x marks the spot {Completed}

Chapter 34

"Here's you're locker key, you're uniform is in there, go get changed."
He walked out the staff room and left me to fend on my own.
He said the door to the right led to the bosses office and the one to the left led to the staff bathroom.
After finding the locked with seven on it, I took out my uniform and made my way to the bathroom.
The room was spacious. With its own sinks and mirrors. I walked into the last stall of the three.
The uniform was simple but pretty.
It consisted of a short pleted black skirt and a white blouse with a checkered tie.
There was also a plain black apron with the diners logo and in its pocket held a notepad and a pen.
On the first page of the notepad there was one simple word.
Welcome.
Although it was simple, my heart swelled with compassion.
I was about to unlock the door when I heard the bathroom door open.
"I'll see what I can do, okay okay, don't expect too much alright?"
The speaker was male. It didn't sound like the chief however, the voice sounded young. But he was in the staff bathroom and that meant that he was a coworker of mine. So I unlocked the stall door and walked out to the sink.
He was angrily washing his face, but as he heard my footsteps he hastily looked up.
"Hi my name is Amber, today's my first day working here."
His mouth laid agape.
"Oh I'm so sorry! My name is Keith, the owners-"
I cut him off.
"Son."
"How did you kn-"
"Luke mentioned it."
"Oh."
"Yep, well I'm gonna get started, see you around!"
I dried my hands and filled my hands back with my clothing after making my exit. After offloading them into my locker, I made my way back to Luke.
He was walking towards the waitress I saw last time. She saw me before he did. I noticed this as she gestured her finger in my direction. Luke's gaze followed her direction and found my eyes. But he didn't walk towards me.
He simply made a gesture with his finger. He pointed to the table labeled booth four. The one I sat by last time.
I smiled as the memories began to flow.
I passed the other booths to see that they were all indeed full. I sat right where I sat earlier that week and waited. I took that time to slowly drink in my surroundings once again.
The waitress was now behind the register and Luke was taking orders.
Ben's son, Keith, was behind the counter, serving drinks. I imagined Chief to be behind the door whipping up some yummy food.
I saw Luke as he walked back to the waitress and gave her some notepad pages before walking in my direction.
"Listen for the bell. I wrote the booth numbers out for you."
"Huh?"
I was genuinely confused.
"You're here to work and thats exactly what you're gonna do."
Wait. He wanted me to wait tables?
But I didn't know how!
"But I don't know how!"
"It's not hard, briefly scan the table, make brief eye contact, recite the greeting and take the orders."
"The greeting?"
"Welcome to Ben's Diner, what can I do for you today? And Welcome to Ben's Diner, here's you're order, thanks for coming."
It sounded generic. But it was part of the job. I was now a waitress. Luke was now just not my friend, but also my coworker. This was now my duty.
I nodded, more to myself than to Luke.
I heard a bell sound off from somewhere near the counter.
"It's you're time to shine little miss waitress!"
He sent wave as I slid out from my spot and made my way over to the counter.
"This is the first time we're officially meeting, my name is Ann."
She thrusted her hand outward.
"My name is Amber, it's a pleasure working with you."
I shook her hand.
"Tray to booth two."
I nodded before carefully retrieving the tray and fumbling over to booth two.
"Welcome to Ben's Diner, here's you're order, thanks for coming."
"Lookie here. They traded that guy waiter for this cutie."
"Dude ain't that the girl that stood up to Kim?"
"Yeah, that's the girl Luke left Kim for."
"Woahhh wait til she here's this!"
The table consisted of three guys.
I recognized their faces from the table that that mean girl had come across from. These were the girls that laughed while Claire had gotten moved from her seat. They didn't even stand up for her. They were pathetic. But now they were here from a different angle.
Now they were customers.
Customers that I had to be kind to.
So I stood there and pretended to be oblivious whilst their conversations continued.
"I think we should call Kim."
"You want a to see a cat fight huh?"
"Maybe we can get in a few punches on that punk Luke since he wanna switch girls on the leaders daughter."
Leaders daughter? What was Kims father the leader of?
"Yeah we should really teach him a lesson."
"I bet boss would be happy."
I decided it was time to interject.
"Anything else I can do for you?"
They all looked up to meet my eyes.
"Sit with us."
"I'm on shift at the moment, I can't."
"When is you're shift finishing then."
"I'm not sure..."
"Don't lie to us."
I flinched when he raised his voice.
"I'm not lying, today's my first day."
They scanned my face for a tell that I was lying.
"Fine then. Can I have you're number?"
If a number would end this exchange then I'd be more than willing.
I took a napkin from on the tray and wrote my number.
"Thanks for coming!"
I faked enthusiasm as I made a U turn and scampered off to booth four, when something stopped me in my tracks.
The bell sounded off once again.
With a sigh, I made a turn towards the counter. Ann was still behind the register but Keith was no where to be seen. That caused me to look back at booth four. It was empty.
"Yeah those boys left rush hour to us."
I guess she read my face.
"They left?"
"Yeah, a few times a month they randomly left during work for some reason,"
She ended her words with a shrug.
He said he'd show me the ropes.
How could he just disappear like that?
Wait. Where's Lilac?
"Ann, did he take a puppy with him?"
"He left it with Chief, is it yours?"
"No it's actually his."
She nodded. At least he didn't take Ly on his wild adventure.
"Two trays to booth one."
I took the trays and made my way to booth one.
"Welcome to Ben's Diner, here's you're orders, thanks for coming."
"Do you always give out you're number to random guys?"
I looked up from my notepad.
At the table sat Franklin, Evan and Drew.
"Eavesdropping isn't polite."
They decided not to respond.
"Is that all?"
No response once again. So I decided it was time to leave. I turned.
"Wait."
I turned back.
"What for?"
"Are you enrolling in Ravens high?"
It was Evan asking.
"Yep."
"That boy is bad news."
Drew's face showed no humor.
I chose not to respond. I simply walked back to the counter and waited for the bell sound off again.