master of none.

005; nothing but a one man cult.

          BY MY THIRD DAY ON THE JOB, I HAD A NEWFOUND RESPECT FOR WAITERS. I had waited about ten tables since I first started, and I was a fraction of a second away from going postal.

I knew being rude to waiters was a thing that happened, but when it was something I had to personally go through when I brought a woman a Canada Dry instead of a Mountain Dew, I had to remind myself that twenty five to life wasn't worth it. At least not today.

"I don't know how you do it." I tell Lyla sincerely. "Like, I'm one more rude customer away from a mental breakdown."

It was after closing time, all the other employees had left, leaving me and Lyla to do clean up. She was wiping down the tables and I was stuck with the counter, which had been covered in tomato sauce, fries that missed someone's mouth, and all kinds of toppings that had fallen off during the process these people should have perfected by the time they left grade school.

She sprays windex on her final table. "Takes a lot of patience, if you want me to be honest." She leans over the table as she cleans it off, and I hate myself for staring at her ass. "At a point you just have to check out and find your happy place. Don't argue, just nod and say 'i'll get that for you' while your active conscious is thinking about what show you're going to binge watch on Netflix when you get home."

This gets a laugh out of me. "You sound like an expert."

"I worked retail for two years until I decided to try my hand at waiting. On top of that, I live on campus with 50,000 different personalities." She states. "I have no choice."

I spray the counter down once more before speaking again. "What's college like, is it as stressful as everyone makes it out to be?"

She lets out a groan, which confirms what I wanted to know. "Everything and then some. I swear, I thought high school was hard. But college is a new beast entirely."

"Heavy workload?" I ask.

She nods. "That, and the fact that it's a lot to adjust to. You don't have anyone reminding you about things anymore, you know? It's a shit ton of responsibility."

I hum in response. I didn't know much about the 'college experience' besides what I've been told by friends, and what's been dramatized on screen. I know it wasn't easy, but I hope it isn't as bad as it sounds.

"College is what you make it." She says firmly. "I don't want to scare you off of it, but I won't sugarcoat it. It's tough, but if you're headstrong, you can manage."

I go to respond, but the sound of her phone ringing cuts me off. She mumbles an apology before she answers it.

"Hey," she muses, a large smile forming onto her features. "Yeah, my shift is over — uh huh, yeah — you're outside? Okay, yeah, we can do that. Alright, babe. I'll be out in a second."

I couldn't help but arch my eyebrow at the word 'babe'. Friend? Boyfriend? Girlfriend, dare I say? My mind immediately jumps to worst case scenario with the idea that Lyla was seeing someone else. She hasn't  mentioned anyone, so my immediate instinct was to assume that she was single. Bad idea on my end. I felt a little stupid to assume that I was the only person in the world that saw her for how beautiful she is.

"Uh, you don't mind closing down do you?" She gave me a small smile. "My boyfriend is outside."

"No, go ahead." I say quickly, not giving myself enough time to respond in a tone anything other than normal. "I got it from here."

She looks like she's about to say something else, but she waves, and says goodbye in a quiet voice. She leaves the restaurant and I watch from my spot behind the counter through the window, and see her get in a red car that had pulled up to the curb. I don't get a good look at the guy she gets in with, but I do see her kiss him. I try to ignore the pang in my chest as I look away.