I inhaled a deep breath before situating the McDonald’s cap on my head and before clocking in for another six and a half hour shift of flipping burgers and dropping French fries in fryers.
“Adam, you are on front line tonight.” Mandy, the manager said matter-of-factly before disappearing back inside the office.
I revise my last statement; I inhaled a deep breath before situating the McDonalds’s cap on my head and before clocking in for another six and a half hour shift of meaningless greetings and taking orders.
As I was assigning the register to myself my friend, Dalton, came up beside me to clock in.
“You on frontline tonight?” He asked
“Yeah,” I all but groaned. I hate frontline.
“Hey, cheer up. You might see that chick.” He said sarcastically. Although I know he was trying to aggravate me, I cheered a little I hadn’t thought of her.
She comes in at least once a week, she has long wavy brown hair and dark heavily lashed eyes, she is slender but not scary skinny like most girls around here. She came in once in the dance team uniform and another time wearing the FBLA t-shirt. I had never seen her at school though, only here. She always orders a number twelve chicken nugget meal with sweet and sour sauce and a Dr. Pepper.
“Dude, did you hear me?” Dalton asked waving his hand in front of my face and shattering my thoughts of her.
I blinked a few times, “Sorry what?”
“I said,” He began; clearly annoyed I hadn’t listened the first time. “I finally got a date with Bridgett and she wants to double with her friend so she was hoping that maybe one of my friends would come along.”
I considered this for a moment. I didn’t want to go out with anyone besides her. “Sorry. But I’m not really into dating right now.” I shrugged my shoulders. Before Dalton could say anything the door chimed and four teenagers walked up to my register.







***********************************************

Two hours before we close and I hadn’t seen her all night. Dalton barely spoke to me throughout the night but he’d get over it. We weren’t really busy so the night was kind of boring and then forty-five minutes till closing time she walked in. I smiled and Dalton snorted. I threw him a look that said ‘shut-up now’ and watched her for a moment. She was wearing a pink plaid button up opened over a white lace tank top and blue jeans and comfortable looking boots. Her hair was in a side braid and she didn’t have on much make-up yet she was still beautiful. She looked down at her IPhone and giggled then covered her mouth when she realized it had been too loud.
She walked up to the counter with a cheerful smile.
“Hey, how are you?” I asked, meaning it for the first time to tonight.
“Fine, how are you?” She asked, her dark blue eyes meeting mine.
“I’m fine. Do you want your usual?” I asked.
She giggled, “Am I that predicable?”
My smile widened, “Nah, you just know what you like. Nothing wrong with that.”
She bowed her head shyly and brushed her hair from her face. The door chimed and I looked up to see who’d come in. Surprisingly, I saw my cousin, Jake. I nodded at him but turned back to the girl in front of me.
“Yeah, I want my usual.” She said shyly and I typed it in.
“Oh, I also need a Number One with a Dr. Pepper.” She said quickly. I wonder who will be joining her.
“Eleven fifty-two.” I smiled at her as she handed me fifteen dollars. I counted up her change and when I looked up to give it to her I saw Jake standing next to her.
“I see you met my girlfriend.” He said, wrapping his arm around her.
My heart fell into my stomach making me nauseous. The room spun around as my whole world fell apart. He was dating her.
“Oh, so you’re Adam. Well I guess I should’ve known that by your nametag.” She giggled her perfect musical giggle. “I’m Aubrey! Nice to meet you.” She said in a sweet voice. They both smiled and looked at me clearly oblivious that the news of them being a couple had thrown my whole world into a deep pit of nothing.
“Nice to meet you to,” I said robotically and turned around slowly to put their order together.
I slid the tray toward them and handed Jake two cups. Aubrey took hers, smiled at me and went to fix her soda. I tried to smile back but, knew my attempt was pointless there was no happiness left.
“See ya later,” Jake said, taking the tray.
I turned back toward the kitchen and saw Dalton looking at me with caution. But for the first time since I’ve known him he said nothing. I looked blankly at him and gave a disconnected grunt, “Guess I can go out with that other girl now.”