Part 1 – Two Straws and a Soda

The bell above the door of Miller’s Soda Parlour rang softly as Johnny pushed it open.

The place smelled of vanilla syrup and fresh lemonade. Sunlight poured through the big front window and lit the polished counter where Rosie was already leaning, sipping a milkshake and talking to Sally about the dance at Big Al’s later that night.

Johnny nodded to them as he walked in, his guitar case resting against his shoulder.

“You playing tonight?” Rosie called.

Johnny grinned. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

In the corner booth, she was already waiting for him.

She had been watching the street through the window, the way the summer breeze stirred the posters on the lamppost outside. When Johnny stepped into the room, she smiled in the quiet way she always did.

He slid into the booth opposite her.

“You’re late,” she teased.

“Jimmy kept changing the drum beat again,” Johnny said with a shrug. “Says he wants to make the place shake tonight.”

She laughed. “Big Al won’t like that.”

Big Al never liked anything that made his floorboards rattle.

Rosie brought over a tall soda without even asking. The glass was cold and sparkling, topped with whipped cream and a bright red cherry.

She dropped two straws into the glass and slid it across the table.

“One for each of you,” Rosie said with a wink.

Johnny leaned forward and took the first sip. Then she did the same.

For a moment they both laughed because it felt a little silly, the two of them sharing the same glass like children.

Outside, a car rolled past slowly and somewhere down the street someone was testing a guitar amplifier. The faint buzz drifted through the warm afternoon air.

Johnny tapped his fingers on the table.

Even when he wasn’t holding his guitar, the rhythm never seemed to leave him.

“Tonight’s going to be big,” he said. “Jimmy says half the town is coming.”

“You always say that,” she replied.

“Yeah,” Johnny said with a grin. “But this time it might actually be true.”

Across the room Sally spun once in front of the mirror by the jukebox, practicing a dance step while Rosie laughed at her reflection.

The whole place felt alive with the quiet excitement that comes before a Saturday night.

Johnny leaned forward and took another sip of the soda.

“You’ll be there tonight, right?”

She looked at him, sunlight catching the edge of her hair.

“Of course,” she said.

Johnny smiled.

For a moment, everything felt perfectly simple.

Two straws.
One soda.
And the whole night still waiting ahead of them.