Shy

▲3

I stood in front of the bathroom cabinet counting up the pills my doctor forced me to take, even though I told them I didn’t really need them since I’ve hadn’t had any attacks for a couple months now. 

It wasn’t like I was crazy or anything. They all started happening when I was eight years older, and experiencing a horrible parent divorce at that young age wasn’t great for me. 

A few doors away I could hear that same ringtone blaring loudly from my phone. Swallowing down the pills, I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a second to get myself together. I rushed over to the bedroom to see Ashton calling. It was weird because it was 6:29 AM. 

“Hello?” I sighed, but tried to be happy since it was Ashton. 

“Hey,” already his laugh rung through my ears making me smile, “you alright? Sorry to call you up this early. I just couldn’t go back to sleep anymore and I wanted to talk to someone.” 

Snuggling myself back under the covers, I pulled it over my ears along with the phone still held in my hand. “I’m just a little tired that’s all. I have to work at nine later on, but I’ll do fine. Are you alright?” 

“Of course, I mean I went to sleep around two earlier because I stayed up playing video games with Michael, but after that I just can’t go back to sleep. Let me ask you something.” 

I closed my eyes for a minute relaxing. “Shoot.” 

“You play any instruments?” 

Laughing, I instantly remembered learning how to play the piano with my mom sitting next to me on the bench. “Yeah, I can play the piano a bit.”

“That’s nice,” he awkwardly chuckled, “Want to learn how to play the drums?” 

“Sure, I’d like that. Hopefully I won’t break your drums.” I bit my lip, shaking my head and laughing at how crazy I must sound. 

“Or you can learn how to play the guitar!” I heard Luke’s voice scream through the phone. 

“Shut up, go back to sleep!” Ashton shouted at Luke, “Anyways, how about I teach you later or something? I’m off for a couple days to settle in, but then it’s back to interviews and concerts.” 

“Sounds like a plan,” I smiled, “I’m going to go back to sleep now though, okay? 

“Alright. Sweet dreams, shy girl.” he whispered, his voice still a bit raspy.

Giggling, I ended the call and plugged my phone back to charge.  

☼

It’s been a whole week of working at the pizza parlor now and everything is seeming to run smoothly. With Dean by my side coaching me through the cashier station, nothing bad has happened. 

Again, the mornings were slow. A few people came to order once every twenty minutes. It was awkward for me to explain to the customers why my name tag read shy in bold sharpie. From the corner of my eyes I could see Dean grinning widely to himself. 

Charlie called yesterday to see how I was doing. Being the cheeky guy Dean is, he told her that my performance was terrible and the customers didn’t like me. Of course, he told her he was joking and that I was doing pretty good so far. 

Once in a while when they weren’t any much customers in the morning, I would go in the back of the parlor and watch how the experts made the pizza. It was fun watching them spread the special marinara sauce all over the dough along with cheese and the specific toppings the customers wanted. 

Dean would pull me back to the front to help him out. I didn’t really grasp the fact how an innocent guy like Dean could be such a cheeky, annoying, teasing, guy yet fun to be around. To spark up the parlor, he would start dancing along to the beat of the music playlist that blared through the speakers. Customers laughed at him, but wiggled around in their seats to dance along with Dean.