One Drop of Golden Sun

Ch. 19 What You Want

*Lokela

Nothing would happen to her. Not today.

Lokela repeated it like a prayer to the old gods. With that in mind, he would rather that Pele ripped apar the entire island with an explosion of lava before anything happened between Zach and Ray.

Back in the store, the elderly couple were on their way out, but they asked if Ray was still there. Lokela shook his head.

"Such a sweet girl," the lady said. "Will you tell her we noticed the donations jar after she helped us and we put in ten dollars? It's all right about the smoothie coupon, we won't need one today."

"Of course. I'll tell her." He waved goodbye. He didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

The store was quiet for nearly fifteen minutes when the door opened again, ringing the bell. Guys were joking and heckling each other. Lokela groaned. He knew those voices—and he was not in the mood.

Miller came down the aisle, white bags from Beach Burgers in both hands. He tossed one over the counter at Lokela's face.

Lokela caught it. "Thanks." His mouth instantly watered from the grilled smell of meat wafting up. And fries. His stomach growled.

"No problem, little brother. Look who fucking followed me here from."

Behind him, Trevor, Casey, and Hugh strolled in. They made an odd mix. Trevor, who was in his trunks, despite store rules of no shirt, no service, carried his surf board hitched under his arm, Casey had a heavy backpack and a pen in his shirt pocket, while Hugh might have been stoned out of his mind. Which was entirely possible, even before noon.

Casey ducked his head in a nerdy greeting, his expression solemn as usual. "We should talk."

"Nah, we should eat first, bro," Trevor mumbled around a mouthful of fries.

"Why be complicated?" Hugh plopped his bag on the counter next to the cash register and sniffed deeply in his bag. "Mmm, yeah. Talk and eat."

"You guys can't eat here. This is a store," Lokela said. It was like talking to kindergarteners, though. They were already stuffing their faces and shoving each other for space at the counter.

Miller shrugged. "Indirectly, this is your fault, because it's all your problem."

"The hell it's my fault. Get in the back, if you are all eating here. As if there wasn't an entire park right outside the door."

"Yeah, too many ants," Trevor said. He grabbed for a shake on the other side of Casey, sending droplets of water spraying. Lokela groaned. He must have come straight from the showers at the beach and was getting his store wet, not to mention the smears of grease that were already all over the counter.

And who would be cleaning it?

Casey protected his burger from the water with his paper bag, his mouth twisted in disgust. "How can you work in these conditions?"

"I don't work in these conditions. Are you assholes going to tell me what you want to talk about so you can get out?" Lokela asked.

"We have a chart and a list of renovations, who does what, when, and how," Casey said.

"Great. Get the fuck out before I have customers."

"Yeah, no. That's not what we wanted to talk about, man," Hugh said. He leaned both elbows on the counter, shaking his shaggy head of curls.

Lokela sighed, moving his fries further back to keep them free of hair. "Can we get this over with?"

"Dude, brace yourself," Hugh said.