Sometimes

Chapter twenty-eight

Retro Shack was surprisingly busy on Saturday afternoon.  The radio was playing out a rock song and almost every table was surrounded by chatter.  Lance was on the till next to me and we were ducking and diving around each other to clear the queues as fast as we could.  Leanne was nowhere to be seen.  I’d hitched a ride with her this morning, having to listen to how she was the best sister ever for not telling Mum and Dad that I’d missed College, but after that she’d been oddly quiet.  She’d been hovering by the pool table for a while, her eyes falling to the large window that covered most of the front of the building, but that had been over half an hour ago.

   I felt Lance lean past me to grasp some straws and I stepped back out of the way while waving for the next customer to come forward.  I smiled when I realised it was Frankie.

   “Hi,” I said.  “What can I get you?”

He returned the grin, leaning into the counter in a casual way that I imagined he’d learnt from Sonny.  “Banana smoothie please.”

I nodded and set to work preparing his order.  I glanced up at the staff door quickly, trying to see if I could see Leanne through the small panel of glass but the blind was drawn, reflecting my face back at me.

    “There you are,” I said, setting his drink down in front of him.

He handed me the money with a look that said he wanted to say something.

    “You okay?” I asked, dropping his change into his open palm.

He nodded quickly and took his cup.  “Aiden says you ditched College and spent the afternoon at his house yesterday.”

I chanced a sideways glance at Lance to see if he’d heard but he looked too busy, piling an assortment of drinks onto a tray.  “Yeah, I did.”

Frankie let slip a small smile and I felt myself frowning slightly.  “Good.  I mean, cool.  Well, I’ll see you later.”

    “Yeah, sure,” I replied. 

    “Thanks for the drink,” he added before disappearing into the crowd.

I stood confused for a second, wondering what the smile had been all about, until I noticed a woman standing in front of me with an impatient look on her face.

I set my expression back to ‘happy to help’ and pushed the thought to the back of my mind.  “How can I help?”

                                                ***

    I finally caught sight of Leanne at around half one.  She poked her head out of the staff room and hissed at me.

I turned around, half way through making an order of five slush puppies, and raised my eyebrows at her.  “Oh, you are alive then.”