Saving Grace

It’s the last day of carefree summer. It’s the last chance to do whatever you want before school started back up. Back home in Chicago I would’ve been out with my friends. But during the summer I moved to Arizona. Not only did I not meet anyone yet, but I was stuck at work with people my age chilling out having dinner and giving me weird looks. I hate being a bus girl in this stupid restaurant but I have to work to get money. Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any worse, it did. I walked down the aisle of tables looking for dishes to pick up. That’s when it happened. Some random biker dude just slapped my ass. I felt the rush of warmth go to my face. I felt so uncomfortable.
“What the hell, man?” I heard another customer yell at the pig of a biker. I looked over to where the voice came from and found a group of guys my age sitting at a table. I scanned over each of their faces to try to determine which one had the balls to call out the biker. A kid with brown hair stood up. I was instantly dazed by his good looks.
The biker stood up as well and both of them exchanged dirty looks. The young guy grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me away from the biker and down the long aisle of tables.
“Are you okay?” he asked. I couldn’t believe a complete stranger would risk getting attacked by a fucking biker. Why was he standing up for me? I returned back to reality and quickly nodded my head and blushed.
The kid returned back to the biker and started cursing him out. I couldn’t really hear everything they were saying because I was far away. To my surprise, the biker guy just stormed off and left the restaurant. A waiter nearby just looked at me and jokingly said, “His bill’s on you.”
After the boy who stood up for me was done with his dinner, he walked up to me. “Are you sure you’re okay? That guy is such a pig.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing. I’m fine,” I quickly responded. The kid held out his hand. “I’m Garrett by the way.” I shook his hand politely, “Karina.”
After that, his friends got up and also came over. They all introduced themselves to me. John was the really tall guy who kept giving me a crooked smile. Pat seemed really sympathetic for me and seemed kind of quiet. Jared was, well, red. He made me feel better about the situation by cracking a few jokes. Kennedy seemed like my friends back home. He wasn’t shy or overly outgoing. Just very mellow.
“I’ve never seen you before. And I definitely would’ve remembered you if I had,” John said. I blushed again. I had to stop doing that.
“I’m from Chicago but my family just moved here in the beginning of summer,” I replied.
“So, do you like it here?” Pat asked.
“Aside from this horrible job and not knowing a single soul in this town, it’s not that bad,” I joked.
Garret smiled. His smile was gorgeous; I’ve never seen a guy with better teeth. They were perfectly straight and stunningly white. “Well, we’ll see you in school soon,” he said. I smiled and nodded. And with that, the boys left.