Moonchild

CHAPTER TEN

I chose to play dump.

'Why?' I said in a clueless tone.

'I honestly don't know.' she said in an exhale.

She took a long drag and exhaled it slowly. I, on the other hand, was still smoking the first one. I couldn't help but notice the dark circles under her eyes. She must have been really tired from all these customers, unless something happened that kept her awake yesterday night. Maybe she was called by a police officer who was on duty yesterday night, and told her to come by the police station to give a statement?

'Did he do anything?'

I needed to know.

'I know that my uncle can be really mean sometimes, but he is a good guy. My auntie never said anything, though, about him doing something illegal,' she took one long drag of the cigarette, held it in longer than expected, then let go and said 'You met him yesterday. You caught him at a really-mean-sometimes moment.'

I needed to say something nice about her uncle, because I couldn't mess up her first impression of me, by telling her that her uncle was cruel, idiotic, neurotic, smart-ass, jackass, asshole, vlákas, full of audacity, full of sh–

'Jeezus, you look like you're about to vomit everywhere. Lucas,' she said intensely, 'are you alright?'

The cigarette I was smoking burned out and the butt was black. While I was lighting another one, I glanced at her and she looked disturbed. Was I pale?

'I'm fine, really.' I said quietly.

'Are you sure? Because...'

'Fine. I'll tell you.'

I took a deep breath, because I'm about to say to her what I wanted to say to her since yesterday. It seemed like a short amount of time to figure out such thing, but I wasn't one who held in emotions that could destroy my sanity.

'Your uncle was a monster yesterday. He spoke to me as if he knew me inside out, and the thing is that no one ever knows, or can imagine, of what I'm thinking, of what I'm feeling. I came here to work and to pay my bills and have a great time working, and he was the first person I saw yesterday on my first day of work,' I took a breath, and continued saying 'and he really was such a pain in my nerve system.'

I left her speechless, and I couldn't blame her, if it was the other way around I would have applauded her for speaking up her feelings for such a terrible man. Before she even had a chance to speak, and because I wanted to say everything that I had in mind, I continued.

'I was about to quit, before I even began my training. Before you even came here yesterday,' she was still not speaking, and I checked if she wanted to say anything by the pauses I did to smoke.

She kept staring in my eyes, and I kept staring at hers. Her eyes were digging at my soul, and if I had a chance, I would have let her dig as deep as she wanted. I never noticed her eyes before. Maybe it was the sun that touched her face, that made them glow in a heavenly glow. I could stare at them for many hours and many days, if she...

'Are you going to speak, or...?'

She seemed angry for some reason. Abort, abort, abort.

'Sorry, I zoned out. Mr. Mark said "I'm sure you know how to make a frappe" and left before I even answered. Anyway, while I was making my coffee I thought of leaving and then I thought that I could use a cigarette and enjoy my coffee before quitting. And as I turned to walk out of the coffee shop a man walked inside. He seemed serious, and I made to walk around him to leave, but he asked for your uncle.'