Overhearing the conversation, the purple bunny behind the counter gestured the waitress away. QC never shied away from gossip. For her, half the fun of running a diner was listening to the whole town speak, little fragments of conversations here and there nestling in her ears, making Hometown feel much bigger than it actually was. She grabbed the tray of freshly mixed drinks herself and walked towards the trio.
"Howdy there," she politely announced herself before lowering the metal tray onto the table, putting a glass of cream soda next to each monster, "here are your orders." She pulled the tray under her arm, holding it in place as she continued, "Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing you three talking about your friend, Kris."
Susie and Noelle sunk in their seats. The lizard's propensity to speak as loudly as she could was among the things that rubbed off on Noelle the most.
QC dug into the pocket of her apron. "Don't worry, there's plenty noise here these days, but I just figured you could give 'em back something I owed them." She fished out a 10 dollar bill, and placed it on an empty spot on the table. "Kris came by early this morning for some hot chocolate, but they left before I could give them back their change. I wanted to give it to them for free, but they ran off so fast I... I couldn't even get a word in." She tried to end the sentence with a laugh, but all that came out was a concerned hiccup.
Susie put the bill in her pocket and grabbed onto the cold glass. From the time she went home to the time the diner opened, only a few hours had passed. Did Kris even sleep yesterday? "Thanks... I'll, uh, give it to Kris when I see them." QC nodded in response, quickly going back to the counter to answer an incoming call. Berdly took a sip of his drink, trying his best to not get cream on his beak, unconcerned about Kris' antics, while Noelle quietly held her glass with both her hands, looking down at the white foam slowly dissolving in the dark, bubbling liquid.
As soon as Noelle opened her mouth to speak, she heard the bunny calling out for her, hopping back to the table, trying to cover up her alarmed expression. "Excuse me, Noelle, hon?" She turned around to see QC handing her the receiver of the diner landline phone, a coiled cord extending from under the counter. "Your mother just called me, she's been trying to reach you but you haven't been answering your phone- Sounds important."
Noelle checked the small pocket under the frills of her dress. The phone was still there, but almost definitely dead, given she hasn't charged it for almost a day now. She hastily grabbed the handset and pulled it to her ear. "Mom? It's me, what's wrong? I'm just out with—" She paused, cut off by the voice across the line. "S-Slow down, what are you... A-Are you okay?"
Noelle shot up from her seat, holding the phone with both hands as her breath quickened. "I'm not gonna just sit here when—" The voice on the line ended the call. Noelle resisted the urge to throw the handset on the floor and smash it, gripping it tighter for a moment, before handing it over to QC. "I— I have to go. Someone broke into the manor, and I can't—" She stepped from behind the table, visibly trembling as she walked towards the door, "I can't just 'stay where it's safe' and pretend everything's fine when someone assaulted Mom. I'm sorry, I-"
Quiet murmurs overwhelmed the room. Berdly and Susie shot up from their seats at the sound of trouble, the bluebird being the first to speak up, nervously fidgeting with his feathers. "H-Hold on! We can't just stay here while you go and, what, walk in on an active crime scene?" Susie jumped out and grabbed her hand, with Berdly quickly running after the two. "She wants you to stay with us? Fine!! We're coming with you. Let's go." Feeling her anxiety subside, if only by a small margin, Noelle nodded, stepping out of the diner while trying to avoid looking any of the monsters around in the eye.
Susie ran ahead of Noelle, pulling her and Berdly outside, running as fast as they could in the direction of the grand building the street over. Just before the gates, Berdly looked to the side and stopped, spotting something in the distance. He tried to yell something to Susie and Noelle, but hesitated in the moment, before running off in the direction of the Dreemurr house, leaving the others to approach the Holiday manor.
