Rose Colored Boy - dreamwastaken

chapter six

"Hey, are you the girl from that video?"

"Hm?" Blair was in the last hour of her shift. There were only a few tables now, this one having a few people around her age.

"From that stream? The one where this couple is fighting, but the dude starts getting real aggressive, so she like, tricks him into letting her go and she sneaks out?"

Blair's mind fogged up for a moment, all of those memories rushing through her again.

"I- I'm sorry, I'll be right back with those drinks," she said with a larger-than-necessary-smile.

As she was walking away, she could hear the other girl whispering, "leave her alone, she's already dealing with enough as it is."

Blair snuck into the back room for a moment, taking a sip of her ice water. She just had to push through this last hour.

And it was fine, really. That group tipped her far more than customary, and her last few tables were manageable.

"Have a good night, Blair," her coworker, Kelsey, said. "Are you taking the bus home? You should text me when you get in."

"Oh, I have a ride, actually."

"Really? Is Adam here? Tell him I said hi!"

Blair smiled awkwardly. "Uh, no, it's just a friend."

"Oh. How are things going then, with Adam?"

"They're okay. He's, um. He's out of town." Blair saw Dream's car pull up in front of the restaurant. "There's my ride. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah! Have a good night!"

"You, too."

It had started to rain at some point, so she hurried out to the car.

"Hey!" Dream said cheerily.

"Hi." Blair shook her hair out of her eyes.

"How was your shift?"

"Um," Blair took a deep breath and put her seatbelt on. "It was okay. Someone recognized me."

"Really? From streaming?"

"Sort of."

Dream frowned, realizing what she meant. "Oh."

"Yeah. It, um, it could have gone worse. They tipped well afterwards, I think they felt bad for bringing it up."

"That's good. You look tired."

Blair glared at him.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to blurt that out."

"It's okay. I feel tired. And these shoes hurt my feet," she complained, kicking them off and pulling her knees up to her chest in the passenger seat.

"I was going to suggest we try that cooking thing, but it sounds like take out would be a better idea."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not very hungry. I usually eat on my break. I'm always good for fries, though."

Dream smiled, and pulled his car out of the parking lot. He insisted on driving across town to a little walk-up stand, claiming that they had the best fries he had ever tasted. Blair rolled her eyes with a smile, letting the soft indie music on the radio and the sound of his voice bring her back from the long day.

He was right, though, they were very good.

"Can you pass me some ketchup?"

"More ketchup? You're a monster," Blair laughed, handing him another packet from the paper bag.