𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬

chapter 1

ONE:
a broken beginning
♠️

"Sometimes it takes being damaged to put yourself back together and find who you really are as a person..."

ellie

SHE KNEW THAT whether or not she liked her terrible job, there was nothing Ellie could do about the horrible customers that came in every other day. At the end of the day, they treated her poorly and she could not even speak a word about it until she was in a room alone. Working in a diner that anyone could tell was falling apart, was never what Ellie had expected her job to be at twenty-one years old. With cracked black and white floor tiles and chipping yellow paint on the walls of every room, there was no other place in her small town that gave Ellie flexible scheduling hours the way Pennie's did.

Since she graduated high school, Ellie had worked in the sketchiest part of her town, walking to Pennie's every morning from the brink of dawn until her shift was over after the sun had already set, despite how much more miserable the job made her. Her life was difficult, for the time being, and how much more saddening the job made her only added to it, but the only thing that Ellie could possibly do about it would be to sit there and continue. In the end, she knew that it would all be worth it once she finished saving up the money to get into her dream college. It was just up to Ellie to be patient enough for May to come along, which was a long six months away.

She mindlessly wiped another table down of any bacteria it had from its previous customers, staring out of the window as November made its cold appearance into the world, small snowflakes decorating from the windshields of cars to the browning grass along the streets. Ellie would want nothing more than to quit her current job and begin searching for a new one with, employees that would treat her nicer than the ones she was stuck working with now. However, Pennie's was the only place that she knew would give her enough money to pay for her apartment's rent, and still leave her with enough to buy groceries and cheap clothes from stores.

"Another coffee, El," Roy, one of the many regulars of the diner, requested from the counter. He smiled warmly once he met Ellie's gaze, patiently waiting as she walked around the counter. He was by far Ellie's favourite customer, and she would spend hours talking to the old man if she had the time to in her day.

"You're going to have to wait, unfortunately," Ellie responded softly, smiling apologetically. "Coffee should be ready in about another minute or so, though."

"I ain't going nowhere" was all he laughed out, keeping his mug out whenever the coffee was ready while burying his nose in the morning newspaper.

Ellie smiled at him. She tossed the dirty rag she was holding in the sink, walking into the kitchen to grab a customer's order when she heard the loud ringing of the "ready to serve" bell. Hesitantly, she looked up into the mirror beside the rusty kitchen door, frowning in disappointment at the dark bags that hadn't left their place under her eyes for the last two weeks, and the rat's nest she called a bun messily resting on top of her head. Ellie took a closer look at her reflection, taking in the unbrushed thickness of her eyebrows and the freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks, which always failed to be concealed by her cheap makeup. All she could see was a tired face. A face she could barely recognize anymore一a person she could barely recognize.

Ellie sighed, giving her cheeks a gentle smack so there was some colour to her pale flesh. She grabbed the food that came up on a tray and walked back into the busy dining room, setting the food on a table while plastering a fake smile on her lips. After wishing the family a great morning, she walked back to the counter, quickly poured Roy his coffee, and began cleaning up.