Ah, so he had already talked too much. "That's fine." He would just be quiet and take his cues from Kile. For now, he busied himself looking at every single shop along the drive and adjusting his pocket rock so it didn't dig into his hip. 

They stopped at a nice-looking place with a bunch of people already there. Eli liked people, but he would have to rest for a while longer before he really felt like socializing. He was already thinking about what kind of sandwich and drink he would like when he saw someone approach them. "Hey, Ino! How are you? What're you doing in town today?"

After Kile introduced them, Eli also mimicked the greeting and gave Kilo a smile in return. "That's right. I'll be staying with him for the whole year," Eli answered. He followed them into the shop, listening to Kile's spiel. The major storms this place had sounded pretty scary. Back home, all they had to worry about were earthquakes and fires, and neither had messed up his town since before he was born. "Where did you live before moving here?" Eli asked. He folded his arms to avoid the temptation of touching all the furniture. He briefly worried about his suitcase left in the back of the truck, but Kile knew this area and it must be safe. 

Eli already felt right at home in the weird little sandwich shop. There were places like that all over his hometown. Eli repeated the greeting to K'ali and obediently followed Kile. He was just about to offer to split the bill when K'ali offered to pay. 

"If he came more often, it might be a different story, but I haven't seen him in months."

Eli gave K'ali a sage nod and turned back to Kile. "Inside or outside is fine," he said, although he preferred sitting inside. He didn't want to meekly agree to everything, but he did just arrive. "I'm still pretty tired, so we can sit wherever you want."

Once they sat down, Eli opened the menu "Do they have reuben?" he asked. More often than not, the layout of a menu just swam in front of his eyes, but he scanned it anyway. He had other things he would rather look at, like the odd assortment of chairs or the people passing by. He slid his phone out of his pocket and glimpsed at it: two more messages from his father and a whole string from Ezra. They would both have to wait. Eli placed his phone face-down on the table and continued puzzling through the menu. If they didn't have reuben, he'd just order a roast beef sandwich and a bag of potato chips. Either way, he wanted an unsweetened iced tea.