Love By Our Side

Stephen woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, wanting nothing more than a cup of coffee and some pancakes. After sitting up and looking around at his surroundings, he realized that he had passed out in the Juwig's basement, alongside Josh, who seemed to have hogged both pillows and the blanket they had probably been sharing the night before. He started to get up, then sat back down, remembering what he had let slip to his friends. Taylor was likely too gone to remember, Josh usually could retain half of what he learned while drinking, but Adam was completely sober, and sure to remember and possibly question Stephen about it.

Sighing, he stood up and headed up the stairs and into what smelled like all he needed at ten in the morning after a night of heavy drinking. Once in the kitchen, Stephen was greeted by the twins' mom and Adam, both drinking coffee and eating cereal. He glanced at the digital clock on the microwave, which flashed a green 9:19 at him. He shook his head, realizing he'd missed his first class of the day. He swore in his mind that he wouldn't drink on school nights anymore, knowing that he'd break this rule sooner or later.

“You're welcome to grab a cup of coffee and any food you'd like,” Mrs. Juwig offered, smiling.

“I think I'm good with some coffee, thank you,” Stephen smiled back, food suddenly not sounding appealing to him. The three sat around the kitchen table for a few minutes, exchanging polite information regarding school, work, and anything else happening in their lives. Adam's mother excused herself, saying that she had to get ready to go out to eat with her sister. Once she left, the two boys sat in an almost awkward silence, both wanting to bring up the same topic but neither willing to.

“So uh, last night I kinda-” Stephen started, but was cut off when Josh stumbled into the kitchen.

“I woke up and my lover wasn't by my side so I got worried,” Josh joked, taking a seat at the table.

“Who, the 14 year old girl you were hanging out with last night?” Adam asked, seriously, while Stephen snickered.

“She's not 14, and I wish it was her lying next to me last night, not this kid,” Josh, not in the mood to start anything, said as he motioned to Stephen. “We do have another bit of information to discuss, though.” As soon as Josh mentioned this, Adam mumbled something and got up from the table and started unloading the dishwasher, and Stephen looked down at his hands in his lap. “No one else would say anything about it, but something has to be said.”

“There's really nothing else to be said about this,” Stephen sighed. “We're keeping it, I'm driving up on Sunday to go with Soph to her first doctor's appointment. Beyond that, nothing's decided. I'm sure I'll talk with her about other things when I see her. Also, no one knows about this outside of my parents and hers, so let's not say anything to anyone yet?”

“Hey, I'm not talking, and Adam wouldn't say anything either. I'm not entirely sure if Taylor was conscious when we spoke last night, but he probably wouldn't say anything...” Josh trailed. Stephen wasn't sure why he was freaking out over people finding put about his girlfriend's pregnancy, they'd hear about it sooner or later, so why not sooner? He was the most concerned with John and Delaney finding out, but they should've been some of the first people told anyways.

“I guess I just want people to hear it from me or Soph, and not to have it spread around like rumor in high school is all,” Stephen stated, and his friends nodded their heads in understanding. “I don't know why she hasn't told Delaney yet, that's pretty weird to me. I want to tell John, but I can't tell him without his girlfriend, and half of the world, finding out.” Josh and Adam chuckled at this, and Stephen felt that he'd made a successful attempt at lightening the mood in the kitchen.

The three sat talking for another half hour before Adam offered to drive them home. “I'll somehow ask Taylor if he knows what we discussed in the car last night, and if he remembers I'll make sure he doesn't let anything slip,” Adam told Stephen while driving to his house.

“I appreciate it dude, I really do,” Stephen replied, gratefully. They made more small talk before arriving at Stephen's house, where he said goodbye to both his friends.

As Stephen was getting out of the car, Delaney exited his house (exactly the reason he didn't want to stay there last night. It didn't matter if his parents were home, she and John would go about their business no matter what). “Hey, I got called into work after I saw you yesterday, so could we push lunch off until tomorrow? I see you didn't go to class today, either,” she stopped and asked him. He nodded a quick yes and said that he'd text her.

“See you later, bro,” she smiled, walking down their driveway and into a car waiting for her in the street. The constant joking of the brother/sister thing was bothering Stephen lately, but he wouldn't tell anyone else that. Who was picking Delaney up, anyways? He shrugged and walked into his house, and straight up the stairs to get a shower.
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“Hey Haley, thanks for giving me a lift today. It shouldn't happen again, but Mr. Cleary's car broke down yesterday so he has to use the one I use for the time being. I really didn't want to be late on my first day,” Delaney laughed, speaking to Haley, the girl from her Spanish class who had gotten Delaney her job at TGI Friday's. “I'm kinda nervous to start today, actually. I've never worked at a real restaurant before...” Delaney's only previous work experience, besides the occasional babysitting job she'd have, was a half-year stint at a local ice cream shop in Flagstaff during her sophomore year in high school. She decided that working wasn't really her “thing” at that point, and for almost two years after quitting, she got by on mooching money, food, rides, almost everything, from her friends or people who wanted to be her friend.

“It's not a problem! I'm stoked for you to be working with me, most of our other co-workers are real tight asses and never like to have any fun,” Haley joked. “I mean, we all work, a lot of people just don't know how to have fun while they work.”

“I understand,” Delaney smiled. “That'll be changing now that I'm around, though. People can't be around me without having fun. Or being annoyed. Either or.” The two girls continued to chat on the ten minute drive, and as they were pulling into the parking lot, Delaney felt a light vibration in her pocket. Call me as soon as you can. Delaney was confused, what was going on with her cousin? With only four minutes until her shift started, the call would have to wait until her half-hour long break in four hours came around.

“Delaney, welcome! I'm so glad you could start training today so you'd be ready for real work on Saturday!” Karen greeted Delaney, after waving to Haley. “Of course, you'll have to watch the mandatory two-hour long harassment video our company requires each new employee to view. It's all common sense, but I still must show it to you. Afterwards, we'll get you started studying the seating system, very exciting!”

As Karen set Delaney up in the store's back room, hosting multiple bags of flour, a folding chair that was falling apart, and a 10-inch TV, complete with connected VHS player and antenna, and nothing more, Delaney could tell that Karen's enthusiasm for life was going to get old quickly. “The movie is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions feel free to come get me! Please, make sure you pay attention!”

The second her new boss stepped out of the room, movie rolling, Delaney grabbed for her cell phone. She read her cousin's text over again, still thinking about what she had to say. Delaney quickly responded with her current situation and how she'd call her as soon as she could, then get to half-watching the movie. When her phone vibrated three minutes later with Sophie's response, a simple K, Delaney threw her phone back into her purse for fear of Karen walking in on her texting.

A little over an hour and a half later, the God forsaken movie ended. Haley came to “fetch” her, Karen's word, and the two girls laughed at how ridiculous most of the scenes were. Haley showed Delaney to Karen's office, where she had to fill out a few papers before getting to work. After another half hour, she was finally allowed to do something.

“I'm going to have you start learning the rotation of how we seat people, and the general layout and sections of the restaurant. You'll be working alongside Brady for today and probably Saturday as well, so make sure you two get along,” Karen stated, without actually introducing Delaney to this Brady kid. “Remember, if you have any questions, come talk to me.”

“She can be blunt,” Delaney joked, not wanting any awkwardness to erupt. “I'm Delaney by the way, nice to be working alongside you.”

“She's a pretty cool boss, so I can deal with the abruptness at times. And I'm Brady, I'm sure we'll make a great team,” he introduced himself, extending his right hand. Delaney shook it, noting how formal he was being. “So, let's get started. It's all pretty simple, it's just a matter of memorization.”

Brady went on to explain how the noisier customers, such as families with children, had their own unofficial section, as did people who seemed to be on dates, groups of teenagers, and so on, to create the least problems as possible. After another two hours at this and starting to seat people, Delaney felt that she had it down.

“You're welcome to take your break now, though you might be able to leave altogether. You learn a lot faster than a lot of people here, which is a good thing,” Brady stated with a wink, before going back to his post at the host's podium. Delaney hadn't yet mentioned that she already had a boyfriend, but thought she should drop that on their next shift together.

After checking in with Karen, Delaney found out that she was free to leave and should report back on Saturday at three for a brush up on what she had learned today, then start working at four, just in time for the dinner rush. She waved goodbye to Haley and Brady as she exited the store, not having met any of the other employees currently working, and dialed John's number so he could pick her up. He got out of school an hour earlier than most everyone else because of his lack of effort in not wanting to take an extra elective. He said that he'd be there in fifteen minutes, which gave Delaney enough time to call her cousin.

”Hey cuz, what's up?” Sophie answered on the first ring.

“Nothing much, just got off work. It actually wasn't that bad. Though, I was taught how to be a hostess by a dude who definitely wasn't gay and I'm pretty sure is into me. Since when are there guy hostesses?” Delaney asked, half serious.

”I have no idea, but you better not tell John about him, he'd probably freak out and rip him a new one,” Sophie laughed. “How are our boys, anyways?”

“They're good.” Delaney started. “Oh, but fun fact, a few days ago your idiotic boyfriend came up to me and asked if I was pregnant. Like...what? I have no idea where that came from. He also put the idea into John's head that I was cheating on him, again, what the fuck? We talked, or more like he and John fought, and he seems to be back to normal again.”

”He didwhat?” Sophie asked, unsure if she'd heard her cousin correctly. ”What was his reasoning for asking you this?”

“He said that he's been in a weird place or something like that lately, and how I made some comment about us being family, soon I have no idea. I just played it off like Stephen being Stephen and let it go. John got pissed and they had a fight yesterday, but I stepped in and seemed to have calmed everything,” Delaney quickly spoke, hoping Sophie wouldn't ask anymore questions about the ordeal. “What did you wanna talk about, anyways?”

”Nothing right now,” Sophie sighed. Before she told her cousin and presumably the whole world about her pregnancy, she wanted to talk some things over with her boyfriend. ”I'll call you later tonight or tomorrow though, okay?”

“Yeah, call me whenever, I'm not doing much of anything before I work again on Saturday, except class tomorrow and I'm having lunch with Stephen probably.”

”Hopefully I'll talk to you before then, but if not, expect an apology from him,” Sophie said, hanging up. She wasn't one for goodbyes lately, which was very unlike her. Delaney found it odd that both Sophie and Stephen were acting strangely, but didn't want to think too far into things. She waited another few minutes before her boyfriend pulled up, and he announced to her that he was taking her out to eat in order to celebrate her first day at work. She told John about her day, the video she had to watch, and waited until they were at the restaurant to tell him about her potential, not-so-secret admirer.

This was a good move on Delaney's part because, as Sophie thought would happen, John freaked out and immediately started talking about going to kick his ass. Delaney laughed and told him to calm down, that nothing was going to happen. After telling him this for five minutes, he finally believed it.

“I really need to get used to guys thinking they can have you, you're a very good looking girl,” John said with a wink. Delaney rolled her eyes and focused back on her menu. Things finally seemed to be normal again.