Lost and Found

Chapter 6- Allie

I set the letter down on the counter and made weak attempt at a deep breath, it came out as a sort of crackly sigh, the kind that you get before your about to cry. I walked from behind the counter and into the back of the diner, "Luke?" I called, hoping he'd answer. "Yeah?" He said, "I'm in the office, kinda busy right now". "Yeah, I get it, I'm taking my 10 if that's okay", I said, "Okay", he yelled back down. I made my way into the storage room that housed the diner's necessity items, flour, eggs, etcetra. I closed the door behind me and sat down. 

It was the first moment I had truly had to process what just happen, to absorb it. After four years, he just decides to show up, out of nowhere, hand me a letter, and expect me to meet him for lunch? The whole thing was ridiculous, and the whole thing was a lie, he obviously wasn't fucking sober, I could smell the weed wafting from his clothes from behind the counter. Why did he even want to meet me? That was another thing, it didn't even really make much sense like, why after all this time?

I felt my eyes well up and the tears were clinging to my eyelashes. I let out a sob and started to cry. All of the hatred for that man just pouring out of me, in a storage room at the diner where I worked, it felt like nothing mattered anymore. I didn't cry that often, I bottled up my emotions and then would end up having the rare but messy mental breakdown that resembled something of what was happening right now every once in a blue moon. I couldn't tell Mom about the letter that was for sure, she was stressed enough as is, she didn't need anything else to pour over. I took the end of my apron and wiped my eyes, mascara smudged on the blue fabric. I made a feeble attempt to pull myself together considering my ten was definitely going to be over soon, but it failed miserably as expected. 

All I could do was pray that someone wouldn't walk in. 

JESS-

I walked out of the diner and leaned up against a lamp post that was adorned with a scarecrow for some retarded town fall festival Star's Hollow would be holding. What the Hell had just happened? I mean, I couldn't help but feel uneasy about the whole situation, why did she even ask me to leave in the first place, I mean Jesus Christ I did live there. I wasn't exactly sure why I did obey her and leave in the first place instead of scoffing and tossing back a smart remark about how I would stay if I wanted to. I pulled out a Camel Lights box out of my back pocket along with a lighter. I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, pressing it to my lips, inhaling and then exhaling, puffing the smoke out of my mouth. I stood there for a few moments and then stopped, "what the Hell am I doing", I thought to myself, I stomped on the cigarette, smushed it into the ground with the sole of my shoe and walked back into diner. 

"Allie!" I shouted, once I was in the back away from customers. No response. I walked past the storage room and heard a muffled noise. I pulled the door open. Allie was sitting down, back pressed against built in shelves staring at the ground. She looked up at the noise of the door opening. She wasn't crying, but it was obvious she bad been. Her mascara was streaked down her face, which was red, and her eyes were wet with tears.

"Great" I heard her mutter under her breath.

Unsure of what to do I said,  "Whats going on, why the fuck are you hiding in the closet?" It came out more harsh than I had hoped.

She let out a small sob. "I don't know"

I walked over to her and sat down, pulled out the Camel Lights box and handed it to her, she looked at me, and shook her head, "I don't smoke" She said. 

"Oh" "Good" I responded, lighting one deliberately breaking Luke's very strict no smoking rule that had been mainly established in effect of me.

"I hate him" She said suddenly. 

"What?"

"My dad"

Oh. God, I hoped her dad wasn't the guy from earlier.

I scoffed, "Don't we all"

She looked at me and we made eye contact. I never really looked at her unless we were arguing about something stupid. Her eyes were blue and she had freckles that dotted her cheeks. Her features were small as was she. Somehow in the daze of her crying she looked somehow pretty. Maybe it was just the first time I had really observed her. 

She managed a laugh at my remark. 

"That guy," She stood up and dusted off her apron, "The one I was hiding from, that's my dad, grade a asshole who left about four years ago and just now decided to pop in telling me that he's sorry for being an abusive, emotional, train wreck, and that he's sober now and wants to grab lunch"