Loving in London... Ontario

Chapter 1

The first day of work was a lot better then I expected. Picking up a job at the taco hut was probably good for me. It gave me a reason to get away from the guilt filled lawyer and the alcoholic care taker. I say care taker because my mom gave my father whatever he needed, considering he'd never leave the couch, food, water, a warm hoodie, you name it. To be completely honest, it was pathetic. I've never in my 20 years on this planet have seen such a torn apart, helpless man. If you saw him, you'd think he had lost his daughter, not his job.

"Scarlett, honey can you run up stairs and grab the broom out of the closet." Maria was a sweet old Hispanic lady. Her accent got to the point where sometimes I couldn't even comprehend the words that spewed from her heavily "lip lined" lips.

You know that pencil that the ladies used in the 70s too make their lips look more full and plump? Well that was covering about 65% of Maria's face. Whenever she talked, I would normally just smile and nod, like I understood. Hell, a miracle worker couldn't even decipher what she was saying.

I headed upstairs, the creaking floor boards gave the moment a eery feeling, like i was walking to my own death. A small lightbulb hung above the staircase, directly centered. The walls were an off white, something told me they weren't painted that way. Over the years, it must have browned because the way it look was pretty scary. When I hit the top of the stairs there was another light that I had switched on. This was the first time I had been up here, the noisy boards continued to sing as i carried in down the empty hallway.

To my left was a door that read "supply's" but straight ahead was another door. There were gold numbers nailed in the front, almost like an apartment door. The gold plates read three numbers, 333.

I moved cautiously, taking a pause between each step until I reached the mysterious door. My shaking hand reached for the door nob, I slowly turned it expecting the hinges to slowly creak open, exposing a few dead bodies, or maybe a huge map with red tacks to mark out the victims of a cereal rapist. I had a big mind for such a little body. My imagination let me down once again, this was sadly not the first time that I had gotten my hopes up to only be let down again, descending on a fragile rope, back to reality. It was locked. No dead bodies. I jiggle the door knob a few more times, when a sudden arrangement of foot steps stopped my curiosity.

"Excuse me?" A mans voice said, I turned around in fright, but what was before my eyes was much less then scary. There stood a beautiful young man, had to be my age. I gently smiled, his brown hair and caramel eyes took me aback.

"S-sorry." I stuttered, stepping away from the door and wiping my hands on my apron. I sent a smirk, and he sent one back. His body was lean, yet muscular but not to the point where the veins looked like they would burst any minute. He was just the right size.

He was carrying a small box filled to the brim with what I took to be as nicknacks. It looked the trophies, maybe soccer or hockey? "It's cool." His voice was calm and charming, the way he grinned at me was actually captivating. "I'm Justin." He said, waiting for my response.

I choked up on my words, I was like a school girl again, attempting talk to a handsome guy. "Hi, I'm - uh, my name is. Um, hi" was all I could manage to say. He laughed and shook his head, his eyes squinted a bit.

"Scarlett?" He asked, walking toward me, well I thought it was me, but he was actually stepping to his door.

I brushed my blonde bangs back behind my ear and then touched the name tag that hung off my apron. "Yeah, that's me." I gulped.

"Well, Scarlett I better get going. Lunch won't cook itself." He pushed the key into the door knob, jerking it to the left, and then to the right until the front door opened.

"Okay!" I shouted after him, "hope it tastes great! Have fun!" I waved and quickly smacked myself in the forehead for saying such stupid things. His door shut and I proceeded on my way to get the broom. I couldn't believe I had just made the biggest fool of myself. A cute, charming guy finally tried to converse with me and I couldn't even remember my own damn name.

I stumbled back down the stairs to clean up the crumbled taco shells that a baby had thrown on the floor. My shift was no where nears over, I was only counting down the hours until I could go home and eat. my tummy was growling and hissing at me. As hungry as I was after what just happened , I don't think I'll be able to keep anything down.