"Oh, I thought beer o'clock was anytime." I laughed.
"Exactly and when it's beer o'clock, especially around here, it gets really busy." He turned to pick up a blue chux cloth, wiping over the bench.
"That doesn't surprise me." I shook my head, feeling a little hopeless. It was already clean as a fiddle around the place, everything was stocked and cleaned. Now it was just us waiting for the customers to flood in through the front doors.
"Now, do you have any kind of waitressing experience?" Luke asked me, obviously hoping that I did have experience, even if it wasn't much.
"Yes." I nodded.
"Great, so it's much the same, we don't do anything fancy around here, so you should be fine." He clapped his hands together. Was that all? Well alright then.
"Okay."
"Don't worry, you'll do alright." He patted my shoulder.
"Yeah, she'll be right." I inhaled and nodded my head. It was only about ten minutes later that I heard a bunch of Harley's turn up at the front of the café. I had managed to see through the windows to know, that they were the same ones I had seen from earlier on today. And just like curiosity killed the cat, they were observing my bike up close.
After several moments of discussion and looking at my bike, they walked into the café and sat down at a booth. There were three of them.
The one who walked in front of them, like he was higher up in the ranks, had blonde hair that lengthened mid neck. He was also rather tall, at least he had to of been six foot something. The other biker had dark brown hair with a moustache. He was slightly scruffy and stood about the same height as the first one. Then the third man was taller than both of the men, at least by half a foot. He wore a black beanie over his head and had a neatly trimmed moustache and goatee.
I immediately wandered over to Luke and asked him a question about the three particular bikers. He'd have to know more than me, I mean, I had only been in town for one night so far. "Hey Luke, do you know those three bikers?" I quietly asked him, not wanting to talk too loudly.
"Um, sort of. I mean they have been in here several times and I've seen them around Charming. They are with Sons of Anarchy, if you wanted to know." He answered, talking just as quietly as I had been.
"Oh okay. Thanks, that's good to know." I nodded. So I was right. They were apart of the Sons of Anarchy. No worries.
Walking around and out of the bar, with a notepad and pen in hand. I walked over to the booth to where the three bikers sat. My heart was beginning to pound in my chest, I wasn't sure what they were going to be like. So I definitely didn't want any trouble. I could defend myself and fight, but the last thing I wanted to do was fight them.
"G'day, what can I get ya's?" I ask, realising how much my slang and accent got the better of me, at times.
"A big beer." The dark haired man demanded.
"Ope, you wanna beer?" The blonde one asked the other man who had the beanie.
"Sure." He nodded towards the blonde before looking up at me.
"Yeah darlin', can you get us three beers?" The blonde man asked ever so politely. Ghee, they must have more manners than most clubs. It was almost as if he was purring towards me. I've never had that before.
"Yeah, I'll be right back." I nodded my head. Turning around and walking back to the bar, I began to pour out their beers into three individual schooners. Listening in closely, I managed to hear them discuss. Specifically about me.
"She's Australian." The dark haired man exclaimed. As if they didn't expect me to be from the opposite side of the country.
"The accent definitely proves it." The man with the beanie nodded.
Finishing pouring the three schooners, I carefully carried them over to the men. Within seconds, I placed each schooner down in front of the men.
"What do we owe you, baby?" The dark haired man asked, his eyes clearly scoping my body. Which only made me feel uncomfortable.
"That's 15 dollars, mate." I answered back, standing up straight and staring down at them all. I was definitely on my guard, whether they noticed that or not.
"Bargain, aye." The man with the beanie exclaimed. "Must be cheapest piss in town."
"Jax, your shouting us this time." The dark haired man spoke directly to the blonde man. Jax, hey? What a different name. Yes I've heard of Jack or Jackson, but Jax? No, that's different.
"There you go darl." The blonde haired man pulled out a couple of notes from his wallet and handed me the money.
"Cheers." I nodded my head and began to walk away from their booth.
"Hey baby, is that your bike out front?" One of the men asked me, immediately capturing my attention.
I instantly turned around on my heels, facing them all once again. "Sure is."
"Softail Custom, 98' model?" They all asked, all in sync as well. That's scary, but I had to say. I was impressed that they knew their bikes just as well as I did.
"Damn right." I nodded, the smile etching at the sides of my lips.
"Nice bike." The man with the beanie complimented, giving me a slight smile.
"Thanks, yeah it is actually." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"You're not from 'round here, are you darlin'?" The blonde asked me, his blue eyes twinkling as he gazed up at me.
"No. I'm not." I shook my head.
"Where'd you come from?" He questioned me again. It seriously felt like an interrogation.
"I think youse all know." I gave them a stern expression. They didn't have to play dumb, I heard them talking.
"So Australia then?"
"Yeah, the land down under." I inhaled again, looking towards the front door to see that more customers were arriving.
"Where youse ride the kangaroo's?" The dark haired man, obviously known as Tig chuckled.
"Oi Tig, that's enough." Snapped the blonde known as Jax.
Rolling my eyes and walking away, I headed back towards the bar to where Luke was already serving the new customers.
As I continued to work, I noticed that the blonde man's voice kept ringing in my head. Saying 'darlin', over and over again. He had a pretty sexy voice, as much as I didn't want to admit it.
After about half an hour, the three bikers decided to leave and rode off on their bikes. That's when I felt myself ease and relax, as I was no longer under their stares. But I wasn't very relaxed for long, as it got extremely busy after that. And that's how it went for the rest of the night too. It was busy. Clearly it was beer o'clock to everybody.
When it seemed to have died down, it was around 10:30 at night. Thankfully they all left half an hour later, making it a bit of an early night.
"Told you they all leave around this time." Luke smiled at me.
"You sure did." I return the smile, wiping over the bar with my blue chux cloth.
"You can go home now." He murmured as he pulled out a carton of beer from the back.
"Oh, I should help you clean up though." I furrowed my eyebrows.
"No, no, it's fine. Go home and get some rest. You have work tomorrow at the same time." He shook his head as he opened up the fridge.
"Alright Luke, if you say so." I sighed. I didn't want to leave, making him do whatever else that needed to be done. It made me feel guilty.
"You did good tonight." He complimented.
"Thanks, where do you want me to put my apron?" I ask as I untie my apron.
"Oh, just pass it here. I'll take it for you, you just collect your stuff and go home to sleep." He snatched the apron from me.
"Rightyo." I nodded, kneeling down to grab my denim jacket from the bottom shelf.
"Good night Luke and Derrick. See ya's tomorrow." I yell out, loud enough for Derrick to hear from the kitchen.
"Yeah, good night Ethel." They both said at once.
I walked out to where my bike was and used my key to unlock my steering. Strapping on my helmet as I hopped onto my bike, I turned the bike on by the switch. On my way home, I glued on to see that I was being followed by a black 4WD of some kind. It followed me all the way home but continued to drive past my house. Okay.
Parking my bike in the garage, I wearily shut the garage door. I quickly headed to my front door and unlocked it, letting myself inside. Once I was inside, I locked the front door behind me and decided to go for a shower. Once I was in the shower, I felt my entire body relax upon the warmth of the water. It sure felt good after work.
After my shower, I put on my singlet and shorts, pajama's, then went straight to bed.
~
When I woke up the next morning, I was rather tired but I still got up. The first thing I did was throw my uniform from last night into the washing machine. Hoping that the sun outside was going to be hot enough to dry my clothes by the time it hit 5:30. Once I had hung out my clothes, I spent the rest of the lazing around at home. It felt like the entire day just dragged. Like seconds were turned into minutes, minutes were turned into hours and hours into days. And for the day, I had been watching movies, so I couldn't wrap my head around why it took so long. Unless I was excited and roaring to go to work tonight, who knows.
When it finally came to 5:30, I got dressed into my uniform and into some short denim shorts. I pulled on my denim jacket and grabbed my helmet from the lounge room. Locking the house behind me, I went to the garage and opened the doors. Once they were open, I got onto my bike, unlocked the ignition and started it up.
Shortly after warming up my bike, I rode to work and parked in the same spot as I did the night before. I locked my steering once again and walked inside to see Derrick standing behind the bar.
"Hey Derrick." I gave him a tired smile, hoping he didn't notice.
"Hey Ethel, ready for your second night?" He asked. Derrick seemed full of energy, more so than yesterday. Happier too. Maybe he was all set to go, just waiting on the customers to arrive.
"Ready as you can get." I nodded.
"Good." He poured himself a drink from the tap.
I continued on back, straight to Luke's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Luke yelled from the office.
I opened the door and walked into Luke's office. He was sitting at his desk reading paperwork with a pair of glasses on.
"Hey Luke." I greeted him.
"Hey Ethel, how you going?" He asked politely, not looking up from the paperwork.
"I'm good, yourself?" I ask.
"Yeah. I'm well thanks."
"Can I place my helmet and jacket in here? I don't think it's something I should leave out in the bar." I ask, holding onto my helmet, almost protectively.
"Sure! Go ahead!" Luke exclaimed giving me a smile. "Pick a shelf, any shelf."
Nodding my head, I chose the bottom shelf, placing my helmet down and taking off my jacket, folding it and setting it beside it. After that, I grabbed a black apron and began to the it around my waist.
"Today was a long day." Luke sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, I have to admit it dragged out." I agreed. At least I wasn't the only one who thought that.
"It will probably be the same tonight." He picked up his glasses from the desk and put them back on again.
"Yeah maybe."
As soon as I walked out of the office into the bar, that's when it started to get busy. Which was surprising, yet good. For the entire night, we were running around like headless chickens, making time fly by. It felt like, one minute I had just started my shift, the next I was already picking up my items from Luke's office to go home.
The ride home also seemed to go extremely fast, whether it was just me feeling tired or not. Maybe I was going insane. Riding my bike unto my garage, I switch off my bike and shut the garage door. It was only minutes later that I had entered my house, locked the door and headed for the shower.
After my shower finished, I jumped into my pajama's and went to bed. Relieved to finally be able to sleep and get some rest. Thank god I wasn't starting my shifts in the morning, otherwise I would have been exhausted.
As soon as I closed my eyes, I listened to my surroundings momentarily. Within seconds, I heard a faint sound from my front door. Ripping myself out of bed, the adrenaline beginning to pump through my veins, I kept all of the lights off in the house. Grabbing my favourite knife that I had rested on my drawer, I tiptoed out of my room. I specifically left a knife right by my bed for moments like these. I learnt that from the past and especially from my father.
I continued to sneak down the hallway and headed into the lounge room, being careful to not run into the lounge or the coffee table. Hiding to one side, in the dark. I just waited.
Hearing a clank and a small thump, the door was pushed open revealing two men. They were all in black clothing, as they continued to walk through my front door. Quietly closing the door behind them. They obviously knew what they were doing, because they were extra quiet about everything that they did.
They both slowly walked pass me and throughout my house. In silence, I slowly crept up behind one who just stood there, as if he was the lookout. As quick as you could say 'Charming', I had one hand over the man's mouth and I had the blade of my knife held to his throat.
"Who the fuck are you and what are you doing breaking into my house?" I whispered harshly.
The man tried yelling to the other from under my hand, not making any sudden movements though. As though he knew that if he did, it would only take me one slice to slit his throat. With all of the noise that the man in my arms made, I knew for a fact that the other man would of heard him.
"Co-operate! Or I will cut you up into snags and feed you to the croc's." I said in a very stern threatening voice. The one and only line I picked up from my father.
All of a sudden, the light flickered on in the lounge room. There stood in front of me was the biker with blonde hair. The one named Jax, if I recalled correctly.
"What the fuck are youse doing in my house?! Answer me, or your little biker mate will be cut into snags and fed to the croc's." I snapped, pressing the blade harder against his fellow brother's neck.
"Woah! Darlin' put down the knife." The blonde exclaimed. A look of shock casted across his face. I bet they had never been in this particular situation before.
"Not until you tell me why the hell youse broke into my house!" I growled, I definitely wasn't giving up easily. They broke into my house.
"Can we negotiate this?" He asked calmly.
"I don't know, why should we?" I glared at him, my grip on his brother tightening once again.
"It would be much easier if you let Tig go and we could talk." Stated the blonde, staring at me weary.
"First, every single weapon on the ground now!" I commanded, I wasn't talking very loud, but it was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear me.
"Alright." The man agreed, pulling a gun from out of the back of his pants and placed it on the ground in front if him.
"The knife, put it down." He than demanded, glaring back at me.
"I'm not stupid, I know the rules. First take your knife out and put it on the ground." I growled. They couldn't beat me at this game, I knew it all too well.
"I haven't got any other weapons." He answered, as if he thought I'd believe him. I knew it was bullshit. They don't just carry around a gun, they have their back ups.
"I'm not stupid! Now pull your knife out and place it on the ground or you mate here gets it." I was getting very impatient now, that impatient that I was considering to do more than just hold the blade to his throat.
The man immediately pulled the knife from his shoe and slowly placed it onto the ground. Then he returned his gaze back to me, the annoyance clearly visible on his face.
"Now kick them away."
He did as he was told, than he put his arms up in surrender. Showing that he no longer had anything else on him, weapon-wise.
"Don't you even think about using any of your weapons, you do and your mate cops it." I said warning the man I had the blade to his throat to.
Slowly, I removed the blade from the man's neck, setting him free.
He quickly scampered forward and stood next to the other man raising his hands in the air.
"Now you take out your weapons and place them on the ground." I said to the dark haired man.
His attention turned to his fellow blonde brother, looking at him questioning.
"Do what she says bro." The blonde head said to the dark headed man, keeping himself calm and collected. Smart choice.
He nodded and pulled out two guns, placing them onto the floor.
"Kick them away."
He did as he was told and kicked them away from himself. Staring back up at me, glaring daggers at me. Good.