A little Something called Grace

For Better or For Worse.....

His eyes looked at me so kindly, and his face was almost glowing, bright, and he looked at me, in a way that made me cringe, and back away.

The boy looked sheepishly at me for a second, but then with a surprising grace,  leaped to his feet.

"It was my fault anyways, don't sweat it," he replied, and after flashing me a crooked grin, he stood up, brushed off his hands, and calmly continued on his way.

Bewildered, I slowly nodded, and was still gawking at him, but then heard him: the devil.

"NORAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Oh crap.

Slowly, very slowly,  I walked to him at the slowest pace at which a teenage girl could.

"AND HURRY UP!!"

Chapter Four

"How many times, do I have to tell you this? If you do not get your act straight, then I will fire you. I blahblahblahblah...."

As always, my boss droned on and on about what a good waiter should do, and about how I was an epic failure, and of how he was kind enough to, I quote, "take me under his wing".

" I wish you were more responsible, and would stop giving me attitude, if it wasn't for your foster father, I would think twice about dealing with crap like you. I don't know how a respectable family like theirs, can deal with messed up people like you.. ARE YOU LISTENING OR NOT????!!" he suddenly thundered into my ear.

I calmy looked at his bulging eyes, which at the moment, looked like they would pop out of his head, and coolly replied. "I fully understand".

Satisfied, he leaned back into his stiff, black chair. "Good, now, I expect you to work well with this new waiter- my nephew in fact- that I hired. With all the shifts you're missing, I hired someone more responsible to help you out----and you need all the help you can get."

Lazily, he looked out his office window, smiled smugly and said, "Speak of the devil."

Ouside the window, the bright-eyed boy was smiling and gesturing for me to open the door.

"WHAT???" This was his nephew???? But then, both their eyes did seem to pop out of their head.

Smirking, I opened the door, and sat back down as far as I possibly could from this boy next to me.

Chuckling, he pointed his fat finger towards the boy. With a loud, proud, voice, he boomed, " This is my nephew, and i want him to do well in this business. He will be a good role model for you, which is pretty sad considering that he's not so great either. He chuckled, but abruptly stopped when the emerald eyes narrowed into slits.

Clearing his throat loudly, he quickly averted his eyes. "Now, get out there and work your butts off!"

The bright-eyed boy smiled crookedly, and replied, "Yes uncle.' He opened the door, and I strode out, arms crossed and thoroughly annoyed.

Pissed off, and trying to hold back my tears, I head towards the tables, hearing his words echo in my head. Strange....I heard it at least a million times, so then, why am I tearing up now? Sniffling, I hid my face from him, and strode towards the tables as fast as I could.

"You're an idiot Nora, a irresponsible girl who..no one loves, get used to it" I muttered.

Sniffling even more, I blinked rapidly, and rubbed my eyes viciously.

Out of nowhere, the boy stood in front of me, towering over, cocking his head to one side with a strange look on his face.

"What? what do you want? Leave me alone!" I shouted to his face, and shoved his chest aggressively.

His brows furrowed, and his glowing face got closer until I could see his soft black eyelashes, and the rough gold glinting in his eyes. Hesitantly he asked, "Are...you crying?"

Great, now he thought I was a crybaby. I glared back at him irritably. "No shit, Sherlock!"

He bend his head even closer towards me, and as if he knew me, he didn't touch me...but looking straight into my soul, his words caressed me in ways I never knew.

" You can cry in front of me, I'm not going to judge you, you don't have to hide your pain."

Lies, all lies. Clenching my fists angrily, I glared at him. "You don't know, and you don't understand. Leave it at that."

I ran away, mad and embarrassed, hoping that he would just leave me, that he would stop speaking those words, because I can't let him see me, I didn't want to broken again.

Wiping the traces of sadness with my cold hands, I plastered on a smile and head out towards the kitchen.

Already I was bombarded with orders, and I ran back and forth, "working my butt off".

Thankfully, the orders that were being called out at every possible second kept me getting all emotional again. Strangely, this day went by in a blur, but in the midst of it, I could feel his gaze on me,  his emerald eyes staring into my cracked heart.