The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

VIII

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A few nights later. I put on my polo with the Taco Bell logo, which always smelled like stale beans no matter how many times I washed it. Dani and Haerin left me alone to get changed, as if my uniform was obscene and deserving of privacy. Which wasn't far off. My shits at Taco Bell sucked away my will to live. An extra-impressive feat, considering that I was already dead. I twisted my terrible hair into a knot, pulling it through the back of my hat.

The bus stopped a block away from Taco Bell. Jimmy would be thrilled ro see me. The 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. shift was truly a special time. Jimmy would share his coffee breath, I would share my general disdain for humanity, and if we were extra fortunate, a college freshman would throw up in the dining room. Just to keep us on our toes. Bar-rush customers were the absolute worst.

"You're in drive-thru." A greasy lock of hair stuck to Jimmy's shiny forehead. He gave the order to my chest, as covered and shapeless as it was in my uniform. One of these days I was going to slit his throat. "Glad to see your cramps are gone."

I grabbed a headset from the backroom. "Glad to see you still haven't managed to take a shower in the two months we've worked together."

While Jimmy was technically my superior, I could not abide by giving respect to a man who had amassed an enormous collection of boogers under register four.

His expression turned sourer than the pit stains on his uniform. "Lose the attitude, or I'll find another deadbeat dropout to replace you."

"I'd like to see you try." I flashed my teeth, but he didn't even flinch. Guess Jimmy didn't have a lot to fear from death, either.

"How about we just don't talk for the rest of the night. We'll make it game. You can pretend I'm smiling at customers; I can pretend you aren't holed up in your office because you want to look for porn on your phone. It's a win-win."

His upper lip, beaded with sweat, curled in disgust. Occasionally he tried to put on the boss hat and exert some authority. It was amusing at best. "You're lucky I don't have the staff to fire you tonight."

"I bet you say that to all the girls." I walked away before I did something regrettable. Like tear off his head. Jimmy irritated me on a normal basis, but after running into Eunwoo and stressing about my heirloom, I was in no mood for even a casual amount of shit.

Sam and Terry, the two line cooks, said hi to me, and I ignored them. After two months of working with me, they still hadn't gotten the hint that I didn't like to play those getting-to-know-you games. I stuck to my corner, rung up orders, and did the bare minimum until I could leave. That was really the most that could be expected of me, considering what I got paid.

Living in a college town meant every night had a bar rush. No one got sick in the dining room, but we did have someone pass out face-first in their Nachos BellGrande.

Never a dull moment. Once we slowed down, Jimmy sent the line cooks home. The lobby closed hours ago, and I clocked out to take my dinner break with only an hour left on my shift.

Jimmy came up behind me, closer than I found comfortable from people I actually liked. I took a step forward just to put a few more inches between us, my stomach bumping up against the drive-thru ledge. I could smell the cheap whiskey on his breath and the discount TV dinner in his blood. His poor eating habits were the only thing that had saved him thus far.

"How come I never seen your parents pick you up or drop you off?" He touched the end of my hair. "Seems like they don't care much about you."

Of course, Jimmy was the type to think making me feel bad about myself was a form of flirting. "They like me enough to give me space. I'm giving you two seconds to walk away."