Live for the Moment

I woke up at 5:00 wanting to hit the snooze button desperately. Knowing that I need to be somewhere in a half hour deterred me from doing so. Instead I got up and got ready for work. I grabbed my uniform and pulled off my pajamas. Since I’d gotten in early this morning I opted for the extra half hour of sleep so now I was running a little late. After I was done getting dressed I ran to the bathroom to wash my face and brushed my teeth. I could smell my morning coffee calling my name. That was the one thing that I’d splurged on when I’d gotten my own place, and automatic coffee pot. It had proved to be worth the large sum I’d spent on it, and it saved me money in the long run.

When I was all ready I ran for the kitchen to load up my travel mug and grab my sweat jacket. On the way out I grabbed Alex’s car keys and hurried out to my car to grab my make-up bag. Thank the lord Alex didn’t drive a stick because I never could have accomplished everything that I needed to this morning. I mean how can I be expected to switch gears, apply my make-up and drink my coffee all at once while steering?

When I pulled into Denny’s it was still pretty dead. We didn’t start getting the rush until 7, when all the older people came in for breakfast. It would be busier because it was a Saturday so there were a couple extra servers on hand. As I walked in Alice and Drew were talking at the counter.

“Hey beautiful!” Bailey called aloud. The customers occupying the restaurant all turned to look at me, unimpressed as they were all extremely old or truckers they looked away.

“Thanks for that!” Drew laughed and gave me a normal hello. “Why can’t you be like everyone else?” I said looking directly at Bailey.

“Because normal is boring. Honestly now, tell me that if those boys you hung out with were normal; would your life be as interesting as it is?” Drew chuckled and I smiled at her.

“Probably not.” I admitted putting my apron on. “Well, I’m gonna go and clock in. Don’t talk about anything interesting while I’m gone.”

When I got back to the counter Drew was gone, probably back in the kitchen. “So what did you do last night?” Bailey asked as I took the spot that not too long ago Drew was occupying folding silverware up.

“Believe it or not I left my house!” I told her grabbing a fork, knife and napkin.

“Oh? Do tell” she chirped excitedly waiting for all the gossipy detail she thought she was going to get.
“Only if you can talk and work at the same time.”

“Girl please, I’m the queen of multi-tasking.” She said smacking my arm.

“Alright Queen, while you’re talking to me now, the guy at the end of the counter is waiting for more coffee.” She looked down towards him and went to check. I watched as he nodded and she poured him some more. Knowing what was coming next I picked up more forks and knifes, and began folding them up.

“How do you do that?”

“Server’s intuition I suppose.”

“Where do I get one of those?” she asked laughing.

“It comes with the will to not fail” she nodded. I loved Bailey but she got on my nerves sometimes. See Bailey still lived with her parents, she got this job as means for extra cash. Her parents were letting her live at home, while she was going to college, they paid her insurance, car, and cell-phone bill all on top of putting food in her mouth. Now I know that Green isn’t my color but I couldn’t help but feel a little of my monster showing.

“So, anyways what did you do last night?”

“The guys came over and begged me to go to a party with them. Renee was throwing it honor of them being home.”

“Oh, and how’d that go?”

“It pretty much sucked.”

“You mean you didn’t have any fun at all?”

“No, not at the party.”

“So… you had fun somewhere else?”

“Yeah, it’s a long story.”

“Well, we’ve got forty five minutes.” I shook my head, I knew that if I didn’t tell her about this now; then I would have her bugging me for details every free minutes either one of us had.

“Well the only reason that I went was so Jack wouldn’t look at me sad. Alex told me he’d take me home if I wasn’t having fun so I was all ‘what the heck?’ We got to the party and the boys all went their separate ways…” I chose to leave the part about Zack saying he went with me for money. “ Kara and Renee were kewl to hang out with until their men grabbed their attention so I went out to the beach and sat by myself…” Bailey gave an aggravated sigh.

“Chelsea why can’t you just talk to some people I mean..”

“Well would you let me finish?”

“OHH! Did you meet someone?” I silenced her with a look. It was the look I gave her telling her I was going to walk away if she didn’t quit interrupting.

“Alex came out there and started talking with me. At about 11:30 he asked me to take him home. I was pretty much astounded but agreed anyway. He slung me over his shoulder and carried me back to Renee’s. There’s was talk about personal space when he smacked my butt, and there was talk of narcotics. I now know that Alex lacks the balls to ever try shrooms.” I told her laughing when I thought about it. “Anyways when I asked him why he was ready to leave so early he was really sweet about it and said he agreed to leave when I wasn’t having fun so we were leaving now. He asked if I was ready to go only I was having fun at that point. I guess my answer sounded unsure so instead of leaving and having me drive him to his house he took me to McDonalds…”

“YOU LET HIM DRIVE DRUNK?!!!!”

“NO! Now keep your voice down and give that man his bill.” She sighed and went to the computer and printed off his receipt and waved him down to the cash register. The man nodded in my direction and I smiled back as he passed. Once he’d been taken care of Bailey was right back in my face. “How much did he tip you?” she walked down to his end of the counter and picked up her tip.

“3.50” she said as she skipped back to her spot behind the counter.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Thanks!!” I hung my head and chuckled.

“Where was I?”

“You let him drive drunk.”

“No I didn’t. I didn’t know how to get to his house from Renee’s so he was giving me directions. Instead of giving me directions to his house he gave the directions to McDonalds. We got some fries, some pies, and a sprite; then he told me to go to Jacks. We left Jack at the party so I wasn’t entirely sure why we were going over there. When I got to Jack’s he told me to wait in the car for ten minutes then to bring the food and go to back yard…” I decided to condense the rest of it and told her about the tree house and lights and the date conversation, and about having to drive his car to work this morning. When I was done her mouth was hanging open.

“Are you blind?”

“Excuse me?

“He’s head over heals for you babe.” She told me all knowingly, while some guy walked up to the counter.

“Uh, huh. When you’re done with that brain fart and getting this dude squared away, I’ll be in the kitchen.” I told her as I shook my head went to see all the rest of who was on shift today. Did she see the absurdity of what she just said?

On my way to the kitchen I checked the podium and looked to see where my section was as it was almost time for the rush to start. At 7 AM on the nose, I got my first customers, regulars of course. They were an older couple and order the same thing as they always did. From there everything just picked up. By the time it was 11 I must have had like twenty tables. I was handing one of my tables their bill when Table Pain, yelled that they needed more napkins because their son had spilled his drink again. You would think that after the second time the kid would have gotten reprimanded because there’s no way you spill three times and it’s an accident. If he were my kid after the first time he’d have gotten a kiddy cup. I was getting really aggravated, this table had given me so much crap between them spilling things and adding things on it was ridiculous. They probably weren’t even going to leave a good tip.

Two of my tables left leaving me with two openings since it was starting to die down, they probably wouldn’t get filled. All that I had left was an older couple with their teenage children who you can tell got dragged here, and table pain. When 12 rolled around the older couple with the kids asked for their bill. While I was getting it, I noticed another group of people getting sat in my section. They were all young guys which had the potential of becoming a good tip.

I dropped the older couple’s bill off and told them to have a nice day then went to gather their drink orders. As I actually looked at them I smiled. It was my boys, they were all sitting there in one of the circular booths waving at me. “Hey guys!”

“HEY CHELSEA!!!” Jack squealed causing me to laugh.

“How aren’t you hung over?”

“Matt took care of me.”

“Oh, where is he?”

“He’s on his way.” Zack piped up. I looked his way and nodded but didn’t make eye contact with him. I was still a little sad at what he had said. So instead of saying anything to him I turned to Rian.

“What can I get you guys to drink?”

“Coke” Jack said followed by Rian’s “Diet” Zack’s “water” and then Alex.

“I’ll take a beer. Whatever you’ve got on tap is fine.” I rolled my eyes, and looked up from my note pad.

“Something on the menu babe.”

“Oh, lemonade.” He said laughing.

“K, I’ll be right back with your drinks.” I quickly filled their cups and headed back to the table. “So what brings you guys all in here.?”

“The French Toast.” Alex said, smiling up at me.

“I was dropping Alex off to get his car, we decided we were all hungry and met here.” Jack confessed, the rest of them nodded.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late” Matt said snagging a spot by Jack. “Hey Chelsea, how’d you like the party?”

“It was fine, what can I get you to drink?”

“Coke”

“Alright and besides French Toast boy, what can I get for the rest of you?”

“PANCAKES!!!!” Jack yelled. Matt smacked him in the back of the head.

“Can you act your age maybe once?” Jack shook his head

“I want bacon and eggs too!!” he said happily.

“I’ll have the usual” Rian said

“I think that I’ll have some pancakes too, but instead of bacon I think I’ll have the sausage links.” Matt offered

“I’ll bet you do!!!” Jack yelled causing me to laugh along with the rest of the guys.

“Zack, what about you?”

“Cheese omelet”

“Toast, Bacon?”

“both.”

“white or wheat?”

“wheat.”

“Okay I’m gonna go put this in and I’ll bring your drink out in just a second Matty.” Jack and Rian handed me the menus and I went to put them in the cubby on the way to the computer. When I got there Bailey was standing there with a big smile on her face.

“Romeo is back!” I snorted

“You’re eaten up.”

“What’s up with the one in the corner?”

“Which one?” I asked as I finished keying in their order.

“The one with really curly and fuzzy hair.”

“Uh, not sure.”

“You’re lying, I’ll get it out of you. You know I will.” She said before turning away and heading back to the counter. When I was done I grabbed Matt’s drink and dropped it off before checking on table pain. Thankfully the only thing that I could get them was their bill. The guys food came up shortly after that.

“Elsea, what time do you get off?” I leaned over Matt’s wrist to check his watch.

“In thirty minutes, if I don’t get another table.”

“Okay.”

“Do you have any plans after work?” Alex asked, as Carly sat another table in my section.

“We’ll have to talk about this later. I’ll be back to check on you guys in a few.”

<hour later>

All my tables had been taken care of and Kaye had taken over my section. The guys were all waiting out in the lobby for me. I went to clock out and handed my apron over the counter to Josh who’d taken over for Bailey. “See you tomorrow Chelsea.”

“Bye Josh.” I headed over to the guys waiting for me. Matt, Jack and were all getting ready to leave. Unfortunately it was going to just be Alex, Zack and I on the car ride home.. We all walked out together and I hugged the three going their separate ways. They were all meeting up together later based on what I’d heard to discuss the band business I’m guess Matt and Alex had talked about this morning.

Alex draped his arm over my shoulder and we walked to his car in silence. The whole time I could feel Zack staring. Alex opened the passenger door for me and then went around to the other side when he got in I gave him his set of keys and he started the car.

“How’d the meeting go this morning?”

“Good. It actually went really well.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“You never got around to answering me earlier.”

“About what?”

“What are you doing now?”

“Well I really need to get home and shower. After that I’m not really doing anything. Why do you ask?”

“I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out tonight.”

“Yeah, I’d be kewl with that.” I told him as we pulled up to my place. Alex shut the car off and went to get out.

“I’ll walk you up.” Zack offered quickly

“Okay…”

“I guess I’ll just see you later then.” Alex said slightly annoyed after he closed the door. What was going on with these guys lately? Zack closed the door and we started walking towards my apartment.

“Listen Chelsea what I said last night, that was so rude. I really didn’t even mean it.” He said as we made our way up the stairs. “I really didn’t go with you just to make sure I got the money. I’m so sorry.” He finished as I pulled my house key off my belt loop.

“Zack don’t worry about it. There’s no need to apologize, did you get your money?”

“Well Alex tried to give it to me but I told him to keep. It. He wouldn’t though and…”

“As he shouldn’t have. You guys bet fair and square, you won Zack, congratulations.” I told him as I unlocked the door and let myself in. “Goodbye Zack.” I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else before I closed the door in his face.