You Know Me

3| Living The Dream

Tuesday
May 17, 2020

The mist suffuses the crowded streets from the early dawn. The annoying but comforting sounds of car horns ring through my ears from the early morning traffic as I pass by each car. Anyone who's up this early either has to be on their way home from a good night of drowning their sorrows, or they're just simply going to work. Surprisingly, I'm just simply going to work.

With crust still evident in my eyes, I speed my undrowned sorrowful self to my second home—Katherine's Cafe. I still don't know who the hell Katherine is, but it's not such a shock since I've only worked there for two weeks. In those two weeks, I've learned that people dig my unfiltered attitude. It's great. People pay me to fuck around and fill drinks all day, and sometimes I slip myself a little glass from behind the bar.

"Slow down! We'll never make it on time if we get pulled over," Stella groans from beside me.

"We're literally twenty minutes ahead, and I'm not even driving that fast," I say as I jolt the steering wheel slightly to grab my cup of coffee, causing Stella to hold onto her seat.

Stella got me this job because I was tired of spending my mom's money. Don't get me wrong, I love free money, but it being from her only gives me more of a reason to feel like I owe her something, and believe me, I don't owe her anything. Stella and I usually carpool, and today was my turn, which is a good thing because Stella drives like a fucking grandma out of Hell. I'm probably the only thing that keeps us alive most days, believe it or not.

"You still haven't told me what this Dave dude did to you. Was it bad?" Stella asks in between a yawn. As she turns her body toward me in her seat, I can tell that she's been holding that question in ever since I kicked my mother and Nick out of my house two days ago.

"I haven't told you because I don't want to talk about it, and yes, it was terrible," I growl.

"Okay... if you ever need to talk to anyone, you can talk to me; you know that, right?"

I give a slight nod and turn up the radio dial to avoid a heart to heart with Stella. No one knows about what happened to me besides my mother, Nick, and Dorien, and that's the way I plan to keep it. I don't want people to pity me over something that I could've gotten myself out of. I could've moved in with my snobby grandparents, or hell, ran away with one of the boys I decided to coerce into my life, but I didn't. My manipulative mother and Dave always made me feel like I was stuck and that I would never be able to get out, but I did, somewhat.

I instantly regret turning on the radio as The Fray begins to seep through the speakers; I hate The-fucking-Fray. Stella loves them and is already chiming in—terribly. I turn down the ear-shattering music and decide silence is best for the last five minutes of our ride. Stella turns to face the window and crosses her arms with a pout, almost like a little child, but I glance over with a smile. I love getting to people.

I pull into the pothole-infested road, desperately trying to miss every bump to prevent myself from getting whiplash. Maybe I exaggerate, but damn, you'd think they'd fix the road with how many people come to Katherine's Café. Stella sits inattentive and in her own little world as I hit the most significant bump on her side, sending her to sling back and forth in her seat.

"You do that on purpose every time!" Stella whines.

"Because you're always in your head," I laugh. If she weren't so bad in her head all of the time, it would be harder for me to get by with some of the things that I do that she fails to notice.

I pull into the back of the newly renovated café, parking in my unmarked spot in front of one of the many palm trees surrounding the lot.

"Did you bring the—"