Three Pt 1

this is in 2 parts since it's so long, thought I'd make it a tad easier for YOU the reader (:

First day of my job and I was already ten minutes late, I guess I take after my father, not such a great first impression. I pulled into the parking lot and scurried into the tiny cafe, where I was greeted by my fathers friend, Maria. She had a smirk on her face when I entered. 

“Just like your father, come on squirt,” she didn’t seem that  interested in mentoring me for today, but hey she had to. She brought me to the back of the cafe where six hangers were, beat up name stickers right above one. Mine was the very first. There it was, KARINA, written in red sharpie marker. “Here is your uniform. We do serve alcohol and if someone at your table orders that, I will have Ryder bring it out to them. We serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You will be working only on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Tuesdays, dinner shift, so make your schedule free.” Her grey eyes burned holes into my face as she talked to me. “That is really about it. What else did your father tell you about this place?” she leaned against the concrete wall and put her hands in her pockets. 

“Nothing really, just that I have to make my own money since we won’t be giving me and Dex no allowance.” She nodded and smiled. 

“Smart man too. Kids these days are so greedy. You gotta work to get money girlfriend. So today you won’t be doing much, you’ll be tagging alongside me and helping me with whatever and whomever comes into the cafe. It’s 4:40, it usually gets busy around 5:00. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the staff.” I followed her to the mini bar they had and saw about 10 people standing there. 

“Aye Maria, who’s the chica?” a guy with a black cap on asked. He had yellowish teeth, and my guess is he hasn’t shaven in about three days. 

“This is Lorenzo. He’s a funny guy and a little bit of a clown, but he’s got a good heart. Marshall’s daughter Lorenzo, say hi.” Maria said. 

“Marshall’s daughter? Really? Well it’s nice to meet you young lady.” He stuck his hand out and I shook it. 

“This is Lyla, Beau, Spencer, Kayden, Ryder, Emily, Lisa, and Elena.” I waved at all of them and they waved back. “Okay, grab a pen and pad and follow me.” Spencer handed me a pen and pulled his semi long hair into a ponytail. Ryder handed me a pad and I followed Maria to the front of the cafe. 

Three long hours of taking peoples orders, dealing with little kids, and getting paid, eh not too bad. I put my uniform back and walked into the tiny parking lot that was there. I got in the truck and drove to the house. Dex had told me he walked home. I pulled into the drive way and saw him sitting on the front steps drinking a Mountain Dew. 

“Why are you out here?” I asked locking the truck and walking over to where he was. He yawned and shrugged. 

“Your dad is watching television in there and it felt a little weird to be in the house with him. So, what I did was I went for a long walk and then went in, got a drink, sat my butt down, and waited for you. Are those such horrible things to do?” he asked chuckling just the slightest. I walked past him into the house and shook my head no. 

“Hey kid! How was your first day of work?” my dad asked. He sat up and muted the television. I smiled at him. 

“It was okay.” I mumbled. 

“Well, I’m glad it was okay, better than horrible. Anyway, have either of you eaten?” he got up and searched around in his cabinets. “Cause we’re all out of good stuff. All I have are chicken flavored Ramen noodles, will that do?” he asked. I looked at Dex who nodded. 

“Yeah, that sounds cool...dad...” I muttered that last part quietly and he didn’t even notice. I had wished he did. He got out two packets of Top Ramen, two tiny pots, and turned to look at us. 

“If you need me I shall be on the couch. Don’t make a mess please, I ain’t gonna be the one to clean up after you.” He watched us walk into the kitchen and then he took his seat on the couch. I turned to Dex and grabbed a package of Ramen’s and poured some water into the tiny pot. He did the same. 

“Will your dad ever help us with anything?” Dex whispered. I shot him a look and he made an ‘oops’ face. “What? I’m just asking. It’s a bonding experience.” 

“I know that! Come on, it’s only our second week with him, we have a lifetime to change everything, let’s just go slowly, okay?” I said putting the tiny pot on the stove. 

I do wish that everything could go back to the way it was. Mom would come pick me and Dex up from school, then we’d go to the grocery store and get dinner for that night, we’d fight over who got to sit in the front, usually I won since it was my mom’s car. Dex would always get mad and flick the back of my head as we drove home, gosh he was such a child. 

“Hello, Karina! Are you there?” I jolted and saw my dad staring me right in the face. “You okay sweetie?” I shook my head and looked at Dex who had the same puzzled look as my dad. 

“Sorry, I was in very deep though, how long were you calling my name?” I asked trying not to feel too embarrassed, but too late I already was. 

“I called your name about fifteen times. Don’t scare us like that, okay?” I nodded and looked over at Dex and chuckled a tiny bit, he did too. I sighed and ate more of my Ramen’s.

Once I was done I put the bowl in the sink and walked towards our room. 

“Where are you going?” Dex asked. 

“To go lay down. I’m so tired. Maybe do some more of that writing you think is silly.” I chuckled and continued walking. I closed the door once I was in there and changed into a pair of black short shorts and a white tank top. I laid on my side of the bed and got out my diary. I looked up at the ceiling and all of a sudden heard a tiny knock. “Dex, if you’re going to enter this room I don’t need any crap from you about-” 

“Oh...uh it’s just me,” my dad poked his head in and gave a weak smile. “What was Dex going to give you crap about?” he was unsure about this whole conversation, but slid himself into the room. I showed him my diary. “Oh, you keep a diary? How long have you done that?” 

“Since I was 7. Mom thought it would be great way to express my feelings. She was right.” I sat up and he cautiously walked over to the bed and sat down. 

“That’s neat. How was your first week of school?” I shrugged not looking directly at him. Him and I both knew that this was a little awkward. He cleared his throat and nodded. 

“So what has little miss poetry writer been writing about in-” Dex cut himself off when he saw that my dad was in the room. “is everything okay?” he asked. 

“Yeah. I was just seeing if you guys had enough pillows. Looks like you do, well have a goodnight sleep and make sure to get up early tomorrow. I don’t need any trouble from either of you.” Dad got up and walked out of the room swiftly. 

“Dex, if you say one single thing about my diary I will smack you with it. How does that sound, huh?” I chuckled and so did he. 

“Whatever silly. I am going to take a shower. See you in a bit.” He grabbed some clothes and walked into the bathroom, and shut the door. I laid back and looked at the blank page in front of me. I put my pen on the paper. 

Dear Diary,

It’s thursday night, tomorrow I have work off, so that’s something good to write about. I won’t lie it’s a little awkward living with my dad. I barely know anything about him, but I guess the best way to get to know someone is to be with them. Dex is with me, so I don’t have to feel SO alone, he’s always there for me. 

So there is this boy who I find VERY interesting. He’s part of mine and Dex’s new set of friends, that sounds weird to say, but it’s true. His name is Austin. He has one of the cutest smiles in the world, but I can tell he doesn’t like to show it. He has long dirty blonde hair, greenish blue eyes, and he’s a very funny and sweet guy. I haven’t told Dex yet, in fact my dear diary, you are the first to hear about this. Dex would kill to hear this news, but I am NOT telling him. When I tell him things like this, it doesn’t end up well. Austin makes me have that weird feeling in my tummy, especially when it’s just us two, which has only been twice, but still. I think it’s pretty obvious that I like him, but no one seems to pick up on that. I’d expect Debbie or Stacy to AT LEAST notice something, even if it was totally minor. But, I guess that’s how it’s gonna go. 

I better wrap this up before Dex comes back from his shower and starts to make fun of me for writing in this silly diary. 

I slipped my diary under the bed right near where my shoes go. I got out of bed and walked over to the window. All of a sudden my hands became very interesting and I examined them abut five times. Each time I found something different, but nothing odd. I noticed that my fingernails were getting long again, I had a pen mark on my left pinkie, and my hangnail was getting worse on my right pointer finger. 

“So how did that writing go?” Dex asked walking into the room with only a towel. I picked at my hangnail, but that only made it bleed. 

“Ouch! Uh, it went great Dex. How was that shower of yours?” I stuck my tongue out at him and walked into the bathroom. It smelled like Axe shampoo, oh my gosh the smell was awesome. I looked for a band aid and then brought it back into our room. 

“What happened?” he asked. He had put his boxers and night pants on. He was drying his hair out and put it in a ponytail like my dad had done when we first met him. 

“Hangnail.” I answered laying down on the bed and turning on my right side. I felt him get in the bed and lay there. 

“Please tell me what has been up with you. I have noticed something has changed and it is bugging the crap out of me. Come on Karina, please tell me.” He begged. I chuckled and turned over on my left side and looked at him. 

“How about I don’t tell you anything, you forget that silly thought you have, and let me be?” I suggested. 

“How about no. Karina, something is making you all shy and maybe I am just that dense that I really don’t see it, but please tell me.” He looked at me with that face of his and I was so torn between telling him and not. Maybe I’ll just let him find out on his own. 

“No! Come on, you’ve gotta look at the whole picture dude. If by October 1st you can’t guess, I will tell you. If you do guess, keep your mouth shut, okay?” I said getting up and pulling the covers down. He groaned and got up and pulled the covers down on his side. 

Two of my classes were cancelled the next day, yahoo! Mr. Aysen and Mrs. Kay were both out sick. I didn’t have to go into school till 12:00. I did however have to drive Dex to school. After I drove him to school I headed back home. Dad had gone to work and I was all alone there. I decided to sleep a little bit more. I set my alarm clock for 11:45 and took another good snooze. 

I woke up at 11:50 and changed into a pair of light washed short shorts, a blue tank top, and my blue converse sneakers. I decided to put a butterfly clip in my hair, it was so cute! I grabbed the keys left the house. 

“Hey, I haven’t seen you all morning! What happened?” Stacy asked as I entered the school. I chuckled and smiled. 

“Two of my classes were cancelled, I got the news this morning from Debbie and X. But, I am here now.” He smiled at me and nodded. 

“Come on, let’s go sit on the windowsill,” he took my hand and I followed him. We reached the windowsill and I jumped up and sat down. “So give me some dirty details, what’s this whole deal with you and Austin cutie pie?” he asked sitting next to me. I felt my heart skip a beat and I blushed. “Tell me! You can tell me anything! Please I promise I won’t speak any of what you tell me.” He made an ‘X’ over his mouth with his fingers. I chuckled and looked down at the ground. 

“Okay fine. First time I saw all of you I thought he was like really attractive and I was interested in talking with him. When Axel recommended that him and Slater help me drive I was so happy. Then at the skate park, oh my gosh that was awesome!” he chuckled and smiled. “Dex would kill to hear what I just told you.” 

“You mean he hasn’t picked up on it, nor you haven’t told him?” I shook my head no and got out the Ramen’s I had made myself before I left. “How come?” 

“In the past when I have told him who I was crushing on, he usually spills the beans. The last time it happened the whole school made fun of me for liking Tom, and I was shunned. I blamed Dex for all of that.” 

“Awww I’m sorry Karina. That stinks, but I feel your pain. Last year I liked Nicole Christian, and the whole cheerleading team found out some how, and then at one of the football games, they cheered Stacy loves Nicole. I couldn’t have been more humiliated. Worst part is, she put them up to it.” I was totally confused. 

“Stacy, why? You’re a hot dude, why didn’t she like you back?” he shrugged and looked at his turkey sandwich. 

“I was a nerd last year. I didn’t look like this at all. I had braces, pimples, and to top it off glasses. It was horrible. I don’t even know why the Skater Boys are my friends, they just sort of took me under their wing and let me be one of them. Then this summer everything sort of evened out. My pimples went away, my braces came off, and I finally combed my long hair. As you can see I still have the glasses, but they are so much cooler don’t you think? No rims!” I chuckled and pointed at my glasses. 

“I know where you’re coming from bro.” He chuckled along with me. 

“And your buddy Austin whom you are so in love with,” he teased and I put my hand over his mouth, “I mean we still are best friend, but he was the “hot stuff” for almost every girl last year, and I think still this year. I love how he puts bro’s before ho’s, excuse my language.” I smiled and nodded. “You know what I’m saying though?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Cool. You chose quite the gem if you ask me. He’s got the biggest heart and he’ll love you till the very end. Even if you get in a fight with the dude, it’s hard to stay mad at him. I can already tell you, he’ll never be that guy who cheats on you, you know why?” I shook my head ‘no’, “as oddly as this sounds, he has gotten cheated on three times.” My jaw dropped and Stacy nodded. That seemed so hurtful. 

“Oh my gosh! That’s horrible. He’s such a great guy, I don’t know why anyone would want to cheat on him.” I said. 

“It was a mystery to me then, and it’s still a mystery to me now, but my guess is that they wanted a very intimate relationship, and he likes to take everything slow, you know what I mean?” I nodded. “Yeah, but don’t worry about anything like that, alright?” 

“Aye! Where were you this morning?” Double D asked as he turned the corner. 

“Class was cancelled according to Debbie and X. I drove Dex to school, but went back home, where were you?” I teased. He chuckled. 

“Stuck in cruddy biology,” he put his books on the windowsill and looked up at me and Stacy. “We had a lab today and it was horrid.” 

“Awww, well looks it’s over now. So smile!” I said. 

“I’ll catch up with you two later, peace!” Double D said walking through the doors, me and Stacy waved. I turned him and chuckled. 

“Why on earth does he wear all of those like purples and greens, and oranges and blues?” I asked. Stacy shrugged with a smile

“I don’t know. So are you ever going to tell Austin you’re interested in him?” I felt my face heat up again and a huge smile came across my face. 

“Maybe, but what if he doesn’t feel that way? I mean I’d be wasting my time and I don’t want to get hurt.” He stood up as did I, it was time for our next class. 

“Don’t worry about it Karina, you’d be surprised how different people are. Only tell him whenever you are ready, alright? I gotta split, I got english, see you in history.” I gave him a tiny hug and then headed upstairs to math. 

Math was finally over, yeehaw! I hate math. Well, I don’t hate it, it just gets on my nerves like a lot. Dex and I headed to our history room. 

“I figured out what your little secret is,” Dex said. I looked at him with a smug look and had him continue, “you like someone. Am I right?” we turned the corner and I nodded. “I am? Sweet! Who is it?” he was almost back to square one. 

“I told you, you have to find out who it is without me telling you by the first, if you can’t I will tell you, but keep your mouth shut, okay? I don’t need any more drama from you mister. 6th grade was already enough.” I said walking into our classroom. Mr. Ryan was sitting at his desk eating a shiny red apple and working on his computer. Dex took his seat next to Axel and I sat next to Stacy. 

“So, Dex guessed, well sort of,” I said quietly, “his guess was that I liked someone, has no idea who it is though.” Stacy smirked. 

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked. I shrugged. It wasn’t a a bad thing, but then again it wasn’t a great thing either. Once Olivia came to class and the bell rang, Mr. Ryan began class. 

“Hello my victims, are we history ready?” we looked at each other and groaned a little bit. “Aw come on! History is awesome!” Mr. Ryan tried his hardest to get us very enthused about U.S history, but it just wasn’t working. So, he popped in a video of U.S history for us all to watch, and I’ll have to admit, it was sort of  interesting, but the whole time I was thinking about Austin, which caused a huge smile to spread across my face. 

“Psst! Karina!” I snapped out of it and turned to Stacy. “You have the biggest smile on your face, if you want to keep it a secret look somewhere else or watch the movie.” He said. I chuckled and let my eyes float over to the screen. Mr. Ryan had stepped out for a moment and I turned to Stacy. 

“What are you doing after school?” I asked barely audible.

“Nothing, you want to do something?” I nodded.

“What do you wanna do?” I asked making sure Mr. Ryan wasn’t coming back in. 

“Can I come hang at your house? My mom’s working over time and I don’t wanna go home and be alone.” I nodded and smiled. I turned and looked back at the screen. I sighed and sat back in my chair and looked around the room. It was a nice room, but my attention span on the room was short, because my eyes kept gravitating towards Austin. He was sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed and his feet were sort of pointed out in opposite directions. I tried not to let it become too obvious, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to stare at him as long as I could and take it all in, but then I began to feel like a stalker so I stopped. 

“Karina, I’m gonna go to the skate park again with Axel, are you coming?” we walked out the doors and I stopped. 

“Stacy is going to come back to our house, so I’ll be at home if you need anything, okay?” I said. Dex nodded but didn’t have a sure enough face on. 

“You sure you don’t want to come? I know Slater wants you to come with us,” I chuckled and nodded. “alright, well I’ll call you if I need a ride, okay?” I nodded. I guess Dex didn’t really like spending time away from me, but we need space, don’t you think? 

“Don’t worry Dex, I’ll take good care of her!” Stacy called as we headed towards the truck. Dex turned around and smiled. “Is Dex somewhat, overprotective?” Stacy asked. I chuckled. 

“I guess so, but he’s a good guy. He’s just worried about me a lot, I tell him he shouldn’t be, but he still does.” We hopped into the truck and left the school zone. 

“What’s that whole Slater deal?” I stopped at a red light and quickly gave him a look, “Dex said Slater wanted you to go, does Dex think that you like Slater?” 

“Haha! He might, but that’s wrong. I told him if he can’t guess who it is by October first, then I’ll tell him.” Stacy laughed. 

“Really?” I went ahead and began to drive again and smiled. 

“Yes! But I’ll have to come up with something clever to make him not say a word, maybe blackmail? No! I couldn’t do that to him, he’s too sweet.” 

“Why don’t you tell him if you tell anyone, I’ll reveal a deep dark secret of yours and then you’ll know how I feel? I don’t know, I’m not really good with this evil stuff I guess.” I smiled. 

“It’s alright Stace, don’t worry about it.” I pulled into the driveway and parked the car. “Do you need to tell your mom where you are?” I asked. 

“Uhm yeah, can I borrow your cell phone?” he asked. I chuckled. “What?” 

“The social worker took our cell phones, so I don’t currently have mine, which sucks so much, but there is one in the house that you can use.” We got out and closed the doors. 

“Thanks Karina. Is your dad going to be home?” I wasn’t sure because dad had said something about being home early today. 

“He might be, but I’m not entirely sure.” I walked up the steps and opened the door. Dad and three of his friends were sitting on the couch. 

“Hi...dad...” I said. He turned around and smiled. 

“Hey Karina! Who is your friend?” he got up and walked over, so did his three friends. I noticed one of them was Maria. 

“Dad this is Stacy, he’s my friend from school. We’re just going to hang out I guess.” I looked at Stacy and nodded. My dad nodded. 

“Okay that’s cool. Are you going to be leaving at all?” I shrugged, “alright cause I need my truck. I gotta take everyone down to the pier.” 

“Okay, uhm we’ll stay here,” I put my bag down and then waved to Maria, who waved back. Stacy followed me to mine and Dex’s room. I closed the door and sat down on the bed. 

“You and Dex both share this room?” I nodded. “Doesn’t it get a little, annoying to have to share it with him? I mean you only get one bed!” I laughed a little. 

“Yes, it does, but for now this is all my dad could come up with. So it’s going to have to do. You can sit on Dex’s side.” Stacy walked over and sat down and looked at me. He laid back and I did too. 

“So what do you want to do?” he asked. 

“Anything really. You want to go down to the beach?” I suggested. “It doesn’t sound like a horrible idea, right? We can spend as long as we want there, it’s Friday!” he nodded and we sat up. “Are you going to want to go in the water?” I asked. 

“Yeah maybe, but I don’t have swim trunks.” I threw him a pair of Dex’s and he gave me a weird look. I stopped sifting through Dex’s clothes and looked at him. 

“What?” a tiny laugh escaped. 

“Your brothers clothes? Won’t he be mad? I’ll just wear the shorts I am wearing. I don’t mind getting them wet.” I groaned and rolled my eyes. 

“Fine! Now, you go out of the room while I change, okay?” he nodded and got up. He walked out and I closed the door. I found my blue and black bikini. I took my shorts and shirt off and then bra and panties. I put the bikini on and then my shorts. I put my dirty clothes in a pillow case which I had labeled, ‘Dirty Duds’ and then threw it against the wall. I opened the door and saw Stacy sitting there and he looked up at me. “You sure you don’t want to change?” I asked. 

“Hahaha yes, I am sure, but I think we need a towel or two.” I nodded and walked out to where my dad and his friends were. 

“Marshall?” I said quietly. I felt too afraid to say ‘dad’. He turned around and nodded. “Do you have two towels by any chance?” he got up and went to a tiny closet by the bathroom. Pick your color, I got red, green, or blue.” I looked at Stacy and shrugged. 

“How about blue, for the both of us.” My dad gave us each a towel and walked back over to his friends. “We’ll be back a little later, bye.” I said. 

“See you Mr. Adams.” Stacy said. My dad turned to us and waved. I closed the front door and held the towel in front of my stomach as we walked down to the water. 

“That is a really cute bikini Karina, the colors black and blue really go together.” Stacy said. I smiled and laughed a little. 

“Thank you. You and your jean shorts really look nice along with your Underoath t-shirt.” He chuckled and held his towel to his chest. There were about 30 other people there, but they were scattered out, so me and Stace picked our place. We laid the towels down and sat down. He took his shirt off and used it as a pillow and laid back. 

“Oh, this is nice. I rarely ever get to go to the beach. My mom is always coming home late and I need a car to get there, but I am loving it right now.” I smiled and looked at the waves crashing. I let my eyes drift towards the sky and I smiled. 

It truly is a struggle for me and Dex everyday, we lost our parents, and the sad part is I was just getting to really like Matthew, and I want to say he knew I was starting to like him, but sadly I will never ever know. I know Dex and my mom had gotten along from the beginning, but there was something that I just didn’t completely like about Matthew.

Author's Note

I'm sorry it's still long =[[
but enjoy and I'd love to know what people think!!