chapter twenty five
florence thompson
song: pretty ugly - tierra whack

Vincent kept to his word, giving me a ride to work and assuring he'd be back at 7 to pick me up from my shift. The car ride over was filled with the music from the radio and incessant teasing from his side of the car, that silly smile still stuck on his lips. I couldn't help but laugh each time he made a silly joke, causing me to shake my head.

When we finally arrived, I was a whole hour late and Ben and Rico were both elated to see me walk through the front door. Rico released a girlish squeal, rushing to wrap me up in his arms in a tight hug. I returned it, squeezing him tightly since I hadn't seen him a whole two days which was practically unheard of lately with how much time we'd been spending together.

"How are you here? Oh, look at that nice car! Oh my god...wait," Rico released me, stepping back and watching as Vincent shifted his ridiculously expensive car into reverse and pulled out of the parking lot. "That was Vincent, wasn't it? Oh my god, Ben told me you went over there last night. He's bringing you to work? Did you guys have sex? Are you kidding me?!" He exclaimed, gripping my shoulders and shaking me harshly as if the information would fall right out of me.

I looked over Rico's shoulder to find Ben chuckling with his back resting against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What is it, a gossip fest around here?" I waved my arms around animatedly, thanking the heavens that Glenn was right in the fact that today was slow and no one was to be seen in the diner.

"So you did? You finally lost your-,"

"Shut up!" I cut him off before he could reveal the fact that I'm still a super mega virgin to Ben. It's not a huge deal but its also not exactly the type of information you want your high school crush to find out about you. "No, we definitely did not have sex, he just gave me a ride in since my car wouldn't turn on this morning."

"Oh really?" Ben asked from the back, his interest suddenly piqued in our conversation, his full brows raising in surprise. "What's that uh," he motioned towards his own neck, "hickey you got going on?"

It was this moment that I'd realized how royally I'd fucked up.

My eyes immediately widened as I stared at him, remembering last night and the purple bruise Vincent had left on my neck. Nausea waved over me, causing my face to immediately pale. My hands began to clam up, I wiped them quickly on my dress.

Why hadn't he told me?!

Oh, he isn't going to hear the end of this.

I was rushing around so quickly that I'd forgotten to at least throw some foundation over it.

"I got you boo," Rico interrupted, sticking his pointer finger in the air, catching my attention. "I have makeup in my car from that one time I went to a drag show, c'mon," he waved me behind him and we began towards the door, pushing through and heading towards his red car.

He unlocked it, pulling out a purple sparkly makeup bag and unzipping it quickly.

"So, between the two of us, did you lose it?" He asked sneakily, searching through his makeup back and pulling out a light stick foundation. "It was my highlight color," he informed me, pulling the cap off and swiping the stick onto my neck as I craned it.

"I swear to god I did not lose it, Rico," I said, looking at him as he patted the shade into my neck.

"Well somethin' must've happened if you have this bullseye on your neck," he raised his brows, giving me that pointed Rico look with his big brown eyes.

I groaned, rolling my eyes as I always do.

"Yes, he gave me a hickey but thats literally it. We didn't even kiss," I scoffed, recalling the memory of the two of us last night as he had me pinned down to the couch. His hot breath trailing down my neck as he pressed his lips against the skin.

My cheeks flushed at the thought alone.

"What a ripoff," Rico grumbled, patting a powder puff over the sensitive spot. "It's like paying for the candy and not even getting it."

I furrowed my brows at him as he began putting the makeup away, closing his car door and locking it before we both started towards the diner. It was then that I realized he was in a pair of sneakers and not our usual rollerblades.

"Where are your rollerblades?" I asked, motioning towards his feet as he held the door open for me to go in before him.

"Glenn decided to let us go without them today, lucky for us. Not that it makes any difference for giraffe on stilts," he whispered the last part harshly, a grin on his face as he nodded towards Ben who was currently wiping down the counter with a disinfectant wipe.

"I heard that!" Ben called out, looking up from where he was stood, a boyish grin on his lips. His eyes fell down to where the angry hickey had been present only moments before. "Good job, Rico," he teased, going back to wiping the counter.

"Thank you, thank you," Rico girlishly bounced his imaginary hair on his shoulders, fluttering his eyes dramatically causing me to laugh aloud.

"Any fun customers today?" I asked, approaching the counter and sliding onto the red stool, propping my elbows up onto the counter and resting my head on top of my closed fists.

Ben glanced up from his job at hand, looking over my face momentarily.

"Regular Reggie came in, asking for you." Ben's lips quirked up into a lazy smirk.

I shivered, wiggling in my seat as I thought of Regular Reggie. He's a man around his thirties who has been coming to Glenn's since before I even worked here, always scouting out the newest employee's, making it his mission to see how wildly uncomfortable he can make us. Just kidding, that isn't his intention but it's surely what he ends up doing in the end.

The last time I'd seen him was last week when he came in and specifically requested me to serve him which more or less disrupted the order of the day. We have a system we stick to, an odd one but one that works. Ben seats the guests, I take their orders and Rico brings their orders to them.

Glenn doesn't mind it and it gives us the ability to evenly split everything out. The only issue we usually came across was splitting tips but normally we tallied up our tips at the end of the night and split it evenly, a system we'd all agreed on and didn't mind since most of our customers were generous tippers and we all usually made around the same in tips.

"I've never been happier that my car broke down," I said blankly, staring at Ben across the counter from me. "What'd he want? To know my favorite color?" I shivered in disgust. Last week he'd asked me a million and one different questions from my favorite movie to my relationship status.

Normally I wouldn't mind an inquisitive customer but when they're as creepy as Regular Reggie, thats where I have to draw the line.

"I have no idea, when I told him you weren't here but that we'd be happy to serve him he was out the door," he chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he tossed the sanitary wipe into the trash.

"That guy seriously gives me the heebie-jeebies," Rico commented from behind the counter, a mouthful of chocolate donut as he made a disgusted face.

"That makes two of us," I whispered more to myself as Rico continued stuffing his face.

• • •

q: favorite snack??