Southern Constellations (A Pierce The Veil Fan Fiction!)

Chapter 16

The day Friday comes around, I knew everything of how to be a successful waitress. After four grueling days of balancing plates on my hands and taking random orders from staff members pretending to be customers, I think I was finally ready for my first day. "Just be aware; Friday afternoons, all hell breaks loose." Melanie had warned me just yesterday before I went home.

Dolphin Restaurant was supposedley (from what I've heard) the place every teenager chose to come to after a long school week comes to an end. Originally, I had thought that it wasn't going to be that bad, but as I entered the restaurant and saw the many teens waiting to have their orders taken, I felt my gut twist and my confident inner self disintegrate till I was a nervous wreck. 

I walk into the bathroom and pull out the casually dressed outfit that waitresses here were assigned to wear; a pencil skirt and a grey tank-top. I slip out of my school clothes and get dressed. As I exit the bathroom I see my classmates heads turn as they realize I was going to be serving the majority of them all.

"Hey Taylor," Melanie greets my side as we stare out into the sea of kids. "There's... one last thing that you have to do before you're actually allowed to work here." 

My fake smile disappears and I feel my stomach lurch forward. "What?" I gulp.

Melanie points to the karaoke machine that was currently occupied by a teenage boy who I'd only seen a few times before at school. He was singing 'Everybody Talks' by Neon Trees and had drawn a large audience. "You have to preform a song... It's something we all had to go through before we were officially workers."

I stare at her and I feel lightheaded and dizzy. "Wh- what?!" I gasp. "I don't wanna sing in front of my classmates!" I whisper back sharply.

"Sorry Taylor... But if you don't do it, the staff won't accept you as a part of their family. Hey, you know what could help? A glass of cold apple juice!" Melanie hands me a large glass of the drink and I swallow it all at once before I realize that it was anything but apple juice.

"What the hell, Melanie?! Did I just drink beer?!" I ask already feeling it course through my veins. I feel some of the weight lift off my shoulders. It was almost... a nice feeling. "Am I drunk?" I ask as I feel a smile creeping up on my face. I wasn't exactly a sane person any longer from this moment on.

Melanie smirks at me. "Sorry Tay, but I think it's your time now. What do you wanna sing?" She questions me.

I hear my heart pound in my ears, loud with anxiety as I see Vic, Mike, Tony and Jaime looking through their menus near the back of the restaurant. Why are they here? "Shit's about to go down." I say aloud before I whisper the song into Melanie's ear. Was I really doing this right now? I think as I stand on the stage and look out into the sea of curious eyes. I see Vic and the other guys smiling as they watched me prepare to make a complete fool of myself.

"Ladies and gents! Give it up for our newest worker here, Taylor Smith!" Melanie roars into the mic and I hear many cheers burst out at once.

I hear the music start to play and stare directly at Vic as I smile. "This song... goes out to my friend, Vic Fuentes sitting in the back right there!" I point in his direction and see his face light up as he hears the song I was about to sing along with. "Yeah! Woooooooh!" I hear more cheers rooting me on. "Clock strikes upon the hour and the sun begins to fade! Still enough time to figure out how to chase my blues away! I've done alright up until now. It's the light of day that shows me how. And when the night falls the loneliness calls."

Was this really the drunk version of myself? "Oh I wanna dance with somebody! I wanna feel the heat with somebody!" I sing along with the song as feeling so reassured of myself until I start to feel dizzy.