Scattered

At a time like this, I wasn't quite sure what to think. My mind was suddenly a cluttered mess and I resisted the urge to slam my head against the countertop. I shook my head, causing my black hair to wildly flail about my neck, in all hopes that I had a very vivid imagination. To test this theory, I blinked. Multiple times. The only difference in scenery was the fact that the four had stepped noticeably closer to the minibar.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, momentarily paralyzed. I could feel Candie's eyes on me as she scrutinized my mortified expression in confusion. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that she followed my petrified gaze to the center of the room where the group of four pulled out a few chairs at a table that oh-so-conveniently sat directly in front of where I was standing, giving me a rather clear view of them.

I could've sworn I heard Candie choke, though she hadn't taken a drink of anything. I forcefully returned my jaw to its rightful place, as it had been somewhere near the floor. Billie had been talking quickly with Mike, who nodded his head, and then turned his attention to the girl who was sitting very closely to him with her arm hooked through his.

And just as she tilted her head towards Billie--who, if he wanted to, could've looked straight and would've been staring directly into my saucer-sized eyes--I came to notice how beautiful she was. Her hair, despite the dreadlock-form, appeared quite smooth as it sat gently on her shoulders, gliding just below her shoulder blades in a clean shade of raven black while half was pulled up into a messy, yet elegant, bun. Her eyes were, from what I could see at such a distance, a warm chocolate brown; so inviting, yet so gentle. When she smiled at him, her eyes twinkled; her smile was just as stunning as the rest of her.

She was dressed in a light blue shirt with inch-thick straps, a black skirt and knee-high boots of an equal color. Her nails were perfectly manicured and painted black, causing the skin on her gorgeous hands to appear somewhat pastel. Hell, even I couldn't deny how beautiful her hands were. Damn me and my adoration for hands.

As the thought crossed my mind, I glanced self-consciously down at my own hands--the deep purple nail polish was chipped and my nails were short.

Once Billie was finished talking to the girl, Tre leaned forward to mumble in Billie's ear, catching him off guard and nearly causing him to fall out of his chair. With a swift nod, he stood from his seat, and began walking towards the bar. But not before giving the girl a loving kiss on her pink lips.

But before I had the chance to process the envious-worthy gesture, I allowed my knees to buckle and dropped myself to the ground behind the counter before he could see me. Even after three years, I still wasn't capable of even preparing his drinks. Candie glanced feebly down at me before replacing her sudden shock with a false smile we were required to offer every customer.

"Hi there," came a very familiar voice with a slightly deeper pitch, yet still fairly high for a male. The two simple words rang pleasantly through my ears as chills darted from the top of my spine to the very bottom. Unnerved by this, I began crawling on my hands and knees.

"Um, hi!" Candie returned, her voice suggesting she was up to something, as she sounded way too happy for her own good. She must've realized this as soon as the excitement bled through her response and immediately cleared her throat. "What can I get for you?"

I paused for a brief moment, going against my better judgment as I waited to hear his voice one last time. I must've been a masochist.

He chuckled softly. "Um, yeah, can I have three beers--light--and an iced tea, please?" I wanted to sigh like an idiotic schoolgirl, but frowned instead. So, she likes iced tea, huh? I felt annoyed by this. I always ordered iced tea while the boys took the alcohol.

Scowling, I continued crawling, not minding much where I was going and ended up crashing into Candie's legs.

"Su-ure!" She squeaked, nearly toppling over as I hissed a nearly inaudible apology. She laughed nervously, reaching back a bit with her foot to nudge me painfully in the side. I fell over with a huff. Candie cleared her throat a second time, acting as though the previous outburst never occurred. "Sure, I'll get those for you right now." She bent down to grab a glass for the tea, shoving my head out of way just as I managed to regain my balance. I fell over again. She smiled up at Billie, not bothering to acknowledge my fatal glares. "Bottle or cup?" she asked, referring to the alcoholic beverages Billie had ordered.

"Er, bottles, please." I felt the least bit sorry for him; Candie hadn't talked to him more than five minutes and he was already frightened by her.

"Mhm," She mumbled, turning and unaffectedly stepping over my form to grab the bottles of beer. I quickly jumped back onto my hands and knees and scampered forward before I earned anymore blows from the girl. "I'm going to need to see your ID," I heard her request before crawling around a corner and into the small locker-clad room, sighing with undying relief.

"What are you doing?" The unmistakable gruff of Kenny shocked me out of my reverie and I glanced innocently up at him. He had both his eyebrows raised with a bottle of water clutched in one hand and a cardboard box gripped beneath his arm in the other.

I eyed my surroundings for a moment, attempting to come up with an excuse to my pitiful position while at the same time trying to look productive. "I--er--I lost my earring," I exclaimed pathetically, nodding to myself. With a click of my tongue, I looked back up at Kenny, who apparently wasn't buying my witty defense. "Yeah, lost my earring... I've just been trying to find it. I think it fell around here somewhere..." I purposefully trailed off, flinging my arms about the dirty ground, making it appear as though I was frustrated with my search.

"Uh huh," He murmured. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Beth, but it doesn't look like you're wearing any earrings." He stated, gesturing towards my quite vacant ear piercings. "Unless, of course, it was a piercing from another body part... a nose or eyebrow, perhaps, that you yet still refer to as an 'earring'? Hm?"

My jaw slacked for a moment as I mentally, and very colorfully, cursed myself. "Um... right. Yeah, yes, you're absolutely right. Ha, I thought I put my earrings in this morning," I jumped to my feet, dusting myself off, figuring I looked rather ridiculous talking up to my boss--literally. "But apparently I didn't. I just could've sworn something fell..." My voice faded, the look on Kenny's face stealing my breath before I said anything else.

"Yes, well, whatever the case may be, please get back to work." He walked past me, continuing on about something along the lines of 'no work, no pay'. "Oh," he turned towards me, continuing to step out of the room as he did so. "And I'll be sure to inform the other employees that if they were to find any stud of the sort on the ground, they're to bring it to you right away." With a grin, he fully left.

I nodded to myself. "Great," I brushed the remaining dust off of my pant legs. "That's just great."


I avoided pre-Sweet-Children-slash-Green-Day-and-their-escort-service like the plague throughout the morning. If I were to ever come within spitting distance of their table, I retrieved the nearest menu or napkin holder and hid my face from view.

Candie, my dearest and most reliable friend, actually found my predicament quite amusing and took to making my life even more miserable than before by trying to focus their attention on me every chance she had while speaking with one of them. Of course, I was capable of dodging each of their wandering eyes, but I was starting to find Candie's help increasingly annoying.

"I don't understand what the problem is," Candie had laughed during our fifteen-minute-break. At the time, it was nearing noon and the musicians continued lingering at the minibar, no longer seated at a table. Apparently, after their first few drinks, they decided to simply retire to the counter where they had better leverage to the alcohol.

The girl with Billie finally agreed to take a few tastes of her own beer after being offered one too many times by said boy she was with. Of course, while the three males had already swallowed six bottles and were mildly tipsy, she had merely taken a few beginner-like sips from her own bottle; it was hardly half empty.

But, like any other decent girlfriend, she laughed at all of Billie's jokes (none of which were the least bit funny) and had a good time, despite being the only one out of the four that wasn't constantly convinced the other had a twin.

I eyed the group like a hawk from the opposite side of the room, trying to appear as though I were cleaning one of the booths--a booth that hadn't been used at all through the duration of the morning and afternoon. Why won't they leave? I kept asking myself. At one point, I almost convinced myself to throw on a mask, make a dramatic entrance, and threaten to rob the place, just to scare them away.

Though the girl probably wouldn't be as influenced by a female bandit, she still had three intoxicated boys with her and would most likely be outnumbered, as I knew from experience that the three of them in particular were pansies when they had one too many to drink.

But I quickly brushed the idea aside, in fear of losing my job.

Later--and by later, I mean nearly three hours later--Tre decided to take advantage of his horrible timing and shouted, "I theenk I'm gunna call Spencerrr! Sheeee'll be proud of ush; we're not e-even drunk yet!" He giggled uncontrollably while pulling out his cell phone.

Of course, by the aforementioned 'bad-timing' I'd been talking about before, I was currently walking behind them with empty glasses from a couple that had been lounging at one of the back tables. And, so inconveniently, my own cell phone was stashed in my back pocket.

I speed-walked around them and practically tossed the glasses into the sink before darting out of sight just as my phone began to ring.

I could faintly hear some more giggling. "Hey! Haha, that chick's shell phone rang at t-the same time!" His laugh presented an uncanny resemblance to a dying hyena.

I quickly pulled my cell phone out of my jeans, almost dropping it in the process, and answered it, breathless. "Hello?"

"Spencahhh! My beau-beautiful stud muffin!" He cackled, as if what he said had been so unbelievably clever.

I laughed, mostly out of nerves. "Hey, Tre. Um... what are you up to?" I spared a glance around the corner where the quartet remained, Billie toppling out of his seat at one point as a result of Mike's clumsy seating arrangements. The girl immediately jumped from her seat, not finding much of anything funny with the given situation and began her attempts with talking Billie into leaving.

Tre snorted into the receiver. "Ooh, nuthin'. Y'know, jusss' at a bar... in 'nuther state--" he snickered over his own slurring words. "Billie's n-new fuck buddy tryin' to make us le-leave..."

"Tre!" Came Billie's insulted-slash-inebriated reply, both from the background of Tre's line and from the other room. It made it sound somewhat like an echo and I was hoping Tre was too smashed to notice it.

And I knew I shouldn't, which made me feel all the more guilty about it, but Tre's comment towards Billie's girlfriend made me feel a bit... relieved? As if Tre's lack of approval towards her assured me in some way.

"Shouldn't you boys be at home, anyways? And what do you mean by 'another state'?" I had to play it off, considering in any other circumstance I really wouldn't understand why he would say such a thing. Neither him nor Mike told me they were going on tour.

"Ooh... oh, sweeeeetheart, I fugot'ta tell ya... we be goin' on tour again, stud!"

"Really?" I asked, feigning surprise. "Well that's great, Tre! I'm so happy for you!" Which, indeed, I was. That definitely wasn't a lie.

"Yeah! Yeah, thanksh a bunch, stud! But uhh... we've uh, got to be goin' now!" Tre began to laugh at one of the boys. "I wuuuuuve you, stud!" And before I could reply, he noisily hung up his phone.

I sighed tiredly, placing my phone back inside my jean pocket. I ran my fingers across my temples, having the sudden desire of curling up beneath the warm covers in my soft bed after a soothing bath. I came to realize just how tense I was; feeling the muscles in my neck and back knotting and tightening even with the smallest of movement.

Exhaling, I walked forward a bit, only to notice the four leaving the room, each hanging on to another to prevent a catastrophic fall.

Candie walked over to me from her position behind the bar, smiling sympathetically. "I was able to talk to the girl they were with--Adie is what I got, so maybe that's either her real name or a nickname--and she said they're going to be here for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, depending upon if their schedule changes. Apparently they have a few shows in the state, most of which revolve around Miami."

I began to groan, even before she was finished. After hearing 'a few days', I was already dreading what the following days would reveal. But, still, all my fingers were crossed that I wouldn't come face-to-face with any of them.

"That's lovely," I ran a hand through my disheveled, short hair. "That's just fucking dandy."

"Hey! Hey!" I heard a voice exclaim, trying to shout above all the chatter that had emitted from within the area at the sudden amount of customers. I saw another employee running towards me, holding up something in their hand. "I found an earring!"