looong chapter compared to the last one. oops. I'm having too much fun writing this. I should probably try and focus on my other books next haha sorry. enjoy!
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I groaned loudly as I returned to the kitchen after bringing the last order to some hipster customers in the back of the diner. "Remind me why we're doing this again? And who even thought of this? It's a terrible idea!" I complained, once again.
"Karaoke is a great idea, thank you very much." My boss, Jaime, stated firmly. I just gave him a skeptic look. It was his idea, of course it was. I had figured that it wasn't Kellin's, or our chef's, and it certainly wasn't mine.
Jaime had talked before about wanting to do something to make business better and pull more people into the diner. Apparently he thought that doing a karaoke night was a great idea. The plan was to close the kitchen at eight and only serve beverages and alcoholic drinks all evening. Oh joy.
"Alright, so here's everyone who will be performing tonight. I'd appreciate it if you both could tend the door and mark off everyone who's here so we can keep a bit of a schedule going." Jaime then explained, handing both Kellin and me a sheet of names.
I didn't exactly read through it, because I didn't know anybody in the area anyway, but I was shocked to find at least around 20 names on the list.
It's officially confirmed; people are crazy.
When our normal customers had left, we temporarily closed the door to get everything ready for the evening. Jaime was setting up the karaoke machine while Kellin cleaned the place and I readied the bar for the drinks.
People had already started lining up in front of the door about half an hour before we were planning to open up again, which shocked me to no end.
"So did you invite everyone you know?" Kellin asked me. Because that was exactly what Jaime had requested from us.
"Yep." I sighed, a little dramatically. "I invited Tay and Vic." And may I add that it was probably the lowest point of my life to invite Vic- of all people- to a karaoke night? Don't even get me started about how embarrassing that conversation was.
Kellin gave me a skeptic look. "That's all?" He asked incredulously.
I simply shrugged. "That's everyone I know." Sad, right?
He just smiled and rolled his eyes.
"Alright ladies, time to open up!" Jaime cheered excitedly.
"Oh joy." I murmured below my breath as I grabbed the list of names and a pen so I could cross off all the idiots who were attending this stupid thing.
I walked up to Kellin, handing him a pen and the same list as we made our way to the door. "I think it's a good idea if we just call out the names." I then suggested. "I'll start at the bottom of the list. You do top?"
Kellin gave me a serious look. "Oh no honey, this pretty face was made to be pushed down into Egyptian cotton sheets." He then said, circling his face with his index finger.
"That's not the kind of top I was referring to, Kells." I murmured, trying my best to hold back my laughter.
He just grinned in response and opened up the door, starting to call out names and letting people in. Dear god, this was going to be one long, dreadful night.
All twenty-something of the 'performers' had showed up according to our list, including a bunch of other people. Jaime was naturally ecstatic and continuously pushing me to serve people drinks, even though we had pre-poured a bunch of stuff and stalled it out on the bar for people to grab. Everyone actually had to buy a ticket to get in, so the drinks from that point on were free.
That's when it occurred to me that the free drinks was probably the reason why most of the people were here. Now it all made sense.
"Vic is here." Kellin pointed out with a teasing smirk, nudging my side suggestively.
"Yeah, so?" I tried to play it off like I didn't care much, but of course I had long spotted him the second he came walking in. How could I not? I saw him every day, and in all that time, he still didn't get any less hot.
"So, why are you standing here with me? Go offer him a drink, talk, flirt some! If you don't, I will. I'll do it right now."
I snorted lightly. "Kellin, seriously, he is so obviously straight."
"Oh please, so am I when I go to Alabama." He then murmured below his breath, earning kind of an odd cackle from me as a result.
"Kells, I'm serious, I don't want you to get butthurt when he turns you down or whatever." I then said, remembering how upset he was the time his best friend Justin who he had been crushing on for months turned him down and said they couldn't even be friends anymore.
"Getting butthurt is the last of my worries, if you catch my drift." He said, throwing me a suggestive wink as he bit his lip. Oh dear lord.
"But seriously, Max. . . I'm gay, not dumb." He then added with a more serious tone. "That was just my attempt to get you to go after him, so for the love of god, please just go!"
Before I could even respond, Kellin already pushed me into Vic's direction. He pushed me hard enough to make me lose my balance and bump into him.
"Hi uh- want a beer?" I immediately asked, trying to make it look like I just nudged him to catch his attention.
He nodded and smiled. "Yeah, thanks." I reached to the bar behind me and grabbed a beer, as well as a coke for myself. "Boss-man not letting you drink?" Vic then asked, smirking slightly.
I shook my head. "No, we're allowed to drink, I just don't do it very often. I'd already consumed enough alcohol for a lifetime before I was even born."
Vic laughed; probably thinking it was a joke. It wasn't, though. My mom's a diehard alcoholic. Only she hadn't died yet, to everyone's disappointment. The woman was always drunk, even when she gave birth to me.
The nineteenth performer of the night stepped onto the little stage and grabbed the microphone, starting to tell everyone how he decided to do a really old song that he found in the list of choices, because it reminded him of his childhood. The man sounded wasted, but at least that would make this a bit more entertaining.
The song started and suddenly Vic awwed. "I know this song." He beamed enthusiastically. "My mom always sang this to my little brother and I before we went to sleep. Well- we basically made her do it otherwise we just wouldn't go to sleep at all."
I laughed a little at his cute story. "You know how my mom would put me to sleep?" I then started, immediately catching Vic's attention away from the performing customer. "She would pour a bunch of whiskey into my sippy cup. Always did the trick."
Vic's eyes widened with concern and shock. "That's terrible." He nearly gasped.
I just giggled. "Nah, you'd be surprised how well Sunshine Punch and Jack Daniels go together. Really, you should try it sometime."
He then frowned for a moment but ended up laughing anyways. "Alright, I'll keep that one in mind."
We had more of that kind of casual chitchat for the rest of the evening, telling each other light-hearted stories of our childhood. Well, I mostly let Vic do the talking since my childhood honestly wasn't all that great.
But that didn't matter. I found that I loved hearing Vic talk. I enjoyed how excited he got when he thought back about certain things. Sometimes I almost felt jealous about the life he'd had. But it wasn't the bad I-hate-you kind of jealousy.
"That was actually the most fun I've had in years." Vic admitted when we arrived back at the house at about two am. Surprisingly, the whole karaoke thing was quite a success. Sadly that meant that Jaime wanted to do it more often.
"Really?" I asked Vic incredulously, dumping my jacked on the back of the couch. "I actually pegged you for a party-goer."
Vic then laughed. "Nope, never have been. I was always the school nerd who studied all night. And even after college, I never really went out."
"Yes!" I cheered victoriously, punching both of my fists in the air. "Mister Perfect has a flaw! He's a nerd!" I yelled, way too happy with that stupid little fact.
He snickered softly. "Mister Perfect?"
Oh, oops. He wasn't supposed to hear that part.
I giggled softly and turned towards him, trying to shrug it off like it was nothing. It's not like I could save myself out of that one.
Vic grinned as he took a step closer to me, suddenly making the mood really tense. "Have I ever told you how good you look in that waitress outfit?"
I instantly felt my cheeks burn up. Creepy customers told me this all the time, but that did nothing to me. And here was Vic, telling me the same thing, and I felt. . . flattered? Happy? Nervous?
"I um- no, you haven't." I only just managed to say, his grin growing wider in the process.
I could feel my heart thumping loudly in my chest as Vic then reached out his hand to me and placed it on the side of my neck, before connecting his lips with mine. I was shocked, surprised, confused- all at the same time. But that did not keep me from kissing him back.
Of course, that then led to him making the kiss more intense.
I started backing up a little, which only made him walk with me as he deepened the kiss into a hungry one, unbuttoning his shirt along the way.
My calves hit the couch, making me tumble backwards onto it. I looked up at Vic momentarily, to find that he was already bending over to climb on top of me, already having discarded his shirt in the process. Oh damn.
His lips connected with mine again and I figured it was too late to stop now. Heck, I didn't even want to stop at this point, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.
Vic's hand moved up my side and across my chest, until he reached the zipper of my uniform and slowly pulled it down. He then broke the kiss and started leaving a trail of kisses along my jawline and down my neck.
"You always smell different, every time you come back." He noted between his assault on my neck. "This time, you smell like pasta."
I giggled involuntarily. "Oh just wait until I'm back from my morning shift, I'll smell like cinnamon rolls and burned coffee."
I felt Vic's smile on my neck before he then suddenly started sucking on the sensitive skin. "Maybe we should take this elsewhere." He then said after pulling back.
I bit my lip and nodded, trying not to look too eager at this point.
Oh dear god.
What the hell did I get myself into?