Made of Glass Chapter 2

A Chapter by Charlie

Dolly meets Edward for the first time!

It didn’t take Ashley too long to realize their complicated system was getting the better of me. It’s really hard to pick up on things quickly when you’re trying not to think. It was especially hard with all these new people to study, but people watching is always the worst. I shudder to think what is going on in some of these college kids heads. I just needed to focus on my job.

“Alright, Doll, how about you help me with my tables today? You can start with your own tomorrow?”

I was fairly positive this was an offering of help so I was ready to turn it down but then again this might be the best way to learn how to do it myself.

“That’d be great. Thanks!”

“Just keep up alright?”

“Sure thing.”

“And smile! You’ve got to work this cuteness that God gave you,” she pinched my cheek and winked before gracefully walking off like she was going down a catwalk. I grimaced and counted the minutes before my break when I could wash my face.

“So we’re gonna start with Brian. Total D-bag and he thinks he can drink way more than he can actually handle. If he orders anything stronger than a light beer just let Lauren know it’s for Brian and she’ll only give him a half. Otherwise he’s groping all the girls before happy hour's even over.”

I turned to a blank page in my notebook and jotted down:

Brian: dark floppy haired groper, half drinks (needs to learn how to shave)

“Hey, Bri! How’d your frat’s casino night go?” Ashley asked with an astonishing amount of enthusiasm. These girls were even better pretenders than me. I remembered to show all my teeth following Ashley’s example.

“The party was totally awesome, but we hardly made enough money to cover the booze. So not saving any little deformed kiddies this year. Not awesome but- hey whose your friend?”

“This is Dolly. She’s the new girl,”

“Hey there!” I waved cheerfully.

Brian looked every inch of me up and down slowly until I felt my hand twitch with the need to punch him once in the nose. After a long pause he finally gave a nod and said.

“Hey.”

Very eloquent.

“Do you want something?” I demanded, all tries at being friendly completely abandoned.

“Yeah, could you get me a pitcher of the good stuff, honey?" My hand twitched again as he slipped in the term of endearment. I'd have a hard time fighting him off in a dark room, but chances were he couldn't handle himself very well.

“Bunch of buddies are meeting up in a bit,” he continued to describe each of them with a shocking amount of detail.

I just needed a small weapon to get the edge. I stared at the pen in my hand. Through the jugular? Bleed out in five minutes, two if I get the internal vein.

Oh dear. This wasn't going well.

I studied the pad in my hand with great intensity and added 'jackass' to the end of his description.

“We’ll get that beer right out for you,” Ashley saved me from having to reply to him once his monologue was done. We headed back to the bar and asked Lauren for the pitcher.

“Makes your skin crawl, doesn’t he?” Ashley asked examining her nails. For all of her trash talking about the people around here she certainly didn’t seem very concerned about any of it. I gathered she’d be more concerned about the hang nail starting on her pinky finger than if a fire suddenly broke out in the kitchen and burnt to a crisp all the screaming people in the back. She was right about Brian though.

After delivering the pitcher to Brian and mercifully escaping without much more than a thank you and your welcome Ashley scanned the three waiting tables she had to deal with.

“That was a rough one so why don’t we move on to someone a little more . . . scrumcious?” she gave a vixen grin and led me toward the table of Edward, the book reader.

“Ten bonus points if you get him to say more than four words in reply to any of your questions,” Ashley pushed me forward to take the lead on this one. I carefully painted on my smile before approaching the table.

Edward looked up from his book as I approached with a face that baffled me. He looked positively shocked like the face of someone who just saw a gargoyle falling off the roof of a building and smashing the mail lady walking next to you on the street. The look faded quickly but he furrowed his brow like he was angry at me and frustrated for some reason. Then he scooted as far into his booth as he could manage as if to increase the distance between us.

What the hell dude? Generally I open my mouth before people decide they’re going to hate me. Once again any desire to pretend to be nice and polite vanished.

I scribbled Edward into my notebook followed by: 'scrumcious jackass'.

“Can I get you something?” I practically barked at him.

He simply shook his head still staring at me with that bizarre expression.

I saw Ashley smirk and shrug next to me. I could almost hear what she was thinking as she looked at me smugly out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t even get one word out of him, she’s a total non-threat, totally stupid to get all worked up just because she’s prettier than Monica, you’ve got to stop this worrying, that wrinkle between your eyes is getting worse.

Her look seemed to be challenging me and suddenly I wanted those bonus points just to prove her wrong. She definitely did have a worry mark where her brow furrowed. Strange I hadn’t noticed that before.

She brought me out of my head with a look that said what the hell are you looking at? I turned back to Edward who had thankfully composed a completely blank face. He’s eyes were so dark that I could hardly distinguish the pupil from the iris. He looked very tired too. But absolutely gorgeous nonetheless.

“Are you sure? You just want to sit here. Alone?”

“Um . . . yeah, uh a beer please,” Now it was my turn to be shocked. His voice was even prettier than his face. Well as pretty. It was hard to pick the winner between the two.

I wasn’t sure if um or uh counted as words so I was going to have to try harder.

“How old are you?” I asked point blank. I would actually place him as one of the youngest guys in the whole bar. Closer to my age than twenty-one. Except his eyes. His eyes looked . . . experienced.

“What?” he shifted uncomfortably not sure of what to make of my question.

“You don’t look 21,”

“Come on, Dolly, he drinks here almost every day,” Ashley said annoyed.

“Have you seen his id?”

Ashley opened her mouth expecting a clever response to pop out but nothing did. She spluttered for a bit trying to make angry words come together.

“That’s alright,” Edward said saving her from a brain hemorrhage.

He pulled out his wallet and waved his Washington state driver’s license in front of my face. I examined the date. He was in fact 22. Damn, he even took a good driver’s license picture. Probably means it’s a fake.

“Okay! Sorry about that, always better safe than sorry right?”

He gave an affirmative grunt and nodded slightly. This was actually quite difficult.

“Hmph. That’s all you have to say? You don’t support underage drinking do you?” I leaned closer to the table and he pressed himself against the opposite wall. I wondered if I smelled bad today. I hoped the reek of the bar hadn’t already permanently soaked into me.

“N-no,” he raised a puzzled eyebrow.

“Really?” I pushed him further

“Really."

I refused to break eye contact until he gave me a satisfactory answer.

“Really! I don’t understand why people are so impatient that they can’t bear to wait a mere twenty years for something as unfulfilling as alcohol. Can I have my beer now?”

“Sure!” I said with a renewed cheerfulness at my triumph “I’ll bring that right back for you.”

I gave a Ashley a big smile as I walked past her to the bar.

Mrs. Westen was right about the shoes. I tried wearing a pair of heels, Lauren had lent to me for my second day. They were just a little too big and my feet kept slipping out of them while I walked. This coupled with the fact that I could hardly walk three steps in heels that actually did fit made for a very difficult day. By the end of it, my feet were sore and covered with blisters. I would return to my flats tomorrow.

I was rubbing my injured feet, taking a break from rubbing down the tables when Mrs. Westen snuck up in her creepy way behind me.

“Nha ha ha!” she snorted. I jumped a foot in the air. “Can't say I didn’t warn ya, poor baby!” I was noticing that Mrs. Westen’s words were constantly at odds with each other. I didn’t know if she was actually pitying me here or laughing at me. I gave a short laugh back anyway.

“Ya know you don’t have to work every day. You’re job won't get stolen from you, honey! Why don’t you take tomorrow off? It’s always the slowest day of the week anyway and you need to go have a little fun. You haven't been out since you got here. Just work work work for you, huh? Nha ha!”

“Thanks Mrs. Westen, but I’ll be fine. I really don’t know what else I would do,” I shrugged. She of course had no idea how badly I needed the money. I had crunched the numbers the night before and if I worked for four hours every day and I didn’t eat this month I might be able to pay all my bills on time. It was best that I ignored my poor feet and work as much as I could. I doubted Mrs. Westen would be as willing to let me go have fun if she knew that the rent would be the first bill to be put off till next week.

“Oh well, soon enough you’ll be best friends with every girl on campus and then I am going to have to beg you to take on more hours! Nha ha ha ha!”

I laughed at this with her but not for the same reasons as her. Just trying to imagine me at the center of a group of teenage girls was so comical and unbelievable I laughed till tears were in my eyes. Although it was a bitter laugh it still felt good. I didn’t laugh because I wanted too very often these days.

“Be sure you lock up when you are done! I’ll see you tomorrow, hun!”

“Will do! See ya,”

My very favorite part of the job was locking up at the end. Apparently it was the job everyone hated so it got shoved to the new girl. I was just glad that they trusted me enough to leave me alone in the bar at night. Without the people and the noise and the incessant chatter and constant appraisal looks from all the guys and the running about like a bunny this place was actually quite cozy and peaceful. I sat in the dark for a few minutes alone before locking the front door and trudging up to my room alone.

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