Life, Love, & Lemons

by Vernon, Magan

  “Okay…” I tried not to look upset. When did my best friend become such a snob?

  Dinner went by okay. Taylor spent most of the time talking about herself and didn’t even ask anything about how things were going at my new school. She didn’t seem to care that it was so big that I frequently got lost and was often late to classes or that the bathroom stalls did not have doors on them, so I usually ended up holding it in all day long. The only time she even asked me anything was when she mentioned Jake.

  “So you think you’re still going to go with him to St. Christopher’s Homecoming? Or like take him to yours?” She played with her chopsticks, fiddling them in her hands.

  “Taylor, I’m not dating him anymore, so there really isn’t any reason for us to go to any dances together.” I had enough of this whole fantasy of hers that if Jake and I were dating again then everything would be magically all right.

  “Geez, no need to be a drama queen. Are you at least coming to the game on Friday? East vs. St. Christopher’s. It’s going to be epic!” She made a big show of her hands like it was some sort of a grand gesture.

  “I can’t,” I muttered. “I have to work.”

  “Bee! You know like how important this is! Can’t you like get somebody to cover for you or something?” She was looking right at me; it was like her blue eyes were trying to stare straight into my soul.

  “I’m sorry, Tay, you know I really want to be there with all of you guys, but I can’t take off of work. But I do need to get going; I have English homework.” I was happy to change the subject and get out of there. I really didn’t want to get in an argument with Taylor and especially not at Hoshi.

  “Ew, they already gave you homework? What kind of backwoods operations are these public schools running now?”

  Okay, it actually wasn’t due until the following week, but it was still a good excuse and I didn’t know when I would have time to work on it between work and school. Miss Winter assigned us our first book to read, George Orwell’s Animal Farm. A lot of the other students, especially the ones in red bandanas, complained about reading a book about animals, but Miss Winter assured us that it definitely was more than just a book about animals. I was sort of excited to start reading it. It was nice to escape to a reality that wasn’t my own.

  Chapter 8

  A Fish Out Of Water

  I never thought that a person could relate so much to a character in a book. Especially when that character was a pig. I got to the part in Animal Farm where Napoleon chases the other ruling pig, Snowball, out of the farm and starts using him as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong. As it turned out, the book had a lot more about human relations than animal relations and could easily even fit into my own life.

  I felt like I was the pig that was chased out of the farm and my lack of funds was definitely a cause for my friends to stop calling me. I hadn’t heard from Taylor since sushi night, and I started to get a little paranoid. I wondered if everyone was talking about me at St. Christopher’s and if they were, what they were saying? I was just happy that it was Friday and I had English with Gabby last period.

  “So has Brett said anything about me to you?” I tried to ask as nonchalantly as I could while we sat in our desks. She shook her head making her caramel-colored ponytail bounce back and forth.

  “This may come as a shock but not everyone is talking bad about you, Bee. Well not to me at least.”

  “Right, I mean, I guess it’s not like I’m the subject of all your conversations….even though I should be.” I laughed, tossing my hair back.

  “Everyone is supposed to be coming to the game tonight, so you should see them all then.” Gabby smiled weakly as she smoothed out the skirt on her uniform.

  “I won’t be there. I have to work.” Before I could feel sorry for myself Miss Winter walked in with that overly enthusiastic look still painted on her freckled face.

  I felt so bad for Miss Winter. She didn’t have any idea what she was getting herself into when she signed up for this job. With her red hair and brightly colored skirt suits, it was as if she thought she was going to be teaching a bunch of perfect students and not a class full of boys in red bandanas shouting obscenities.

  I think we were both fish out of water at East High.

  ***

  Not only was I stuck working on a Friday night but when Burgers’R’Us is right across from the school, it’s pure chaos. I was on the front register and messed up at least a dozen orders before the dinner rush even started. You would think that the manager, Jason, would have tried to help me out, but he kept acting like my very presence was an inconvenience to him and would just sigh and roll his eyes every time he had to fix something. Luckily the game started at seven and we were pretty dead or else I would have been in a lot of trouble.

  “Are you getting the hang of it yet?” Kai slid over to my register.

  We didn’t really talk much, and I still wasn’t sure what to think about him. It was super nice of him to get my purse back but other than that he was just the sarcastic guy that liked to give me a hard time. I let out a big over-exaggerated sigh. “Kind of.”

  “You know if you wouldn’t have taken off on Wednesday, you could have had some more practice before tonight.” He tapped his black painted fingernails on the counter as he spoke.

  “Why do you do that?” I stared right into his deep-set brown eyes; even though his eyes seemed small, he had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a boy. I was kind of jealous and wondered if he used false eyelashes.

  “Do what?” He stammered, blinking really hard like I had just caught him off guard.

  “Have to bother me with those sarcastic comments. It’s not very nice you know.” Was I flirting with the Goth boy next door?

  “It’s because he wants in your pants!” Clint, one of the fryer guys, yelled from the back area.

  “Shut up, Clint!” Kai yelled, completely ignoring my question.

  “Oh c’mon, Kai,” Clint said as he walked toward the front, wiping his hands with a dish towel. “You know you want to tap that.” He slapped the towel back and forth like a whip, while he leaned over and smacked the air with his free hand. His way too large brown belly jiggled out of the bottom of his shirt.

  “Ugh, that’s disgusting.” I wrinkled my nose and turned back toward the register.

  “Aw c’mon, chica, once you go brown is when it all goes down.” He laughed as the drive-thru guy high fived him.

  “What’s going on up here?” Jason came to the front holding a clip board with one hand and adjusting his Buddy Holly glasses with the other.

  “Nothing, Jay, just talking,” Clint said smiling and throwing the towel over his shoulder.

  “You need to be working. The game is almost over, and we need to be ready for the post game rush.” He tapped his hand against the clipboard like somehow that would magically make us all do as we were told. Like being a manager at Burgers’R’Us was the highlight of anyone’s career.

  “Ignore Clint, he’s always like that,” Kai leaned in and whispered.

  His body radiated heat like a sun lamp. The guy was always warm and even though we were in a greasy fast food restaurant, he always managed to smell like clean cotton laundry.

  I nodded, not sure of what else to say. Did I really just have a moment with Kai? I couldn’t explain it, but there was something about him that was making me rethink my thoughts on the boy next door.

  Luckily that moment didn’t last too long as people started flooding into the restaurant. I didn’t realize how many people came to a fast food place after a game, but I guess you get hungry after yelling at high school kids all night. And apparently St. Christopher’s had beat East for a second year in a row, so there was a lot of cheers and even more angry people, like somehow their life revolved around this game.

  “Well, I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes; Princess Bee working at a burger joint.”

  I looked up to see Jake with that smug look on his
stupid, perfectly chiseled face. I even less expected him to have his arm around Taylor, my supposed best friend.

  “Hey Tay.” I put on the biggest, fakest smile that I could. “Long time no see.”

  She didn’t even look up at me as she spoke. “I’ll have a number two with a diet.”

  I really couldn’t believe this; I felt like my head was about to explode. My best friend with my ex-boyfriend! Of course she didn’t know the story of why we broke up—nobody did—but that still didn’t give her the right to have her arm on him and then pretend like I wasn’t even there.

  “All right, anything else?” I tried to hold back the tears and keep that smile pasted on my face as I took my so-called friends orders.

  It was ten minutes to eleven, and the lobby closed at eleven. When we closed the lobby someone had to go out and sweep and mop all of the floors, but usually we waited until everyone was gone. Of course there were a few booths in the back that were still occupied, and one of those booths happened to belong to Jake, Brett, Gabby, and Taylor. I saw Brett and Gabby come in shortly after Taylor and Jake, but I didn’t bother to say ‘hi.’ I just kept taking orders and tried to ignore their presence.

  “Evans, go out and sweep the lobby while Kai finishes up by the register,” Jason ordered with his nasally voice.

  “Um, can’t I do it later, once everyone leaves?” I muttered, twisting my fingers in my belt loops.

  He handed me the broom with one hand and started easing me out to the floor with the other. “You can let them know it’s time to leave while you’re out there sweeping.”

  I was completely mortified, and my entire body shook. I started sweeping as far from their booth as possible and went as slow as I could. Hoping that maybe by the time that I got there they would have been gone. Of course I could only be so lucky.

  “Oh, look at that, the princess has got to sweep.” Jake laughed as Taylor joined in.

  I didn’t look up at them, but I could feel their eyes burning holes into my back.

  “Hey guys, the lobby is going to be closing in about ten minutes so if you would be able to finish up, that would be great,” I muttered as I tried not to look them in the eye.

  “Yeah, uh huh.” Taylor pretended to listen as she tightened her grip on Jake’s arm.

  “Oh shit, Brett, what happened to your shake.” Just as I looked over, Jake took Brett’s almost completely full cup and dumped it all over the ground. My eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider as I just stared.

  “Um, hey, do you mind cleaning that up?” Taylor tapped her nails on the table.

  I didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t speak, so I did the only thing that I knew to do; I grabbed the broom and ran to the back room to cry.

  Chapter 9

  Screw The Lemons

  “Are you okay?”

  I sat on the cold tile floor of the break room with my head between my grease stained knees. The last person I expected to come back and check on me was Kai.

  In my frenzied cry I somehow managed to blurt out that I female problems and that got Jason to find someone else to do the sweeping. No guy ever wants to fight that one and Jason’s face turned red when I mentioned it.

  “I’m fine.” I sniffled, hoping that Kai would just go away. I wanted to be alone. How could my friends have done this to me? It was bad enough that I already lost my house, my school, and now some of my best friends since grade school. To top it all off I had some kid with hot pink shoes acting like I was the one with issues.

  “Well obviously you’re not.” He reached his hand out toward me.

  I crossed my arms firmly over my chest. “I don’t need your help.” It came out whinier than I intended.

  Instead of walking away, he just plopped down beside me and spread his long legs out next to mine.

  “You can only try and make lemons into lemonade for so long before you just have to say, screw the lemons, and bail.” He stretched his arms out over his head.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “I didn’t think anyone but me actually used that expression.”

  “Well looks like you were wrong.” He slowly stood up and turned to face me. “Now c’mon and let me show you what else you’re wrong about.”

  As I looked at him, I didn’t know what came over me. Maybe it was just my girl emotions working overtime or maybe it was his pleading puppy dog eyes, but for some reason I took his hand and followed him out the back door.

  “So where are we going?” I questioned, letting go of his hand as soon as we got outside. I was really glad we exited out the back so no one saw us. I really didn’t want people getting the wrong idea. Kai was a nice guy and everything, but I knew the other co-workers would have a field day if they saw us together. Luckily it was just my little red mini and a giant orange car in the parking lot.

  “Just get in and you’ll find out,” He said conspiratorially and opened the passenger door of the giant orange thing.

  “What is that?” I pointed at the car, tilting my head.

  “This would be my car, a Ford Falcon.” He motioned again for me to get into the car.

  Slowly I approached the car and got in as he slid over the hood of the car to the driver’s side.

  “Isn’t that like something out of Star Wars?” I asked as he got in and started the car.

  “No, that would be the Millennium Falcon, and that would be Star Trek.” He smiled and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Sorry, I’m not up on my geekery.” I laughed and I held out my palms toward him.

  “It’s okay I didn’t really expect you to be.” He slid his long fingers over toward me. I thought he was going to reach for my hand but instead he turned on the stereo, letting a loud screaming guy’s voice blast over the speakers.

  “Ugh!” I put my hands over my ears and screeched, “What is that?”

  Kai sighed and turned down the music. “It’s the Circle Jerks, you know Punk Rock.”

  I shook my head. “Never heard of them, maybe you have something else that I might like.” I reached up into the CD visor and browsed through his CD’s. Bad Religion, The Misfits, Dead Kennedys —All these bands I had never heard of and sounded really depressing.

  “How about we just turn on the radio?”

  “You’re kind of demanding you know that?” Kai looked at me out of the corner of his eye and leaned back in his seat.

  “Gee, you’re such a charmer,” I mocked. “But seriously, where are we going anyway?”

  “It’s a surprise,” he said mischievously, smiling as he turned down State Street.

  “Okay,” I said and pulled my uniform top over my head.

  “JESUS, what are you doing?” Kai swerved the car and almost hit the curb in the process, causing me to almost bounce my head off the dashboard.

  “Ugh!” I folded the shirt in my lap and then ran my fingers across the straps of my white tank top that I had on underneath. “I just didn’t want to show up to wherever we were going in my uniform; what did you think I was doing? Trying to strip down in the Star Trek car?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I thought the Falcon had some magical powers or something.”

  I laughed before changing the radio to a decent station; listening to a slow song play as we pulled into the Perkins parking lot.

  “Perkins? This is where we’re going?” I gaped, open mouth, at the big yellow sign. Kai didn’t speak. He just shot me a quick grin and hopped out of the car.

  I followed him and was almost sprinting to catch up while he walked to the front doors.

  “Hey, you’re not trying to drop me off to fend for myself at Perkins are you? I didn’t mean what I said about your music, really!” I yelled before finally catching up to him.

  He shook his head and opened the door for me. “You’re a piece of work, Bentley.”

  A short, plump Asian girl with blue hair approached the hostess podium as we walked in.

  “Hey, Kai.” She beamed.

  “Hey Star.” For someon
e who was walking into another restaurant wearing a fast food uniform, he walked with way too much swagger.

  “Do you and you’re…um…” She took a quick glance behind him to see me standing there trying not to stare at her blue hair and massive nose ring. “…friend… want to sit in your usual spot in the back?”

  “That’s cool,” he said and turned his work visor around before motioning for me to follow him and Star to the back area.

  I guess Perkins was the local ‘alternative’ high school kid hangout. There were swarms of kids with different colored hair, all dressed in black drinking coffee, and sitting in a closed-off area that must have been the smoking section at one time. Star sat us in the first booth and walked away, giving me a quick once over as I slid into the booth.

  “So, I guess you come here often?” I asked.

  Kai’s eyes darted around the room.

  “When I’ve had a bad day, pie and coffee always seem to help.” He finally stopped searching the room and gave me a reassuring smile.

  I never really ate a lot of pie. Mom had this deep hatred for carbs ever since the huge Atkins craze like years ago. I hadn’t even eaten a piece of bread since I was in nursery school.

  “I still really don’t understand why you’re being so nice to me.” We both stopped talking and our eyes met. I really wanted to hear his answer but just as he opened his mouth to speak, a short guy with a large pink mohawk pushed him over in his seat.

  “Hey loser.” The mohawk kid’s voice sounded rough, like the crunching of gravel beneath car tires.

  “Long time no see.” Another kid with a dark complexion and a large spiked collar around his neck scooted into the seat next to me but didn’t take his eyes off of Kai.

  Kai reluctantly let the mohawk kid sit next to him. “Hey Brody, good to see you too.” He then nodded in the direction of the guy sitting next to me and said, “Grant.”

  “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?” Brody pointed his leather glove-clad hand at me.

  “Yeah, she sure don’t look nothin’ like Brynne.” Grant eyed me hungrily. “Looks like you’ve definitely moved on up.”