Forever Scars

The First Day

'Gwen, do you have an apron?' Ryleigh asked frantically as she saw the clock. It was a quarter till 8, she couldn't be late.

'Yes, it's in the drawer below the sink.' Gwen hollered out from her bedroom. Opening the drawer, Ryleigh quickly picked out the top most apron and dashed out the door.

Running at full speed, she reached Mr. Dudley's bakery five minutes early. She had a look at the apron on hand and immediately regretted not checking what apron she took. It was bright pink with yellow stars all over. Reluctantly, she put it on.

Walking in to the bakery, she instantly felt self-conscious as all the bakers were staring straight at her bright pink apron. Without turning away from his line of bakers, he grabbed a white apron with the bakery's name on it and handed it to Ryleigh, saying 'Please don't ruin the image of my bakery.'

When she was in the right apron, she joined the line of bakers. Confused to why they were in a line, she turned to her right and whispered, 'Hey, what's happening?'

A tall, built young man with a sharp jawline and eyes, the deepest shade of the richest Earth turned to face her. Chuckling he said, 'You're a newbie, right? Every morning, Mr. Dudley will give a motivational talk kind of thing. But most of the time it's just him scolding us for something or other.'

Ryleigh's cheeks went bright red. Unable to meet his eyes, Ryleigh mumbled, 'okay.'

'Listen up everyone. It's Monday and you know what that means. We have to do better than we did last week! New week new beginning meaning work harder equals more sales which also means you get a higher salary!' Mr. Dudley shouted aggressively.

Ryleigh was taken aback by the difference between jovial-bakery-owner-Austin and grumpy-aggressive-boss-Mr. Dudley.

'Newbie, listen up!' He screamed at Ryleigh.

Ryleigh looked at him with wide-eyes and nodded.

'When I call your name, you answer with yes.' Mr. Dudley scolded.

Offended, Ryleigh spoke up, 'Excuse me, sir. My name is Ryleigh, not Newbie.'

Shooting her a menacing glare, Mr. Dudley took a few steps closer to Ryleigh, each stomp on the ground only made Ryleigh's pulse race even faster.

Staring straight at her, Mr. Dudley said, 'Listen, RYLEIGH.' He made a point to exaggerate her name.

'I don't need you. You need this job. If you want to keep it, you better stop that know-it-all attitude that young teenage girls like you have or I will have you out of my bakery in a second.' Mr. Dudley threatened.

Ryleigh gulped and apologized quickly.

Satisfied, Mr. Dudley repeated again, 'Now, listen up Newbie.' He turned his gaze to Ryleigh who nodded enthusiastically with a forced smile on her face.

'Yes, sir.' Ryleigh answered.

'You will start off with doing the dishes. All the used cake pans, bread tins, utensils, plates, bowls, forks, spoons...' Mr. Dudley informed her of her task.

Sensing that he was underestimating her, Ryleigh talked back. 'Sir, I can bake.'

One deathly glare from Mr. Dudley was all it took to silence her.

At 8.30, everyone began their work.

Ryleigh unwillingly put on some gloves and began scrubbing away. The enormous pile of dirty items indicated to her that she would be there for a long, long time.

'Hey, you okay?' It was the guy from earlier.

This time, every ounce of romance was sucked out of Ryleigh and she just replied sarcastically, 'Yes, it's always nice having someone downsize your intellect' without shifting her eyes from the sink.

'Mr. Dudley is tough but it's because he worked super hard for this bakery. And he's no hypocrite. You can see him here tidying up late on Sunday nights when most of us have left.' He tried to let Ryleigh see the other side of things.

'I suppose so.' Ryleigh replied half-heartedly.

'I didn't really catch your name.' He said with an expectant look.

'It's Ryleigh. Ryleigh Jane Winters.' She replied as she looked at him with a smile. And immediately regretted doing so as she felt a hot blush sent up her cheeks when they met eyes.

'That's nice. I'm Michael by the way. Michael James Miller.' He replied with a friendly smile on his face.

'You really were bold back there.' Michael commented with a giggle.

'I don't know. Just sick of being belittled.' Ryleigh confessed.

Michael cocked his head with an interesting look on his face and commented, 'You're an interesting girl.' With that, he ended their conversation.

Getting back to work, Ryleigh couldn't stop smiling. It was a weird feeling she got when Michael looked at her, it made her feel warm all over. God she couldn't breathe. Those alluringly dark eyes, his messy brown hair and his gorgeous honeyed brown skin. Ryleigh couldn't stop thinking about him.