The Knowing Secret

Chapter 5

Hey Jay," I said when I walked in to work on Sunday afternoon. Jay worked the day shift and I was coming in to work the night.

"Hey Ri," he responded.

Even though I could feel how bored he was before I walked in I asked, "Been busy today?"

"Ha, yeah right, it's Sunday," Sunday during the day was normally very slow

"Chris in his office?"

"Yeah. Sam just got here too," he warned

"Great... that's right I have to work with him all night."

"Ri, he really isn't that bad," he said trying to make me feel better

"Whatever I gotta go clock in,"

"Riley, good to have you back. I want you slapping out the dough tonight during the rush," Chris said when I walked to the back

"Figured as much," I smiled sweetly. "I'm the best you got."

"Oh, and Sam, I want you back with Riley topping the pizzas," Chris added.

I quickly turned and saw that Sam was now standing behind me. "Great," I mumbled and turned to start working

A couple hours later the rush hit. "Three large pies, one pep, one tomato, and one ham and pineapple," Jay yelled from the front of the store

"Got it Jay," I yelled back. A couple minutes later I had the pizza dough slapped out and the sauce on the dough. They were quickly ready for Sam to top them, and he wasn't bad for this only being his third day. Neither of us said anything to each other during the whole rush, though there was plenty of tension and evil looks that were passed around the whole time. I glanced over at Sam once, Corey was right, he was really hot. However, I tried to shake the thought. I couldn't start liking him when I hated him.

As things slowed down, the tension rose. "What is your problem?" Sam asked after the hundredth evil look I gave him.

"Oh! So you wanna ask me about my problems this time? Not just gonna assume my life is perfect?" I snapped back

Sam replied. "If I recall, you judged me first."

"Well maybe if you didn't act like such a prick I wouldn't have thought you were one! And now, shoot; now you show up here where I work,"

"Wow, really, Riley? Maybe you should stop thinking every-one's world revolves around you for once,"

"Riley! Sam! My office now!" Chris yelled

When we got to the back Chris chewed us out, well more me, about bringing personal problems to work. After we promised to behave and that it wouldn't happen again Chris went home, leaving me in charge.

An hour or so later I sent Jay home because business was slow. That left Sam and me alone. We did our best to keep busy and inch around each other. A few minutes before closing Sam finally broke the silence. "Look, Riley, whatever I did to make you hate me so much, it's in the past. We have to work together, and we have classes together, so might as well try to deal with each other."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I muttered trying to keep my cool. What is it about him that gets under my skin so much? I asked myself. "We're closed, you can leave now. I just have to do all the closing work."

"You don't want me to stick around?"

"I don't need protection from someone like you," I told him. He left without responding.

After closing up at work I started to walk to the bus stop. Late at night there are only a few people on the bus, which made it easier to handle. When I got to the bus stop the bus had just gotten there. I got on and suddenly felt annoyed. I looked over at the driver and knew it was coming from him. There were only two other people on the bus. His last stop was the one after mine, and he just wanted to get off work.