Haner to Save the Day

“We’re going on an adventure!” Jimmy bellowed and pointed at the group of people on the sidewalk. They looked at him in sheer horror as he cackled like the Wicked Witch of West.

Brian groaned. “Can you please act normal? I don’t want to get pulled over again.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes and pouted from the back-passenger seat. “It’s not my fault they can’t handle The Jimmy.”

“Keep doing The Jimmy!” Veronica laughed. She moved her neck to look at him from the front passenger seat and gave him an obnoxious wink. Normally, she would do her best to pacify Jimmy’s hyper outburst, but she needed all the distractions she could absorb. In less than 10 minutes, she would begin her first day at her very first job. Clearly, she was nervous and needed an entourage to make sure she was successful. The original plan was to walk to the restaurant after school, but Brian insisted driving her there. She knew he wasn’t offering his help from pure altruism; he wanted to show off his new car. Veronica didn’t know much about cars, but she did know Brian was driving an Impala. He chattered nonstop about it for weeks prior until she lost her temper and taped his mouth shut for a few seconds. It truly had been a Christmas miracle.

In the next blink of her eyes, Brian pulled into the parking lot entrance. Veronica’s heart raced into overdrive. She searched her brain for any logical and reasonable excuses as to why she couldn’t go into work. Maybe she developed a random allergy and couldn’t speak.

“Relax you’ll be fine,” Brian said, wrestling her out of her thoughts.

“I think I’m okay right here,” she muttered, looking down at her hands.

“Too late! You’re going to work and buy me nice things!” Jimmy announced, already opening her passenger door.

Grudgingly, Veronica took off her seatbelt and began walking towards the restaurant. Before touching the doorknob, she looked back at the Impala.

Brian gave her a thumbs up. “We’ll be right here when you’re done tonight!” And just like that, he drove off into the sunset.

Taking a deep breath, she walked inside, seeing Michael at the front. When he noticed her, he smiled and walked over to give her a firm handshake. “Let’s go over your orientation before you begin your shift,” he said, directing her to his office.

Once they sat down, he explained her duties as a waitress and what was expected of her. They also agreed the best days for her and the restaurant would be working the weekends. The transition would begin after her one-week training period.

Contrary to her fears, the job was not as difficult as she imagined. The most challenging aspect was remembering the menu and helping customers with specific allergies. Otherwise, Veronica caught on quickly and was able to begin taking orders on her own after two hours. But it seemed after those two hours she was there, foot traffic halted to a complete stop. No new customers walked through the doors and phone orders seemed to stop as well. To kill time and boredom, she was setting up utensils for the tables.

“Hey.”

Confused, Veronica looked to the source of that voice. When she looked to her right, she saw Evan smiling at her. She felt her cheeks warm at the sight of him. She had forgotten what he looked like, but now felt foolish. And honestly, how could she forget what someone looked like? She couldn’t remember getting hit in the head with a basketball. Nevertheless, she He had beautiful caramel skin, dark brown eyes, and had the biggest smile she had ever seen.

“So, you got the job too?” she asked, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

Evan leaned over the desk, never breaking eye contact with Veronica. “I did. I’m happy to see a pretty face with me.”

Veronica giggled and blushed harder than before. If she could without it looking strange, she would have slapped herself. She felt like an idiot for acting the way she was, but Evan made her nervous. She could practically feel her heart beat out of her chest.

“Is it your first day?” Evan asked, and grabbed utensils.

She nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been here for awhile but it’s so slow.”

“Yeah. Michael keeps saying this is the slowest they’ve had in six years.”

“Well that sucks.”

After 15 minutes, the pair finished all the tasks Michael threw in their direction. Frustrated by how badly sales were, he allowed them to sit in a booth and memorize the menu. Evan opted to play 20 Questions instead to pass the time. Veronica agreed only to get to know more about him.

“You know,” Veronica said, “I never asked you where you go to school.”

“I guess we never asked each other. Ocean View.”

Veronica smiled. “No way! I do too. I’m surprised we haven’t seen each other.”

“Well now that I know. I’ll make sure of it,” he mused with a wink. “See you around.”

Sighing, Veronica walked outside and saw Brian’s car parked in front. When Jimmy noticed she had walked out, he got out the car and opened the back-passenger door for her.

Brian looked at Veronica. She seemed in a much better mood than when they left her. “You look happy.”

“Yeah,” she sighed with a smile. “I think I met someone.”

“Oh, wow let’s have a sleepover and do our nails and tell me all about it!”

Veronica’s face soured. Of course, Brian would be the person to ruin her day. For a quick second, she wondered how good it would feel to smash his headlights on his precious new car.

Jimmy smacked Brian’s arm the moment he saw her face fall. “Stop being a dick.”

“What? I was kidding,” Brian laughed.

The rest of the drive back to her house was silent. She knew Jimmy felt extremely uncomfortable caught in the middle of her and Brian’s animosity. She wanted to lighten the tension, but she was too upset. Brian always had a way to ruin anything that made her the slightest best happy. She honestly didn’t know why she still hung out with pure evil.

Once the impala slowed to a stop in front of her house, Veronica quickly shuffled out of the car and walked towards her house.

Brian called her name, forcing her to turn around. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Leave me alone douche bag,” she sneered and continued back to her previous action.

The grass in the front lawn crunched against her sneakers. A new sound emerged the closer she reached the front door. Curious, she crept over to the side of her house to see her sister crying. Alana hadn’t seen her; she could pretend she didn’t see anything and go inside. Groaning, Veronica decided to be a good person and walked to Alana. “Are you okay?”

Alana’s heart skipped a beat as she looked up to her sister. She didn’t want anyone to see her. Looking into her sister’s eyes, she shook her head. Veronica moved closer and patted her back.

The small gesture made Alana smile. Trying to gain her composure, she sniffled and breathed out. “Good for you on your first job.”

“Thanks…Can I tell you something?” Alana nodded. “Marco isn’t good for you. I can hear you cry in the middle of the night.”

Anger set Alana’s body ablaze. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to contain her feelings. She was instantly enraged with her sister, but she knew it wasn’t her fault. “Once you love a person you’ll understand what I’m going through.”

Her sister was right. She didn’t love anyone aside from her family; but she was more than positive loving someone shouldn’t make her cry so much she had to hide it from her parents. But she was only 17. What did she know.