Name: Grant-Sud Theme: Glass Word Count: 750!! Title: Hard to Break "It's easy to break a promise..." "No come on, I did my best to get the cup for you and I di-" "You were in the restaurant! How could you forget?" "I didn't! Hear what I'm trying to say. I got a whole story for you." "…spill!” *** He sighed, taking another swig of his pint of Guinness. They were in an Irish Pub, a special Irish Pub, that Alex and Mitch had decided to stop at. Alex lowered the drink to the bar. Out of all the places he'd visited while in the Big Apple, the Empire State Building, China Town, Times Square, and wherever else Mitch wanted to take him, this bar was high on the priority list. However, as he stared down at his buffalo chicken pizza, which was nasty with all the added blue cheese and celery in it, he hung his head. "We look like a gay couple, wearing matching plaid shirts..." "Hmm," Mitch correctly responded. His friend gave him a side glance. "I don't care what other people think..." "Harder to pick up girls if we're giving the wrong impression." "Let's just get the cup and leave..." Mitch said in his easy voice. He had a casual demeanor. "...it's been ten minutes. Go find the guy." Alex ran his hand through his hair. They'd been here for an hour now. The meal had been okay, but nowhere near the great pizza that New York usually offered. But the service... had been horrible. "This cup, does your sister care about it that much?" Alex looked at his unfinished beer. "She doesn't get to come with me on these trips anymore. She's got too much work to do, responsibility, the kids." He paused, lost in thought for a moment. "…And so the last time she was here, years back, she talked about how she wanted the glass pint. These glasses in our hands that say, "I'm gonna make it, anywhere". But we never got it." Mitch lightly laughed, with a rare smile on his face. "Bah... I just love her, you know?" Alex felt a firm grip on his shoulder. "Yeah, I know." Mitch looked him in the eye, and nodded. They both smiled in their plaid shirts, thinking it’d been a good day to wear them. *** "Eventually our server came by, and when we told him about the glass, he told us that because he ruined my pizza by adding all the extra toppings, that we could just walk out with the glass when he wasn't looking..." He hadn't told her all the details about their trip at the bar, or at least not the parts that were mentioned about her. "You can't do that..." "Well that's what I told him! I'm like ... 'So you mean steal it.' and Mitch is just staring at the guy like he's an idiot... So we told the manager about how terrible the guy's service was... guess what happened?" "He gave you the glass?" "Yeah. But first he fired the server. Told us he had gotten a lot of complaints and was giving his friends free food. Anyway, we got your cup... well...” *** The breaking of glass hit the cement floor of the subway station. Just for a second, the people rushing by all stopped and took one moment out of their busy lives to see what had broken. The two young men just stood there in disbelief. "I... I …" Alex fumed. Mitch reached down and started picking up the main piece with the handle. It was ultimately unusable. A middle aged woman, who stood near Alex, muttered a sorry before continuing on her way. "She bumped into me." "It's alright, pal. Come on..." "She's gonna hate this." "Nah." "It's not worth giving it to her now." Alex held half the glass in his hand. "Yeah it is." "Can't drink from it, just half a mug of glass... part of the quote's missing too." He said, dishearteningly. "Yeah. But give it to her... alright?" His friend took the glass from Alex's hand, and inspected it. "I think what’s left is good enough." *** "'Gonna make it,'" she read aloud. A small smile crept on her face as she looked at the glass that was taken from her brother's bag. She pulled her hair back and let out a choked laugh. She did like it. And somehow it was just what she wanted. "Thanks..." she whispered under her breath, as she moved forward and hugged him.