TAN SKIN // A Baxter Radic Story

-012-

I walk into the smoothie truck with my hands full. My phone, a sandwich that I made at home, and my water bottle. "Hi Kaia!" I hear one of my favorite coworkers greet. Her name is Daisy Mae, but we just call her Daisy. I personally love her name, but of course, she hates it.

"Hey girl. I have to rant to you." I say laughing while pointing at her. A smile appears on her face, as she fans herself. Our air conditioning unit broke in here a couple months back, and our manager has not decided to fix it. We literally are selling smoothies, we cannot have our fruit get too warm. But in his words "we set up fans, people will still come."

I walk over to the clock on the wall, swipe my card, and a beep indicating that I am in fact clocked in. This smoothie truck is honestly so nice, but the bad part is we have a generator that is so loud. So we practically have to scream for people to hear us. You would also think the air conditioning would work because our generator is on. But like I said before, the actual unit is broken.
"Have we been busy?" I ask Daisy Mae, she shakes her head, but I am guessing the waves are good on this beach today. Once the surfers decide to be done, we get swarmed. Like to the point where our line goes around the corner.

Daisy Mae starts to wash her hands in the sink, before she puts her gloves on to cut fruit. "So what do you need to rant about?" She's asks me with a smile, I take a deep breath before crossing my arms. Daisy is the type of coworkers you can let it out and she will never ever judge you. She will also give the best advice ever, while she keeps a huge secret. She also is one of the only people I have ever brought Bax up too. Although I never said his name, she will definitely remember who he is.

"You know that kid who I used to date back in Queensland?" I question her as I crack my knuckles. "Kaia..." she trails on, after she shuts off the water. I watch as she starts to put her gloves on, I look at her before she gives me a definite answer. "Yes Kaia I remember." She giggles softly.

"Well he um...he moved here. Is on our surfing team, has turned almost ten times hotter than before, I stayed in his room last night, and did an ice bath with him. All in a span of a day." I take a breath after talking super fast. The snap of Daisy Mae's glove going on her hand is the only thing that I hear, her jaw is practically on the ground, and she's staring at me. "Please say something" I whine putting my head in my hands, feeling so embarrassed.

"Well Kai, you loved him right? Those feelings do not just go away." She starts, as I go over to the fridge, and take out the strawberries for her. "And about the room thing....what the hell happened to share a room with him?" She laughs a little while she pours the strawberries into a strainer to clean them. I can't really tell her why I was in his room, because nobody would really understand so I lie a little.

"I was upset with the rest of the team, and since we were doing team bonding at his house I ended up staying there. No one wanted to drive me home." I fib, her eyebrows scrunch.
"Not even Poppy?"
"She left early. She had sponsor things this morning."
Daisy Mae believed it. I think. "But we all talked it out, so we are better now." I clarify.

She starts to cut up the berries before asking me the next question. "So what's his name? You have never told me." She points out, she's right I never have told her.
"Baxter" I smile at her. She smiles back at me, "you're blushing" she squeals, laughing a little. "He has freaking pink hair now, and girl when I tell you his tan is something else!" I shout at her, she shushes me and tilts her head toward the people coming up to the window.

I walk over to them planting a smile on my face, a little girl with her mom and dad are our regulars. I actually have never asked for their names, but I should because I see them every shift. "The usual?" I ask them, once they make it up to the window. I watch the mother nod, "two mangoes, and a blueberry!" I shout to Daisy Mae.

She starts on the smoothies, while I put that into the iPad. "Cash or card?" I question, they usually use card.
"Card"
"That will be 12.19" I inform them, the father puts his card into my card machine. Daisy puts the two mangos on the counter, so I had one off to the mother and little girl. The father takes the card out, and I smile kindly at him as he puts some change in the tip jar. Tips are never, ever, expected here. I turn around to see Daisy finishing up the blueberry smoothie. I usually help her, but she does the mango smoothies in the same blender, and the blueberry one in a different one. So it goes pretty fast.

She hands me the blueberry smoothie, and I hand it off to the dad. They all say thank you before walking away. "Did his apologize for ghosting you?" Daisy asks me, taking off her other gloves and putting news ones on to cut up for fruit.

"Yeah, right away actually. I am not sure if I really do forgive him though. I want to, but he hurt me a lot. You know? I explained to her, messing with my pink apron.
"I get it, when someone hurts you, it's really hard to just trust them again. Will your friends stop over today?"

I nod at her, like I said before they usually do.
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DISCLAIMER
I am American, in American dollars the total for the drinks were 8 US dollars. In Australian dollars it was 12.19!!