Falling For You

Falling For You

Chapter 19

Minimum Wage Hell


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\"Hope is the worst of all evils, for it prolongs the torment of man…\"

--Neitsche

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According to Dante Alighieri, author of Inferno, there are nine levels, or to be more specific, ‘rings’, of Hell. In the outer annex of Hell are those poor folks who could choose neither good nor evil in their lives.

Yes, you did indeed hear correctly. Hell has a foyer.

Anyway, the first ring houses the virtuous pagans, ring two the lustful, ring three the gluttonous, ring four has the greedy and the prodigal, ring five the wrathful, and ring six the heretical.

Here’s where it starts to get a little more complicated.

Ring seven houses the violent—those violent toward themselves, others, God, nature, and art. The eighth ring is generally classified as deceit. People such as panderers and seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, astrologists and diviners, barrators, hypocrites, thieves, false counselors, sowers of scandal and schism, and falsifiers are housed there. The ninth and final ring is comprised of those who practiced malicious deceit. That refers to traitors to kin, country, guests, and benefactors.

‘But,’ Breanna thought to herself as she wiped the back of her hand over her sweaty brow, ‘Dante forgot to mention in his book the most horrible and terrifying ring of all. Housed here are those pathetic, miserable souls working their asses off for an honest paycheck.’

Peeking out from the kitchen into the chaotic dining room, Breanna exhaled heavily and resisted the urge to huddle into the fetal position and cry. ‘I have now entered minimum wage Hell.’

Screaming babies, bitchy customers, bad tippers, nasty, creepy perverts staring at her boobs and trying to grab her ass, and the fact that the girl who was training her obviously wanted her to fail were all the reasons why a previously strong, determined girl was desperately hiding and cowering in fear.

‘You can’t hide in here forever, ya know…’

Breanna visibly shuddered as one of the cooks rang the bell indicating a waitress’s order was up. She only prayed that it wasn’t one of hers. ‘Five more minutes. I swear. I just need a break.’

“Breanna!” Yelled the screechy voice the girl being bellowed at had begun to associate with terror and misery. Pushing herself away from the doorway, Breanna sighed again and headed off to collect her order.

‘And the day started out so well…’

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“So you’ll pick me up after work, right? I get off at eight.”

Devon chuckled. “Yes, Bre, I’ll be there. You do realize that you’ve asked me that at least six times in the last five minutes.”

Giggling, Breanna sat down on her bed and tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear so she could tie her shoe. “Sorry,” she apologized, “I’m just so nervous about today. I know that Zoey bitch is going to give me a hard time, and I’m wondering how I’m going to handle seven hours of her breathing down my neck.”

“Kick her ass, you can take her.”

Breanna scowled and stood up. “You’re not helping, Devon.”

“Joking, joking… Chill, spaz,” he snickered, “Like I said before, just take her lumps with a smile. It’ll drive her crazy.”

“What if… you know…?”

“What if she knows about you and me? I don’t know, Bre. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Okay. If you say so,” she murmured as glanced over at her clock, “Oh shit, I gotta go. Brent will be here any minute to pick me up.”

“Tell him I said hi.”

“You’re a bastard, Devon.”

Breanna could almost picture him smirking as he replied, “I try.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Bre. Have a good day.”

“Thanks,” she laughed, “Bye.”

Flipping her cell shut, Breanna rubbed her forehead in an attempt to alleviate the headache growing there. Today was her first day of work, and needless to say, she was slightly stressed out. She hadn’t seen Zoey since the day she’d come by to fill out paperwork, but the irritating girl had been on her mind regardless. The knowledge that her new co-worker might have seen her together with Devon was making her crazy with worry.

Honestly, Breanna didn’t know what she was going to do if that bitch had seen them together. There was not a doubt in her mind that Zoey wouldn’t have any qualms about blabbing her secret to everyone she knew. The only thing keeping Breanna from going completely insane was the knowledge that she hadn’t. Not yet, anyway. That gave her the impression that Zoey either didn’t know, or just didn’t care enough to tell anyone.

Pulled out of her worried musing by the sound of a car horn, Breanna grabbed her bag and hurried down the stairs. “Mom! Dad! I’m leaving! ‘Be back around one, ok?”

“Have fun, sweetheart! Don’t work too hard!” Her father yelled back. She wasn’t surprised when her mom remained silent. Neither had really said much to the other since the morning of their fight, and Breanna suspected her mother was devising a way to get back at her.

“Okay! See ya!”

Pulling the door shut behind her, Breanna jogged to the passenger door of Brent’s car and hopped in. Flashing him a bright smile, she leaned over, pressed a soft kiss to his mouth, and then sat back in her seat with a smile. “Hey, thanks for picking me up. With gas prices the way they are I don’t want to have to use my car any more than necessary.”

‘And the fact that it makes it easier for you to lie to your parents about who’s picking you up has nothing to do with it, right?’

Putting the car into gear, he backed out of the driveway and said, “It’s no problem. I’ve gotta head out in that direction anyway, so it’s not like it’s out of my way.”

“Oh, good. Anyway…”

Idle chit chat fading away into comfortable silence, Breanna relaxed and gazed out the window at the scenery whizzing by. It reminded her of her life as of late; of how quickly everything had changed. With all the things that had happened, she couldn’t help but feel like all the ideals that she used to hold true were twisted and skewed. Being with Devon had opened her up to a world full of new possibilities, but she found it was hard to catch her breath when life was passing her by in a manner similar to a freight train. How was she supposed to know what the right thing to do was when everything kept rushing past too quickly for her to stop and think?

‘Excuses, excuses… The truth is that you just don’t want to slow down and think. You know that when you do, the guilt you’ve been keeping at bay will rip you to pieces.’

Pointedly ignoring her conscience’s all too sensible reasoning, Breanna cleared her throat and poked Brent in the shoulder. “Do you know a girl named Zoey Clark?”

He thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. “No, sorry. The name doesn’t ring a bell. Why’d you ask?”

Breanna sighed. “Well, this Zoey person is the girl that’s going to be training me today. I met her when I went the other day to fill out paperwork, and she seems to, like, hardcore hate me. I don’t recall ever even seeing her before, but apparently we’ve gone to school with each other for a long while.”

Brent gave her a puzzled look. “Wait. Why does she hate you?”

She threw her hands up in a helpless gesture. “That’s the thing; I have no idea.”

“That’s… strange.”

Breanna snorted. “You’re telling me… And I just know she’s going to try her damndest to mess me up today.”

Brent gave her an encouraging smile and chucked her under the chin lightly with his fist. “You’ll be ok, Bre, just don’t let her get to you. People like that thrive on others’ insecurities, so if you just pretend like she’s not bothering you, chances are she’ll leave you be.”

Making the right turn into Denny’s parking lot, Brent parked the car in front of the restaurant and leaned over to brush his lips over hers tenderly. Sweet and soft, the kiss was that of close friend, not a lover. Breanna felt none of the heat and passion Devon’s kisses elicited in her, and she had to wonder if Brent could tell that her heart wasn’t really in it.

She wondered if he suspected that she didn’t really love him.

Drawing away, Breanna forced herself to give him a happy smile. “Thanks, I think I’ll be ok now.”

“You’re welcome, and I know you’ll be fine. Are you sure you don’t need me to pick you up?”

Breanna shook her head. “Nope, I’ve got it covered, thanks. I’ll just call you and let you know how it went, alright?”

“Sounds good. Have a great night, Bre.”

“You, too. Talk to you later.”

She had barely stepped away from the curb and when his voice called her back . “Breanna?”

Turning around, she gave him an inquisitive look. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The sincerity in his voice tearing at her heart, she smiled weakly and murmured, “I love you, too.”

Watching him pull away with a sense of foreboding dripping like ice down her spine, Breanna drew in a deep breath and sighed. ‘I deserve anything and everything that frizzy haired bitch can dish out, don’t I?”

‘Yes you do, you evil wench.’

Breanna nodded to herself. ‘That’s what I thought you’d say…’

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‘There she is. Right where Brian said she’d be. Waiting for you. Are you ready?’

Standing a few feet away in the doorway to the kitchen, Breanna stood wringing her hands and observing her foe from a distance. She had hoped maybe Brian would change his mind and stick her with another waitress, but as luck would have it he had not picked up on her panicked vibes. No, instead the oblivious man had cheerfully greeted her, given her an apron, and sent her on her merry way to meet up with her trainer. What a schmuck.

‘Did she… grow since I last saw her? I swear on everything holy she’s taller!’

‘Breanna…’

‘No, I’m serious. Doesn’t she look taller? And, I don’t know… meaner?’

‘She’s not even facing you, how can she look mean?’

‘Holy crap is she tall…She’s like a circus freak or something! I wonder if--’

‘BREANNA!’

‘Alright… Sheesh… I’m going, I’m going…’

Tucking the tendrils of hair that had escaped from her ponytail back behind her ears, Breanna gathered her courage and strode forward to tap Zoey on the shoulder. “Hi! I’m ready to start!” Faltering a little as the other girl turned around and glared menacingly down at her, she continued hesitantly, “Um… I mean… That is… As long as you’re ready. I can just wait if you’re busy. In fact, I think I’ll just go over here, and you can let me know when you’re done with whatever it is you’re doing, okay? Alright. Sounds good to me. So… yeah. I’ll just--”

“Do you ever shut up?”

“Uh…”

Zoey shook her head impatiently and shoved a guest check book into her hands. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Let’s go. You have a lot to learn, and very little time for me to teach it to you.”

With that, the freakishly tall girl whipped around and stormed off without even waiting for Breanna’s response.

What a biatch.

Gripping the little book tightly in her hands, Breanna gritted her teeth, swallowed her pride, and followed quickly after her. Reasoning that it really wouldn’t do to piss off the girl she was depending on to teach her any more than she apparently already had, Breanna decided to just shut up and let her do what she wanted. The sooner she learned what she needed to do, the sooner she could be rid of her, right?

Right.

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“Ugh…” she moaned to herself as she picked up the heavy tray loaded with dirty dishes and made her way carefully out of the dining room. “Wrong. I was so incredibly wrong. I’m just glad it’s almost over.”

It was hard to imagine that just seven hours earlier Breanna had been determined, eager to learn, and convinced that for the most part, people were kind and compassionate. Now she was just sweaty, smelly, achy, and discouraged. Oh, and not to mention completely positive that Zoey Clark was plotting against her.

‘I’m just amazed she helped you at all.’

‘You and me both. Good thing I caught on pretty quickly…’

‘Uh-huh. We’ll just forget about the plate of food you dropped. Twice.’

‘Shush you.’

As she unloaded the tray and separated the dishes into neat piles for the dishwashers, she let her mind wander back to the day’s activities. First, Zoey had grudgingly gone over the menu with her and explained how to abbreviate orders so the cooks could easily tell what they had to prepare. Then she had taken her on a short tour of the restaurant and spent the rest of the time having Breanna follow and observe her as she waited on customers.

Breanna grimaced as she recalled some of the people she had waited on when Zoey had finally sent her off to work on her own that day. A lot of them had been very nice, and she really had genuinely enjoyed serving them, but some select few… There weren’t even words to describe the horrors she had seen in her few short hours on the job. Evil housewives saddled with seventy crying, screaming, demon children, old biddies who complained that the butter knives weren’t shiny enough, some creepy guy who sat in a booth for three hours and talked to himself… The world was a very scary, very disturbing place.

But truthfully, except for a few small mishaps, like the plate dropping incident and the frightening customers, Breanna really had caught on quite quickly. She had always had good memorization skills, so learning the menu truly hadn’t been too much of an issue. She still didn’t know all of it, but she was getting there. Slowly but surely. The only major issue she had was the way Zoey kept intentionally trying to mess her up. It was like she had done all she was supposed to do as a trainer, and then spent the rest of the time intentionally screwing with her. Snide comments, mixing up her orders, embarrassing her in front of customers… It was obvious the bitch didn’t want her there and was determined to drive her away.

‘Well, if she thinks I’m just going to give up, she’s sorely mistaken. If I can handle the smelly pervert who was drinking all the creamers earlier, I can handle anyone.’

‘Right. Of course you can.’

‘Yup. I’m not afraid of her. She’s just a--’

“Augh. You’re still here?”

“Eeep!” Breanna yelped in surprise as she dropped a cup and watched helplessly as it shattered at her feet.

‘Oh no, you’re not scared of the big, bad wolf.’

Zoey raised an eyebrow contemptuously and motioned to the mess of broken glass. “You’ll have to pay for that, ya know.”

Breanna nodded and muttered, “I know.” Kneeling down and picking up the shards, she avoided eye contact with the beast and concentrated on making herself appear less vulnerable and pathetic.

“You don’t belong here. Why don’t you just leave?”

Not surprised in the slightest at the animosity in her voice, Breanna looked up and flashed her a smile. “I’m not giving up and there’s nothing you can do that’s going to make me quit.” Tossing the broken cup into the garbage, she stood back up and brushed off her pants as she coolly observed the angry girl in front of her. “Why do you hate me so much, Zoey? What have I ever done to you?”

“You should worry less about me, and more about yourself, Breanna.”

“Why do you say that?” Breanna asked cautiously, almost certain she knew, but not wanting to volunteer any information.

Taking a step forward, Zoey leaned down and whispered ominously, “Because… I know your secret.”