Trampoline

It was probably wrong of me to leave her hanging like that when she was trying to apologize, but at the moment I really don’t care. My head hurt too much to think about anything important. So I just left her standing there, and went to my Government class. Eventually my headache did vanish away, and I was glad to finally walk out to my POS after the final bell rang.
After unlocking the doors and swiftly throwing my backpack into the passenger’s side, I sat in the driver’s seat and put the keys in the ignition. As I looked up, I could point out Autumn from all the other students crowded around the small campus area. She was standing with two other girls that are her friends. They were once my friends too, but I also had a lot of friends once upon a time.
I then started the ignition, and pulled out of the parking lot next to the school, and drove off to Kelly’s Diner. Once I got to work I quickly changed into my black t-shirt with the Kelly’s Diner logo on the back of it, which was an old juke box, and clipped on my name tag. Entering the diner, the essence of greasy hamburgers and fries washed over me. I personally would never eat anything from this old fashioned restaurant. Mostly because everything is so high in fat and cholesterol, but that could just be the vegetarian of the past two years in me talking.
After checking in, I came behind the counter, wrapping an apron around my waist, and noticed my boss, Sadie wiping down a booth by the window. “Hey Chelsea,” she said after seeing me also.
“Hey,” I replied. Jennifer, the other waitress I usually work with, was also there sitting behind the cash register while the cook, Mark, was in the back kitchen flipping burgers and cooking French fries.
Just then, the bell above the front door announced customers. It was a group of football players from school, one of them being Vick Rogers, a guy Autumn used to have a thing for a month or so ago. They flirted for a while, until we finally learned all he wanted was sex from her because she’s hot. I remember I called him a jackass after school that day, and then the day after he came into the diner. I served him a burger medium well instead of well done like he ordered.
“Chelsea,” Sadie called while piling dishes into a big Tupperware to take to the sink. “Can you take care of them?”
“Sure,” I say shortly, taking out a small notepad from a drawer below the register.
The boys take their seats at their designated spot in a circular booth towards the back of the diner, only a few of them looking over the menus on the table.
“What can I get you guys to drink?” I ask them as I approach their table, not bothering with introductions like with other customers since I already knew them from school.
“I’ll have a Red Bull,” Vick said, looking up at me from below his shaggy brown hair with his olive green eyes. All I do is nod and jot it down on the notepad.
“I’ll have a sweet tea,” the guy next to him, Damon, nodded toward me.
“Coke.”
“Make that two cokes,” the last two added.
Clicking my pen closed, I tucked the notepad and pen into my apron and went to pour their drinks. I held two in each hand, and took them back to the table. I was reaching for the pen and notepad again when I realized that Vick was trying to talk to me.
“Chelsea?” He called again.
“Oh, yeah?” I stammered, trying not to get embarrassed for not listening.
“Are you coming to the party tonight?” He asked again, but all I did was shake my head. “Why not? You and Autumn would always come to Ian’s parties.”
That was back when I wouldn’t get in trouble for it… I thought, but instead I muttered, “I just don’t feel like it. Now, what do you wanna eat?”

While waiting for the boys’ food to cook, I sat behind the register as business slowly trickled in as it got later into the afternoon. Jen and I would take turns waiting on the new tables, but not too many people came until dinner time. when the boys food was finally ready, I put all four plates on a big platter, and made my way to their table.
But while I was walking I saw someone sitting at another booth. Not someone—a guy. He was too familiar. But he wasn’t familiar. It was the same.
Kyle. It was him. He saw me. I saw him. Then suddenly, I forgot where I was going, and ran into someone.
Suddenly all the food was on the floor in a humongous mess, and I fell to the floor on my back, and slapped black to reality. When I looked up, it wasn’t Kyle I saw, it was some man that looked like he could a father. I saw Jen across from me, staring at me like I had completely lost my mind.
I think I finally might have.
“What the hell, Chelsea?!” Jen exclaimed at me.
“Um, uh, sorry. I guess I didn’t see where I was going,” I stuttered, scrambling around to pick up the broken pieces glass plates.
“Yeah, obviously,” she snapped, picking up all the plastic glasses.
I could hear the boys in the back snickering, but all I could think about was: how could this happen? How was I so convinced that I saw him?
I think this has gone on for far too long.