* that night when she got home *
Warning: Sensitive scene ahead
I thank Frannie for giving me a ride back to my house. I also thank her for wiping my tears, and getting me out of that party as soon as I asked.
The door creaks when I open it. It's dark in here, which makes me assume Momma hasn't come back yet.
But I'm wrong.
She's laying on the couch, her leg hanging off the edge, a beer can still in her hand. She's sleeping, thank the Lord. Only one red stiletto shoe is on her foot.
When did she get home? If she saw that I wasn't here when she returned, she will kill me. Especially because it's almost three in the morning.
I tip-toe through the house, scared to breathe. That's when I trip over the other discarded red stiletto. It's not loud, fortunately, but it causes me to drop my phone. That is loud.
My mom stirs on the couch.
"Athalia?" She slurs, perking up. Even in the dark, I note that her eyes are rimmed with purple circles from lack of sleep, and her hair is all messy.
"It's me, momma," I say softly. She's drunk, but she's tired. Maybe it'll be okay.
I walk over to her, cringing at her condition. The only thing I can smell is alcohol. Her clothes are dirty, like she hasn't changed out of them in days--which she probably hasn't. I want to ask her where she went, but I know I won't get an answer.
She blinks at me, silent for about ten seconds. "Where've you been?"
I can't tell her where I was. She'd kill me. But I also can't lie. She'd kill me then, too.
Deciding to go with the lie, hoping she's not able to sense it, I tell her, "I stayed late at a friend's house."
"This late?" She questions. Her eyes squint at me. I realize she's not looking at me, she's looking directly at my neck. "What the fuck is that, Athalia Parker?"
Curse Levi Kingston.
Yes, I figured out his last name. I had Frannie ask around for it, and it didn't take long at all for her to find it out.
My mom abruptly stands, and I flinch away, but she doesn't come towards me. She walks over to the light switch and flicks it on. My eyes strain at the sudden brightness. I refrain from covering my neck.
"You fucking slut," she hisses, pointing at the hickey Levi so kindly gave me before he told me I was a mistake. "You were out whoring around while I was here waiting for you!?"
"I-I didn't know, momma—"
"Don't fucking lie to me, Athalia Parker." She makes her way to me, and I back away. I go as far away from her I can until my back hits the wall, and I'm trapped. "Your father would be so disappointed to have a slut as a daughter."
What're you, Momma? I want to say. Over the last five years, you've had more than ten failed relationships. Oh, how badly I want to say those words.
But I remain quiet.
She stares at the hickey with disgust. "I am so ashamed of you," she spits at me. "I needed your fucking help tonight, but you were too busy being a whore, weren't you?"
"No—"
"Damn liar," she snaps, and brings her knee up to my stomach.
I hunch over, the wind knocked out of me. She slams her fist into the side of my face, her rusted wedding ring that she never takes off cutting me. Blood drips down my cheek.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
"You're fucking pathetic," she shouts, grabbing onto my hair and pulling me towards her. Tears sting my eyes. "You weak, pathetic slut."
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
She throws me to the ground, stepping on my hand as she walks off. I hear her open the refrigerator to grab a can of beer. I don't move, I can't breathe.
For what seems like hours, though was really probably three minutes at most, I lay on the cold floor, catching my breath and trying to ignore the ache in my stomach and the sting on my cheek and the feeling of her hands pulling my hair.
For those three minutes, I don't let tears fall.
But when I make the long trek upstairs, and turn on the shower to wash away tonights events, I begin to cry.
For my mom. For Levi.
For me.
* current day *
"Hey, Big D!" I exclaim as I walk through the doors of Dan's Diner. He has a red rag slung over his shoulder, meaning he'd just finished cleaning for opening.
He smiles at me. "Hello, Athalia."
Yesterday, I took the entire day for myself, which was pretty selfish, but I figured I should let myself heal a little before making others worry about me. Now, the cut on my cheek has scabbed and I think it might scar, so I put a bandaid on it.
Don't you worry, I have a cover story. A few, actually.
'I was a bad-butt and got into a street fight. You should see my opponent.'
'I tried making a hibachi dinner with cool knife tricks, but my tricks were so cool that I accidentally cut myself.'
'Tripped and fell, hit the corner of a wall, silly me.'
'I have a cat.'
I feel like the cat one would be most believable. But I don't have a cat.
Big D lets me hug him, which surprises me, but I don't take it for granted. I think that he assumes I'm going to be hugging him every day now, since that one day I thought I was getting fired I offered to hug him about a bajillion times.
He pats my back when he's done. "Go on now."
I head to the back of the diner to put my apron on. Frannie's here, and she makes conversation with me. She makes conversation with me! She asks what happened to my face, and I just play it off with a "Doesn't it make me look so awesome?"
She doesn't ask any further questions, and instead heads out of the employees room with a "Totally."
She doesn't ask about the hickey either, and I'm smug about that. Yep, that's right. I used my amazing makeup skills to conceal the darn hickey that Levi gave me.
I'm never letting him do that again for two reasons.
One: I don't want Mom to get mad again.
Two: I don't want Levi to make another mistake.
I follow Frannie out shortly after I tie my apron, ready my notepad (even though I hardly use it), and smooth down my clothes.
Today isn't busy at all. I've handed out about two Sprites, three Cokes, and one Shirley Temple in nearly three hours. Monday's are usually our slowest day, but today is super slow.
Frannie even takes out her homework, that kind of just looks like a lot of paperwork, and works on that while waiting for more customers.
I don't have anything to do besides suck on a blue raspberry lollipop and talk to Big D.
"So," I begin, popping the sucker out of my mouth, "How's life?"
He glances at me from above his glasses, then continues reading the newspaper. Since when did people get newspaper nowadays? "Not too shabby," he replies. "And you?"
"Oh, I'm great Big D," I tell him. "Want to hear about my Saturday night?"
Of course, I'm not going to tell him about Mom. Although, if it came down to it, he would be the right person to inform. I know that he cares about me, despite how many times he only pretends to be listening to me.
He lowers his paper. "Enlighten me."
"Okay, so, remember Levi?" I ask. He nods. "Okay, well, he was at this party I was at—"
"Let me stop you right there," he says, holding up a chubby hand. "You went to a party?"
"Oh yeah," I grin. "I am the party, Big D."
"Sure ya are," he says unconvincingly.
"Anyways, Levi was at the party. I was dancing like the amazing dancer I am, then some rando puts his hands on me!"
Big D gasps sarcastically. "No!"
"Yep!"
He grows very serious all of a sudden. "What's his name?"
Why would he want to know his name? I don't even know his name. "Doesn't matter," I say, continuing. "After he put his hands on me, Levi came and punched the devil's out of him."
"Good."
"Yes, good. Wait, no. Bad. No one should have been hit, but that's whatever because his hands were no longer on me and I felt okay. Then, while I'm cleaning up Mr. Pretty—I mean Levi's knuckles, the butthole kisses me!"
Big D makes a face that tells me he doesn't want to hear anymore. But I go on anyways.
"To make him even more of a butthole, he proceeds to tell me it's a mistake. He left me in the bathroom." I cross my arms, shaking my head. "Can you believe that?"
"What an igit," Big D says, also shaking his head.
That night, I cried for so long in the shower I was afraid blood might come out of my eyes instead of tears. Most of them were for mom, a fraction of them were for me, and the rest were for him. But I guess he got what he wanted.
We are definitely not friends anymore. I am no longer a part of his men.
Frannie decides to join our conversation. "Next time I see him, babe, I'll give him a kick in his bloody balls."
Hehe. Bloody balls.
Her English accent is so pretty, why does she have to ruin it by saying 'bloody balls'?
"Count meh in on that," Big D says. (me)
Four customers walk in. I recognize them from the party. Frannie does too, because she glares at them. They just smirk, their eyes moving between me and her.
"Can we be seated, please?" One of them says sweetly, clasping their hands together. He's looking at me, and I remember his hair. His name is Fisher.
"Seat yourselfs, idiots," Frannie says.
Big D whips his head to her, although he's not surprised. Big D notices that she's not exactly polite to customers, which makes me wonder why she hasn't been fired.
I hope she doesn't get fired, I've finally made a friend.
"We want her to seat us," a different one counters, jerking their head at me and smirking. This one has blonde hair. He's really cute.
Why do they want me?
"Sit your bloody selves," Frannie snaps. But she's smirking, too.
Okay...this is weird.
I look at Big D to see if he feels the same as me, and by his confused brows and pursed lips, I can tell he thinks this is weird, too.
The group of four picks a booth near the back. Frannie walks over to them, and I watch as she smacks each and every one of them on the top of their heads.
"I think she knows 'em," Big D states the obvious before folding his paper and heading to the back. Thanks, boss. Now I'm standing alone behind the counter like a dummy.
A couple of them are watching me, giddy. Frannie smacks them again. I hear her ask for their orders, but they refuse to order until I take their orders.
Again, why do they want me?
Frannie rolls her eyes, audibly sighing, then comes over to me. She's wearing black leggings with a tight red shirt and her red apron. Red is definitely her color.
Good thing she works in a diner that looks like the color red and white threw up in here.
"I need to use the toilet," she tells me, basically forcing out the sentence out. "Take their orders for me?"
Dang, of course she has to go to the bathroom right before she takes their order. I glance at them. They're all smiling curiously, waiting for me.
They seem nice. Even though I can't get the image of Fisher sucking faces with that one girl that didn't like my dress. I bet he's nice, too.
I approach their table. "Hi, I'm Athalia! Can I start you off with some drinks?"
"We'll take four vanilla milkshakes," one tells me.
Each of them are wearing at least one article of black clothing. Almost every single one has a visible tattoo. They're also super muscular.
Not as muscular as Levi, though.
Shut up, Athalia. We don't think about him anymore.
"Got it," I exclaim, turning away to prepare their shakes.
While I'm walking, I overhear their conversations. Okay, fine, I eavesdrop.
"Athalia. Pretty fucking name."
"She's real pretty."
"Damn, she's got an ass."
"He'll kill you, Fish."
I bite on my gasp. Who's gonna kill Fish?!
"Guys, we should apply for a job here."
"River, that's the stupidest thing you've ever said."
"We already have jobs."
"I know, dumbass," I think River says, "But we get to work here with her. And Fran, I guess."
Fran? I highly doubt that Frannie appreciates that nickname.
"You think the boss'll let that slide?"
"Not a chance."
"Worth a shot."
When I start the high-tech blender, I can no longer hear their conversation. I hope my blush isn't noticeable on my cheeks. They think I'm pretty.
Frannie returns from the bathroom, finally. She takes one look at their vanilla shakes and starts laughing. She says something that I can't really hear with the noise of the blender, but it's something along the line of 'F(bad word)ing children'.
Children should not be freaked.
Once all the shakes are made, I attempt to place them evenly on the circular tray I'm supposed to use. Last time I used it, which was about five months ago, I split everything everywhere. Haven't used it since. But right now, I want to get these boys their shakes as quick as I can.
Frannie notices that I'm struggling to line up the glasses, and decides to grab two. Phew.
I grab the other two, and follow her to the table. They all notice my arrival and smile at me.
I smile back at them.
They smile even wider.
Aw, so cute.
"Here you go," I say, setting down two of the shakes while Frannie sets down the other two.
"Thank you, pretty lady," a brown-haired one says.
Frannie makes a face that says Careful. She mutters, "You're on thin ice there, Nicolas."
"What would you guys like to eat?"
"You," Nicolas says to me, smirking.
"Gross!" Frannie flicks his forehead. "Maxen, control your boyfriend."
"He's not my damn boyfriend, bitch," the one who I assume is Maxen says, scooting as far away from Nicolas as he can. He's got creamy dark skin, and he's very attractive to say the least.
Nicolas smirks at Maxen before looking back at me. "He's shy."
I laugh. These guys are totally weird but I love it. And, I know all their names now!
Oh. Em. Gee. Did I just make four new friends?!
The blonde one, aka River, tilts his head at me. "What's with the bandage, cutie?"
I hold back my smile at what he called me. "I'm a total bad-butt," I tell him. "Doesn't it look cool?"
"So cool."
"Very cool."
They all nod in agreement.
I glance at the circular clock hanging on the wall to my left. My shift ended five minutes ago. I knew I should've taken a double.
Technically, I could just stay and talk with my new friends. But I told Momma I'd be back at four, and it's three-thirty-five. I still have to bike all the way home.
I hurry to untie my apron. I notice their frowns when I head into the employees room to put the apron and my notepad that I didn't use once today back in my pink cubby. That's right, I painted it with my master painter skills.
I take my hair out of the claw clip it was in once I'm back in the diner, and the guys make an "ooo" sound.
My scalp is still sore in a couple spots from when my mom yanked it.
I pop my head into the kitchen to say bye to Big D. He tells me he'll see me tomorrow, then I make my way to the door.
"Bye, Athalia!" I hear from behind me.
I look back to see four guys waving at me. Laughing, I wave back at them. Even Frannie gives me a little wave.
I close the door behind me, and when I trudge past the window, I see Frannie hitting them with her rag while they try to look over her homework.
She says something, and I read her lips.
"Idiots."
☆Authors note☆
I decided to write this chapter instead of doing my schoolwork. Sorry not sorry.
I never really stopped loving you. I just got used to your absence - j.b
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Thank you for reading<3
Word count: 2861