The New Boy

chapter 25

The carnival was incredible. When Shawn dropped me off at the end of the night, I was sad to say goodbye to everyone. My heart wrenched particularly hard when a certain person gave me a hug goodnight.

We had gotten home pretty late, so I barely slept. With the combination of a late bedtime, and my excited (or anxious, I'm not really sure) tossing-and-turning when I thought about the night's events, my alarm sounded like a demon. It took three snoozes and a lot of complaining to get out of bed and make myself a quick breakfast before work. My parents had left early this morning for a romantic getaway a few hours away to celebrate their anniversary, and they would be gone for the rest of the weekend. I didn't mind staying alone tonight, and I could always go to Mia's if anything happened. I did miss my mom's cooking, though. Making breakfast for myself sucked even though I knew how to cook.

My shift started at 9:00, and I was rushing out of the door to make it there on time. As I ran out the door, I quickly grabbed a key from the bowl next to it and threw it in my bag. My usual keychain-adorned car keys were nowhere to be found, but this would do. Thankfully, there weren't many customers at Lu's this morning. Not many people eat ice cream at 9am anyway, especially on Sundays. It was Labor Day weekend, which meant we had tomorrow off school. I was super excited, of course.

A couple of preteen girls sat in the corner with their creamy milkshakes, but otherwise I was alone in the restaurant. I spent my time cleaning up the already spotless-kitchen and sneaking peeks at my phone when no one was looking.

"Hey, girl!" I spun around, covertly hiding my phone from my boss. The tiny woman pranced around like a teenager despite her old age, coming to a stop right in front of me.

"Hey, Lu." I smiled and embraced her. Her classic musk-and-coconut smell overwhelmed me as her thick, silvery hair brushed across my face. "I missed you! How's Benny?"

"He's just fine, honey. Sorry I wasn't here." Lu's son had been sick last week, explaining her absence. The assistant manager had sadly taken over in her place. Jared was a very sour and annoying college student who seemed to have a vendetta against me, but I would never tell Luanda that. She already felt bad about taking the week off. This store was her passion and she worked harder than anyone I knew.

"It's okay, I managed." I reassured her.

"So how you been? How's the new school year?" Lu brushed past me on her way to make some fresh coffee in the espresso machine. Over the years, she had increased the variety of food sold at Lahaina. It was still an ice cream shop, but everyone in the neighborhood raved about the coffee here.

I gratefully accepted the steaming mug that she placed in my hands. It was full of my favorite black coffee. She had an identical mug, but her coffee was filled with sugar and cream.

"Pretty good, Lu." I said in between sips of the heavenly goodness. The bitter flavour filled my mouth as I gulped down the warm liquid, barely acknowledging the table of girls as they exited the restaurant.

"Now honey, you know I want more details than that. Spill." She put her hand on her hip, unleashing the full force of her sassiness on me.

"Okay, okay. Um... " I began, unsure of where to start. The beginning of school had actually been pretty terrible after the Thomas Incident. Instead of reliving that torture, I sidestepped it and instead went into a detailed explanation of my new classes and all the assignments I had had thus far. I knew that wasn't really what Luanda wanted to hear— she preferred all the juicy gossip about my life, not the boring things that I didn't care about— but what was I supposed to say? My awesome boyfriend broke my heart, and then when I tried to find someone else, my complicated new friend who was really an old friend punched him in the middle of school? That would make a very interesting conversation. Especially with new customers walking in every few minutes.