards the kitchen. There was a table behind him that he was about to run into but all nine of us figured we should not tell him and see if he runs into it. So of course he ran into the table because he was not watching where he was going. He turned around and looked at the table and wondered how it got there. We all started to giggle and he swiftly turned around and started glaring at us and slipped into the kitchen. We immediately started to whisper again about how we were going to escape from this prison.

I was looking down at my water glass and glanced up, looked at the kitchen and saw a glimpse of my husband in the window. He quickly moved. It couldn’t have been my husband, he was at home. All the other girls were still whispering and trying to figure out how to get out. I slide out of the booth slowly and stood up. The whispering stopped and they all stared. I tip-toed over to the kitchen door to see if my husband was in there. I reached the kitchen door I was squatted door in front of the door. I slowly stood up and my face was right at the window. Once I finally looked in the window the waiter popped up and told me to go sit down. I screamed and ran back to the table, terrified. All the girls stopped what they were doing and stared at me like I was crazy, which I don’t blame them! A few minutes later I glanced at the door again, and I saw my husband’s face. I was dreaming; he couldn’t have been here; he was at home. There’s no way he is in the kitchen right now. The waiter comes out again, hands us our bill and leaves. Quickly, my friend lays fifty dollars down and bolted to the door to leave. We didn’t think that that was a very good idea.

The waiter comes to our table and sees my friend standing at the door, he asked he what she was doing. She stuttered and said, “I-I-I-I have t-to go t-to t-the bat-thro-om.” He points to the back by the kitchen and says it’s back there. She stares back by the bathrooms and says, “Umm, I can hold it.” And quickly comes and sits down again. The waiter leaves. About twenty more minutes pass and the waiter comes walking out of the kitchen. But he is holding something in his hand. He’s holding a bouquet of a dozen red roses and gives them to me. I’m really puzzled and have no idea what is going on. All he said was, “here, these are from your husband.” Now I was really confused! How did he know my husband? Is my husband here? What is going on? The waiter leaves and as the waiter is walking away my husband walks out of the kitchen. I have no idea what is going on still. I ran up to him and said, “what are you doing here? We have to get out of here!” He just started to laugh. I didn’t understand what was happening.

He just smiled at me and didn’t say a word. I quickly jumped to the gun, “What is so funny?!” All he said was, “happy birthday sweetheart.” My husband was in all along with this kidnapping. All my friends just stared at him with a blank look on their faces. After about five minutes of silence and staring at each other it finally clicked in my mind that this was all a joke and that my husband was surprising me. Nobody has ever surprised me on my birthday before. Shortly after that we all piled up in the minivan and drove back to my house. I was still in shock when we got home but after all of the fear and surprises that happened tonight, I thought it was a great birthday.