It's Not What It Looks Like (Recently Completed)

Chapter - 19

Colette

The day of the sentencing, almost 10 months ago, was a turning point in my life in more ways than one. The sentencing went like I expected. Father acting as if he was remorseful only to grin and wink at me as he left the court room. I stayed put not showing how the injustice of the judgement hurt me. The only saving grace has been that the media was not allowed in the courtroom and I had shielded my face while going in and out of the court building successfully hiding my face. The old pictures of me are still out there on the Internet but my new look as Luna Pearson was still hidden which gave me a sense of anonymity.

After the sentencing, I was low-spirited but Zach and Naomi teamed up to cheer me up with a crazy karaoke session in the suite. Between Naomi's awful singing and Zach's horrible dance moves I was literally rolling on the floor laughing. From day onwards crazy dance moves became a thing between Zach and me. Every time his team scored, Zach did some crazy dance move like the one I watch him do on the TV mounted on the wall in the Sports Bar I have been working for the past 7 or so months. I pause for few seconds to observe what appears to be an uncoordinated swinging of hips and hands. It's the Floss someone shouts and I can't help grin and shake my head as the crowd both in the stadium and the bar here go wild.

God, he is an awful dancer but the meaning behind it, to make me smile and show me he is thinking about me, melts my heart. I don't think there is even a little part left in me that has not melted for Zach. Every day every moment when I remember him, I am falling little more in love with him. Though we are still strictly in friends zone, I wish we could move forward but Zach hasn't made any attempts and I don't know how to get us there.

When the crowd settles down, I push away my wishful thoughts andget back to work serving drinks to the students who are mostly from NYU. Couple of weeks after the sentencing, I left I can't stay in Jessica's house forever and informed them my decision. Response was mixed. Jessica and Noah didn't think it was a good idea but Racheal and Naomi were supportive. Naomi especially was over the moon because I was moving to NY with her. Naomi had transferred to NYU during the Spring semester and she was feeling lonely being away from home.

Once I decided I was moving out, I asked Zach to let Zoya know that she doesn't have to pay for me anymore. I have already taken up too much of her charity and now that there was no need for witness protection and Zach and I were friends, I think it was high time I started being independent. Accepting charity was also a type of addiction. It made me lazy and not work harder for things I wanted. Zach agreed after a few heated arguments. Nevertheless we have remained close.

A few weeks after moving to NY, I realised that I was totally not prepared to earn a living. I had no savings. Thought getting a job could be easy and Like a dummy, I politely declined the money Zoya and Jessica offered to get me started. After a lot of in successful interviews, I decided to try the sports bar only a few blocks away from Naomi's apartment. With zero experience in any job let alone waitressing , I knew the chances were nil. But the owner, a sleazy biker with every inch of his skin covered in tattoos, studied me from head to toe for 10 minutes straight, making me want to wrap myself in a few layers of blanket. He downright told me that he was hiring me because I had the looks to attract university boys.

After his sexist opinion, I didn't want to take the job but I was running out of the money I had loaned from Naomi and I was also free boarding in her apartment. I had to earn money immediately so I took the job hoping he was not the harassing kind. Luckily, I learnt on the first day of the job that he had manager Jonathan Keep who ran the business. Jonathan or Johnny is one the best human beings on Earth. He was the kind of person I dreamt of meeting when I was at Father's mansion. He restored my trust in humanity on day one by being was extremely patient with me. Initially, I worked the happy hours and moved to the evening shift three months back.