The Undoing of Sidekicks | ✓

seven

a/n: dedicated to princess3ami for calling my last chapter great *puppy dog eyes emoji* hopefully you'll enjoy this one, too ! :) much stan from my end ;))

seven

THE WEEK WHIZZED BY with the unflinching speed of passing time. Saturday had been a nightmare to work, as Riptide had been stuffed to the brim with eager tourists. I hadn't rested my feet for a moment, either manning the register or running to deliver serve everything from food and drinks to boards and sunscreen. My back ached like a sore tooth when I returned home that night, exhausted. It still ached, even as I returned to Riptide a day later. 

Ollie and I had worked until the night crew swept in, yet we were both the assigned openers on Sunday. After a bus ride that intensified my already mounting headache, I limped to the front doors of Riptide. They were already open. 

Inside, I found my dear colleague swearing at a water bottle. 

"This bitch won't open," said Ollie. There was almost always a permanent frown etched into her tan forehead, and today proved to be no exception. Her pixie cut was plastered against the top of her forehead due to sweat. "Oh, and the AC's broken. The night crew did it. Sons of bitches." 

She grumbled some more, and finally managed to heave the top of the bottle off. She drank greedily, water running down her chin.

"With the way you're drinking right now, you'd be a suitable extra for Animal Planet," I remarked. She coughed, water spurting from her mouth. I met her glare with a sunny smile. She would've responded with something equally vicious, if it hadn't been for another colleague breezing through the door at that precise moment. 

She said her brief hellos, then kept her head low and ducked into the dishwashing room. Ollie raised a brow — I shook my head. She was a spooked temp-worker who'd gotten the dishwashing job a few weeks back, yet still remained on edge. 

"She's probably scared of your face," said Ollie, screwing the lid back on her bottle. "You know there is plastic surgery, right?"

I rolled my eyes, muttering a sarcastic ha-ha. At the same time, I carefully reached for a dirty rag. Ollie smiled, satisfied at her quip, before I balled the dirty rag and tossed it her way. She screeched as it draped itself across one side of her head, tossing a murderous look my way. 

"For God's sake, Leo!" She ripped it off, heaving it into the sink, " - I've at least five previously undiscovered diseases on me now. God." 

I snickered as she leapt for the sink, streaking water through her hair. It hadn't been that dirty, but Ollie still scrubbed as if she was a surgeon heading for the operating table. 

"As long as you're done cleaning yourself in 15," I said, moving to the register. "Cause' that's when we open."

She said something decidedly unflattering in response, and I snickered again as I started counting the cash from last night. Before opening, there were few things to do. Weird dishwasher girl headed in to prep the dish station, while Ollie and I cleaned parts of the bar and did some basic checks.

The inside of Riptide was decorated like you'd expect a café slash surf shop to be decorated. There were surfboards on the walls, even suspended from the roof in nearly invisible lines. Paintings and photographs of surfers, beaches and palm-trees littered the sea-foam green walls. There were at least a dozen decorative glass bowls spread across all possible surfaces, stuffed with shells and rocks.