Beside You

Chapter One

"Rosalyn! You're late, again!"

"I know, I'm so sorry! It won't happen again, I promise!", I answer the lady, who is my boss.

"You said exactly the same the last four times."

"I know, I'm really sorry. It was just five minutes though."

"Were you kissing your boyfriend goodbye?", she asks with a smile. I roll my eyes at her.

"You know I don't have a boyfriend," I answer as I walk into the restaurant.

If you didn't notice already, my name is Rosalyn. I'm just a normal seventeen year old girl from a small city in England. I work in a restaurant, which is one of the two restaurants in the city.

"Rose! Where were you this time? You're fifteen minutes late," Lynn asks from the other side of the restaurant. Lynn is my colleague and my best friend. "I was reading in the garden, as always," I smile. I look around. It's not really busy. There are three men in the corner drinking beer and a few students in the middle drinking a smoothie. It's normally a lot busier on a saturday afternoon, but not today. "Where is everyone?", I ask Lynn. "I don't know, they're probably at the football match," she shrugs. "Great." That means a lot of drunk men and teenagers tonight.

Just as I said, at seven o'clock the restaurant is almost full. With drunk people, of course. Those are the worst. They're always loud and rude.

"Look," Lynn whispers, pointing her finger at a guy in the corner. I'm happy nobody can see her pointing, since we stand behind the bar. "He's hot," she says. I roll my eyes. "You think every guy of your age is hot, Lynn. You spot a hot guy every night." She nods in agreement. "True. But this one is the hottest yet, I think."

I watch the boy. He doesn't seem as drunk as the others at his table. His hair is blonde, almost the same colour as honey. His eyes are the type of eyes you could drown in. As blue as the ocean, as cheesy as it sounds. His skin is slightly tanned and his arms are covered with ink. He is too far away to see tattoo's properly. I shrug. "He's okay, I guess. I don't really like all the tattoo's." She looked in my eyes. "Are you kidding? That's what makes him hot," she whispers. I shrug again. "Hold on, I'm going to ask if he wants another drink," Lynn says, but I grab her arm. "Oh no, that's my section. I'll serve him," I wink. She stares at me, her mouth opened. It turns into a smile. "Go on, tiger," she says as I walk to the table with the boy.

"I want another beer!", a boy, who's sitting across the blonde, shouts at me. He is obviously drunk. I grab my paper. "Anyone else?", I ask politely and look at the blonde boy. He looks up and shakes his head. One of his eyes is blue, almost purple. Is he beaten up? I nod at the boy who ordered the beer and walk back to Lynn.

"And? Do you have his number? Are you going on a date?", she whispers. "Whoa, wait a second. I only asked if he wanted a beer and he shaked his head. That's all. The black-haired one does want a beer though," I answer as I walk to the tap. Lynn shakes her head in disbelief. "How can you? Here, let me do this," she says and grabs the beer. She wiggles her boobs, making me laugh.

"Hello!", she says loudly when she stands next to the boys' table. "Here is your beer. You'll get it for free if all of you give me your numbers," she adds with a wink.  I roll my eyes. Typical something Lynn would do. To my surprise, or actually not, since Lynn isn't ugly, the boys write something on the paper she gives them, the blonde one as last. He doesn't seem too sure about it.

"That's how I roll," Lynn grins as she shows me the paper with five numbers written on it. "Congratulations," I say rolling my eyes. She giggles as we both walk to another table.

"Text him!", Lynn says as we stand behind the bar again. "Oh no, you can have him. I'm not really the person who would get a boyfriend this way," I say. Lynn laughs. "Well, I don't care how I get a boyfriend, but I do have their numbers and I'm going to use them," she says and grabs her phone. I look at who she's texting. It isn't the blonde one, but the black-haired one who ordered the beer. I don't get her choice, at all. I must admit that the blonde one isn't that ugly.

At eleven o'clock the last people leave the restaurant. The only people who are still here are the boys. "We're closing," Lynn pouts. The boys stand up, or however you call it they do. The blonde one looks quite drunk now, too. He leaves to the restroom. The other boys completely forget about him and leave.

"I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow!", Lynn says. "Bye!", I shout back as I clean the bar. Our boss left too, she had an appointment or something. Weird time, but okay.

The boys stumbles out of the door and looks around. "They left," I say. He looks at me. "Oh," he answers and checks me out. "I don't really care," he says, his voice low. He walks in my direction. "H..how was the match?", I stutter. He's coming closer, too close.

"We won," he breathes. He's now a few inches away from me. "It was a very exciting game," he adds, his face coming closer. Suddenly his lips are against mine. I walk back, stumbling over my own feet. He grins. "Innocent, huh? I like that," he says with a raspy voice as he comes closer again. "I.." "Shh," he puts his finger on my lips, making me silent. He presses his lips against mine again. I want to slap him, scream at him, but I don't. I'm too weak, I can't to anything. Plus, I think I kind of like it. I've never been kissed before, and the boy could have looked worse. It just doesn't feel right.

He softly bites on my bottom lip. At that moment I push him away. "Stop, please," I say out of breath. He grins again and looks at the clock. "Fuck, I need to leave. I'll see you tomorrow beautiful," he winks. I stare at him as he walks out of the restaurant.