The Second Choice

Enemies

Julie and I finally get home and she immediately goes to bed. I wish I could do the same, but I promised my not so friendly boss that I would get to my first day today. I change into my uniform, say bye to Julie and make my way to work, remembering all of the weird things that Sarah told me about Micheal yesterday.

When I finally arrive to the Starbucks, I look around the room for Sarah, but luckily there is no sign of her...for now.

"Hi, are you the new employee?" a girl in the same green apron asks me.

"Yes, I'm Crystal nice to meet you." I politely greet her.

"Nice to meet you, I'm April." She warmly smiles at me "I'm going to be giving you a hand on taking customers' orders and making the coffees" she tells me, but I kindly inform her that I have much experience from previous years.

"Oh okay. Well if you need anything I'm here." she tells me and I'm grateful that she is being so kind to me.

2 hours pass of taking customers' orders and making several Frappuccino's and conversing with April and getting to know each other.

"Ms. Mendes" I hear a cold soulless tone call me out. When I look over my shoulder I see Sarah giving me a blank stare.

"Yes?" I tell her with the same tone.

"I think that it's best if you go to the back, to storage and clear out the boxes of cups and straws." My anger is starting to consume me. I know she is doing this in revenge of "breaking Micheal's heart". But I really don't want to get fired on my first day so I just go with what she wants and enter the back area of the shop, and I hear her following me.

"No offense, but why the hell am I back here? I have very good experience and I get along well with my customers and co-workers" I tell her in a slightly angry tone.

"It's simple. I don't want you happy. I want you alone, with no one to rely on. Just like you did Micheal" she gives me an evil smirk.

"If Micheal knew how much of a bitch you were, he'd also leave you as his second option." I begin to raise my voice at her. "It was six years ago. I'm over it. He's over it, and you should too." I'm left breathless.

She just stares at me and begins to head towards the door but before leaving, she turns and tells me "I'm going to make this job a living hell for you." She then slams the door shut and I begin to tear up at the fact that Micheal still manages to fuck up my life, even without talking to each other.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm relieved to finally be home over my stressful day at work. It's times like these that make me wish that I could be in high school again, with Julia and Jonathan happy as ever.

I walk in to the amazing smell of New York pizza. My absolute favorite food here and when I look over to Julia she is sitting on the table on her cell phone.

"Finally. I was about to eat this entire thing on my own, you don't know how hard it was not to." She tells me and I laugh at how hungry she is all the time. I then join her and we both grab a delicious slice of pepperoni pizza.

"Soo, how was your first day at work?" she asks me excited and I then look down and frown.

"Good" I lie to her. Not even Julia knows what happened with Micheal, and im worried to how she will react to it.

"Cut the bullshit. I know it didn't go well. Does it have something to do with Micheal?" she tells me and I don't know how to respond so my immediate thought is to play dumb.

"What?" I tell her with a mouthful of pizza.

"Come on Crystal. I see the way you look at him, like you going to choke him with your life and how he constantly glanced over you in class today." When she tells me this I know that I have to tell her. After all she is my best friend. So I begin to tell her everything from the beginning. To when I first met Micheal, how he broke my heart, encountering him at central park, and realizing that he was him as Jonathan's roommate.

When I finish Julia has all sorts of emotions on her face. Mostly shocked and angry.

"Crystal, why the hell didn't you tell me all of this. I'm going to kick his hair flipping ass." She says with anger laced deep in her voice.

"No, don't please I tell her. Just don't confront him or most importantly tell Jonathan. Things will get ugly between them if we do." She's confused as to why I don't tell my boyfriend but she then agrees with me and trusts my word.

"Well screw him." She says and practically drags me to the couch. She turns the tv on and puts "friends" I already know that we will be having a marathon the rest of the night. And with that we finish the remainder of our pizza and fall in love with Ross and Rachel all over again.