Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
15
DEREK
Her story was heartbreaking and it had me feeling a wave of protectiveness building up inside me. I couldn’t imagine a family treating their kid that way, bulldozing over their own feelings and their own choices as to how their life would be and treating them like a tradable commodity. It seemed so unfair, and I simply couldn’t even put myself in their shoes. It made me angry for her, and the anger bubbled up inside me in a way that I couldn’t recognize. I had never felt like that for anyone that I wasn’t directly related to before.
When she left, heading back to her room, I lay back in the bed and tried to sleep. It didn’t come easy. I tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable position, and even when I did, my mind kept going. I knew I could operate on just a few hours of sleep, but I was inching closer to the time where I might need to send Ally a text and tell her I would be late.
Finally, I drifted off and got a little bit of rest. I wasn’t sure if I got even one full REM cycle, but I got enough that when I dragged myself out of bed and into a shower, I figured I could power through a shift with enough caffeine. As soon as I was out of the shower, I brewed two giant thermoses worth of coffee and lugged them with me into the car. At least it seemed like Jodi got a little more sleep than I did, but the bags under her eyes said it wasn’t that much. I didn’t blame her. If it bothered me as much as it did, I could only imagine how hard living through that could be.
The shift was rough on both of us. I kept a cup of coffee by me at all times, a bottle of water beside it so I didn’t dehydrate myself. But it wasn’t enough. By the time dinner service was winding down, I felt like I had been hit by a truck and then backed over a few times. Jodi didn’t look like she was faring much better. She was moving slowly and seemed to be staring into the middle distance most of the time.
I found myself wanting to pull her close, to embrace her and tell her it would be okay. It was an odd compulsion for someone I didn’t really know that well, but I couldn’t deny it. I wanted her to know I was there for her. Yet, every time I looked for her, she seemed like she was avoiding me. Maybe she was just giving me space to digest everything she’d told me the night before, but it was bugging me that she wasn’t being more open.
Then it hit me that she was probably upset about how she had exposed herself. She seemed like the type that held herself together as a source of pride and being as open as she was while sitting on the edge of my bed was probably tough for her. I needed to be more patient and understanding.
As the night wore on, I kept my eye out for Jodi as she walked by, going from the kitchen to the floor in a bit of a fog. Still, none of her orders came back as being incorrect, so I took that as a win. Most of the other waitresses would mess up orders if they were even the slightest bit flustered. Jodi seemed to be holding it all together by sheer force of will and had yet to mess anything up as the final dinner orders started to come in.
Ally was at her own station, working apart from me mostly in silence. I didn’t know if she was as bugged by how Jodi was acting as I was or if something else was going on, but she seemed to be in her own head too. This meant the kitchen was eerily quiet, and I was able to follow along with the TV show that was playing in the corner. Usually, I was able to catch snippets of it while it played during the night but would lose track when things got loud, which was why I usually just put on food competition shows or sports. This time, Ally had put on some show with a plot, and I found myself far more engrossed than usual.
When the last of the night’s entrees went out, Ally went to the sink and washed off before coming over to me. She seemed like she had been contemplating what she was going to say to me for some time. I had packed up my station, including packing away my knives as the line cooks prepared for any dessert orders that might come in.