Friction

I woke up Sunday at noon to rain tapping at my window. I suddenly regretted having done the movie marathon the night before. Today would’ve been the perfect day to do that.
Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I have to be at work today. I actually have two jobs. Sunday through Tuesday, I work at Starbucks. Wednesday through Friday, I work as a waiter at a restaurant called Ketchup in West Hollywood.
I had the afternoon shift at Starbucks. It started at one. I was all ready to go, but when I walked passed Kelly’s room, I heard her crying. I didn’t want to be late, but I couldn’t just let her cry. I didn’t want to be an asshole roommate.
I carefully walked into her bedroom and sat next to her. She jerked slightly.
“Oh, shit,” she sniffled. “You scared me.”
“Kelly, what’s wrong?” I asked rubbing her back. “Why are you crying?”
“The rain made me miss home, I guess. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there,” she answered. Kelly was from Seattle. She moved out here to go to school. I looked at her lap and she had pictures of her family.
“Oh, Hon, I’m sorry. I wish that there was something I could do,” I answered.
“It’s okay. I know that there’s nothing you could do.”
“Well, I have to get to work. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yup,” she sniffled again. “I’ll be fine.”
“Tell you what, when I get off I’ll go out and buy junk food and gossip mags and we can sit on our ass and read juicy celeb gossip.”
She smiled at me. Her eyes were a bit red and puffy, “That sounds great.”
I kissed her on the head and then gave her a tight hug. Then, I left for work.
Work is always pretty boring. You mostly see the same people order the same drink or same item. When you work in a place that makes its prime income from selling coffee, you’re bound to start going through a routine, but I had a special feeling about today. It felt as though this afternoon would be different. And it was.
I normally don’t meet any cool people at my job. Mainly coffee freaks and emos, but all of a sudden this girl walked in with her friend, I assume. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. I bet that if I was straight, I’d totally be into her.
She ordered a grande caramel macchiato.
“What’s your name?” I asked her so I could put it on the order.
“Addy,” she said. Cool name, I thought.
“Okay,” I smiled. “Your coffee will be right up.”
Her friend ordered a tall mocha latte.
“What’s your name?” I asked again.
“Izzy,” she answered. Another cool name, I thought.
“Okay,” I smiled again. “Your coffee will be right up.” I told you working in a coffee house if full of routine.
Her and her friend sat on the couches for what seemed to be hours. They just sat, chatting and laughing. They left after about two hours. The second one, Izzy, even came up for a second coffee. She ordered the same drink.
After my shift, I did what I promised Kelly. I stopped at a small market and grabbed some really offensive gossip mags and a big bag of chips, cheesy popcorn, chocolate turtles, and a bunch of other items that I was sure to regret eating later on. But I’ll do anything for that girl, Kelly.
I walked into my apartment, put the bags onto the kitchen counter and walked into Kelly’s room. She was still there. This time, she was asleep. The poor thing must’ve totally exhausted herself.
I threw a blanket over her, turned off her bedroom light and carefully shut the door as to not wake her. As soon as I shut her door, my cell phone rang. It was one of my co-workers, Ginger, at Ketchup. She needed me to cover her dinner shift. It was supposedly an emergency.
I didn’t want to leave Kelly, but I needed the extra cash. Also, what if it was an emergency for Ginger, I couldn’t let her down. So, I left a note for Kelly.
I was almost out of the door when the apartment phone rang. I ran to answer it so it wouldn’t wake Kelly.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey, it’s Tristan.”
“Hey, I can’t talk right now. I was just about to leave,” I said.
“I was just wondering if we could go out tonight,” said Tristan.
“I don’t know. I’m covering a dinner shift tonight at work and I might be exhausted, but I’ll call you if I can.”
“Cool, I’ll be waiting.”
“Talk to you later,” I said.
“Bye,” he said and hung up.

***
“Where have you been, Kieran?” asked my boss, Erik.
“Sorry, Ginger called me last minute. I got here as fast as I could,” I answered, putting on my apron.
“Table nine is waiting for you to take their order,” said Erik.
“Okay,” I said.
I walked over to Table nine and it was full of women, around my age, twenty-two ish. Two of them, I recognized. It was Addy and Izzy again.
“Hey, weren’t you the guy who took our order at Starbucks?” asked Addy.
“Yeah,” I said.
“How many jobs do you have?” asked Izzy.
“Just two,” I answered.
This was going to be an interesting night.

***

As usual, the dinner shift was packed and I was super busy. But it seemed like Addy, Izzy, her friends and I were BFFs by the time they were through. It was refreshing that they didn’t treat me like their servant like most of the stiffs that eat at Ketchup. They treated me like their friend, and I returned the favor. I gave them my thirty percent employee discount. That was the best that I could do to repay them for being nice to me. But, then they insisted on giving me a huge tip. Their tip was double what it should’ve been.
“Listen, we’re going out to a new club tonight. You might know it. It’s called The Ruby. Why don’t you meet us there when your shift ends? We’re only going for a few hours since most of us have to work tomorrow,” said Addy.
“Oh, I wish I could, but I can’t,” I said. “Maybe another time.”
“Well, let’s exchange numbers so we can set up another date,” said Izzy.
I really was scared that any of them would get the wrong idea and come onto me, but I gave them my number, nonetheless.
After my shift was over, I wasn’t really tired. So, I went back home to call Tristan. Kelly was sitting on the couch munching on the chips that I had bought and watching Desperate Housewives on TIVO.
“Hey, Hon, how was work?” she asked.
“It was cool. I met this group of girls that were really nice. They invited me to go to a club with them after my shift, but I said no.”
“You said no to a club?!” she asked in shock. “There must be only one reason why…Tristan.”
“He said he wanted to do something tonight.”
“Oh, the things you do for that guy…”