Dandelion

Three

More customers started to come in the diner, and the men from the booth left. Somehow, Briar knew that they were with Greyson James. The guy was a jerk, and a nosy one at that. Why wouldn't he just leave already? When people came in, they immediately noticed Greyson for who he was and everyone, especially the women, were falling at his feet pretty much. Bunch of hussies if you asked Briar. How did she not recognize him earlier? Probably because her mind was on the fact that her alarm never went off, so she was late getting Eli to school, which in turn made her late for work. She was never late for work, nor did she ever call out unless something was wrong with Eli.

Greyson ate his pancakes and bacon and ordered more food. He slowly ate, took pictures with adoring fans that Briar was pretty sure weren't all real fans. They were probably just stoked someone famous was stopped there in their little town. However, Briar couldn't totally complain, his presence brought in more customer's in just two hours than she had the last week. The diner was booming for the first time in quite a while. She might actually be able to pay her rent, have groceries, and get the new converse shoes that Eli's been begging for. The asshat was slightly beneficial at the moment, and once that moment ended, she could go back to thinking he was a loser.

"Hey, Briar, it's two-thirty!" Lani shouted from behind the counter. Briar looked up at the cat clock on the wall after she set her last plate down. She walked behind the counter and over to the food window.

"Is Mara here yet?" She shouted to Joe over the crowd and music in the diner.

"No, and you know the rules, can't leave until she gets here," Joe said as he swayed to the jukebox music and waved his spatula around.

"Shit," she muttered and looked to Lani.

"I'll call her and see where she's at," she said quickly and walked over the Pepto-Bismol-colored phone on the wall.

"Got somewhere to be?" Greyson said loudly, slightly startling her.

"That's none of your business," she snapped. He grinned.

"True," he chuckled and sipped on his now glass of water. Why the hell was he even still here? He had literally been sitting there...

"You realize you've been sitting there for like seven hours, right?" Briar looked at him like he was insane. He shrugged.

"I just finished tour and have nowhere else to be at the moment," he said nonchalantly.

"Yea, well, you're weird," she said stupidly. He laughed.

"Sorry I'm late! There's like literally nowhere to park, I had to park on the side of the road. Where did all these people come from?" Mara said breathlessly. Sweat trickled down her face. Briar and Lani pointed to Greyson and Mara looked over.

"Ohmygod. Greyson James?" She squealed. Realizing how loud she was she quickly cleared her throat and then pulled out her phone.

"Can I please get my picture with you?"

"Mara, I need you to clock in, I have to go," Briar snapped. Mara waved her hand dismissively and snapped a picture with Greyson anyways.

"Sweet lord, I so do not have time for this," Briar snapped, "Lani clock me out."

Briar walked back to the back, grabbed her keys and purse from the joint work locker that all the waitresses shared and started back to the front.

"Tips, Briar," Joe shouted. Briar froze. Shit. She closed her eyes and turned to him; he already had his pudgy hand outstretched. She dug in her apron, pulling out the money and placing it all in his hand. She counted as he did, seeing she made over two hundred dollars, her heart soared. That is until she watched him pull out a hundred and twenty-five dollars of it.