Find Yourself

Chapter 23

     I think about it for a minute and ask, "Isn't that the guy from the corn maze?"  She smiles at the thought of him and says, "Yes!"  As I stand up and get ready to get back to work, I say, "Yeah, that's fine!  But I am not paying for his coffee if you bring him here!"  Pilar put the phone to her ear again and started talking again.  I laughed and mumbled to myself, "I am glad she is finally meeting people."

      After a few hours, Sarah walked out of the office and snapped, "Benji, it's kind of slow right now.  You can be off if you want!"  I looked at Benji as he walked to the locker area and asked, "Can-"  Sarah snapped, "No, you only have an hour left of your shift.  Your boyfriend can go without you for that long."  I turned and grabbed my rag to clean more of the counter I was already cleaning, watching as Pilar, Adrian, and her new friend were all having a good time, and I was at work.

     Benji snuck up behind me and kissed me on the cheek and whispered in my ear, "Well, I can play big brother while you finish up here."  Feeling his breath on my neck made me freeze and kind of turned me on.  I muster up the words to say, "Text Felix that I will be off in an hour?"  Benji kissed my cheek again and said, "I'll miss you!"  He walked away and sat down next to Adrian, who was waving around his Frozen wand.

     Sarah laughed as Benji walked away and said, "God, you two are so adorable!" I looked at her and laughed as she walked back to the office, leaving me alone to man the station in an empty coffee shop. As soon as she was out of sight, I walked over to the area where everyone was sitting and decided I would waste time by endlessly cleaning the one table by my siblings and boyfriend.

      "So Marcus, we are going to an art show tonight.  Are you going to come with-" Benji asked, trying to be nice to Pilar's new friend. Pilar rolled her eyes and snapped, "Benji, you have your own boyfriend, go hit on him-" As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what she said. Looking at Marcus, his dark complexion and his face went bright red. Pilar quickly got up and ran out of the coffee shop, followed by Marcus.

      I looked at Benji, who was trying hard not to laugh, and Adrian playfully said, "Victor, how come I don't have a boyfriend? Everyone has a boyfriend but me! It's not fair!" I froze at what he just said and tried to think of what to say. When I was about to speak, Sarah yelled, "Victor, I can handle the front till the closers get here. Go ahead and go!" I breathed a sigh of relief as I headed to the employee lockers to change out of my work clothes.

     After I quickly changed, I saw Pilar walk into the coffee shop alone. I asked, "What happened-" She snapped back, "Don't say a word!" *Ring* *Ring* *Ring* my phone buzzed, and everyone looked at me as they stood up, ready to go. I answered the phone without looking at who it was and said, "Hello?"

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Carter

     As I stood there bawling my eyes out, I felt like I wanted to curl up into a ball and just shrivel up and die.  I am so grateful to Felix for standing by me during all of this, watching the maintenance crew at the youth center board up the hateful words spray-painted on the door.  Felix took out his phone, and after a few seconds, he said, "Victor, you guys need to get here right now!"  Felix put the phone on speakerphone, so I could speak too, as he wrapped his arms around me.

     Victor, with a bit of worry in his voice, asked, "What's wrong?"  I felt my eyes tear up as Felix said, "Someone vandalized the main entrance."  Victor asked, "What did they say?"  I felt my stomach churn as I said, "Someone spray-painted, "GET OUT OF TOWN LADYBOY!" on the door."  Victor immediately asks, "Are you ok?  I wipe the tears from my eyes and said, "Yeah, I am, just hurry up and get down here, and be safe, okay?"  Victor replied, "Yeah, we will be.  See you soon!"