IS IT A DREAM OR REALITY?

CHAPTER TWO

The next stop is the station where I'm going to get off, it's not too far from the pizzeria where I work, it's just about two minutes walk and I'll be there.
I hope I don't meet Mr. Marc when I get there, or better yet I call Gina and ask for her help, I pick up the phone to call her,
"Gina, Hi..." I say
Gina replies "Rachel where're you...? Marc knows you are not here, he never stops asking about you"
Me "Oh No... It's not my lucky day... I approach the pizzeria, please try to turn him on so I can get in there please Gina..."
Gina "I'll try, just hurry..."
I'm in front of the pizzeria, I look through the glass to make sure that Marc is not somewhere here, I try to cover my face with my hair as much as I can, in case he sees me, he will be unable to recognize who I am.
I sneak into the changing room quickly, change my clothes, then head to the kitchen, I call Gina who is preparing one of the orders, and she says to me that Marc is not here right now because a while ago they called him from the hospital because his mother's blood pressure is up again and she needs to stay there for some time until her condition stabilizes, so he's not coming back tonight.

To be honest, I feel kind of happy because I am not gonna face the anger of Marc, but at the same time I feel bad for his mother, I am happy because he isn't here, but I don't want his mother's illness to be the reason.
Anyway, the first thing I need to do, is checking the list of orders to know exactly what I need to make, then the evening passed in preparing pizza orders.

It's now about ten o'clock in the evening, and I'm almost done,
there are no customers left in the pizzeria, but there are still four orders with the delivery service,
so I am rushing to complete them.
I need to go home and sleep, I am very tired.
But this is kind of impossible because and unfortunately I am the last worker to arrive at work, that's why everyone refused to help me, so I remain to prepare these four orders myself.
After I finish, I called Steven, the guy who my mother wanted me to talk about in the morning but it was not the right time for that conversation.
He works in the delivery service, he is a handsome and tall guy and I feel that he likes me, In fact, I also began to like him, I guess, he will ask me out this weekend maybe,
I'm not sure,
But his gazes tell me that he will.

So, there are four orders and because three of them are in almost the same destination, I give them to Steven to deliver them, as for the remaining order is from someone outside the town, so I tell him that I will give it to another worker to deliver it since it is only one order.
It took Steven to leave to realize that there is no one to deliver this order, It is only me and the cleaning lady who stay,
I ask her if she saw someone, but she says "No" and she tell me that everyone left early this night, they took the advantage that Marc is not around to celebrate Erial's birthday.
As a brief summary on Erial, she is kind of that hot, beautiful and popular girl at work who each guy wants to date, she's like pretty and skinny with a long black hair .
Anyway, let's just focus on this order which I'm stuck here with, I need to find someone to deliver it so I can leave.
I call Steven, because it's almost half an hour has passed since he left, I think he will be on his way here, he may be close to arriving.
I pick up my phone and call him,
It's ringing,
He answers "Hi Rachel..."
He says my name,
I'm shocked,
He knows that this is my number...
I thought he didn't have it because I didn't have his number too,
I just take it from the list of the workers' contact information.
Maybe he took my phone number from here before,
I feel that this thing is the only good thing on this strange night.
I reply "Mm Hi... I just wonder, if you're close to arriving the pizzeria because I'm stuck here with this fourth order, I need you to deliver it"
"Why are you remain there? Where're the other delivery workers ?" Steven says
"Everyone left before I realized that," I tell him
Steven says "Rachel... I wish I can help you, I'm already on my way there, but I'm stuck in a mess, lots of police and people, I think they are looking for a runaway person they're checking the identity of everyone.
I don't know how long I'll be able to arrive, maybe I'll be too late... You know what... It's better to call the customer and apologize for not being able to deliver the order and go home it's too late"
"Okay, it's okay... I'll see what I can do" I reply
Then I hung up.
If I call the customer and apologize, she absolutely will be unsatisfied with this, and sooner or later Marc will know this somehow and he will scold me alone.

This order must be delivered no matter what happen.

I change my clothes, I take the pizza, and I head to the bus station and I take the bus out of the town.

On the way there, I think about how strange it is tonight and whether it will end when the order is delivered, or will it get even more weird?

I was late for work today and I was late to work too, everyone went to celebrate Erial's birthday without even telling me or asking me if I want to.
Steven is stuck in the middle of a crowded road because of the police, while I'm here stuck with this order.
I cannot apologize for not being able to deliver the order, because this will increase the probability that I am going to be expelled and I can't leave this job either, because of something I'm not responsible for.

I think that people are always inclined to hold others responsible, and that's what happens to me every time I start to feel stable at a job, and that's why I'm taking this order myself to prevent history from repeating itself.
Back from my thoughts, I mention that while we are moving away from the town center more and more, the lights become less and less, there are only the lights of the houses along the road, and in some places, there's no light at all, it's just the dark and the sound of trees moving because of the wind, the weather begins to become cloudy which make me confuse, because I checked the weather before I left the pizzeria, and it was clear, I didn't know that it might change so quickly.

The bus is empty, there is only me and the bus driver who seems strange too, he looks at me weirdly from time to time.

The bus stops at the last station which is my destination, I get off the bus, and as soon as I put my feet on the ground, a strange and at the same time frightening feeling swept over me, just like the feeling I had when I remembered that strange dream...