Picture Perfect: Panera Girl

Chapter 9: decieved

you crawled into bed and tried to fall asleep quickly since you had to work in the morning. no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't fall asleep. your mind kept running back to matt and his hug, or his smile and laugh, or the way he would look at you. matt made you feel happy, but equally as guilty. you knew you couldn't continue this thing with matt because of connor. you knew he didn't treat you as well as matt did, but you still felt so attached to him. you drifted off into a light sleep with these thoughts running through your head.

matt or connor.

you had a dream that night that you were in matt's arms. he was holding you and you felt safe. while he ran his fingers through your hair you looked up at him, and all of a sudden he turned into connor. you then felt trapped in his arms instead of safe. you tried to get out but felt so guilty doing it.

"cheating on me y/n!?" he held you tighter

"no, i didn't cheat, you're hurting me connor." you said to him. his arms kept squeezing you tighter and tighter until you woke up in a deep cold sweat.

"what the heck just happened." you said to yourself. you checked the time. it said 7:45.

7:45?! you set an alarm for 7:15, but must've slept through it. usually you left at 7:50 because it only took 10 minutes to get to panera from your house. you only had 5 minutes to get ready and be out the door. you chose the first thing you saw in your closet and put it on under your brown apron. then you put your hair in a ponytail and quick brushed your teeth.

that'll have to do. you thought.

you ran out to your car and sped away as fast as you could. then you took a deep breath because you made it out the door on time. your stomach grumbled.

"shoot i forgot to grab something to eat." you had an 8 hour shift today. you thought maybe you could get something on your lunch break at 12. they always gave a lunch break halfway through shifts, unless you worked anything under 6 hours. that was just the rules.

you arrived to panera and were relieved to see cody's car. you raced inside and clocked in to start your shift. you were put in the kitchen to start.

the beginning of your shift was rough. you messed up a couple of orders and had to start over because you didn't get them what they wanted, only because your brain was distracted by your conflict. even sometimes you failed to see that new orders came in and you had to rush to finish them.

all you could think about was matt and connor, and the strange dream you had. what did it mean? you felt so safe with matt but trapped with connor. was that how it was in real life too?

Cody came into the kitchen. "y/n, what's wrong?"

you were caught off guard. "wh- what do you mean?"

"i can tell somethings up. you never mess up like this at work."

you just stayed quiet and made another order.

"alright." cody said. "why don't you take your lunch break. it's 12 already anyways. come back with a fresh mind?" he said with a slight smile.

"i'll try. thank you cody." you took off your apron and got something from the menu for lunch. as you ate your mind was spinning. halfway through your break you decided to turn your attitude around and finish off strong.

you got back after your half hour break and was put on front again. you didn't mind front because of how easy it was. plus you couldn't really mess up there. this was a good way to finish your shift, you thought.

it was 3 o'clock and you had one hour left. cody dropped some food off at the drop off counter and you stole a quick conversation.

"today's going fast isn't it?" you asked.

"sure is. glad to see you're doing better." he said.

you were reminded of your conflict. it was easier to forget once you got in the work zone. you pushed it to the side when you saw someone come in the store.

it was connor. your heart raced as you saw your handsome boyfriend, and you played with the diamond heart on your necklace. he waved at you as someone else came in right behind him.

it was katya.

your heart stopped racing and it seemed to drop to your ankles. of course he would come here with her.

you put on a smiling face for him.

"hey babe." you said as he leaned in for a small peck.

"hey. thought i'd stop by, me and katya were just at the mall."

"oh nice. did you get anything?"

"no i didn't, katya got a whole truckload of stuff though."

you looked over at katya and she nodded and explained all the stuff she got. you didn't hear anything she said as you saw something glimmer from her neck. you looked closer and you almost choked.

it was the exact necklace that you had on right now. the one connor got you. she was playing with it too just like you did when you thought about connor. you held it back until she stopped talking.

"oh that's really cool." you said fakely. "did you guys want anything to eat?"

"no i just wanted to say hello." connor said with a smile. his smile made you angry because of his lies to you. he must've only visited out of pity.

"alright. text me when you get home then." you said in a slight cold tone, but still a smile. "bye bye." you waved and walked to the back room where you let your tears fall. this was the last straw. you texted the group chat with the triplets.

Sturn's and Y/n🍀

SOS. we need to hang out tonight.

nick: oh god, ok, is everything ok?

i will explain tonight. pick me up at 9 again?

matt: will do. see you at 9.

chris: i hope everything is ok, see you tonight.

*you liked chris's message*

you made your way back to the front after everything happened and finished out your shift strong just like you said you would. however, the second you got into your car after your shift was over, all the tears you were holding back came right out. you cried all the way home, cried in the shower, cried in bed, and fell asleep. you set an alarm before your nap for 8:30 pm so you could wake up and prepare to hang out with the triplets. you slept right up to the alarm and sat outside in the dark until their car pulled up.

nick opened your door for you, you sat down, buckled, and started crying once again.

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