A Second Chance

The next day I woke up easier than other days, I seemed to roll right out of bed. I fixed myself up as I always do before I head out, and wandered over to my barn. Fonzie was sleeping cozily on top of one of the haystacks that had been lying around. Fonzie was only a baby; he wasn’t much bigger than a golden retriever. It was cheaper to buy a cow when they’re younger than when they were an adult, and considering my financial issue I went for the cheaper of the two. It would take a few weeks before Fonzie was only enough to start giving me milk and whatnot, but it was better than being in debt.

I knelt down beside him and pet him softly on the head. His eyes flickered open and he looked over at me, giving me a small “moo” as if to say hello. I picked up some of the hay that he was laying on and moved it up to his mouth, for him to eat. He nibbled on my hand until it was all gone, I would have to go see Rachel soon, and this hay isn’t going to keep Fonzie filled for long.

I carried on my day as normal; I went and watered my crops, harvesting the ones that were ripe and ready to be sold off. Days before I had bought more seeds, so I did that as well. All while I was out doing my busy work I let Fonzie out of the barn to graze around in the fields close to my house, keeping a watchful eye on him the whole time though. I couldn’t have him wandering off.

The rising sun had slowly crossed over into a setting sun, casting a beautiful shadow over the whole island. I steadily moved Fonzie back into the barn and refilled his water supply. I pet him and gave him a tiny kiss on the head before leaving and closing the barn gate behind me.

I was on my way to town when I realized that I hadn’t seen or talked to Luke all day. We had never spent a day apart since I moved to the island, and that thought right there quite shocked me. We had become inseparable best friends, but I suppose that with all the excitement of my new job I had just forgotten to go see him. I’m sure he would understand though. I walked the whole way to the bar in solitude, just by myself, thinking to myself. And for an odd change, I realized that I had grown to like the silence.

I entered into the bar and Taylor was the first person to come up and greet me. Her face was like a million watt bulb that had just been lit up for Christmas. “Mallory!” She said as she walked over to me, I walked in toward the bar counter and smiled at her.

“Hi Taylor.”

“You picked the perfect first night to work here. This place is jumping with people!”

“Really?” I looked over at her a bit shocked, and then looked around. It was filled with people, drinking, eating, and guzzling down beers one by one.

“I know, I was shocked too.” Chase called from behind the counter; Sam who had been standing at the cash register gave him a stern look. I giggled; whether Chase was nice or not, he was really entertaining to watch. I looked back over at Taylor, who rolled her eyes at me.

“Don’t bother with him. Come on, I’ll show you how to wait the customers.” Taylor pulled me to different parts of the bar and showed me different things that I had to do. It was all relatively simple; all I had to do was smile and asked what people wanted. I laughed ironically to myself, it seemed my whole life I had been trained to just smile and worry about what other people want. Now I was actually getting paid for it.

For my first day on the job, I thought that I was doing ok. All the people seemed nice, and even when I messed up a few times, no one got angry considering it was only my first day. The night ran smoothly, and it was almost closing time when I noticed two men near the back of the bar. On their table were at least a dozen empty beer bottles; both men began to raise their voices very high. I wasn’t going to think much of it, until I saw that the men them both abruptly stood up and got very close together.

“Man I am sick of you never thinking of anyone but yourself! I wanted those damn French fries!” One of the men yelled, right into the other’s face.

“Maybe I only think about myself because I was hungry and you’re a cheapskate!” The other screamed right back.

“You take that back, damn it!” The other yelled. It was at this point I began to get a little worried; not for the men, but for everyone.

“Make me!”

“Oh I’ll make you!” The man punched the other right in the face. Ok, it was at this point that I thought someone needed to be notified about this. I ran over to where Taylor was and grabbed her, a little panicked.

“Mallory, what’s wrong?” She said sweetly with a smile.

“Uh, I have a question about how to do something. Uh yeah, what do I do when that happens?” I said pointing over at the quarreling men, now both punching each other swiftly and quickly. Taylor looked over my shoulder at the men and her smile drained right from her face.

“Oh my G-, Dad!” She yelled looking over at where Sam was standing counting the money. Sam looked up at Taylor, and then looked over at where Taylor was pointing. He stopped what he was doing and came running right through me and Taylor to the men. She followed shortly behind her father. Now, Sam was a big man. I mean sure he was a nice guy, but I don’t think you’d like to take a punch from him.

I stood over at the counter just watching all this happen, when I noticed that Chase had also come up to the counter and leaned on it from the other side, where he had been.
“Well, there’s something you don’t see every day.” Chase said, I looked over at him with a mildly confused face.

“Two drunk guys fighting?” I asked.

“No, two drunk guys fighting over French fries.” I giggled softly at him, though I tried to hide it. I didn’t succeed very well. I looked back over to the little scene that had appeared in front of us. Sam had now gotten between the two men, and was holding at arm length apart. Since the men were so drunk though they kept pushing and trying to fight each other. I saw one of the men wind up a punch, and in the back of my mind I hoped he wouldn’t do it.
But he did it. He punched Sam right in the jaw. Well, I knew I had a great first day on the job when I saw that Sam’s lip started to bleed. I suddenly felt right back at home in a city bar. The two men then began to beat the living crap out of each other again. At this point, a lot of our once had customers had already left, and those who stayed where now purely staying to watch Bell Fall Island Smackdown: Drunk Edition.

Chase chuckled a bit; I looked over and saw a small smile on his lips.

“Damn, that guy really wanted French fries.” I smiled, only to hide my small laughter. I looked back over to Sam, who had been knocked to the ground with a bloody lip. Taylor was bent over trying to help her father. I leaned over toward Chase without moving my eyes from the scene.

“Should we go help?” He didn’t move his eyes either when he waved me off.

“Nah. I think they got it. Besides, they would just yell at me anyway.” I looked over at him then; for a second I couldn’t look away. This boy was very cute. From the angle that I was looking at him, all I could see was a profile of him, but it may have been the way the lighting was, but his purple eyes were glowing like amethyst stones. I blinked and regained control of myself.

“Why don’t they like you?” I asked a little quite, in case Taylor and Sam had begun to walk back over. He shrugged from where he was leaning over onto the counter.

“I don’t know.” He looked over at me. “I guess I’m just not a very likable person.” He looked back away over at the scene. I kept staring at him and shook my head back and forth almost unnoticeably.

“You seem fine to me.” He looked over at me again with a smug grin on his face.

“You’ve only known me a day.”

“You can learn more about a person in a day than you could in a whole lifetime.” He smiled but looked over at me like I was a little crazy. “Or so I’ve heard…” I said quickly, trying to save myself; but gave a faulty rescue. He laughed at me with a smile that told me he was loving this.

“Ok, so then what have you learned about me?” He looked over at me expectantly; I looked up toward the ceiling as I thought of things.

“Well, you’re like a really good cook, you just moved here, you have a bit of an attitude problem, but you’re funny, and you don’t have money so you’re staying at the inn.” He snickered slightly.

“Looks like someone did their homework.”

“And I’m an A+ student.” I said cheerfully giving a sarcastic thumbs up. He chuckled slightly, like he was trying to hide the fact that it made him laugh.

“Don’t push your luck Newbie.” He said with a straight face, but a small smile curved up at the end. Just then Taylor and Sam came walking back over; Sam had his hand over his lip which was still bleeding slightly. He stood in front of the counter near the cash register, leaning over on the counter. He groaned loudly then looked over at Chase.

“Chase, call the cops.” Chase looked over at him like he was insane.

“The phone’s right in front of you, closer to you than it is to me.” Chase straightened up and stood upright.

“Just do it!” Sam yelled, clearly not in the mood to be back talked; although Chase made a good point. The phone was directly under where Sam was leaning on the table.

“No need to get your panties in a bunch Your Majesty.” Chase said as he grabbed the phone from under the huge man.

“Chase.” Sam almost growled. Chase looked over at him, obviously not in the mood to be pushed around either.

“Oh bite me.” He said as he walked back away and dialed 911. Sam pounded the table with his fist.

“Just don’t bother with him Daddy.” Taylor said, holding on to Sam’s arm.

“That kid…he’s a good for nothing bastard!” Sam yelled loudly, clearly not caring if Chase heard or not. I looked over toward the kitchen where Chase actually was. I saw every part of his body freeze the second he yelled. He turned around and looked over at Sam.

“Good for nothing? Then call the damn cops yourself.” Chase walked away out the door of the bar as Sam slammed him fist down once again.