Salmonella

Chapter 11

🫧Eleven🫧

Margaday comes around and I pretend not to remember; pretend not to be staring at the clock all day, counting down the hours. If Asslas notices I'm acting strange, he doesn't show it. He's too busy ranting to Zig-Zag about how Starducks got his order wrong. Zig asks why he didn't just tell them and ask for a new drink, but Asslas says he felt bad and didn't want to waste their time.

Woah, Asslas felt bad for someone? I find that hard to believe. With my back to the mers, I make a big show of rolling my eyes.

A little past noon, I start hanging up my smock, eyes trained on the door. It's a few minutes earlier than usual, so now Asslas finally puts down his drink to swoosh his way over to me.

"Bentik?" he hesitates, sounding genuinely confused and not mad this time. "Is... something wrong?"

"No," I say innocently. "Just going to lunch." I make my way to the door, and he's so stunned he doesn't react fast enough to catch me. None of us have ever walked out on him before. No one wants to hear his whiny voice lecture us for being impolite.

"Um, not for another five minutes, you're not," he says slowly.

But when I reach the door and spot two familiar figures outside, a warm feeling of protection spreads over me and suddenly nothing in this shop can possibly stop me.

"Hey!" I breathe, stepping out of the shop. "You're here early. Hope I didn't keep you waiting."

"Not at all," says Genesis' boyfriend.

"ELLA!" cries Genesis, pushing me backwards as she rushes into my arms. We fall back into the door and end up holding it open. My mind races, thinking of how I've just given Asslas and the others a very clear view of us. Krill's hand punches out, grabbing the door in a swift motion to keep it from hitting us. Very bodyguard move, I don't say. Then I look at Genesis as she pulls back from me.

"Why are you wearing that?" I eye the giant hat shielding half of her face and the dark shades over her eyes. Beside her, Krill wears a flowing open tropical shirt and sips from a coconut. So extra, these two.

"Bentik," I hear someone call from behind me. Crappie. We gotta get out of here before Asslas can drag me back in. While Genesis is distracted, hissing something inaudible at her boyfriend, I hurriedly move away from the door, trying to tug her along. "Great, everyone's here. Can we go? My lunch break is only half an hour."

I hear one last warning "Bentik" before the door shuts behind us and we start moving.

"Yep, just one thing first," says Genesis, looping an arm through mine, Krill swimming behind us like a bodyguard. "If you could call me Jenny or other code names in public, that would be great."

Ah. Explains the disguise. I eye her hat again. "Oh. Yeah, of course."

"Thanks," she says with a small smile. Her boyfriend falls into place beside me, squishing me between two very odd people. Genesis swings my arm back and forth with both her hands, chatting delightedly with me like we've known each other for years.

"Sooo? How's work going?"

It never occurred to me how awkward this would be, going out with these people I barely know. Not to mention one who has to conceal her identity in public because she's a literal celebrity. Guess I was just that desperate for an escape from Paints.

"The same as always," I say awkwardly.

"Cool, cool. So are you into painting, or just wanted to work there?"