Push and Shove

by C. L. Stone

  “What tip jar?”

  Gabriel fetched a plastic to-go cup from under the counter. He picked up a pen next to the register, and wrote “Tips” on the outside. He plopped it on the counter next to the register. “There,” he said. “That’ll work for now. Most of the time they just leave it on the table or the waiters take care of it. If you end up with change like that, just toss it in the tip jar.”

  “Aren’t the waiters supposed to collect it?”

  Gabriel waved a hand through the air. “Write on the ticket how much they paid in total. They’ll divide it up later. Sometimes they leave cash on the tables I have to clean, too, so I just drop it off in the jar and let them fight over it.”

  “But...”

  Gabriel picked up his bucket, holding it to his waist with one hand. He slapped me on the thigh. “Don’t worry so much. Just stand there and look pretty.”

  I sought out Luke, but he was sitting down across from a customer, another older gentleman with a newspaper and sipping coffee. Luke was laughing at whatever he was saying. He was so distracted, he didn’t catch my eye.

  ♥♥♥

  In a half hour, the tip cup was stuffed with one dollar bills, a couple of fives, and a handful of pocket change. While the majority of people paid for their food with a credit card, most of them also carried cash and dropped a tip on the table for Gabriel or Luke to collect, or stuffed it into the cup.

  I scanned tickets and made change, and rang up credit cards. It was okay work as all I had to do was smile and the customer passed me a ticket. They didn’t seem to mind when I avoided direct eye contact and waited patiently as I rang up, counted coins and passed back change. After each time, I felt nervous, like I should have said something like thank you, but most of the time, Gabriel or Luke beat me to it as they called to the customers as they walked out the door.

  When Gabriel didn’t have tables to clean, he took turns with Luke being a server. I liked watching them work. Luke was smooth, friendly. Gabriel had flair, and even from a distance, I could hear his sweet baritone humming a few bars of a song as he walked the floor.

  While it had picked up, babysitting the register was not enough to keep my mind from wandering back to Nathan and worrying about him. My legs ached to walk around instead of standing in one place.

  To make up for it, I made myself familiar with the contents behind the counter. I counted the extra napkin dispensers, straightened the take-out containers, discovered the location for a key to the jukebox, and stacked extra plates and silverware into neater collections. There was a soda fountain behind me, along with a large coffee maker.

  Gabriel materialized next to me as I was staring off at the door. “How’s it going?”

  I tilted my head, continuing to stare off instead of facing him. “I think I like making pies better.” I perked up and turned to him. “Want to switch places for a little while? I can clean tables and wash dishes.”

  He laughed, and his hand met my shoulder, rubbing the muscle. “You’ll want to be up here. No one tips the bus boy.”

  “Then how do you make money when you’re doing dishes and other stuff?”

  “I get a paycheck.”

  “Can’t I get a paycheck?”

  “Trust me, Sang. You want tips. That’s where the money is.” He patted my back close to my butt and disappeared behind the swinging doors toward the kitchen.

  I sighed, glancing again at the clock. It was almost nine. How long was a shift? How late did the guys normally work?

  The crowd started to really thin out. Luke picked up trays that I was sure would be too heavy or unbalanced to lift, but he managed perfectly. Gabriel held his own, but often enough, it was Luke that helped him split a large order, and carried half of the items on a tray.

  I ended up scanning more tickets and running a lot of credit cards as people were leaving. There was a rush of folks coming in to pick up take-out orders. Gabriel replaced the tip cup with a bigger jar he found in the back. He used a Sharpie to write something on the front, and wedged it in front of the register out of my view. I got so busy I forgot about it.

  When Gabriel dashed behind the counter and headed toward the soda fountain, he was grunting. He punched at the dispenser to hurry. He had another couple at a table waiting to order.

  “Do you want me to do that?” I asked, feeling awkward just standing around between tickets.

  Gabriel lifted his head, his eyebrows going up. “What?”

  “Instead of running around the counter every time, just tell me what the drink order is. I can set it up for you.”

  Gabriel blinked after me as if I’d just solved a physics problem. “Trouble, I love you. Give me a hand over here and pour a decaf.”

  A fluttering swept over me at his love comment, but I tried to get over it. I’d heard him say that same thing to Luke, and from his tone, it sounded like just a friendly thing he said. I fished out a mug, finding the coffee marked decaf. “Can you show me how to set the coffee maker to brew more?”

  “Next time I have a minute, I’ll show you.” He snagged the mug of coffee from me and planted it next to a couple of other drinks on the tray before he lifted it. “Keep an eye out for me,” he said. “If you aren’t already busy, I’ll tell you what I need.”

  Gabriel and I worked out a system. When new customers sat down, he ran over and took a drink order. He rattled off to me what they wanted. I dispensed the drinks as he ran around to other tables. By the time he returned, I had the drinks ready on a tray and he could run back with a notepad to take the food order.

  I brewed two pots of coffee, learned how to transfer Gabriel’s and Luke’s written orders into a bar code ticket so they didn’t have to do it, and passed off straws, extra creamer and sometimes fetched completed take-out orders from the kitchen. Luke picked up on what Gabriel and I were doing and started asking me for drink orders, too.

  At one point I sensed someone hovering by the register like they were waiting to pay a ticket. I finished the drink order I was filling for Gabriel and looked up, meeting face-to-face with Silas.

  My head jerked back and I blinked hard, as if sure it was someone else and I was just being delusional. Silas towered over me. His baseball shirt was dark with blue sleeves, and went well with the dark blue jeans he wore. The shirt showed off his smooth muscles. His olive complexion made his appearance much darker, and at first glance, you probably knew you wouldn’t want to mess with him.

  But Silas was all heart. A big Greek one.

  He beamed at me. “How’s it going, aggele?”

  I smiled back. “It’s...” I couldn’t figure out a way to describe it. My feet hurt from standing in one spot too long. My mind was buzzing with numbers and wondering if the last time I counted out change if I’d done it correctly. I was listening out for Luke and Gabriel. “It’s kind of busy.”

  “This?” He turned, studying the room. “This is nothing. You should see it Saturday. Or Sunday breakfast. This place is a zoo Sunday morning.”

  My breath caught. It got busier?

  His dark eyes lit up and his broad shoulders shook as he laughed. “No, no. Don’t look like that. You’re not doing it by yourself. Not tonight anyway. Kota called me. He said he wanted you to run home when you’re done playing here. He didn’t want you too worn out for tomorrow.”

  I wasn’t supposed to go to Kota’s? I definitely couldn’t go to Nathan’s, but I guess Kota’s mom wouldn’t understand me coming back so late tonight.

  I didn’t want to look like a quitter, but I was secretly grateful that it was looking like I could escape. I wanted to collect myself and I was tired of standing. I wasn’t used to it. “Are you taking over for me?”

  He smiled. “I bus and do dishes. North should be here in a second to start cooking and take over for Luke and Gabriel.”

  North waited on tables like Luke? That seemed surprising. I couldn’t imagine North doing any sort of customer service. “Are they going to go home now, too?”

  “T
hey want to work through midnight. We’re off duty with Academy stuff for the moment, so they want to make money where they can.”

  I faltered, feeling guilty about being told to go home when the others were staying.

  Silas’s smile softened. He reached over the counter and beeped my nose. “Stop looking like that.” His eyes shifted and he studied the register. He reached out and snagged the tip jar, holding it. “What’s this?”

  I was ready with an answer but looked at the jar. I tilted my head, trying to read the wording he was staring at.

  Think she’s cute, too? Tip to keep her working here.

  My mouth fell open. “Gabriel!”

  Silas laughed, shaking his head.

  “What?” Gabriel appeared next to Silas.

  I pointed at the jar. “What are you doing?”

  He glanced at it and shrugged. “What are you complaining about? It’s nearly full. You’ve got a nice haul to take home.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “All that?” I glanced at the jar. It was stuffed with dollars. I hadn’t been paying attention to the jar. After Gabriel had moved it to the front of the register, I’d just felt for the edge and dropped in tips if I got any. Most of the time tips were written on credit card receipts, or Luke or Gabriel collected them from the table.

  The guys often stopped by the register to drop some tips off in the jar. Gabriel had said they’d split it up later. Were they dropping off their tips into the jar on purpose?

  “We’re going to need more jars,” Silas said.

  “What are you doing here?” North said, coming through the kitchen door. His black T-shirt and black jeans were covered by a black apron. His fierce brown eyes locked on mine.

  I pointed to the jar. “Gabriel wrote...”

  Gabriel waved his hand in the air. “Shush, Sang. That’s your tip jar.” He took it from Silas and shoved it toward me. “Take it home. I’ll make a better one for you for next time.”

  I squinted at North. Make them stop.

  North read the jar and then smirked at me. “If you didn’t want so many tips, don’t be so cute next time.” He nudged me away from the register. “Go home. You’re not supposed to be working.”

  “Oy,” Gabriel said. “She can do it if she wants.”

  “She’s on sick leave,” North said. He stabbed his finger at the register, opening the drawer.

  “I’m not sick,” I said.

  “Doc’s orders,” he said without looking up. “Go home and sleep. You’ve got school tomorrow.”

  “You do, too,” I said. “You and Silas can’t work all night and then go to school. And don’t you have a football game coming up?”

  “Aw. Look at her,” Silas said. “She’s adorable when she gets all worried about us.”

  “Go home, Sang,” North said. He pulled a few twenty dollar bills from the register and dropped them into the money jar I was holding. He turned me by the shoulders, and then swatted at my butt.

  “North,” I said, wanting to protest the money in the jar rather than going home. I hadn’t worked long enough to earn that much, plus the tips Gabriel and Luke gave me.

  “Bye, aggele,” Silas said, talking loud and waving to make a point that I should go.

  “Bye, Trouble,” Gabriel said, picking up on Silas’s tone and waving.

  “Aw, she’s leaving?” Luke said as he dashed around the counter, plopping down a tray. He hooked his arm around my neck and tugged me in for a quick kiss on the forehead. “Bye, cupcake.”

  I sighed, giving up. The boys were intolerable sometimes, but my heart didn’t want to stop pounding.

  I was about to head for the front door, when Uncle materialized. He caught Luke as he was unhooking his arm from around my neck.

  Uncle smiled. “No kissing in front of the customers.” He spotted the jar. He beamed. “See, what did I tell you? She’s a natural.”

  I blushed, not knowing what to say.

  “She needs to get home, though,” North said.

  “Hey,” Uncle snapped at him. “Stop telling Luke’s girl what to do. You’re not her boss, kid.”

  North grunted, walked around us and stalked off toward the kitchen.

  Uncle patted my shoulder. “Want to work tomorrow?”

  I started to nod, but Luke stepped up next to me. “She might, but we have to check with school and stuff.”

  “Let me know where I can fill you in on the schedule,” Uncle said.

  WHERE DO WE BELONG?

  I borrowed shoes from Gabriel, and he stayed in the back of the diner to wash dishes until he could ride home with Luke. I walked home alone, taking the path through the woods alone while Gabriel stayed on the phone with me until I made it to the back yard.

  I took the long loop through the woods so I could walk by Nathan’s house. The pool lights were still on but the house lights were off. I wondered if Nathan was still with Kota. Maybe he was spending the night with him.

  When I got to my house, I entered through the side door, noting how it was unlocked. Marie didn’t close up the house before she went to sleep. I locked the doors behind me. I felt I was locking out the boys. But I reminded myself if they wanted in, they would get in. They all had keys.

  The air in the house felt different to me. It was like walking in on someone else’s home. Smells were different. The temperature wasn’t comfortable. This made me a little sad, because now I was getting this feeling everywhere I went. There wasn’t a place that had that ‘coming home’ feeling to it.

  There was a stack of dirty dishes by the sink. The trash was almost overflowing. I listened quietly for a moment. Even though I knew the boys weren’t here, I listened for them anyway, expecting one to appear, hearing me moving around.

  I loaded the dishwasher, took out the trash and wiped down the counters. I was tired, but I was wasting time hoping maybe a boy would show up.

  I started wiping down the kitchen table when I heard footsteps going toward the downstairs bedroom.

  I followed the noise quietly. Old habits had me tiptoeing, and my hands were up, ready to defend myself. Flashes of my mother creeping through the house, trying to catch me doing something wrong swept through my mind, but I shut them down, burying them away. She wasn’t here. I knew that.

  I poked my head around to peek inside. The room appeared to be untouched. The bed had been stripped, the mattress bare. Everything else was as it was the day my stepmother had been taken under the Academy’s care.

  A rustling started deeper in the room. My hand crept up to my chest, reaching for my phone and I leaned in, trying to catch who it was.

  Marie was in our mother’s walk-in closet scrounging through the top drawer of the chest of drawers.

  “Marie?” I asked quietly.

  Marie jerked back, her eyes going wide. She spotted me, frowned and then ducked her head around, looking beyond me. “What?” she asked.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for anything useful,” she said. She slammed the drawer shut. “What are you doing in here?”

  “I heard noise,” I said. “I just came to see–”

  “Well, don’t come in here.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because there’s nothing in here that belongs to you,” she said. She pushed her arms out like a barrier. “This is my mother’s. So stay out of it and keep those boys out of this room.”

  “Okay,” I said, unsure how to argue with her because she did have a point. There wasn’t anything in this room I’d wanted, but knowing she was excluding me from it felt so awkward. I backed up a few feet but stalled, considering. “Is everything okay?” I asked, unsure how to be delicate about it.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I mean, you seemed a little down and...”

  “My mother’s in a hospital and I don’t know where she is,” she said flatly. “My father’s gone. Boys show up at random and dig through stuff and get in the way. What the hell isn’t wrong?”

  “They help out,” I s
aid quietly. “They clean and they buy us food. They give us rides to school.”

  “But where is my mother?” she asked. “Is she dead? Because I haven’t heard anything in weeks. I can’t reach dad. The phone’s down.”

  The thought hadn’t occurred to me that she could be dead. I pressed a palm against my chest. “Mom’s in the hospital.”

  “Which one?”

  Not too long ago, when Volto had kidnapped me, he asked a similar question, and I didn’t have an answer for him either. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her she was with the Academy and she would be safe, but I couldn’t because I wasn’t allowed. “I could find out.”

  “How?”

  “We could ask the boys,” I said. I didn’t want to impose on the guys, but thought they would understand. “We can get them to take us.”

  I was concerned about my stepmother. Despite everything she’d done to me, even if she hated me, I felt bad that she was sick, and blamed a lot of her anger on her illness. Leaving it in the dark was how I dealt with it. But the longer I went without asking, the more awkward I felt about saying anything at all.

  The fact that we weren’t asked to go see her was a strange feeling, too. I sensed if she’d had asked to see anyone, the Academy would have notified us by now.

  Wouldn’t they?

  Marie pressed her fingers to her eyebrow. “I can’t see her,” she said. This was her way of telling me she wouldn’t consider asking the boys for help. “I can’t call dad.”

  “Did you want to?” I asked. I pulled the phone from my bra, presenting it.

  She frowned, but took the phone from me. “What’s his number?”

  I showed her the directory and punched the button for her to get it to dial out.

  She held it to her face, waiting. “Answering machine,” she said.

  “Leave a message,” I told her. “Maybe he’ll respond.”

  She shook her head, pressing the button to disconnect. She tossed the phone back at me. “Just stay out of here.” She slunk off. I stayed downstairs, listening to her footsteps as she retreated to her bedroom.