Messy Ending

Dai

I tightened my ponytail and scooped my keys up from the table.

“Bye, Sammi!” I called, running out the door.

I hadn’t bothered with a shower, not having enough time.

I’d put on my work uniform and even then I was pressed for time. I hated my uniform. It was pink, the most awful color I could be forced to wear, well other than orange, and both colors were just ugly.

The diner where I worked was about ten minutes from my house, in between the library and post office, a good twenty minutes from the beach. It was usually vacant save for a few kids with parents at the library or across the street and the occasional couple. Sammi usually visited around lunchtime, or whenever she eventually woke up.

I parked my car in a parking space a couple spaces down from the diner. This job took the life away from me. I’d always wanted to be a baker and occasionally made Sammi my "guinea pig" for trying out my newest recipes. My boss, Stephanie, had even agreed to sell my finished products, splitting the profit 50/50 between us.

I held my purse under my arm and shuffled my keys around until I found the correct one, shoving it in the locked door. The name of the diner was quite terrible as well, “Let’s Eat!” Stephanie had thought of it when she was fifteen and her parents had bought the diner.

I had known Steph for that long. Her parents were friends of my grandparents, who I lived with once my mom had left my dad and my dad passed on later on that same year. Steph was only six years older than I was, but the thing I loved about her was that she treated me as an equal.

I relocked the door once I was inside.

“Hey, Dai.” Stephanie appeared wearing a black shirt that went to mid-thigh and grey skinny jeans.

“Sometimes I really resent the fact that you don’t have to wear a uniform,” I grumbled, beginning to unstack the chairs from the tops of the circular tables.

“Hey, you know why I chose pink as the color of the uniforms?” She began pouring a glass of coffee.

“Why is that?” I unstacked another chair.

“Because you hate that color.”

“Oh, you’re so funny,” I replied sarcastically, glancing over at her where she’d
begun helping me set up the diner.

“I know, I’m hilarious.”

“Whatever you say, Steph,” I sighed.

Steph’s bubbly laughter floated around the diner. I gave the cleared table a once over with a rag, and put salt, pepper, ketchup, and mustard on each table and booth.

It was then that my co-worker, Marilyn, who I didn’t talk to at all really, decided to blow into the building. Unfortunately it wasn’t part of her job to help me set up.

I flipped the ‘OPEN’ side of the sign on the door to face the glass.

~~~

Ben

“Ben!” Alison yelled, launching herself into my arms and kissing me roughly on the mouth.

I didn’t respond to the kiss, still caught up on the girl from a few days before.

“What’s wrong, Baby?” Ali questioned, pulling back from me.

“Nothing,” I lied. I couldn’t exactly tell her I’d hooked up various amounts of times on tour.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing,” she commented.

“I’m fine, Alison,” I replied, irately.

Ali let herself down from me. “What the Hell is wrong with you, Ben? You’re being an asshole.”

“No, maybe you’re just being oversensitive.” Okay, she was right I was being an asshole.

“Whatever, Ben.” She let out a high pitched groan and stormed out of my house, slamming the door behind her

I was the only of the guys that lived alone. Danny and James roomed together in an
apartment not far from mine. Cam and Sam lived in an apartment closer to Danny and James’, but not far from mine either.

My door creaked open again, but this time it was Danny stood there. “What’d you do to piss Ali off this time, dude?” He pushed the door closed loudly behind him.

“What didn’t I do?” I plopped myself down on the couch. “She said I was being an asshole.” I tossed him the remote and he caught it, one handed, pulling a beer from my fridge.

“You are an asshole,” he laughed. “Want one?” he gestured to the can of beer in his hand that had begun condensating once he’d popped it open.

“Yeah.” I pushed myself up and caught the beer Danny had thrown in my direction.

I cracked it open and turned my attention to the TV which Danny had switched on . He flipped through the channels, landing on some sitcom I had no intention of paying attention to.

“Well, you have been off since you hooked up with that chick. What’s up man?”

It’d been a couple day since I’d hooked up with Daidara and lately she’d been consuming my thoughts. I found myself wondering where she was, only to be brought back to reality by Ali arriving back in town, having been visiting her parents wherever the fuck they lived.

“Danny,” I paused. “I asked her name,” I admitted, leaning my face into the hand not holding the cold beer.

“Whoa,” I heard him jump from his sprawled position into an upright one. “The Ben Bruce asked for a hookup partner's name? Dude, who are you?”

I glanced up at him. “She’s all that’s been on my mind. There’s something different about her. I don't know.” I shook off the thoughts.

“Probably the fact that she tried to leave before you woke up.” He took a long, deliberate swig of his alcoholic drink. “Was she hot?”

I regarded him in disbelief, my brow scrunching as I did so. “Danny! Are you fucking serious, right now? I told you I’m not over this girl and yes she was beautiful.”

“Beautiful? I don’t think I know you anymore, man.”

“I’m not a total asshole,” I defended, though I knew I probably was exactly that.

“Yes you are! You’re the Ben Bruce that fucks them and tells them to scram, describes girls as sexy and hot, and you’ve been cheating on Ali every other night of the tour.”

“Fine, I’m an asshole!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up, beer sloshing in it’s can. “All I know is that girl probably somewhere in this city. She seemed to know the area too well to not be from here.”

“Unless, she’s just used to fucking musicians in their buses.”

The very thought of it made me cringe, but I doubted Danny’s words. “Nah, she seemed too shy for that.” And she was. The way she mumbled a short adorable, ‘yes’ when I’d asked her back to the bus hardly made me believe she'd screwed anyone before.