e d i t

chapter four

Ihop
(yn)
ten O' four, Wednesday October twenty-ninth, twenty-sixteen.

"Oh hey, (y/n)" said Ross as I plopped myself down, I gave a smile and dropped my customer voice.

"Hey," I replied, giving him a cool guy nod,

"Holy shit, did you just become a different person?" Max asked from beside me,

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand but all I did was drop my retail voice."

"You're right, I don't understand." Ross declared from across the table.

We talked back and forth like this for a while until Callie approached the table, "Hey there fellas," She said, "Is it alright if I ask (y/n) here a quick question?"

The guys muttered 'yes's and 'I don't see why not's jokingly,

"Can I start on my closing jobs?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Well, I usually have to check with Tam or Bry first but you're the only one here besides Ty,"

"Well, yea Cal feel free. You can clock out afterwards too,"

"Really?"

"I mean yeah, I think I got it here." I said, she smiled gratefully and scurried off to do her jobs, shooting one last smile at the guys over her shoulder.

"Well fuck me," Max whispered from beside me, I turned back to face him to see all the guys looking at me.

"What?" I asked,

"That 'customer voice' thing, what the hell. You two literally just became two different people." He said, "I- wow."

"Are you an actor?" Ross said from across the table, Tim smiled, but nodded.

"Well no, I mean, we dress up and style our hair professionally and wear a plastic smile all day, my voice gets a little higher and peppier and I nod my head a lot in hopes that the customers don't complain to the boss about the service, we need the good ratings." I said, a little dumbfounded at how it was an oblivious thing to them.

"I would hate that, I would fuckin' hate that." Muttered Tim, the other two guys agreed.

"That's why I don't necessarily like it here." I said, still a little bit flabbergasted.

"So why do you stay?"

"I guess the only thing keeping me here is the people, they're lovely, my closest friends in fact."

"How cute!" Max cooed from beside me, "That's kinda like the offices, I mean the friendly part of course."  I was looking across the table at ross when Callie walked out of the meal prep station,

"Ty wants you, (y/n)!" She called, before swinging back into the hall.

"'scuze me" I said, standing up. I made my way to the kitchen where I poked my head in.

"Hey, Ty, what's up?"

"Can I start to turn things off?"

"I don't know, can you?"

"Well Tammie usually tells me to around now,"

"So.. turn it off?"

"Are there more people coming in?" He asked, He was a big guy, fairly round for an eighteen year old, he had shaggy blond hair that fell matted around his face, his own apron smeared with butter and grease.

"Is there ever any more people coming in?"

"Guess not,"

"Ok," I said, and stepped out of the kitchen. Through the waitress station he called to me again though, and looked at me across the open window where the meals go.

"Who's out there?"

"Just some guys who come in every once and a while, we're just talking."

"Can I join? Like if they don't mind obviously, Just cause Bry is coming to get me later and she and I are going to go see her grandma, but not until later."

"Yeah, sure. come on." I saw him take off his apron and he followed me back into the dining room, where the guys were still sitting, still talking, still laughing. Only I noticed Ty had stopped following, and so I turned to him and gave him a questioning look.

"That's them?"

"Yeah.."

"I know them,"

"What? How?"

"I subbed to Max on youtube, even though he doesn't have any content."

"I'm going to pretend like I understood that, come on."

"Oh my god this is so cool, you said they come here often?"

"Why don't you ask them."

We made our way back to the booth and Ty pulled up a chair from a nearby table. I introduced him as the cook, and it was soon made quite apparent he was happy to be meeting them.

"Max you are like.. hardcore good at editing," he said, Max smiled,

"Thanks man! You are like... hardcore good at cooking!" he replied,

We talked like that until eleven O' clock, and Max deemed it time to leave. Ty and Callie had clocked out and left not long before, and I walked them to the door, my work bag hanging from my left hand. We all walked out together and I locked up, collectively we walked to our cars in the parking lot which, coincidentally were parked right next to eachother.

Ross and Tim got in the front seat, leaving Max and I, in between our two cars, He was smiling at me and for once I noticed how tall he was.

"Hey so, it was nice to meet you," He said, "Well like, you, you, and not whatever that fuckin' retail voice thing is."

"Still can't grasp it?" Solemnly yet playfully, he shook his head no.

"Well, I've been thinking about this all night, but I think you're cute and I was wondering if-"

I felt my heart flutter for a second, and my stomach filled up with butterflies in the fleeting moment that he stopped to bite his lips out of nerves. Only was it then though, that I remembered who I was driving home to, and I realized the racing heart and the butterflies were caused by being overly tired. "If you'd want to go out sometime? Together? Alone and not at Ihop?" I smiled sadly at him, at his cute face and his fiery red hair. He was submerged in darkness and as was I, so I doubt he barely caught the look of sadness in my eyes.

"I totally would Max, like you seem like a really cool guy and I dig that-"

"but.."

"But I have a boyfriend, actually." I saw him, as he looked down at his feet, he looked upset for a moment, but it was short lived.

"I knew it was a shot in the dark, but you never know until you try- right? Consider it flattery then."

"Thanks, Max. I will, see you next week?"

"I make no promises, but yeah."

I smiled up at him once more before Ross honked the horn, nearly causing me to jump in actual freight. I just barely caught Max's eyeroll through the darkness but it was there, and he hopped in the backseat, waving goodbye as they pulled out of the lot, and left my eyes trailing their car as they drove into the darkness.

I couldn't entirely explain to you why my hear was beating so fast,

But I then thought about Eli, and it kind of calmed me down. He always calmed me down, he felt to me like safety, I loved him.

I thought I loved him.