Honey

Chapter Two

Honey – three months ago

I'd never liked the town I grew up in. Too many supermarkets and nursing homes. Nothing for younger kids and growing up here was tough. Its funny how some of the prettiest places have the darkest secrets.

I had been working in the pub at the cross roads in the heart of town. It was sad that the place to be resided on the join of two main roads. The traffic and road rage killed any vibe that might have existed in the fake grass garden, jam packed with cheap tables and chairs. There was one small hut that was for smokers and its oak frame and thick wood table and benches made it the most popular place in the garden.

This pub was called the Kings Head and I had worked here since I was old enough to look eighteen. That was around my fourteenth birthday when I realised that making my own money and not being under my parents rule was far better. Looking back the fact that they didn't worry about me working in a pub at the age of fourteen didn't make a lot of sense but then nothing they did made a lot of sense. There are some people that shouldn't have kids and my parents definitely fell into that category.

Tonight I was working from 8pm till 3am and I was not looking forward to the late shift. At least I would be working with my good friend Tom. We had known each other since secondary school and had managed to survive the ordeal and torture of the school system by keeping a low profile and staying at his house after school to play games on his Xbox and binge watch films.

Now we were both twenty four and still stuck in this dead end town. I couldn't shake this niggling feeling that things would have to change because for both of us this could never be enough.

I strode through the wooden door of the pub to be greeted to more and more wood, wooden bar, wooden shelves, wooden booths and tables. The blue lighting on the bar shelves and the wood being a lovely mid tone brown managed to give it a slightly higher class style than it should have. Tom was smiling at me from behind the bar with his floppy blond, surfer boy hair and blue eyes. He was tall and had finally grown into his frame after being gangly most of his teenage years. "What time do you call this?" He smirked at me as I opened the small bar gate. 

 " Yeah, Yeah. I'm not that late." I bumped my shoulder against his before shoving my bag into the cupboard under the drinks shelves.

"Its been pretty slow this afternoon. Everyone stayed at home to watch the football I guess." Tom shrugged and flipped his fringe out of his eyes.

"I'm so glad they don't show the football here. Dealing with middle aged men in tight football shirt with beer bellies and attitude is not the one." I pulled my long copper hair up into a ponytail with the scarlet scrunchie from my wrist. Yes, I still use scrunchies.

The front door swung open and a group of women clattered in. I made a face at Tom before jumping into customer service mode and fulfilling their orders with a smile.