6

                                    

                                          
“Ready?” Grace asked and I nodded my head after taking a final glance at myself in the mirror.
                          
It was Saturday— The day of work. I worked at a local diner on every Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from five to eight and if the rush was more, then sometimes on Sundays too. 
                          
I worked as a waitress at Jeff’s which was a local diner few blocks away from where I lived. It was a seven to eight minutes drive and a fifteen minutes walk and Grace always did the honours of dropping me there. If it were upto her, she’d pick me up from there too, but I refused as it took her twenty minutes to reach there from her place and I didn’t want to trouble her any further. She was already doing more than enough for me as it was.
                          
Also, she was a cashier at the Florist Cafe which was near her home and she worked from six to nine on the same days as mine. She was being a stubborn head by telling me that she would drop me to my place from Jeff’s by taking a small break from the cafe, but I knew better than to let her drop me because she would just had to work half an hour extra for doing that. Even though she had never mentioned it to me, but I had eavedropped her conversation one time while she was talking to her manager and since then, I had decided to not let her drop me.
                          
“You don’t have to drop me everytime, Gracie.” I spoke while wearing my sneakers.
                          
“I know.” 
                          
“I don’t like it.” I continued.
                          
“You don’t have a fucking choice.” She replied, nonchalantly and grabbed her car keys from the table, as we started walking out of my place, not before locking the doors, ofcourse.
                          
“I hate troubling you.” She turned me around and gripped my shoulders before looking straight into my eyes with eyes glinting with sincerity and honesty,
                          
“You don’t trouble me, Rosa, you never will and get this shit right through your fucking head because you just keep on fucking forgetting it.” I gave her a tight hug and we stayed like that for few minutes, before she pushed me away slightly and spoke,“We are going to be fucking late.”
                          
I smiled at her nonchalant behaviour, but I knew that deep down she was hurting and the reason behind her hurting soul was me and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
                          
Or maybe you can.
                          
I shook the thought away from my head and started walking fast, trying to match her speed. She was always the sporty personality, playing various sport, while I was always a couch potato, trying to find a good romantic movie to watch on Fridays.
                          
Ten minutes later, I was bidding her goodbye, as we reached Jeff’s. The rush was not much, but I knew it was going to be hectic once the clock struck six. It was always a rush hour at Jeff’s and there was no resting after that.
                          
Jeff’s was owned by a tall man named Jeffrey who was in his late forties. To someone who didn’t know him, he was a short tempered and hard to talk with person, but in reality, he was a really sweet person or he was only to me, according to my fellow co-workers, but I’d like to oppose it.
                          
“Rosy, I missed you!” Steve greeted from behind the counter as soon as his eyes landed on me. He was a cute guy of twenty with black hair, brown eyes and a muscular body.  
                          
“I missed you too, Steve.” I said and hugged him, which he returned almost instantly like he knew I was going to do it and well, I actually was.
                          
“How are you?” I asked as I set the bag in the staff’s room.
                          
“Better, now that you are here.” He said, with a wink and I laughed at his flirtatious behaviour. He was a huge flirt and there was no denying it.
                          
“Go to the counter, customers are waiting.” I said, pointing towards the line of customers near the counter who looked angry rather than simply irritated.
                          
Anyone would be, if they were hungry, standing in a restaurant and not finding the cashier there.
                          
“Let them be.”
                          
“Steve!”
                          
“Okay, fine Princess. Anything for you, but you owe me a date later.” I smiled at him and pushed him off to work. Then I wore my name tag over my uniform which was a white blouse and red pants, you know the typical. 
                          
One thing that I was really grateful about to Jeffery was— He let us choose if we wanted to wear skirts or pants and I happily chose pants without any thoughts because it was more comfortable to me to work in pants, rather than short skirts.
                          
Once, I was all done, I walked out taking a deep breath, all ready to start for the day.
                          
~
                          
“Bye, Steve.” I waved my hand in the hair and bid him goodbye.
                          
“Bye, Princess! Can’t wait to see you again.” He yelled, after me as a small laugh escaped my lips.
                          
I exited the restaurant and started walking towards my home. It was already dark outside and I could hear a faint voice of a dog barking, but it was a bit too faint, so I did not have anything to be afraid of.
                          
My neighborhood was nowhere near creepy or unsafe, infact, it was a very safe area, but there was this narrow path that lead to a street where many crimes had taken place. If you avoid going to that path, then there was nothing you had to worry about.
                          
It had been hardly around ten minutes since I got out of Jeff’s and the coughing had already begun. The street was empty with just one man sitting on the bench near the narrow path and he was facing away from me. 
                          
The coughing was uncontrollable and my throat was harsh due to coughing so badly. Tears started pouring out of my eye and I was sure they looked, red. I leaned down on my knees and supported myself by placing my hands on the ground. Once, the coughing stopped, I took few deep breaths before quickly taking out the medicines and a bottle of water from my bag and gulping it down. 
                          
My eyes landed on the ground where I was coughing, only to find some blood stains. I tried to ignore it and got up from the ground while dusting my clothes, ready to continue my walk towards home, when I heard someone coughing. I turned my head and it was the man sitting on the bench.
                          
I stood still on the place, contemplating whether to offer him water or not, when he stopped. I smiled at that and turned around ready to head back when he started coughing again. I couldn’t help myself then to offer him water, so I decided to just did that. 
                          
I started walking towards him and once, I was standing behind him, I raised my hand to tap his shoulder, when a hand clasped on my mouth, pushing me towards an ally and their body dangerously close to mine.
                          
••••••••
                          
Is it non-cliché enough?