The Movies Make It Look Easy

Chapter 17

Shannon’s P.O.V:

My back tensed when I heard a familiar voice chirp out a Hello behind me.
I muttered a response but refused to turn around, instead continuing to stare at the cup of tea in front of me.
I knew that if I talked to her before I’d had a cup of tea, I was likely to be in a bad mood all day...chances are I would be anyway, hearing her had guaranteed that. So I didn’t look up.
It was one thing to hear her voice, it was a completely different thing to have to see her – no doubt wearing one of his shirts.
In fact, I thought, it was probably the same one that I’d seen every single girl he’d brought home wear. I shook my head slightly; all the girls had the same look on their faces.
It was almost painful to watch that pathetically hopeful look that no doubt was wiped off by Nick without another thought when he finally woke up and kicked them out.
They probably all had the same ideas that he’d ask them out after sleeping with them...but if any of them were anything more than a quick fuck to him then I had yet to see any evidence of it.
And yet there were always girls willing to try...he couldn’t be that good in bed, could he? I quickly told myself to shut up; I was heading for dangerous waters thinking like that.

I studied the wall in front of me with its faded white paint, while I waited for my toast to pop.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her open the fridge and look in. My toast popped and I grabbed it quickly, ignoring how hot it was.
I wanted to be out of the kitchen and away from her as quickly as possible.
I grabbed a knife and quickly and almost savagely buttered the toast.
‘Hey Shannon, do you have anything Low Fat? I can’t eat all these Carbs’
My hand tensed; making me cut a big hole in the middle of one of the slices of toast. I sighed, putting down the knife. I didn’t trust myself not to accidently cut myself.
‘Nope’ I said sweetly, still not looking at her,
‘Neither I nor Nick has to worry about that, we can both eat as much as we like without gaining any weight.’
It was low blow going after a girl’s weight but I wasn’t in a particularly good mood and I couldn’t make myself care even though I knew she’d make me regret it later. She obviously didn’t appreciate what I’d been implying about her and I could feel her shooting daggers at me.
‘Well lucky for some’ she muttered, closing – no slamming – the fridge door and stalking out of the room.

I collected my toast and tea and followed her out the door, heading for my room. I took a bite of my toast as I walked. I grimaced, I’d put too much butter on it.
She wasn’t in the living room; I guessed she’d gone back to Nick’s room. I shuddered at the thought of her...no! I scolded myself; don’t think about either of them.
I sighed; I knew that for the rest of the day I wouldn’t be allowed to forget that she’d been with Nick...or at least until two.
I threw on my work clothes; black trousers and a fitted white shirt, grabbing my phone and keys.
I gulped down my tea and ate the last bite of toast and headed for the door, making sure not to linger in case I ran into either of them.
I hurried down the path, it was very windy and I hadn’t brought a jacket. It didn’t take me long to reach the Café.

Every time I came here I was reminded of the day, weeks ago when Nick and I had come here, back when we were friends.
I took a deep breath, pushing open the door and plastering a smile on my face. As soon as he saw me, Rick – my Boss – beckoned me over to him.
I snagged a black apron from behind the counter as I went. I hurried over to him, where he was making coffee.
‘Shannon, thank God you’re here, Jenny hasn’t deigned to come in yet’
We both rolled our eyes and I smirked, hoping she’d get into trouble.
Rick was a nice guy in his early forties with brown hair, dotted with grey (the stress of working with three girls apparently) and pale blue eyes.
He had faint lines printed around his eyes and mouth. He was more striking than good looking and he had a sweet smile but he had a temper and there was nothing he hated more than his workers not showing up on time; though Jenny was a different matter for some reason.
She constantly showed up late and every time Rick got angry and threatened to fire her if she didn’t get her act together and every time she’d say sorry and promise not to do it again.
She sometimes even managed a couple of tears, which made me want to puke. She’d come in on time for the next couple of days before she started coming in late again and the cycle would start again. The chances of this being the time that Rick would actually fire her were slim to none...I suppose a girl can dream, I thought wistfully.
‘Shannon are you paying attention?’ I jumped
‘Yep’ I smiled, but he just looked at me knowingly
‘Anyway as I was saying, you and Becky are going to have to cover Jenny’s tables until she finally shows up’
‘Ok Boss’ I said, saluting him cheekily before heading over to where Becky was getting someone’s order ready.
‘Hey babe! Boss tell you that we have to cover Queen Bitch’s tables until she finally decides to land her broom?’
‘yep, let’s just hope that said broom crashes on the way over’
Becky grinned ‘you’re preaching to the freaking choir, I wish for that everyday like some girls wish for their Edward to come, Bella Swan style.’
I laughed as she left to bring food to some customers.
I loved Becky and we got on really well.
She had hatred for anything Twilight and could rant for hours about how it “didn’t send a good message to young girls that it’s alright for older guys to watch you while you sleep”.
She was also tiny and cute but had a ferocious temper that made Rick look like a timid lamb. Thankfully, I’d never been on her bad side before but I’d seen her in action...it was downright scary.
I grabbed a notepad and pen and headed over to a young couple. I smiled brightly as I took their orders before heading back to the counter.
Becky and I chatted at first as we worked but talking soon became impossible as we rushed around trying to cover the extra tables.
I could see Becky muttering angrily to herself from across the room. I stifled a laugh as I took orders. Rick was the least of Jenny’s worries when she finally showed up.

Well speak of the ugly Devil herself, I thought nastily to myself a couple of hours later as I made my way to the coffee machine, passing Jenny as she sauntered in the door, looking like the cat that got the cream.
Bitch!
At least she’d changed out of Nick’s shirt, I thought bitterly.
I’d half thought she’d keep it on just to piss me off.
She had a triumphant smirk on her average face. I felt like smacking it off.
My bad mood from earlier came back with a bang and it had gotten worse.
My feelings I knew were mirrored in Becky (though not the bit about Nick), who was clearly trying not to punch Jenny; her fists kept clenching but Jenny kept sauntering, oblivious to the actual danger she was in from Becky – I tensed as she pushed past Becky to get her apron.
Rick came through the door from the storeroom.
He stopped when he saw Jenny.
‘Jenny’ he said in a low voice.
I flinched, if he’d started shouting it would’ve meant he wasn’t too angry, it was when his voice had this tone that you knew you were in trouble.
Jenny stopped, I think even she realised that she wasn’t going to be able to just apologise and get away with it like she had every single other time.
I glanced over to Becky who had a satisfied smirk on her face; she’d picked up on the same thing I had.
I was temporarily distracted as the last customers walked out the door, the breakfast rush was over.
It was typical that Jenny would time her arrival perfectly with the end of the breakfast rush.
Jenny made her way slowly over to Rick who looked as angry as I’d ever seen him. ‘What time is it?’
Becky and I were both frozen, watching what would happen.
She glanced up at the clock, ‘um, Eleven?’
Rick’s voice was still quiet ‘and what time were you supposed to be here at?’
She paused; ‘Nine’
‘And what could you possibly have been doing that was more important than coming to work on time?’
The real question, I thought bitterly wasn’t what she was doing but who.

She glanced at me, a sudden smile on her face but I didn’t know what could have made her smile only that I didn’t think it would bode well for me.
‘I was actually over at Shannon’s, I was talking to her earlier and I presumed she’d wait for me considering we were both supposed to be in at the same time...obviously not’
She trailed off dramatically to let the information sink in and I narrowed my eyes at her, hating her even more than I thought possible.
Both Rick and Becky whipped around to look at me.
I cringed at their questioning stares as anger boiled up inside me.
After a moment, I saw a fleeting smug smile cross her face before she brought attention back to herself, (fake) tears welled up in her eyes as the other two turned back to look at her.
‘I’m sorry I’m so late Rick’ she sniffled
‘I lost track of time and I just thought that Shannon would have let me know that she was leaving and maybe let me walk with her’
I was mentally screaming at her as she spouted that bullshit. I knew she’d get me back for making that weight comment earlier.
I saw Rick’s face soften a little, though Becky just looked at her with disgust.
‘Why were you at Shannon’s apartment?’ Rick was still angry but I think some of that was now directed at me.
The cunning little bitch, she was an evil genius.
Once again Jenny’s gaze flickered to me
‘I’m going out with her roommate...I mean I was talking to her this morning, I don’t understand why she’d just leave...’ she trailed off pathetically.
Rick turned to me again,
‘Is this true Shannon? Were you talking to her?’
I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to believe that Jenny was lying – as usual. I shrugged.
‘I don’t know...I was talking to someone, but my roommate brings so many sluts home that they’re now all one big skanky blur to me...and probably to him as well’
I said it calmly and I was proud of myself that I didn’t let any of the anger inside me leak into my voice.
Becky snorted with laughter and the corners of Rick’s mouth twitched.
‘Right well, Shannon you should’ve said something but you’ve never done anything before so you’re just going to get a warning’
He turned to Jenny, who was looking at me like she wished I would drop dead.
It looked like she didn’t like slut/skank comments as well as weight comments. ‘Jenny’ he sighed ‘this time I mean it, if you are late once more you are gone do you hear me?’
She nodded, still glaring at me
‘And I’m docking your pay’ he added.
She opened her mouth to protest but obviously thought better of it, instead nodding again.
‘Now you and Becky better get to work cleaning up before the lunch crowd get here, and Shannon’ he said facing me with a twinkle in his eye ‘go supervise Toby bringing in the supplies out back’
I saluted him again before heading out to the store room.

Toby was a College student who delivered our supplies every week.
He grinned when he saw me. He was cute and flirted constantly.
‘Well hello Beautiful’
I rolled my eyes, grinning back at him.
‘Hey Toby’
‘How are you today?’
‘Alright, Jenny’s causing problems again’ I grimaced.
‘When does she ever not cause problems?’
‘Ye, she’s a skanky bitch’ Becky interrupted, walking through the door.
Toby chuckled.
‘Well said Shannon by the way, did you see her face? Becky giggled gleefully ‘I couldn’t have said it better myself’
I smiled, that was high praise indeed, coming from her.
Toby just looked confused, so Becky explained what had happened.
‘And then Shannon absolutely owned her’ she summed up, grinning widely at the memory.
Anger crossed his face ‘she tried to get you in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault?’
I shrugged, not saying anything.
‘Becky! Get in here, there are customers!’ Rick’s voice drifted in through the partially opened door.
She rolled her eyes as she turned to leave,
‘Hey Shan is it true that Jenny’s going out with your roommate?’
‘No idea’ I said truthfully.

I spent an hour with Toby shelving stock, chatting and flirting before he had to leave.
‘Only seven days till we see eachother again my love, however will I manage?’
He said dramatically, putting the back of his hand against his forehead.
I giggled, pushing him out the back door.
‘you’ll manage Romeo.’
I closed the door in his face, still laughing as I headed back out front.
The rest of my shift passed in a blur.
The only incident was when Jenny “accidently” spilled coffee on me.
I was wrecked when I got back home. I flopped facedown on my bed, coffee-stained clothes and all.
I groaned into my pillow when I remembered that I had to go out to dinner later. I would much rather lie in my bed listening to angry music with only my own thoughts for company.
I knew I wouldn’t though. I’d promised both Nat and Lee that I’d go and who knows, I thought, maybe I’ll have a good time?
Unlikely I thought bitterly, I wasn’t getting a good feeling about it.
I’d probably wish I’d stayed home.
I grimaced and with great effort I got up off my bed.
I briefly called Natalie to let her know that I’d be over in about two hours before I headed for the kitchen to make myself lunch.
I needed food before I could even think about showering and picking out clothes.

Who knew being a waitress could be so tiring?