Candy [h.s.]

eight

"Just you tonight?" The blonde girl I always see talking to the girl appears at the podium in front of me. "Yeah, just me." I can't help but keep my head on a swivel to try and spot the girl busying herself so she wouldn't have to talk to me. The whole point of coming here tonight was to see her and maybe find out where she stands on me helping her.

"Are you looking for T?" The blonde snaps me out of my own thoughts when she reveals the girl's name. "T? Is that the brunette who always serves me?" I'm not sure why knowing this little part of her makes the butterflies in my stomach go crazy, but it does.

"Yeah, her name is T. Did you not know that?" She seems surprised that I didn't know, which makes me wonder why she made it such a big deal to not tell me her name.

"I had no idea." I say back to the blonde girl as she leads me to my usual table like T usually would. "Weird. Anyway, she's not on tonight. You should know that. Don't you have her schedule memorized or something? This is the first time that I've seen you come on one of her nights off." Tonight wasn't just about wanting comforting diner food, I wanted to feel warm for a little while and she's the only one who has been able to bring that to me.

"Yeah," I chuckle to try and play this off as a casual dinner plan. "I was just hungry, that's all."

The waitress, whose nametag proudly says Diana, rolls her eyes a bit and mutters out a "Mhmm," before setting down my cup of water.

"I'll just have my usual," Handing back the menu to her forces me to make eye contact with her and I notice that her eyes tell me that she knows something that I don't.

"Coming right up, Loverboy." Diana winks before turning on her heel and walking back to the kitchen to put in my order. What's up with everyone calling me that lately? I don't even know T, why does everyone think that I'm absolutely smitten with her?

I still can't tell if I honestly want to bring T into my fucked up world. She's such a source of salvation to me lately, even though she pisses me right off and I just know we'll butt heads if we work together. She just seemed so stressed out the other night and I want to help her while being selfish and keeping her around me more. The only thing that worries me is what Bri will do if she ever meets T. If we do end up working together, I need to make sure to keep them away from each other, otherwise Bri is going to take her shit out on me even worse than she already does, or she's going to lash out at T. I cannot let that happen.

From the little that I know about her, T seems like a complicated girl with a temper. I like that about her. She doesn't just let me get away with my arrogant remarks and actions, she calls me out or just doesn't even acknowledge them. She has a hard shell around her, but I have a feeling that there's something lying dormant beneath that shell that needs to be let out in order for her to heal from whatever it is that has plagued her. I wish I was wrong about all of this, but I have a tendency to be pretty accurate when it comes to detecting trauma.

My phone lights up with a text notification from Calum:

You need to come over. Right now. I'm not kidding, H.

Fucking perfect. I leave to let the boys deal with one job without me, and now they need my help. Un-fucking-believable.

-

I feel bad for leaving the diner before I even got the chance to eat or tell Diana that I had to go, but I left enough money to cover the meal and I gave Diana a little tip since she inadvertently revealed T's name to me.