Regona City: Flight (BK2)

A Deal

The twins didn't come back, neither did Alegra. All trace of them was gone. Orion was the only one that stayed around. He went to work at the café like usual; Sahara didn't. What made it worse was that Terrell seemed to suddenly avoid her too. He was spending his time elsewhere, only returning to the warehouse at random times for very short moments. It hurt Sahara that he was doing it. She didn't know why he of all people was behaving that way.

Not sure what to do, Sahara had tried to take her mind of things. She took her board and went boarding, hoping for the thrill she had felt when racing. However, it never came. For some reason it was hard to keep her balance at all. After almost taking a nasty fall, she decided to leave boarding alone. Instead, she stayed in the warehouse, waiting and hoping for the others to return.

In the end, Orion dragged her to the café with him, saying that Jack had been complaining that no one had been turning up and so was threatening to fire her. Sahara set to work lifelessly, not aware of most of what was going on around her as she worked more like a robot on autopilot than anything.

She didn't know how to handle the sudden loneliness. It was not that she had never felt it before, it was just that days before she had had people all around her, people who cared about her and who she thought of as family. Now they were gone.

"I ordered the tray for two, not almond pie," a customer told Sahara.

She started as she realized she had delivered the wrong dish to the wrong person. "I'm sorry," she murmured before quickly proceeding to deliver the dish to the right customer.

Orion and Jack watched her from behind the bar.

"She okay?" Sahara heard Jack ask Orion. She didn't hear the response as she went to take another customer's order.

The time to clean up came soon enough. Sahara wiped down the tables, not aware of anything else going on. Only when she looked up did she see Jack was standing next to her.

"You sick or something?" he asked.

Sahara shook her head, folding the rag in her hands absentmindedly.

Jack nodded. "Right." He paused. "By the way. That Terrell boy hasn't come in the last few days." His eyes narrowed. "He's got quite a lot of points to pay on that tab of his he keeps talking about. He isn't bailing, is he?"

Sahara didn't reply as she unfolded the rag once more.

"And those other three," Jack added as he watched Sahara closely for a reaction, "Tell em that if they skip much longer I'll be letting them go. Can't do with unreliable staff."

Sahara only nodded as she twisted the rag.

Jack turned to go before he paused. "Everyone goes through a rough patch," he began. "The darker the storm, the brighter the rainbow after." He lifted a hand to scratch his bald head. "I guess what I'm saying is..." He let out a huff of frustration. "Jeeze, I'm no good at these kind of conversations." He turned around. "Lift your head, kid."

Sahara looked up at him.

"Nothing is as bad as it seems...trust me." His eyes met hers. "So stand up straight and lift that chin. Smiling would do you a load of good too...I don't like it when my employees are frowning...it's bad for the customers." He turned and headed back to the kitchen. "I'm locking up in ten minutes."

Jack walked past Orion who had his elbow on the counter and his chin resting on his palm. He wasn't wearing his glasses making Sahara wonder once more if he really needed them. Without them Orion looked...different.

As if sensing her eyes on him, Orion turned his gaze on Sahara.

"You know," he spoke. "You should stop looking so down. It's not like you really did anything that bad."