Rev (Fast Lane #1)

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Journey

"Oh my God, Journey! I'm so sorry about Saturday! Jesus, I feel like such a terrible person. I tried to find you. I thought you were right behind me, but when I got to my car you were nowhere to be found! Shit! I'm so sorry!" Odette's panicked babbling was not the first thing I expected to hear on a Monday morning. I smiled at her and patted her arm in a motion of comfort. I didn't hold her responsible for her losing me in the street racing crowd. No, that was all my doing. I shouldn't have looked back to check on Tristan and the rest of fine-looking trio, but I had. Once again, pretty boys lead to trouble.

"It's fine." I walked past her to put my apron on over the shorts I decided to wear since it was going to be close to ninety-five degrees today. My baby-girl fitted tee was already a little damp under my arms and it wasn't even eight o'clock yet.

I turned around and saw Odette pulling down chairs from the tables, her face hung and her eyes blinking rapidly as if trying to keep tears from threatening to spill over. I didn't think that Odette was the type of girl that cried. Especially in public, but judging from the way she looked now, I might be wrong about that.

"Odette, seriously, it's fine. It wasn't your fault. Stuff got out of hand that night and no one was hurt." Well, at least not severely. The next morning I'd woken up to find a bruise on the inside of my right thigh as if someone had stepped on me in the midst of the craziness. I guess my adrenaline and anxiety had been so intense that I hadn't felt it.

"I was just so worried about you. I wished you would have called me to let me know that you were okay. I was about to put a missing person's report out for you if you didn't show up today. I called you like a dozen times over the weekend." And I would have answered if I hadn't of lost my phone. That was another surprise I'd gone home to find. My phone had disappeared from my back pocket. I wouldn't be so worried if that was a phone I hadn't saved up most of the last year of my life for. That was another privilege I hadn't been allowed to have in my father's house. No cell phone for me. He'd said that he didn't want to have to pay for an extra line.

"I lost my phone. I guess I lost it on Saturday, but I'm here and I'm fine. Really. Stop worrying so much." I tied my apron around my waist and went to work helping her take down the remaining chairs. She nodded and then let out a breath as if deciding to let this whole ordeal go.

Having someone worry over me was new to me. I'd never had someone who cared enough to worry. When I was a teenager, I could be gone until three in the morning and no one would have noticed. Coming to work and hearing Odette so sincere and genuine in her apology and concern for me made me feel good, like that maybe, just maybe, I had made a new friend here after all.

"Well, at least you're okay. Sorry about your phone." I shrugged as if it were no big deal when, in fact, I was internally screaming and cursing myself at not being more responsible with my things.

"I guess I'll just have to pay for a new one," I told her. A few seconds later, Bentley came out of the back with her hair up in a carefully styled bun. I saw the double piercings that made her ears twinkle and wink at you with the help of the soft light from the rising sun. Even at seven forty-five in the morning Bentley was stunning. Why couldn't I have been born to look like that?

"Pay for a new what?" She asked us. Odette and I finished unstacking the chairs and began placing menus on the tables. We opened in fifteen minutes and we'd gotten a late start thanks to the Monday blues.

"I lost my phone at the Streets on Saturday night. I'm gonna need a new one." Bentley looked up at us beneath lowered eyelashes that looked fake they were so long.