Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 21

KATE 

"Hey, Kate, wait up!" Axel called after me.

I turned around. "Oh, hey, what's up?"

For the first time, Axel was seeing me in a normal outfit. After my shift had ended, I'd changed back into my outfit from school and let my hair fall back down in messy waves. Axel's shift still hadn't ended for another hour but Penny had put him on his break since she'd forgotten to give it to him when she was supposed to.

"I just wanted to tell you that you did great today," Axel said, giving my shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

My heart picked up its pace inside my chest and pounded so hard in my ears that it was shocking to me how the whole world couldn't hear it.

"Thanks," I said in response, brushing off Axel's touch like it hadn't affected me.

"If you don't mind, could you work tomorrow? This place gets kind of crazy on the weekends," Axel asked.

I was about to accept when I suddenly remembered that Corey had invited me over to her house that weekend.

"Um, what times?" I asked, wondering if I could still see her and work that same day.

"Uh, ten to four," Axel responded.

In the light, Axel's eyes appeared almost gold, looking less and less like dark empty pools of nothing.

"I have plans, but I'll text you tonight if I can take it," I said, giving him a friendly smile.

I heard my father beep the horn, letting me know that he was there to take me home.

"That's my ride," I said, "I'd better go."

Axel smiled and nodded. "I'll text you tonight!" He called behind me as I exited out the store, my backpack swinging casually on my shoulder.

"Hey, who was that boy you were talking to?" my father asked as I hopped into the car, giving Axel one final wave goodbye.

"Oh, he's one of the guys I work with."

"He's cute, huh?" My dad said, teasing me.

"Yeah I guess, but it's not like that," I stated, but I couldn't tell if that was a lie or the truth.

"Good, you'd better keep all your relationships professional, you don't want that getting in the way of making your money," my father said sternly, as we began pulling out of the parking lot.

I nodded. "Of course, dad. Axel's just a friend," but that I knew for sure that that was definitely a lie.

✡ ✡ ✡

After I finished all of my homework, I dialed Corey's number to ask her if I could show up at her house a little late for her party.

"Hey, Corey," I said, settling down comfortably against my pillows.

"Hey, Kate! What's up?" She asked.

"So, I talked to my boss and she asked me if I could work tomorrow from ten to four. Is it okay if I show up at your house after my shift?" I asked, making sure to hide Axel's identity by replacing him with my boss, even though he'd actually been the one to ask.

"Yeah, that's totally fine. I was planning on having the party start at five anyways. Also, it's a sleepover, so bring whatever you need for that."

I smiled at the thought of sleeping over her house. Teenagers do this all the time, but it would have been my first one. The thought alone made me feel nervous.

"Okay, thanks, Corey," I said and hung up after she said bye.

After ending the call with Corey, I quickly began FaceTiming Axel. He answered almost right away since his shift had ended fifteen minutes before.

"Hey, Katie, what's up?" He asked, smiling.

"Axel, you know that my name is Kate, right?" I asked with a laugh.

"And you know that I don't give a shit, right?" He responded.

I rolled my eyes since I knew that I could never win. "Good news, I can do the shift tomorrow."

Axel smiled. "Thank goodness! I did not want to deal with the wrath of customers without you."

I laughed. "Dependent on me already? Careful, Axel, you might be setting me up to fail," I said teasingly.

He only rolled his eyes, smirking. "I'm just confident in your abilities, that's all."

After a few short moments of comfortable silence, Axel asked, "Want to start where we'd left off?"

I raised an eyebrow, confused. "On what?"

"Our game, silly. Get your mind out of the gutter," Axel said, laughing.

Since Axel's laugh had become a more and more common occurrence, I'd found it just as contagious as it had been before, and soon after he'd started laughing, I'd find myself laughing along with him until we were both laughing uncontrollably. Sometimes I'd even forget what it was that we'd even been laughing about in the first place.

"My mind's not in the gutter, Blake," I said, referring to him by his last name.

Axel laughed again, only this one shorter than the last. "Did you just refer to me by my last name? Dear God, and you thought I was the stalker."

Another thing I'd noticed about Axel was that he'd loved to over annunciate his words, even when it wasn't even necessary to do so. It was just another part of talking to him that had always left me smiling.

"Oh, shut up," I said, wishing I were there so I could playfully slap him.

"Oh, Katie, we're never going to finish our game if we keep talking in circles," Axel said, sounding exhausted, but I caught the hint of a smile in his low voice.

"Okay, fine. Who's turn is it?" I asked.

And just like that, Axel and I had begun asking stupid, meaningless questions to each other, but in a strange way, it had always made me feel closer to him.

"What are you thinkin' about, Katie?" Axel asked, his eyes alert but his voice tired.

I glanced at my clock and saw the time: 11:02.

"I'm thinkin' about how it's really late and I have to work at ten in the morning tomorrow."

Axel smiled. "Get some sleep, Katie. I'll see you tomorrow."

But somehow we ended up staying on the phone for ten more minutes, continuing our game until we were both much too tired to continue. I hung up and dozed off, dreaming of dark black hair and eyes that turned to gold in the sun.