I Love You Just the Way You Are (Book 1- Rock Canyon Series)

Chapter 5 - Maddie

Chapter 5 - Maddie

My final shift ended two days before school started. I could have worked the last day but I was already starting to get super nervous. I'd be doing something, anything, feeling perfectly fine, and then suddenly panic. A few seconds later, a rush of thoughts about school. 

Why? Because I didn't know what awaited me there, that's why. And it was starting to eat at me. Instead of working at the cafe, I planned to spend the last 24 hours freaking out at home in peace.

Mark had been mopey all shift. I caught him glancing at me sideways clenching his jaw more than a few times. He didn't want to see our time together come to an end. And now that Kellan had stopped harassing me at work, I was sad to see it come to an end, too. 

At the end of my shift, we met in the backroom. Mark was visibly shaking but I tried to ignore it.

"This the saddest day of my life. I wish you would stay on for just one little itsy-bitsy four-hour shift a week. We've had so much fun working together this summer. I'm going to miss you," he said through watery eyes, his bottom lip jutting forward in an exaggerated pout.

"I know. I'm going to miss you, too. But I'll be by for drinks and to hang out. I'm just going to be so busy with the computer science program at school, and not to mention streaming that I won't have any time for work," I said and then paused and laughed. "Wow I sound like a little brat, don't I? Too busy for work."

He waved me off. "Don't worry, looks good on ya. Oh, by the way, I have something for you." He opened his locker and pulled out a small package wrapped meticulously in rainbow parchment paper.

"Aww! You bought me a present?" I said, clapping my hands in front of my chest.

"Honey, I made you a present, I didn't buy you a present. Don't you dare insult me!" He arched an eyebrow and mustered his best stern boss face. It was pathetic. Mark was incapable of looking mean. I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"You're so sweet. I'm going to open it right now!"

I grabbed the present out of his hands and undid the ribbons, tearing apart the delicate paper. I picked up a little knitted pillow that was hiding underneath. It had a light brown background with "Human" stitched across the front in blue, pink, and white. Trans pride colors. I stood there dumbfounded, the floodgates bursting open somewhere deep within. 

Other than Destiny, no one had ever done something so thoughtful for me.

"Whenever you have a hard time at school, just remember that you deserve to be happy, that you deserve to be loved, that you-"

Whatever self-constraint I had managed to summon evaporated, and the waterworks commenced. You know how sometimes you cry, and you feel the emotion first and then you feel a fat tear fall slowly out of the side of your eye? Yeah, this wasn't like that. Tears exploded from my eyes like little salty cannonballs. I didn't even give poor Mark a chance to finish his thoughts before I slammed into him, knocking him slightly backward and wrapping my small arms around his body.

"Thank you for everything," I said, the words as blurred as my eyes. "I'm going to miss you so much. You've always been there for me." I kept trying to talk but my words had become unintelligible, lost in a gurgle of sniffles and failed attempts at breathing. If Mark wasn't holding me, I would have fallen onto the ratty old bench next to the back door.

"Aww, you're gonna make me cry now! Stop, girl! I'll always be here, you know that. Anytime you need to talk to somebody, you come see me. You mean the world to me, Maddie. I'm rooting for you. You got this, honey. I know you can do this. You keep your head held high at that school. You hear?"