Deceived

Chapter 6

Not edited.

   The air in the diner was humid; the overpowering smell of greasy hamburgers, fries mixed with other odours, made my stomach churn.

I felt sick.

I thought I could function on automatic but I found it increasingly difficult. 

I spilled more coffee today than I could count; mixed up everyone's orders; gave customers wrong change and misplaced countless food items needed to make the famous burgers.

My boss, Gerrold, was angry at me - maybe angry wasn't the word, furious was more like it...
He sent me to clean the dirty diner toilets so I wouldn't cause anymore trouble and I'd be out of everyone's way.

Ten minutes later, I found myself cleaning the toilet bowls with mustard instead of toilet cleaner. I was clueless as to how I came to be using mustard considering how far the kitchen was from the bathrooms, but the toilets were in a much better state before I started cleaning them.

That was the first indication that I was losing it. But who wouldn't become distracted given the day I had.

Gerrold popped in a few minutes later to check on my work and ended up throwing a fit at the condition of the bathroom. He scowled at me, called me a few choiced words and instructed me to go home and return when I was serious about work.

Some birthday I'm having.

But then It could have been worse,  I reasoned. I could have been fired, and for that I was greatful.

I went to the locker room for my bag and headed out the side door.

I was content to go home and wallow in my sorrows in private. It wasn't the best way to spend my birthday but I really didn't have a choice. Besides, Gerrold didnt need me here anyway, the diner was practically empty now, save for the old couple sitting at one of the tables in the back.

I dragged myself down the road to the bus stop; the sharpness of my mate's rejection digging a hole in my chest. I kept thinking about what had happened today, and each time I replayed the scene in my head, the pain increased. I wanted to cry but my eyes refused to shed tears, as if they hadn't yet comprehend what had happened.

I pulled the thin fabric of my sweater tighter around me as the cold wind whipped me mercilessly.

If only the cold could seep into my heart and numb the pain.
Unfortunately the only thing that was getting numb were my fingers.

I desperately wanted to just crumble to the ground and roll myself into a ball, but I knew that wasn't an option at the moment. I had to get home first then I could do just that.

Moving my feet, one after the other, I forced myself to continue walking. I felt empty, like a husk of a person just moving aimlessly. But I had an aim: to reach the bus stop,  get home and drown myself in icecream, praying it'll blot out the ripping pain in my chest.

But mere icecream wouldn't be enough to get rid of the hurt, I needed something strong enough to numb my emotions...

I wonder if I could get liquor and wolfs bane instead of icecream...

I looked around to navigate how far I was from the nearest liquor store.

Werewolves weren't affected by alcohol when it's taken by itself because of our high metabolism... We'd just burn it off in a few minutes. But if you spike it with a little wolf's bane then you'd have yourself one pretty potent drug.

Wolf's bane is deadly to our kind if taken directly and in large amounts... but a single drop mixed with alcohol slows down the body enough to make the alcohol have an effect, but not enough to kill you.  It still wasn't legal for any eighteen year old to be sold liquor but I hope I could lie convincingly enough to get myself a bottle of gin.