Beautiful With You (Norman Reedus)

Chapter 9

Two weeks have come and gone and I still haven't talked to Norman and I felt like everything was so hot and cold with him. One minute we would be talking nonstop for days and the next he won't even talk to me at all. I don't know if it were me or if it was him. I loved talking to him and getting to know him. I felt like I was being jerked around but I didn't say anything and I held it in. We were on break from school as the holidays were nearing, the snow having started to fall outside. The flakes lazily falling down as I stared out the plate glass windows. I played with the straw wrapper my fingers pushing it around almost as if I were playing soccer with them. The diner wasn't doing so well and I knew it was only because families were coming in, people were leaving and the weather. We would get one or two people in, but that seemed to be the maximum number of people.

The bell of above the door rang and I jumped a bit, startled, the straw wrapper bouncing off the counter and to the floor. A man and a woman's voice could be heard, the one voice sounding familiar and I looked up, seeing Norman with his trademark sunglasses on but what caught my attention was the fact that he had his arm wrapped around the woman and she was smiling up at him. The color drained from my face and I couldn't help but feel the hurt flowing through me, seeping into every core of my body. I tried to keep myself together and I kept telling myself that I was stupid for thinking that he and I ever had a thing or that we would ever be together. I wasn't his type and she looked it. She had those long legs and wore an outfit that made her seem as if she had stepped off the runway. The way she looked at him was the way I felt about him. I grabbed my notepad and picked it up. I was one of the only wait staff here and so I would have to be the one to go to their table.

I walked up to the table and tried to keep my cool, "H-h-how can I help you?" I asked them, not even looking at Norman because I didn't want him to see the pain that this was causing me. I tried to steel my spine and to make myself stronger than I am. I didn't know how it was working but I wrote down their drink orders and grabbed them two menus, setting one down in front of both. I grabbed them their drinks and I could feel eyes on me but I didn't turn around, I couldn't turn around. I felt like I was going to break down if I did. I was stupid. He was a jerk, although I still had feelings for him. Those wouldn't go away but right now I felt like I was stabbed right in the heart.

"Are you ready?" I asked them and gave them the best smile I could muster.

"I'll have the salmon," the female said and Norman just ordered a burger. I wrote down their orders and turned around.

I stalked back behind the counter and was putting the ticket in and rubbed my face, my fingers scrubbing at my eyes to keep the tears at bay.

"Rae," I heard his voice but I didn't turn around and a sigh escaped his lips when I didn't. He said my name again and this time I just ignored him trying to make myself look busy by fiddling with this and that. How was I going to tell him I liked him and now I was crushed. "I'm sorry." He said, but I didn't know what for. He didn't know that I liked him and he didn't know what I was going through but I just couldn't deal right now. At this time and this moment I wanted to be somewhere else.

I could hear them chatting and every now and then I saw Norman look this way but I quickly would avert my gaze. I took out my school books and began to look through them, every now and then going to their table and refilling their drinks. Numerous times Norman tried to talk to me, even introducing me to Katrina. When he introduced me he called me his friend and those words were like rubbing salt into an open wound. I gave a tight smile and said hi to her before I went back to my post and texted Steph under the counter. I needed someone to talk to and I hoped that she wasn't too busy to talk to me. I put my phone back in my purse and tried to focus on my books, but the tears were beginning to gather in my eyes and everything became all blurry. I couldn't read a single word and I was begging them not to fall. Honestly I've made it this far without anyone and I damn well will be getting further without someone. I had my hands resting on my forehead and the bell above the door rang again and I looked up in relief seeing that it was Steph, so glad that she was here.