Friendzone 🫶🏻

17 • Levi

Condensation blurred the windows, the warmth of Grammys would've clashed with the wintery streets outside if it wasn't for that singular pane of glass separating the two. The sun had burnt away, fizzling into darkness and a ghostly silhouette of trees made shadows in the glow of street lamps.

Grammys was slowly emptying out, besides me, Graham the chef being the last member of staff to leave. I had flipped the sign to closed fifteen minutes ago to prevent any new customers coming in but there were still a couple of remaining tables finishing their meals. While I waited for them to get their shit together and vacate the property I cleaned the floors and other surrounding tables.

"Goodbye Millie!"

"Bye guys drive safe."

It was just me now, and the football team.

I would be lying if I said I didn't avoid them during my shift, purposely leaving Justin to serve them because I knew he would charge them full price. However, now that I was alone with them, it felt inevitable to engage with them.

Although I didn't speak, I did eavesdrop on their conversations and watch them from the corner of my eye. They were loud, rude and inconsiderate. They made fun of everybody, namely girls. They called them 'easy' and 'sluts' and made bets or showed each other intimate images. They rated porn stars, openly talking about videos when their booth was located right next to a family with young children.

My eyes were open and for the first time I was seeing them in a whole new light.

It amazed me how these men had the power to gaslight the community into thinking they were these cool , talented athletes. How whenever they walked into a room they were instantly met with respect, the whole damn town singing their praises with the loudest voices.

Until recently, I was one of those voices.

Until recently, Levi made me melt like warm butter.

Forever making excuses up for him because I was flattered by his smile and ingenuine compliments but Tyler was right, he has only ever shown an interest in me when there was free food involved. I always looked forward to him coming into Grammys because that was our special time together, the only time he acknowledged me and really he was taking me for a mug.

Relief palpitated through me when they stood up, zipped up their coats and got ready to leave.

Sheepishly, I skittered away. Lowering my gaze and purposely avoiding eye contact. Just concentrating on scrubbing a table clean.

"I'll catch you up guys." Levi's voice spoke to his pack and without delaying the little bell on the door jingled as his friends made their exit. My head snapped up to the sound of his footsteps coming closer and a knot in my stomach formed. "Why do I get the feeling like you're on your period today?"

I stopped cleaning the table and glared at him, "What?"

"You seem pissed at me, why?"

Let's see Levi, you continuously treat me less than I'm worth, you make fun of my mom openly, record her without consent and then plaster her all over the internet so other people can mock her too. It made me feel like shit and I already felt like shit.

"I'm not." I lied, grabbing dirty plates and taking them into the kitchen. I hoped me walking off would give him the hint to leave but that was wishful thinking because he followed me.

I wondered what I ever saw in him. I think I only found him attractive because everyone found him attractive. It was a trend. Almost like a right of passage; be into the quarterback.

But his hair was just an ordinary shade of brown and his eyes were both lacklustre and murky. His smile was ruined by that tiny gap between his two front teeth and no matter how endearing I found it to be before, it annoyed the fuck out of me now.

Anger boiled through me.

"You know what Levi? I am fucking mad at you." He hardened his stare on me, so straight faced like he couldn't actually give two shits why I was mad at him. "I can take you ignoring me, on some level I expected it but the way you treated my mom was disgusting. Inhumane even. Get out of here Levi, just leave me the fuck alone."

I flipped the switch off on the fryers, letting their sizzle of heat simmer down.

Clearly he didn't like hearing this.

He became possessed with anger, charging forward and grabbing a fistful of my hair, the move so unexpected and harsh. I let out a whelp from the pain as he dragged me across the kitchen using the strong force of his grip on my scalp.

"I'll fuck your life up you stupid bitch." The kitchen was hot and greasy, the fryers still full of boiling oil and my face was being dragged closer to it. "Who the fuck do you think you are, speaking to me like that?"

"No, no Levi, please! I'm sorry" I begged, closing my eyes and feeling the heat brush against my cheek. The oil felt thick on my eyes, stinging my eyeballs and making my vision blurred. The bubbles screamed down my ear and some loose strands of hair charred as they fell into the pot.

"You disrespectful little bitch!" He pushed my head closer to the oil, my flesh feeling extremely sensitive as the heat ripped through every layer, burning through to my bones.

My mind ran riot, if he submerged my face in the hot oil, would I die? Would I be scarred for life? Scarred in a way nobody would ever recognise me again? Would he feel remorse? Would anyone ever find out it was him?

"I'm sorry! Please!" I screamed.

He got my face a centimetre away, I could smell oil and fries. Feel the stench at the back of my throat and in my nostrils, preventing me from breathing. It felt thick and heavy on my skin and clung to my hair already leaving a coating.

"What did you think would happen when you disrespected me, huh? I could fuck up that pretty little face of yours in a second. Don't fucking test me."

A tear dropped into the pot and the whole thing hissed back at me like a venomous snake. It splattered onto my cheek and scalded me in places.

"Levi please." I begged.

"Yeah, you fucking little bitch. Not so sassy now are we?" My cheek burnt but thankfully he didn't let it actually touch the liquid, pulling me back moments before I collided with it.

For a second, a stupid second, I thought that was going to be the end of it. He would leave and I would slump down onto the floor, spilling my heart out into a dish towel. I'd want to call someone for comfort but my mom was drunk and Tyler was on a date with Wyatt. I had nobody but the dish towel. Either way, I was wrong. That wasn't the end of it.

He shoved me to the floor and repeatedly kicked me in the abdomen as I lay in the foetal position, blacking out from the pain and fear he was forcing me to feel. It was a trauma response, I knew that. I'd lived through that, my dad also occasionally beat me. Whenever he got drunk and mistook me for my mom.

Levi was beating me absurdly but my mind was thinking about how everyone's mental health sculptures were starting to take shape and mine was still in bits. Bits I had absolutely no clue what to do with. I was laying on the floor, slowly dying and my biggest concern was how shit my wooden sculpture looked.

He was probably kicking me hard enough to prevent me from ever having children and yet in that moment I also thought about Tyler and how ugly the brown coat was that he wore yesterday.

He was fucking crushing my ribcage, probably breaking it into bone dust and I thought about River. What River must've gone through to warrant such a heart breaking scar. How did he even get it? How old was he when it happened? Did he too block out the trauma?

Levi hocked back some spit and fired it down on me, his thick saliva gliding down my cheek, muddling with my tears.

"You're done for, cum slut."

And then he left, finally abandoning me in a ball on the floor in the kitchen.