"Xand did what?" Elliott's voice asked over the phone, his chuckles gradually getting louder by the second.
"He proposed." I replied, chuckling myself as I rearranged the contents of the open cash register in front of me.
After our little trip to the mall together, Alexander and I had been on a couple of fake dates. We usually went to fast food restaurants or the movies, which was fun, but I found it personally entertaining to watch girls drool over him then suddenly back off once they'd noticed me. The reason as to why I was Elliott's replacement last week was because he was in Canada for his cousin's birthday, or birth, not sure which. He wasn't the best at explaining, you see.
"WHAT?!"
I jumped off of the stool and leaped to grab my phone from next to the cash register. "You're on speaker for goodness sake. Yeah, keep screaming."
"That's what he said." Alexander cut in, leaning in over the bar so that Elliott could hear his lame comment too.
"Alexander what's this about you settling down already? What happened to 'bros before hoes' man?" He paused for a second. "No offense Mari, not that you're a hoe or anything."
I rolled my eyes. "None taken."
"And how did you even do it?" He asked. "I highly doubt you claimed your everlasting fake love for her in public."
"You know me so well." Alexander replied sarcastically. "I didn't have to say a word. All I did was get down on one knee and she took care of the rest."
"I'm that good of an actress." I commented.
"If jumping up and down squealing 'YES! YES! YES!' then tackling me to the ground is considered acting then yeah, you nailed it."
Elliott and I both laughed while Alexander scowled at me, seeing that I was the only one present he could do that to. His eyes looked like they were piercing into my skull with invisible laser beams. "Hey, that was an Academy Award winning performance right there." I retorted.
"The only thing you 'won'," he began, faking quotation marks with his fingers, emphasising on the word 'won', "was a free packet of nachos."
I scoffed, sitting back down. "Don't act like you didn't like them."
"Oh shit."
Alexander and I exchanged confused looks. "Elli?"
"Ohhh shitttt. She's.. She's ready!!"
"What? What are you on about?" I asked worrisomely.
A loud scream came from his side of the line accompanied by Elliott's very own freaked out cry. "SHE'S LEAKING!! LIKE, FROM DOWN THERE!! AND HER HUSBAND'S IN THE TOILET!!! WHAT DO I DO?!!"
So I'm guessing it was birth...
"Bang on the door and tell him his damn wife is in labour." Alexander instructed.
He began to hyperventilate. "Oh my God, okay, okay, cool, yeah, I'll do that, yeah, okay.."
Dylan came over with a couple of menus in his hands, ready to place them back on the pile next to the cash register. He stopped, holding the menus in mid air as he eyed the phone in bewilderment. The chopped up words and Elliott's heavy breaths radiating from it. "Do I even want to know?" He asked, looking up at Alexander and I.
I shook my head, feeling bad for finding Elliott's situation funny. Alexander massaged his forehead, clearly not as amused as I was. "Today, maybe?"
"Right." Elliott sighed. Then there was a loud thump and the sound of him screaming "FUCK YOU COFFEE TABLE!!" He paused for a second before continuing. "Fuck okay bye I'll keep you guys updated on what it is have fun on your next date or whatever." He said all in one breath before quickly hanging up.
I finally released the laugh I had been holding in as Alexander took the menus out of Dylan's hands, that were still mid air I must point out and put them down. Dylan shook his head, snapping out of his little trance a couple of seconds later and took a seat on one of the stools on the opposite side of the bar.
"What did he mean by next date?" He asked casually, picking at the straws placed next to the cash register.
"Ah. You don't know?" I asked back, getting up from my stool and wrapping an arm around Alexander's neck. I had to stand on my tiptoes to actually do it but that isn't crucial information. "We're somewhat of a thing."
"A thing." Dylan repeated, looking up at Alexander with a look I couldn't pinpoint. "Who would've thought?"
Ahh sarcasm is such a beautiful thing.
I grinned at him in response and let go of Alexander. Well I didn't physically do it myself, it was more of him removing my arm off of him but whatever. "I brought your hoodie by the way." I told him, patting him on the back of his shoulder. "It's in my locker."
"Already collecting your boyfriend's hoodies?" Dylan questioned, not looking away from the black straw he had in between his fingertips.
I opened my mouth to reply to his comment but was cut off by Mr Ramirez's voice as he came out of the backroom. "Anyone seen Bethany?"
We all shook our heads in response. Mr Ramirez huffed, mumbling random Spanish words under his breath. "She hasn't come in all week. None of you know why?" He questioned, to which we all responded to with another set of shaking heads, sending him back to his office in pure disappointment.
"Do any of you guys have her number?" I asked, facing the boys.
"Do you really think she'd give any of us her number?" Alexander scoffed. "That girl's so full of herself she'd probably think we were flirting with her if we ever asked for it." Dylan seemed to agree to Alexander's statement because he nodded along to every word.
"Claire, do you have Bethany's number?" I asked loudly because she was on the other side of the café, clearing one of the tables. She looked up from the table and shook her head, resulting in a heavy sigh escaping my lips.
I shrugged off the bad feeling I had in the pit of my stomach and told Alexander that I'd grab his hoodie for him before I'd forget. I left my post behind the cash register in his care and hurried into the backroom.
Once I had reached the line of lockers against the wall, I punched in my oh so unoriginal combination and opened it, taking the grey coloured hoodie out and locking it again. The force that I had used to close my locker shut ended up transmitting to Dylan's locker beside mine. I didn't even notice that it was unlocked until it opened ever so slightly, causing his notepad to topple to the ground.
I crouched down and took a hold of his notepad that was now open, face down on the ground. I turned it over to see that it was opened on the page a sticker he used as a little bookmarker was attached to. It looked like a poem he was working on, scribbles and arrows marking every sentence.
He was the moon; broken and dull.
She was the earth; vibrant and full of life.
He was her only moon, which is why he thought he had a chance.
Little did he know that some of her nights were moonless, but every morning she'd catch a glimpse of the sun.
And the fact that made him ache the most, was that even though he revolved around her,
she revolved around another.
Deep af.
The power and beauty of those few words made me sit on the ground and read them over and over again. Dylan was a freaking genius! If he could make things like this up, who knows, he could be a famous writer one day.
What if he didn't really just make it up. What if he really was the moon and there was a girl who was like the earth to him? Nah, he would've told me. But what if he really likes this girl and needs help but is too shy to ask for it? Dyl is a bit shy ngl. What if the earth was..
"Marianne, what are you doing here?" Mr Ramirez asked, staring down at me.
"Oh, I was just," I began, getting up and putting Dylan's notepad back into his locker, "just thinking. Erm, did you call Bethany?"
When life gives you lemons, you exchange them for a bottle of 7up.
"Her phone was switched off." He replied. "I called her house number too but no one answered."
"Strange." I mumbled under my breath. "I hope everything's okay."
"You and me both." He said, putting on his coat. He put his hand in one of the pockets and handed me a bunch of keys. "Lock up is on you tonight."
I groaned. I absolutely hated locking up. Everyone would get to go home before you, leaving you all alone as the outside world begins to darken. Do you know how many horror movies young waitresses on their own get attacked in? A whole bunch I'll tell you.
Mr Ramirez laughed at the face I was making as he walked out of the backroom, with me trailing right behind him. I threw Alexander's hoodie in his face and sat on my stool, my frown definitely not turning upside down.
"What happened to you?" Dylan asked. I looked up at him and pulled out the keys from my apron pocket. He chuckled, coughing a few times in an attempt to cover it up. "Say no more."
***
The rest of the day went by pretty fast. Claire was the first to leave, quickly followed by Dylan. Leave it to me and my short short short term memory loss to completely forget to confront him about his mystery girl. Alexander stayed behind for a bit to help me out, flipping the chairs over and onto the tables. He swore that he wouldn't sweep the place if his life depended on it and left soon afterwards. That just left me and Maroon.
After sweeping the floor and wiping the windows down, I locked the cash register and turned the lights off. I then exited the café and began to lock the door behind me.
"Excuse me?" A man's voice from behind me called.
You can either run down Pandora's street, screaming your head off or turn around and give him a kick in the goodies.
"Are you Marianne by any chance?"
"Erm, yeah." I replied, turning around and facing the man. He looked to be around my dad's age, if not a bit older. The man was visibly fatigued and the bags under his eyes were noticeable.
"My name's Nathan Andrews." He introduced himself, the name nor surname not ringing any bells whatsoever, forcing him to elaborate further, "Bethany's father?"
"Oh, hi." I greeted awkwardly. "She hasn't come to work in a while. Is everything okay?"
He didn't have to tell me that everything wasn't because his sudden change in body language and the glistening of his eyes told me otherwise.
"Bethany pa.." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Passed away."
At the sound of those two words, I felt as if my heart had jumped from its place in my chest and was now stuck in my throat. My breathing had picked up its pace and I couldn't help but take a couple of steps back in shock, bumping into the doors of the café in the process.
"I..I'm.. So sorry.. For your loss." I managed to spit out, despite my voice being shaky.
"Thank you." He gave me a lopsided smile, halfheartedly. His hand reached into his pocket and he pulled out an envelope. "I guess this is for you." He said as he handed it to me. "I didn't open it but I think it must be important if she took the time to write it and address it to you specifically." I nodded, my hand shaking slightly as I took it from him.
"Her mother and I will be leaving town." He told me, looking at the ground as he spoke. "This really shook her. I think it's best if we got away from here for a while." I didn't know how to respond to that so I just stayed quiet. A few seconds of silence passed before he spoke again. "I just came to hand you that. I'll leave you be now. Good night."
He turned around to leave when I called his name.
"Mr Andrews?" He faced me again, his eyes almost seeming lifeless. "Where is she..." I paused, looking away from his face. "Buried. So that I can.."
"You'd like to visit?" His voice laced with something I believed was relief. "Burnen's Cemetery."
I pursed my lips and nodded. When I built up enough courage to look up again he was already halfway down the street. I stood there and watched as his dark silhouette became smaller and smaller until it disappeared from my field of vision.
I then focused on the white envelope I held in my hand, my name in cursive staring back at me.
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A/N:
Oops. I did a thing.
Let's change the subject, shall we? How cute is Dylan awwwwwww, I feel so bad for making him such a side chick in this story. Screw Marianne, take me ;-;
I was supposed to update on Friday but mehhhh. If you haven't noticed already we hit 100k, I repeat, 100K MY PETITE PENGUINS!!
Thank you so so much, really. Even if the number of reads doesn't add up with the votes and comments, I'm just glad that you like it enough to keep reading it. And for that, I'm trying to improve for you guys by adding more dialogue and editing and what not. Like I said, I'm not a pro at this writing shiz but I'm trying 😂😂.
Love you guys 🙊❤
YES, I DO READ EVERY COMMENT and try to reply to as many as I can. I handpicked a couple and added them to the blurb of the story. Thank you TakenUsernameSoz missneonbot musictoxic penguinpplz and ThePanther10101 ♡
Pablo Ramirez: played by Steven Quezada.
Dedicated to Dawnicorn for not one, not two, not three but FOUR amazing covers. I'm indecisive af and it was SO hard to choose which one to use. Thanks boo ♡
A quick thank you to pweety-gee for the edit she made of Dylan's poem:
Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')
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