"What?"
My voice gets all squeaky and loud. I can't believe this.
"Oh... Acting innocent, aren't you? So easy right?"
What is he talking about?
"Stop pretending to not know anything when you've already got what you've wanted!"
He is screaming now. He looks so mad at me. Like so angry.
I really can't believe what I'm hearing. I stare at him trying to figure out what's going on.
"Veron, What are you talking about?" I ask in a low voice cause I can see people around us staring now. If he goes on shouting, my jobs in jeopardy.
"Oh you little-" He starts.
"Can we please go outside and talk?" My voice sounds urgent. I can't afford to lose my job.
After looking at me with anger and disgust, he stood up and went outside without a single word.
I would have thought he left but I can see him outside pacing back and forth impatiently. Keeping the menu on the table, I went outside to face him.
"What's your plan Hope?" He asks as soon as I went through the door. "What do you want from me? Huh?" He glares at me. I can see angry boiling inside him.
"I really don't know what you are talking about." I shake my head. My heart beats fast.
"Why in the fucking world would you say that you're pregnant?"
WHAT?
I stare at him just unable to believe what's even happening. I shake my head rapidly from side to side trying to understand what the hell is going on.
"Why?" He shouts right at my face. He is standing so close to me.
I move a step back away from him and look up at him.
"I'm not- oh my god! I'm not pregnant!" I run a hand through my hair and tug at it. "Who even said that? Why?"
I'm really surprised and annoyed. I mean, who would even do that? No one knows me anymore and no one even cares. So what's the point of making a rumor from a girl that isn't even going to their college?
"Everyone, Hope. Everyone says that! It's a huge deal in college now." He's starring right at me. He looks a little confused.
Then much slowly he asks, "You aren't pregnant?" I can hear the confusion in his voice.
"No, I'm not. Who even knows about me in your college?"
"I know." He said that in a whisper that I'm not even sure if I heard him right. He look at the ground a little nervous without saying anything else.
I raise an eyebrow at what he just said but I don't ask more about it.
Anyways, why does he care if I'm pregnant? I ask him that that his nervousness broke and he became angry again.
"Because they're saying it's mine!"
It's like he slapped me across the face.
"Everyone's going aground saying I've had sex with a waitress named Hope and now she is pregnant." I'm still staring at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. He continues. "Those who know you goes around saying more about you. You have no idea how annoying it is when everyone is disgusted at you" he stomps his feet on the ground angrily.
Actually, I do have a very good idea how that feels like.
I honestly feel sorry for him but I have to find more about this. It's my name as much as his evem though most people don't know about me.
"Who started it? Do you know?" I ask.
"I don't know exactly, but they say you said it yourself"
Uh... no, I didn't. I don't talk with anyone there anymore.
"Veron, it's just a rumor. It will go away soon, hopefully."
He shakes his head looking down at the ground.
I continue. "I've got nothing to do about it, I didn't say it and I'm not pregnant. I'm sorry." I felt like apologizing but I don't really know what for.
"Yea... Whatever." With that he just walked away.
He looks sad and exhausted. I really feel bad for him. Because of some rumor someone else started, clearly out of jealousy, he is suffering from fake accusations. I hope the rumor dies down soon.
Society is a little corrupted to point fingers at others and make fun of them without knowing the truth or the impact that has on someone's life. They don't know how awful it is to be in the receaving end of a false accusation until it happens to them.
I go back inside and start working pretending like nothing really happened. I can't think about all the now so I just pushed it to the back of my mind.
Time went by without another disturbance. I didn't think about all of it much but it was nagging in my mind.
I'm leaning against the counter just resting my legs now. I've been walking around all evening. It's past 8 p.m. now and the dinner crowd is in. But everyone's served and all, so I can rest a little bit. I turned around to face the counter when I heard the door open. Mentally groaning, I turn to great the customer, only to stop mid tracks seeing the familiar face.
She is wearing a back mini skirt with a pink blouse tucked in. Her pink high heels looks really uncomfortable. She looks like a model with her makeup and dark curls. She looks stunning. I keep staring at her walk to an empty table and take a seat.
"Ehem..." I turned around to look at Daniel from behind the counter, his face in a huge smirk. "I know she is hot but that's your table."
"Um... yea." I look back towards her sitting down calmly.
"Don't be nervous." He nudge me from his index finger. "I'm sure if you asked she wouldn't say no to you." He is still smirking, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Oh! Stop it." I swat his hand away and his smirk grows. How is that even possible?
Grabbing a menu, I take deep breath and head towards her table with a bit of unease.
I can hear Daniel chuckling from behind me.
How they always know exactly what table I'm assigned to is beyond me. I mean, there are so many table here that I don't serve. Why can't they just sit in one of those? Does the tables i serve have "Hope" written on them or something?
"Hello miss. Here's the menu-"
"So you are a waitress? Should have known he was that low." She looks murderous. Who she plans to kill, me or Veron, I have no idea.
"Ronica, I'm not-"I start.
"Really? You wanted to have someone you couldn't even dream of having? Why?"
"No. I'm not-"
"Oh! Stop it, you bitch. What do you want from him? Money?"
"Ron-"
"Are you jealous of me? Is that what this is?"
"No, I'm not-"
"Not what? Oh my god! You are so exasperating!"
"Listen to me! I'm-" I try shouting a little.
"Answer the question, you whore-"
"Would you let me talk?!" I interrupt her this time, speaking rather loudly. Anger boils through me with Impatience.
Thankfully, she stopped talking and stare right at me, waiting. I can feel people's gaze turning towards us but I can't drag her outside like I did with Veron. She will start scolding me again for even suggesting it.
This is the second interruption I have for today when I'm at work. So, I'm kinda getting worried about what Mr. Travor would think.
"Ronica, I'm not pregnant. That rumor isn't true." I said in a calm voice. It's like I'm talking to a baby who is on the verge of crying and flipping out.
She is still staring so I decided to explain.
"I don't want anything to do with Veron. I don't understand why anyone would start this but it's not true. I'm sorry about it." I apologize anyway. Have a feeling that is the best thing to do.
She is still staring.
"You can talk now." I say smiling a little. I'm not sure why she is silent now when she couldn't shut her mouth like a minute ago.
"Yea, well... True or not thanks to you, we broke up." She is pissed off at me. "Do you know how much I love Veron? I can't lose him for a wench like you. I just can't!" She stomps her hand on the table angrily. The glasses and the plate clank angrily at the table.
I'm not a wench. But I chose to ignore that. Pointing it out will only make her more angry.
"I didn't start it and you have to know that it's fake." Will she understand that I'm not at fault here?
"I love him hope. I love him! Did you hear me?" She looks down at the table and I can see her swallowing hard. I'm not sure if she is going to cry or not but her eyes are a little glossy.
"Veron knows the truth about everything and so do you. So you guys can just figure things out between you two. Just talk to him."
She doesn't look at me but shakes her head.
"When everyone's going around saying Veron fucked a waitress and Ronica was cheated on. How can we gonna go back to being a couple?" Her voice sounds really sad.
I feel really bad for her.
I stay quiet not knowing what to say.
"You know what it's like when everyone's telling things about you. You've had that experience. You dropped out of high school because of it. I don't wanna lose Veron because of something like this."
I feel sorry for her. She might lose Veron because of all of this . They just have to talk and solve it by themselves.
We stay silent and after a while she whips her head towards me so suddenly and I lean further back from her, scared of what might happen.
"Wait... Veron knows? How?"
I knew this would surprise her. I thought since she didn't say anything about this before when I said it, that maybe she didn't hear it properly. I was glad thinking she didn't. Now, I'm kind of nervous to tell her that he came earlier.
Truth is the way to go, no matter the situation.
"He came today evening and talked to me." I say in a small voice. I can see her face changing from sad to anger so quickly.
"He came here?" She bangs her hands on the table again. I look around and see people staring at us. Now more than before.
I lean in closer to her. "Please don't make a scene here Ronica."
But she just glares at me. "Of cause he would come here, he wanted to do that for a longtime!" She shouts the last part to looking furious.
"I loved him all this time despite everything. I stayed like it didn't matter to me. I pretended like I didn't know every time he would come here just to look at you. Look at you!"
She looks at me with pure disgust. "You of all people. A waitress when he already has me. I did all I can to make him forget about you but no, nothing. Every time we had sex, he wouldn't even say my name. He wouldn't say anything at all. He wouldn't even be with me after. I endured everything, all that pain because of you!" There's so much venom in her voice as she spits out the words.
I stare at her unable to believe anything I just heard.
"Why?" I whisper.
She scoffed. "Because I love him."
She gives me a duh look but I shake my head.
"No. Why Veron?" I point my hands at me. "Me?"
I hope she gets what I'm trying to say.
"Cause he's in love with you."