Kissed

Her phone buzzed against her thigh and she pulled it out of her pocket before putting it on the table. She sat polishing silverware in one of the booths towards the back of the restaurant and she was counting the seconds until the end of her shift.

“Want some help?” She looked up to see Brendan wiping down another table.

“That’s okay. I’ve got to get these done for my cut work.”

“What are you doing after work?”
“Ummm, I’m probably going to go to my room and sleep and eat and then maybe take another nap.”

“You lead a ridiculously exciting life Rooney.” She frowned as her phone buzzed before she hit the ignore button.

“Look, all I’m asking for out of life is to be able to lie down, eat pudding, and take a nap… simultaneously. I don’t think that’s too much.” She smiled at him and he laughed.

“You are so weird.”

“Whatever, you know I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread.” She waggled her eyebrows at him and he slid into the seat opposite her, picking up a handkerchief he started helping her polish.

“The sooner you’re done with your cutwork, the sooner you go home, and the sooner you go home, the sooner I go home.” Her phone vibrated and she flipped her phone over.

“I just want people to leave me alone, oh my God.”

“You’re just too popular.”

“Being the female version of Kanye West is hard.” She nodded and looked up as the hostess came back to their booth.

“Hey, Rooney, I just sat you.”

She groaned, “Why? I was so close to going home.”

“I can give it to someone else if you want.”

“No, don’t worry, it’s fine. Thanks.” She got up and grabbed her pad off of the table. Fumbling in her apron for a pen she walked up to the new table. “Hey guys, my name is Rooney, I’ll be taking care of you tonight. How you guys doing?” She said, finally pulling the pen out as she looked up and promptly dropped the pen in shock.

“I’m good, how are you Rooney?” Jeremiah said. She stood there floundering for a moment as she took him in. She had been avoiding him since the night in the club, and from the look on his face he seemed to realize that as well.

“J-J-Hey! From the party, right?” She said, feigning her lack of memory. “It’s good to see you, what can I get y’all to drink to start you off?” She said moving on quickly before escaping behind the counter to grab drinks. She let loose a string of curses under her breath as she poured waters with more force than necessary.

“Hey, what’d the water do?” She glanced over to see Brendan had wandered over.

“Nothing, it’s just… like… awkward. My table has people that I … know.” She finished lamely. “Just don’t ask, but know that it’s awkward and I feel awkward and the whole situation is going to be awkward.”

“Awkward, yes, understood. Do you want me to take the table?” She considered it, and even though part of her wanted to avoid him, part of her liked the thrill he set off in her chest.

“No, don’t worry, it’s fine.” She picked up the drinks and walked over to their table. It was five of them, three guys all around the same age and two girls who seemed somewhat younger. They were all laughing and one of them was touching Jeremiah and she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to be jealous, so she told herself to stop being jealous. There was no reason to be jealous that this girl got to sit down and laugh and have conversations with friends on a Saturday night, no reason to be jealous of her. She didn’t even know them.

“You guys ready to order?” She jotted it down and turned to move away.

“Hey, Rooney.” She twisted back around, to look at Jeremiah. “Is your phone broken?” She blinked at him and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He couldn’t be serious. He couldn’t be bringing this up now, in front of everyone, there was no way she was talking about this.

“What?”

“I texted you, but you never answered.”

“Oh! Do you guys know each other?” One of the girls asked and she wanted to physically hurt this girl.

‘No, she wanted to say. No, we don’t know each other, we were at a party and we were a little buzzed and a little frisky, and it was six minutes worth of contact. I might have agreed to more than six minutes and I don’t know how to feel about it. No, we don’t know each other.’

“We, uh, we met at a party a week or two ago. Wasn’t a big deal, we’ve got a few friends in common or something.”

“No way, do you go to MSU?”

“No, HSU, but I’ve got a friend of mine who goes there, so that’s how I ended up down there.”

“Cool.” The girl said still smiling, and she took the chance to walk away. She threw down the menus on the counter as she put in their order into the computer. Too focused on finding the ‘no cheese’ button she jumped at the voice that came at her suddenly.

“I’ve got to say, I’m a little offended.” Jeremiah sat at the bar in front of the computer system and she pinched her lips together in an attempt to appear un-ruffled. He smiled at her and she found herself focusing on his mouth and that was a stupid thing to do. She hoped she wasn’t blushing, she felt like she was in seventh grade again. “I mean, I realize that you don’t owe me much of anything, it’s not like I was riding you on the floor of a supply closet, but I hardly think it deserves a ‘no biggie’.” He finished as he looked at her.

“What do you want me to say?” He got frustrated at that, and ran his hands over his face into his hair and then back down.

“I’d like to think I deserve a reason for the blow off.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about not answering any of the texts, but I don’t know what you expected. I mean, look I know what I said, but I was kind of on the verge of wasted, and like you said, it’s not like I was riding you on the floor.” She said as she punched in the last of their order.

“Somehow I doubt you’d be the one riding.” He quipped, and she shot her eyes up to meet his.

“I cannot believe you just went there.”

“All in good fun.”

“Your friends are missing you.”

“We’re going out to a party after dinner, you should come.”

“Working.”

“Not all night.”

“You’re very determined.”

“You’re very stubborn.”

“Just because I turned you down doesn’t make me stubborn, it just means no.”

“If you were anyone else I would say that were true.” He smiled at her, and she raised an eyebrow.

“I’m going to regret asking this.” She said more to herself than to Jeremiah. “Why not anyone else?”

“Because I don’t know that anyone else enjoys it when I touch you right below your ear, or that anyone else likes my hands, or that anyone else –“

“Okay!” She hissed. “Jesus okay.” Her neck was hot and she could see Brendan staring at her out of the corner of her eye and her mortification was made worse when Jeremiah reached across the counter to grab her hand and when she tried to yank it back he held on. “Jeremiah. Let go.”

“I like you.” He said, his face lit up by his smile and there was part of her that wanted to smile right back at him, and for the first time in her entire existence she realized what girls meant when they said that boys could hurt you in more than one way. “I like you a lot, and I barely fucking know you.” Then she did smile as he mirrored her own words from the night at the club. “Maybe you’re a terrible person, or you are secretly a criminal on the run, or something, but I kind of don’t care. I don’t need a date, or a relationship, but I will get down on the floor and beg you until you give me a chance Rooney. Please.”

“You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you?”

“Making an ass out of myself in public in front of your co-workers and my friends so that you’ll see that I’m serious, yes, that is exactly what I’m doing.”

“I was going to go with public humiliation and peer pressure, but if that’s how you would like to skew it.”

“Stop avoiding the question.” She stared hard at him and tried to rationalize all of the consequences of going out with a complete stranger, but when she thought about it they were certainly more familiar with one another than any of the other boys she had ever dated.

“I get off as soon as you and your friends are finished eating.” The last thing she saw was his shit-eating grin as he ran to kick his friends out of the restaurant.