The mystery guy remained a mystery
I went home looking like half-a-zombie. Jamie asked if I wanted to take a nap, but I refused. I had shifts at the Ollie’s. They were tiring, but sometimes they did a good job taking away my mind from the stacks of assignments.
Around four, someone called out my name.
I scrambled in hurry to take another order—and was surprised when I saw that it was Jamie’s friend Ingrid, and a few of the school cheerleaders.
“Hi, Elena!” Ingrid piped up.
“Hey,” I greeted back shyly. “Uh, so…what do you guys want to order?”
“What’s good around here?” Ingrid asked.
I rattled off the special menus today, including Ollie’s bests.
“Okay, I’ll have the Bolognese spaghetti, please.”
“Do you have sea-food?”
I blinked and turned to the girl who’d just spoken. Sylvie Hamilton, the head cheerleader, smiled widely. Beside her, Amy and Vero were sitting with pissed-off expressions. I’d never liked them, but Sylvie had never been anything but nice to me.
“Well…we have peppered salmon steak, tuna in tortilla, and regular fish n’ chips. And lobster, of course.”
“I think I’ll take the salmon steak and the fish n’ chips.”
Amy shot her a look. “I thought you were on diet!”
Sylvie smiled sheepishly. “Well, it’s just today.”
Vero snorted. “You’d always loved fishes.”
I cleared my throat. “What about you two?”
“Orange juice,” Amy said. “No extra sugar.”
“Same,” Vero said.
I repeated their orders and put on a wide smile. “Anything else?”
“That’s all for me,” Ingrid said. “Thanks.”
They all nodded. But just as I was about to turn away Sylvie called my name again.
“Yes?”
“Uh,” Sylvie said, sheepishly, “make the salmon steak two, please.”
Her friends blinked in shock. I wrote her order and saluted her with a wink.
“Say hi to Jamie for me!” Ingrid called as I went to the kitchens.
Seven p.m. was the busy time.
Ollie’s was crowded with diners. I wished I had eight hands, like octopus. My always occupied two hands couldn’t seem to ever be enough. An order here, a bill there. A dirty table here, an empty ketchup bottle there.
But it’s what I wanted to do. And I got the tips, which were a handful if my smile was just wide enough.
At nine we were closing up. Most who had hung around for the free wi-fi had gone home. The other waiters had also gone home, having finished their shifts.
When I was wiping the tables, someone rang the counter bell.
“We’re closed,” I said, not looking up.
A shadow fell over me. “Not even a cup of coffee left?”
I looked up. A man in black jacket and hat smiled down at me. The hat cast a slight shadow over the top half of his face, but the row of teeth he showed made my spine shiver in apprehension. I blinked, telling myself that I was being irrational.
YOU ARE READING
Incarnadine
Paranormal*COMPLETED* Seventeen-year-old Elena had lost something for the past few years, and she had yet to discover it. It wasn't something that'd just show up because she was determined to find it. And no one could find it for her. She'd lost her memory. W...
Chapter 3
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