Chapter Text
It was raining again. Cold, damp, yet somehow extremely dry. Henry sat at his desk in his shitty apartment complex, thinking. He was an adult now. Officially. A legal adult. Graduated highschool and ready to set foot into the world. Fuck that was scary. It feels like yesterday he and his buddy old pal, were walking into the highschool for the first time. Not even their freshman year, just messing around with the sprinkler system. Looking back Henry felt bad for the poor senior who got blamed for it, but the old grape would always say not to worry about it. Speaking of which, that friend of his should be bursting through the door by now. What’s he up to? Henry flopped his head onto the desk, sighing. He was tired, and didn’t know what to do. He needed to go to college, his parents were very firm about that, but to do…what? They wanted him to be some kind of lawyer, and honestly he’d be great at it. The job would suit him. But…he didn’t really like it that much. It was too…repetitive. And the thought of potentially being responsible for letting a criminal roam free…that made his stomach twist in turn. He fidgeted with a wrench that his roommate and best friend had left around. In the background, he could hear fast paced footsteps coming towards the door.
3…
2……
1………
BOOM!
“HENRY!” there he was. William slammed the door and smacked a bunch of papers onto the desk, (in)conveniently next to where Henry was staring at nothing. Henry jolted in surprise, sitting up straight into his wheely chair, which had rolled back a little bit. William, who was drenched to the bone, gave his companion that really big smile he made whenever he got a horribly bad idea. Heh…like the first time they set foot in the highschool all over again. “I BOUGHT A RESTAURANT!” he shouted, excitement and thrill in his voice.
“Wait--what?!” Henry exclaimed in response, hunching back properly into his chair, eyes following William as the man paced around.
“I bought a restaurant, those are the legal papers. I saved them from the storm!” Henry blinked. Then blinked again. Then sank into his chair and groaned in agony. “No!” William started. “No, none of that! This is awesome!” William grabbed the crappy stool from his desk and pulled it, sitting down in front of the weeping Henry Emily. “This is the chance to do something with our lives! That isn’t stupid!” Henry pulled his hands away from his face and deadpanned at his friend.
“Buying a restaurant IS stupid!” Henry retorted. “We don’t have funds, we can’t pay people, we’re gonna go bankrupt and we haven’t even gone to college!” William rolled his eyes and waved Henry off.
“Ah fuck college,” he started. “We’ll figure it out on our own.” Henry stared at William in what could only be described as horror. William sighed and patted Henry on the shoulder. “Look,” he started. “I know your parents are strict, and you’ve always grown up being the good kid,” where was he going with this? “But you gotta live a little. Be bold, go for it. Your parents are nice and all, but for now, just tell them to fuck off.” Henry thought for a moment. Then he smiled.
“Could you imagine telling that to my mom?” he joked. William burst into laughter, nearly falling off of his chair.
“Jesus--and she’d get all red like she used to when we were kids and we wouldn’t stop digging holes in the back yard and putting the dog bones in them pretending it was buried treasure!” The two laughed for a moment. Henry let out a few more chuckles before humming to himself, looking over at the shitty kitchen and all the dirty dishes piled all over the place.
“We’re shit cooks.” Henry stated.
“We won’t be cooks.” William reassured. Henry smiled.
“We don’t have the money to pay people to BE cooks.” he brought up. William waved him off.
“We’ll just buy frozen pizza and tell people that it’s fresh. If we put it in a box of our own nobody will tell the difference.” Henry facepalms, but smiles.
“What if something breaks?”
“We’ll take it out of the employee’s paycheck.”
“Can we afford employees?”
“I did the math. One night guard. Our only employee.”
“What if we get sued.”
“Well then we’re fucked!”
The two stared at each other for a moment of silence, then nodded.
“Alright,” Henry started, standing up and grabbing the wrench. “Let’s see what kind of a shit-show you got us into.”