Time Passes. Snow Falls. I Miss You.
Three
“Your dad called,” Charlie said as soon as Delany walked into Starbucks on an early Saturday morning. “I told him you get off at three, so he said that you better be home by four.”
“Four. Got it,” Delany repeated to herself, not wanting to forget.
“Oh, and he said something about writing it down?”
“Psh, I am not writing it down.” Delany was very stubborn about that, she didn’t like writing things down so she could remember, it made her feel like her disorder was prominent. She insisted that she would be self-sufficient about it. Maybe self-sufficient was the wrong word though, because it never got done. Hence the reason her father wanted her to write it down.
“Yeah…he said you would say that. Then he said, ‘do it for her’.”
“Hells no!” she declared, yanking her body further away from him.
“Yeah, well. We’ll see about that.” Charlie said in his prevalent monotone voice, but something in his voice told Delany that Charlie wasn’t going to let it go. Of course Mr. Rydell had threatened him, it was the only reason Charlie would have put any bit of effort into telling Delany what to do.
“When is Josh coming in? I need someone who is a little more bounteous, a person that can hold my interest for more than a millisecond, to entertain me,” Delany complained, griping about Charlie. She flicked him in the ear.
“Two,” was all he said in his dull, bored voice. Charlie was a thirty-two year old hag, who already started getting his receding hair line and grey beard hair. Kate and Delany joked about how he had never kissed a girl and was still a virgin, they were pretty close. All he did was read Home Improvement magazines and watch golf.
Delany was bored. She had been there since five in the morning, worked the morning rush, but now it was slow. It didn’t help that this Starbucks was conveniently located on a small, hidden corner, where there was a Caribou up the road and another Starbucks only two blocks up, closer to traffic.
Delany was pretty sure that Josh was gay, but he was semi-entertaining for her, so she enjoyed his company. While she waited for him to arrive, hopefully early, she busied herself with making figurines out of coffee stir sticks.
While she was preoccupied, Charlie snuck up behind her with a Sharpie, and in a blink of an eye, scribbled the number four on the top of her hand.
“Charlie, you Rocky Mountain Canary!”
“What.”
“It means jackass, you jackass!” she shoved him away, “I told you not to!”
“Jesus Christ, why does it matter so much to you anyways?”
“That’s none of your business. Get out of my face,” she said, turning back to her straw swing set she was making. She would never admit it, but Delany actually secretly liked that Charlie was very unmoving about writing the time down, she was carful not to smudge the fresh ink, because she didn’t want to be late. She wanted to be responsible for once.
Charlie backed up and sat back down on his stool in the corner and started to read his magazine again. Delany freaked him out, he hating working with her alone. Charlie was a wimp though, letting a seventeen year old over power him was pretty cowardly.
“Get brewing, Charlie! We got a load comin’ in!” Delany yelled from the counter. He just rolled his eyes, thinking it was her way of making him come out to the front so she could play a prank on him, or it was just Josh entering the store.
A couple minutes later, he heard the annoyingly sweet voice of Delany, calling for him again. He finished up his article and emerged from the back.
There was a big van parked out front, meaning it was carrying a load of people. Charlie hated that.
People started piling in and Delany’s smile appeared back on her face, finally getting to be able to do something. She brushed her auburn red hair out of her face as people started coming in.
“Yay, field trip!” she clapped.
“Ugh, field trip,” Charlie dragged. Four boys exited the van, well one of them ran, and many other men exited out of the other truck behind them.
Most of them weren’t in the mood for coffee, or anything to eat or drink for that matter, they just wanted to get out of the contained buses. And for the one lanky, mismatched boy, a bathroom.
They all took seats at tables, mingling with one another. Delany was a little dispirited, seeing none of them wanted anything, but at least she could people watch.
One boy did come to the counter, his face was unshaven and had glasses on. He looked like everyone else there; travel tired and lazy.
“Hello!” the boy said, a little too excitedly.
“Hey,” Delany smiled at his eagerness, “What can I get for you?”
“I’ll take uh,” the boy pondered over the menu up above her. “Uh, I’ll take a Pumpkin Spice Frappuchinno Blended-- wait no…”
As the boy gabbled away, Delany started looking around the store, her eyes practically bulged out of her sockets at what she saw.
“Jonathan Jacob Walker?!” A head snapped to the front counter, along with everyone else’s.
“Dee Dee?!” The boy yelled back, even louder. “No freaking way!”
The boy at the counter interjected, “Excuse me, uh yeah, I’m ready now.” Delany quick scrawled out on a piece of paper, “Use Next Register’ and jumped the over the counter, how a kid would jump a fence.
“Jon, I’ve missed you!” she threw herself at him and he embraced her back, swinging her around while they hugged.
The boy at the counter was still looking for the next register, but he quickly realized there was only one register in the store. “Hey, carrot head! I said I was ready!”
“Hey, president of the chess club! I don’t give a shit!” she turned back to Jon and was smiling wide, “How have you been?!”
“Great! I’m in a fucking band now,” Jon said back excitedly, still running off the adrenaline he had from seeing Delany.
“I know! Your mom told us, it’s amazing!”
“Yeah, we are on tour right now actually,” he smiled sitting down and pulling out a seat for Delany, with everyone’s eyes still them.
“Yeah, that’s why you haven’t been back here in so long right? I guess that band practice paid off huh?” she joked, but quickly realized what she just said, and regretted it.
“Yeah…” Jon trailed off, thinking about back when he lived here. He and Delany were best friends, inseparable. Jon pretty much had a flashback of his entire life, flash right before his eyes as he sat in his old employment store.
Delany sensed he was lost in thought, “Well, I uh, I better go help your rat eating friend over there,” she said, gesturing to Brendon still waiting at the counter. He had found her collection of straw creatures and was making some additions.
“I have a name, vegetable garden!” Brendon shouted out.
“And so do I, geek squad!
“Yeah, I don’t care.” Brendon stated nonchalantly, as Delany made her way around the counter.
“I never said I did either,” Delany replied, amused. She swatted at his hand and slapped it away from her toys. “No touchy!”
“These are yours?!”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“You should totally see my gum wrapper creations!”
“Wow, no one cares, Brendon!” Ryan said as he emerged from the bathroom, much more relieved. Delany ignored him and her and Brendon quickly became friends, discussing their handiwork.
The rest of the shift went by quickly, Brendon and Spencer finally warmed to Delany’s loud outburst and rude remarks. Ryan enjoyed seeing a new face for once, who wasn’t attacking them and taking rips on Brendon and the others, but mostly Brendon. Brendon wouldn’t admit it, but he was covertly developing a crush on little Delany.
Jon was still gleaming with joy with the return of his friend. She looked great, she hadn’t changed. The only difference was that she had let her auburn hair grow down past her shoulders more, and it was now halfway down her back when she took it out of a pony tail. Her faint freckles stood out when she giggled and her button nose still crinkled when she laughed, just like always.
He was overjoyed that they could see each other again. Delany made a cruel, but entertaining for everyone else, joke at Spencer. “Nice one!” Brendon complimented, giving her a high five.
“What’s that?” Ryan asked her curiously, pointing at the messy ‘drawing’ on her hand.
“Uh, it’s the number four…”
“Oh.”
“So you finally resorted to that?” Jon joked, him being the only one in on the meaning.
Delany turned to him, “No, it’s a long story… oh shit! What time is it?!”
The man who was always cracking kinky jokes at Spencer, looked at his watch, “4:17.”
“No, No! No!! NO! Fuck!” Delany jumped up from the seat she was settled in, ran behind the counter and slipped off her apron, grabbed her jacket and purse and dashed towards the door.
“Wait, where are you going?” the scrawny boy asked.
“I need to be home! Like, right now!”
“Ooh…” Jon realized what was happening.
Delany bounded out of the coffee shop, making a mad dash across the street. If she ran fast enough through short cut she created, she could make it in ten minutes flat.
“Dee! Wait!” Jon yelled after her. “You forgot your phone!” She quickly skidded to a stop in the middle of the street, causing her to fall from the icy roads. Brendon ran out to help the tiny girl up before she got crushed by a mail truck. They both made a beeline for Jon.
“Thanks, Jonny Boy!” she kissed his cheek and started for her path she was on before.
“Well, why’d you get a kiss?” Ryan asked as he came out of the store, everyone filing out after him. Jon rolled his eyes and walked back into the café.
Brendon was just laughing, “Jonny Boy? Hah!” He and Spencer continued to laugh about it as they took their seats again.
Jon couldn’t believe where he was right now. He had always pictured himself coming back, and seeing Delany changed and different. But there she was, still her blatant, lusty, rackety self.
By the way Delany jumped up from the time, Jon assumed she still got in trouble and forgot things frequently. That just proved even more that she was still unchanged. And there he was, sitting in the place he used to work. Staring at the old, unsullied, harpy Charlie, wearing his Tiger Woods Nike visor, reading a boring magazine in the corner brought back memories for him.
It felt like déjà vu, it kind of made Jon miss the days where Delany would come and watch him practice in his garage, or they would taunt the old man’s dog across the street, even tying his older brother’s shoelaces together with her was fun. Oh how he missed her. She might not have changed, but things changed for him.
“Four. Got it,” Delany repeated to herself, not wanting to forget.
“Oh, and he said something about writing it down?”
“Psh, I am not writing it down.” Delany was very stubborn about that, she didn’t like writing things down so she could remember, it made her feel like her disorder was prominent. She insisted that she would be self-sufficient about it. Maybe self-sufficient was the wrong word though, because it never got done. Hence the reason her father wanted her to write it down.
“Yeah…he said you would say that. Then he said, ‘do it for her’.”
“Hells no!” she declared, yanking her body further away from him.
“Yeah, well. We’ll see about that.” Charlie said in his prevalent monotone voice, but something in his voice told Delany that Charlie wasn’t going to let it go. Of course Mr. Rydell had threatened him, it was the only reason Charlie would have put any bit of effort into telling Delany what to do.
“When is Josh coming in? I need someone who is a little more bounteous, a person that can hold my interest for more than a millisecond, to entertain me,” Delany complained, griping about Charlie. She flicked him in the ear.
“Two,” was all he said in his dull, bored voice. Charlie was a thirty-two year old hag, who already started getting his receding hair line and grey beard hair. Kate and Delany joked about how he had never kissed a girl and was still a virgin, they were pretty close. All he did was read Home Improvement magazines and watch golf.
Delany was bored. She had been there since five in the morning, worked the morning rush, but now it was slow. It didn’t help that this Starbucks was conveniently located on a small, hidden corner, where there was a Caribou up the road and another Starbucks only two blocks up, closer to traffic.
Delany was pretty sure that Josh was gay, but he was semi-entertaining for her, so she enjoyed his company. While she waited for him to arrive, hopefully early, she busied herself with making figurines out of coffee stir sticks.
While she was preoccupied, Charlie snuck up behind her with a Sharpie, and in a blink of an eye, scribbled the number four on the top of her hand.
“Charlie, you Rocky Mountain Canary!”
“What.”
“It means jackass, you jackass!” she shoved him away, “I told you not to!”
“Jesus Christ, why does it matter so much to you anyways?”
“That’s none of your business. Get out of my face,” she said, turning back to her straw swing set she was making. She would never admit it, but Delany actually secretly liked that Charlie was very unmoving about writing the time down, she was carful not to smudge the fresh ink, because she didn’t want to be late. She wanted to be responsible for once.
Charlie backed up and sat back down on his stool in the corner and started to read his magazine again. Delany freaked him out, he hating working with her alone. Charlie was a wimp though, letting a seventeen year old over power him was pretty cowardly.
“Get brewing, Charlie! We got a load comin’ in!” Delany yelled from the counter. He just rolled his eyes, thinking it was her way of making him come out to the front so she could play a prank on him, or it was just Josh entering the store.
A couple minutes later, he heard the annoyingly sweet voice of Delany, calling for him again. He finished up his article and emerged from the back.
There was a big van parked out front, meaning it was carrying a load of people. Charlie hated that.
People started piling in and Delany’s smile appeared back on her face, finally getting to be able to do something. She brushed her auburn red hair out of her face as people started coming in.
“Yay, field trip!” she clapped.
“Ugh, field trip,” Charlie dragged. Four boys exited the van, well one of them ran, and many other men exited out of the other truck behind them.
Most of them weren’t in the mood for coffee, or anything to eat or drink for that matter, they just wanted to get out of the contained buses. And for the one lanky, mismatched boy, a bathroom.
They all took seats at tables, mingling with one another. Delany was a little dispirited, seeing none of them wanted anything, but at least she could people watch.
One boy did come to the counter, his face was unshaven and had glasses on. He looked like everyone else there; travel tired and lazy.
“Hello!” the boy said, a little too excitedly.
“Hey,” Delany smiled at his eagerness, “What can I get for you?”
“I’ll take uh,” the boy pondered over the menu up above her. “Uh, I’ll take a Pumpkin Spice Frappuchinno Blended-- wait no…”
As the boy gabbled away, Delany started looking around the store, her eyes practically bulged out of her sockets at what she saw.
“Jonathan Jacob Walker?!” A head snapped to the front counter, along with everyone else’s.
“Dee Dee?!” The boy yelled back, even louder. “No freaking way!”
The boy at the counter interjected, “Excuse me, uh yeah, I’m ready now.” Delany quick scrawled out on a piece of paper, “Use Next Register’ and jumped the over the counter, how a kid would jump a fence.
“Jon, I’ve missed you!” she threw herself at him and he embraced her back, swinging her around while they hugged.
The boy at the counter was still looking for the next register, but he quickly realized there was only one register in the store. “Hey, carrot head! I said I was ready!”
“Hey, president of the chess club! I don’t give a shit!” she turned back to Jon and was smiling wide, “How have you been?!”
“Great! I’m in a fucking band now,” Jon said back excitedly, still running off the adrenaline he had from seeing Delany.
“I know! Your mom told us, it’s amazing!”
“Yeah, we are on tour right now actually,” he smiled sitting down and pulling out a seat for Delany, with everyone’s eyes still them.
“Yeah, that’s why you haven’t been back here in so long right? I guess that band practice paid off huh?” she joked, but quickly realized what she just said, and regretted it.
“Yeah…” Jon trailed off, thinking about back when he lived here. He and Delany were best friends, inseparable. Jon pretty much had a flashback of his entire life, flash right before his eyes as he sat in his old employment store.
Delany sensed he was lost in thought, “Well, I uh, I better go help your rat eating friend over there,” she said, gesturing to Brendon still waiting at the counter. He had found her collection of straw creatures and was making some additions.
“I have a name, vegetable garden!” Brendon shouted out.
“And so do I, geek squad!
“Yeah, I don’t care.” Brendon stated nonchalantly, as Delany made her way around the counter.
“I never said I did either,” Delany replied, amused. She swatted at his hand and slapped it away from her toys. “No touchy!”
“These are yours?!”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“You should totally see my gum wrapper creations!”
“Wow, no one cares, Brendon!” Ryan said as he emerged from the bathroom, much more relieved. Delany ignored him and her and Brendon quickly became friends, discussing their handiwork.
The rest of the shift went by quickly, Brendon and Spencer finally warmed to Delany’s loud outburst and rude remarks. Ryan enjoyed seeing a new face for once, who wasn’t attacking them and taking rips on Brendon and the others, but mostly Brendon. Brendon wouldn’t admit it, but he was covertly developing a crush on little Delany.
Jon was still gleaming with joy with the return of his friend. She looked great, she hadn’t changed. The only difference was that she had let her auburn hair grow down past her shoulders more, and it was now halfway down her back when she took it out of a pony tail. Her faint freckles stood out when she giggled and her button nose still crinkled when she laughed, just like always.
He was overjoyed that they could see each other again. Delany made a cruel, but entertaining for everyone else, joke at Spencer. “Nice one!” Brendon complimented, giving her a high five.
“What’s that?” Ryan asked her curiously, pointing at the messy ‘drawing’ on her hand.
“Uh, it’s the number four…”
“Oh.”
“So you finally resorted to that?” Jon joked, him being the only one in on the meaning.
Delany turned to him, “No, it’s a long story… oh shit! What time is it?!”
The man who was always cracking kinky jokes at Spencer, looked at his watch, “4:17.”
“No, No! No!! NO! Fuck!” Delany jumped up from the seat she was settled in, ran behind the counter and slipped off her apron, grabbed her jacket and purse and dashed towards the door.
“Wait, where are you going?” the scrawny boy asked.
“I need to be home! Like, right now!”
“Ooh…” Jon realized what was happening.
Delany bounded out of the coffee shop, making a mad dash across the street. If she ran fast enough through short cut she created, she could make it in ten minutes flat.
“Dee! Wait!” Jon yelled after her. “You forgot your phone!” She quickly skidded to a stop in the middle of the street, causing her to fall from the icy roads. Brendon ran out to help the tiny girl up before she got crushed by a mail truck. They both made a beeline for Jon.
“Thanks, Jonny Boy!” she kissed his cheek and started for her path she was on before.
“Well, why’d you get a kiss?” Ryan asked as he came out of the store, everyone filing out after him. Jon rolled his eyes and walked back into the café.
Brendon was just laughing, “Jonny Boy? Hah!” He and Spencer continued to laugh about it as they took their seats again.
Jon couldn’t believe where he was right now. He had always pictured himself coming back, and seeing Delany changed and different. But there she was, still her blatant, lusty, rackety self.
By the way Delany jumped up from the time, Jon assumed she still got in trouble and forgot things frequently. That just proved even more that she was still unchanged. And there he was, sitting in the place he used to work. Staring at the old, unsullied, harpy Charlie, wearing his Tiger Woods Nike visor, reading a boring magazine in the corner brought back memories for him.
It felt like déjà vu, it kind of made Jon miss the days where Delany would come and watch him practice in his garage, or they would taunt the old man’s dog across the street, even tying his older brother’s shoelaces together with her was fun. Oh how he missed her. She might not have changed, but things changed for him.