Returning to Life

Chapter Two

Three weeks later

"Leelah, good work tonight. Go ahead and clock out. It's slowed down enough. Jay and I got it from here. And eat before you go." He pointed to the basket he had just placed on the bar opposite of her. It held a grilled chicken sandwhich and tatortots. It was what she usually ordered when she ate at work.

She smiled and nodded, untying the black apron. "Thanks James. I appreciate it."

"No girl, we appreciate you. I'll be honest, Jay and I were not too sure about you at first. New girl from some place down south I never even heard of. Not to mention you're smurf sized... But you have proven us wrong. And we are beyond grateful we snatch you up before someone else hired you. It is hard to find such a good employee these days."

She scoffed. "Smurf sized?"

He laughed and pointed to her food.

Truthfully, she was equally grateful they had hired her. Even being a certified bartender, she'd had trouble finding a good position. More trouble than she had thought she would.

It had been a piece of cake back in Louisiana. Having grown up there, she had known so many people and her work ethics had been well known and unquestionable. And even in hard times, the river boats were always looking for baetenders.

Here, most people took one look at her and bartender was the last thing that came to their mind. She siged. If Jay and James hadn't hired her, she would have had to go back to teaching or something. Nothing was wrong with teaching, but she didn't want to teach anymore.

Truth be told, she didn't want to do much of anything anymore. She worked because she had bills to pay. She still understood responsibility.

J and J' s was perfect. As the bartender, she stayed behind the bar the majority of the time. She was always friendly but most of her customer's were reserved and minded their own business. Contrary to other jobs, she hadn't had to force herself to be social while at work.

The only other workers were the owners Jay and James, two waitreses Brandy and Riley, and the two cooks. Everyone respected eachother and they all tended to work well with each other.

Outside of work, she did nothing. Josh and Jenny had tried to talk her into 'exploring' with them, but so far she hadn't felt the urge to. Once she had gotten the job, she had become unconcerned with the rest of the city.

Her mom tried to tempt her into getting back into her old hobbies, repeatedly asking her to paint something for the new house. But the only hobby she held interest in was reading. And even that wasn't the same.

She sighed as she dipped a tatortot into ketchup. She knew she had to fix herself. She wouldn't label it depression, but she was definitely in a funk. She just didn't know what to do about it.

It had been almost a year now.

She pushed those thoughts away. They didn't help.

She stiffened when a hand squeezed her shoulder. She frowned at the man taking the barstool next to her. A man who did not know her well enough to touch her as far as she was concerned.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Jay heading in her direction. She had been here for about two weeks now and unfortunately had attracted the attention of one Jonny Kyriakos.

He wasn't bad looking. Tanned complexion, dark brown hair, warm brown eyes. She was sure he got a lot of attention from the female population. He was also pushy and didn't like that she didn't give him attention.

She was always polite to him, but nothing more. And he thought it was entertaining to try to get a rise out of her. It was the only thing about her job she disliked. But it wasn't their fault Jonny had decided to target her. Truthfully, they all tried to intervene and keep his attention off of her without being too obvious.

But he was persistent on top of pushy.

"How's my fun sized bartender tonight?"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm fine thanks. I'm off duty though but Jay will be more than happy to take care of you."

"You certainly are fine. Since your off work, we can finally get to know each other better."

She gave him a half smile. "Sorry, I have things to take care of tonight. Enjoy your time at J and J's."

She bit her lip. She had really wanted to eat the food Jay had made for her. She hadn't eaten all day and had only gotten to eat a few of the tots. But Jonny boy was gonna make it impossible to sit there and enjoy it. Might as well head home.  It was still early into the evening.  She could make something fast to eat at home and relax a little.

She hopped down from the stool and headed for the back door, waving at Jay who was shaking his head at her apologetically.

She stopped to grab her wallet from her little locker and her jacket off the coat rack. Making sure she had her keys and her cell phone, she headed out the door.

This was probably the part of her new routine she actually enjoyed the most. The commute to work and back. She could put her head phones in and drown out the world. Nobody ever bothered her.

The pub was a little ways down from the people mover, an electric rail transport system that encircled the entire city. It reminded her of the mono rails in Chicago. And it just happened to have drop offs right by both her work and home. Making it easy to get to where she needed to be.

She had just stepped onto the platform when someone grabbed the sleeve of her jacket, causing her to jump in surprise.

She spun around to see Josh and Jenny grinning at her. She yanked her earbuds out, ready to snap at them for startling her.

"Don't bite our heads off. Aren't you the one always telling us to pay attention to our surroundings?"

Jenny arched a perfectly filled in eyebrow at her.

She couldn't say much to that. It was true. She still curled her lip at em. "What are y'all doin here?"

"Mom sent us to get you."

Leelah almost groaned.

"Tell her you missed me. I'm going home."

"You know that won't work. She would just tell us to go home and get you. It's better to just go with the flow. Besides you never do anything with us anymore. If you refuse, you'll hurt her feelings and then she'll guilt you over it forever until you give in and have to do something you really don't want to do."

Everything they said was true. But she still didn't want to do anything tonight. She just wanted to go home and eat something and relax.

"What are we doing?"

Jenny smiled at her. "Eating."

Well... She was hungry... It could be worse.