Intertwined

Leon

Leon

Seeing Kinley in the restaurant was a bit of a shock. I’d only had the job for two days when suddenly I was faced with her eyes- and they weren’t like they usually were, bright and confident and like she was weighing you up in her head. Instead when she saw me in the restaurant she looked almost hunted.

     Since the realisation that I may or may not (read: definitely) have a crush on that girl that’s basically the size of Jupiter, seeing her usually brought two urges:

(a)  to run away and hide, and

(b)  to stay close to her and make her laugh and listen and hold her hand and ask her if maybe-

Shit fucking fuck. I was so horribly screwed.

     Except this time, it was different. Because this time she looked scared, and I’ve never, ever seen her scared before. It was too easy to think her invincible because of how in control she always seemed. I mean, even after I told her about Verity she was cool and calm and I just- she didn’t realise how much of a relief that was. I hated it when people didn’t know how to act and were flustered and stressed... because it wasn’t their fault, it was my fault, for telling them, for making them deal with something that wasn’t theirs to bear.

      I remember going back to school after the accident and how people wouldn’t catch my eye in the corridor, because they didn’t know what to say. And I wanted to scream at them, “I don’t care, I don’t care what you say”, because I didn’t- saying anything would have been better than the forced isolation, and everyone being on edge around me. Months had passed before anyone except Bailey stopped treating me like an IED.

     Although – going back to the restaurant incident – an IED was fucking exactly what I felt like. Because Kinley was perfect and brilliant and beautiful, and no-one had the right to reduce her like those morons at her table did. It was like they turned a dimmer switch on her and just. Fuck. I can’t even explain how fucking angry that made me; the fact they’d made her feel so small that even her voice was quieter.

     And also, can I just say that I nearly burst out laughing at the ‘he’s way out of your league’ bit I mean come on, have you even met your daughter? Only one out of the two of us needs to be worried about leagues, and let’s just say it’s definitely not her.

     I didn’t know what to do. The scenario playing out in my head involved throwing the lasagne on the next table all over Fakeface and Kinley’s arsehole dad, followed by kicking over the table and punching him in the face. But my mum would’ve killed me- the restaurant owner was one of her only good friends here, a woman who’d been working for about ten years to start up her own restaurant this year. Even when I got the job Mum warned me not to start any trouble.

    “Because I know you haven’t got the best of tempers, Leon, when something makes you angry.”

     Well she would’ve been fucking proud of me then. I looked away from the lasagne and forced myself back to the kitchens, making straight for the sprite. It was the least I could do. My insides felt all heavy and wrong, because I’d been given the opportunity to help and I hadn’t. I’d just left her out there with Morons 1 and 2. Dammit.

    “Leon your shift’s done, want me to take over?”

     Charlie, one of the other waiters, was stood holding his arms out for the tray. I just shook my head.

    “I’ll finish this one off.”

     I was back at the table faster than I’d ever got drinks before.