Chapter One

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♥ Chapter One

One of the snooty comments her manager would always tell her was, "Are those plates dirty, or is that just your reflection?" Oh, yeah, because her brown and tousled hair looked the very same color as the stains of the unclean dishware that customers left behind on their tables. Ha-ha, how witty. Must have taken weeks to plan such a clever insult, Riley thought.

Riley pinched the knot in her back before bending over a table to collect plates. Frizzy strands of her tied hair fell over the sides of her face, and the split ends sticking from her head made the sixteen-year-old look like she had been electrocuted. With all the whispered rumors uttered between her gossipy coworkers about her being crazy, electrocution would seem like no surprise. There were stories circulating the backdoor kitchens of the restaurant where her previous jobs involved her spitting in her customers' food at a local diner or punching her boss in the nose at a subway shop. These tales made her new coworkers cautious, keeping their distance from the girl and feeling ill at the prospect of what she might do this time at a fancy restaurant.

But this time, she would not get fired. Riley swore to herself that she would keep this job, even if the manager acted like someone shoved a stick up her rack. Her determination was based on the simple fact that she was a cleaner, not a waitress. Hurrah! She didn't have to worry about crying children, obnoxious teenagers, or perverted old men. With everyone's faces kept intact, her job would be as well. Everything would go smoothly from now on.

Forks and spoons clanked against each other as she stacked them in a gray bucket, clearing the table. Riley huffed as she lifted the container filled with rows of tables' dishware and utensils. They rummaged and filled to the top of the box as she flexed her arm strength carrying and began walking past the aisles.

"Oh my goodness—!"

Her head perked up at the squealing voice. In the corner of the restaurant, a redheaded woman had clasped her hands to her cheeks. The lady's eyes lit up at the shine of the diamond ring sitting in the box before her. A man in a pinstriped suit sat across from his date, his elbows propped on the table and his fingers fitted together.

"How do you like it?" he asked. "Thirty-three carats. The very best ring for the very best woman."

"I love it," she gasped. The woman ran the pad of her thumb over the gemstone, trying to catch the reflection of her widely stretched lips.

Plates rattled as Riley set her bucket on a free table. Her hand wrapped around glass, and she approached the couple. Their heads turned up at the sound of her footsteps, and they blinked alarmed at the girl with the disheveled, mousy hair.

A waterfall rained over the man's head. Cubes of ice hopped over the table. The woman gasped and seized the box, protecting the ring from the spilled drink.

The man's hair was drenched. Goosebumps lined over his skin from the cold water, skin that soon turned red as anger flashed in his eyes.

"What are you doing?!"

The empty glass felt much lighter in Riley's hand. Good. Less clean-up to do for the kitchen sink.

"What are you doing?" she said. "I've seen you at this restaurant before. A week ago you were dining with another woman—with another ring, too. That was pretty fast."

The man's jaw hung open, a strangled noise garbling in his throat. He met the redheaded woman's eye contact before she asked if this was true. After no response, she threw the ring box on the table and flung the exit door wide open.

He heaved a glare at Riley. "I don't even know you—"

"Me neither, and I'm already disgusted by you. This is why divorce rates are so high nowadays, because of scumbags like—"

"RILEY!"

Riley yelped at the tug of her ear. Sharp nails pinched her earlobe, and her hearing was pierced by the shrill yell of her manager.

"Are you insane!? I tell you to take the glass cups inside the kitchen and find you spilling drinks over our customers—what's wrong with that head of yours?!"

"I've never encountered such disrespect in my life," the man said.

Riley swore her ear was going to be torn off by the way her manager bulldozed the girl out of the restaurant. The door swung open, and Riley's bottom met the cement curb. The manager glowered down at her and had a hand in a fist over the doorknob.

"You're fired, Riley! If I see your face around here again, I'll toss you out the window next time!"

The door slammed shut before Riley could jump forward and ask for her last paycheck. She slumped over the ground. Though she was no longer carrying the bucket of plates, she felt as if the heaviest weight ever had just fallen on her shoulders.

"What am I going to do now?" she groaned.

She didn't want to stand and go through the walk of shame back to her apartment. She stared at her shadow on the ground, how it was slumped forward like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Riley wished she could get a simple job like that, ringing the bell in some isolated tower where she wouldn't have to deal with people.

A larger shadow fell upon hers. "You okay? Need some help?"

Riley glanced up at the figure. The sun hit her eyes, but when she squinted she recognized blonde hair and a familiar face. The boy's hand reached out towards her. A soft voice uttered from behind him.

"Are you sure, Heath? She looks dirty." A pair of eyes peered over his shoulder, and the gold chains of the girl's purse rattled.

Riley huffed and stood up on her own. She dusted the dirt off her pants, gave the boy and his girlfriend a sour look, and turned her heel to walk to the next bus station.

~*~

A tiny bell chimed as Heath strolled inside the restaurant with his arm locked with another girl's. The two were quick to spot his father by the strange scene of a worker fervently apologizing to him and another waitress rushing to wipe the table.

As he approached the group the boy noticed the chairs, the napkins, and his own father soaked with water. "Whoa, what happened, Dad?"

"A girl with as much manners as an ape did this to me. Apparently she had a problem with my proposal to Elizabeth."

The man grimaced as the workers hurried back to the kitchen with his receipt. The dinner would be free of charge. But money was never an issue when it came to this family.

"Ah," Heath said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "so I would have met Wife Number Four."

His father raised an eye at the girl clinging to Heath's side. "New girlfriend?" Heath nodded.

The two barely sat down on the other side of the table before the manager returned with the refund. Heath's father tossed the napkins on his plate, snatched the receipt and left the couple. He said he would meet Heath later at home. The boy and his girlfriend picked up their menus and began scanning the items.

"It's so terrible what that worker did to your dad," she said.

"Really?" The menu hid Heath's smile. "I think it's sort of funny."

When he told the girl that he found today very interesting, she replied that their date hadn't even started yet.

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Author's Note: I've written original stories before but this is the first that I've posted online to the public. I was very hesitant on doing this, so I'll determine from people's reviews if this is worth continuing. If not, I might take the story down and go back to writing privately.

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