Rouge

Rouge - Chapter Nine

"So you start school tomorrow, huh? Excited?"

Hunter rolled her eyes at Alex Dempsey and angrily folded the corners of the little white take-out boxes. The restaurant was completely dead. Kin, the manager, was taking out the deliveries, so she and Alex were alone in the kitchen setting up for the busy Friday night ahead.

"I really can't express how much I hate the people at school," said Hunter. "They're complete dicks. I'm particularly not looking forward to facing Benny Layman again."

"Yeah but you know that girls mature faster than boys. That's why I gave up on men. Girls are less complicated." Alex tucked her bleached blonde fringe behind her studded ear and leant against the sink as she polished glasses. Her smile was always crooked and gleaming in that quirky way that made her sexuality so obvious.

"I did meet someone though."

Alex's mouth fell open. "You what?"

"Don't act so surprised! I'm not a total loner."

"Oh honey, you are the definition of loner."

Hunter whacked her with the cardboard cut-out and Alex snickered. Being there in the kitchen with probably her closes friend, cleaning and waiting for Kin to return and bark orders in Chinese was Hunter's favorite part of the week. Sure, working way downtown near the Brooklyn Bridge wasn't very classy, but no one judged her. It wasn't like school where people whispered and laughed behind her back. She became a different person at the restaurant. Plus the tips were great. Each little penny went into the travel savings jar she kept stashed away in her room.

"So? What's he like?"

"He's so nice. I met him at Joshua's benefit last week. His father's pretty high up on the executive chain."

"So he's an aristocrat then? Oh babe, those kinds of guys are so high maintenance."

"He's not like that though. If I'd met him at school-"

"He goes to Jackson?"

"Yeah. I've never really noticed him though." She shrugged and checked the clock on the wall. They had fifteen minutes until the restaurant opened. "You know how big that place is."

"Then he knows about you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you hammered the Principal's son?"

Hunter threw the cardboard cut-out box at Alex for the second time.

"I didn't," she snapped. "And he knows, but he doesn't believe it. He kind of keeps to himself."

"Like you?"

"Yeah. He's a freedom fighter and a vegetarian and wears these dorky square glasses."

"He sounds like a poem."

"He is. There are no flaws about him."

"Honey, everyone has flaws."

"Not Eli."

"So what does the Iceman think about this little love affair?" she asked, referring to her pet name for Joshua. Alex had a pet name for everyone. Kin's was the Firecracker, because whenever things were messy on a busy night, he would explode at them and throw pans around the kitchen. Any normal person would be horrified and probably quit, but Hunter and Alex learned to laugh about it. The head chef Craig – who got by working every night of the week except Sundays because that was 'God's day' – ignored it too. The other two waiters were only young. They didn't know any better.

Hunter hadn't spoken more than a few words to Joshua in a week. Something about the fire on the stove had freaked him out. She grew suspicious that he was hiding something about the fire accident from her. Was he just jealous that she'd ditched him at the benefit to be with Eli, or was it something else, something completely unrelated to her new friend?