Chapter 17: Slave

I now know why I never took up waitressing as a summer job. Being a waitress is tough, I don’t know how Andrew manages this every day.

I guess my respect for him just increased.

So far, I have been doing a mildly okay job. There is no way in hell you would refer to it as good.

I am a little slow at taking orders and bringing them back than the others around here, and I can barely recommend or give details to the customers as I know nothing about the food and how it is made.

My knowledge is restricted to the ones I used to order whenever I came here, besides that I can’t even pronounce some of the dishes properly.

“What would you like to order, Sir?” I ask taking out my notepad and ready to write the order.

“An explanation, as to what you are doing here sounds good,” I look up surprised to see Charlie’s annoying face grinning up at me.

Why out of all the people that I could have met today, it unfortunately has to be him!

“What are you doing here?” I whisper yell at him while pushing him in the booth, a little harshly might I add.

“I don’t know, to eat maybe,” He replied sarcastically probably annoyed by getting pushed to the side.

“Well you can’t eat here go to some other restaurant,” I state wanting him to leave here before he meets Andrew and spoils my plan.

“What? No! I am in mood for some Mexican for dinner tonight and you said that they serve the best around here,” He complained like a child and by the sounds of it he was going to be stubborn like one too.

“Fine but keep a low profile and eat your dinner and leave immediately,” I said in a hushed voice so as not to let the other customers hear me.

Giving me a curious stare, he demands, “Only if you tell me why.”

I look at him dumbly because I know what kind of disaster, he is capable of but I also know there is no other way out; I’ll have to tell him why I am here.

“They are lacking some staff around here so I am helping them today,” I disclosed half of the truth because I truly believe the rest will cause a lot of trouble for me.

His hazel eyes stare at me and his expressions give nothing away to calm me. I always hate it when he sees through me; I guess being friends since diaper days has a few of its disadvantages too.

Suddenly, he bursts out laughing and smacks me across the back taking me by surprise almost causing me to bang my head on the table, “I would believe that if you were Blu, but you don’t do shit for free. So, what’s the catch?”

When he puts it like that, I sound like a bitch but I guess that is true.

“Ugh! You win. I am doing this because Andrew works here and I want to win his trust,” I grumbled which brought an evil smile on his face and he motions with his eyebrows at something behind me.

“Is there a problem here?” Andrew asks as I turn around to look at him.

Before I can explain anything to him Charlie casually replies, “No, just talking to my slave.”

This causes my eyes to widen and as well as Andrew’s as he looks at him disbelievingly and sputters, “What?”

I try to speak up when Charlie wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me closer to him and says, “I see that she has been helping you around here and I am sure she was doing a good job after all I had trained her one whole summer for it.”

If it was possible my eyes would have popped out from their sockets on listening to him refer to that one time, I had lost a bet and was to act as his butler for a whole summer.

We had promised to never bring it up again!

It was the most torturous summer I had ever been through till this day.

Andrew looked at me with a horrified expression probably jumping to the worst conclusions. For god’s sake even I would have run away from him if I was in a similar situation.

Before Andrew could say something, I turned around and with a murderous glare took Charlie by his neck and pushed his head on the table forcefully with enough pressure in order to not hurt him but enough to shut him up.

“What are you saying? Are you mad? I’ll kill you!” I shrieked at him while applying a bit more pressure which gained me some satisfying yelps from him.

I turned back to Andrew who was still looking at us shocked, probably not understanding anything happening in front of him.

I was so thankful that it was near closing time, so the diner was significantly emptier than before.

“Andrew let me explain, it’s a misunderstanding just hear me out please,” I pleaded looking into his vary blue eyes.

Maybe it was the distress written on my face or Charlie’s cries of help but he sat down in front of us and giving me a small smile, he reassured, “I believe in you Scarlet; I was just shocked for a moment.”

Giving him a grateful smile, I roughly released Charlie and he instantly groaned that I was built like a female gorilla which earned him another slap on the back of his head.

“Explain,” I glowered at him as Andrew pityingly passed him a tissue to wipe his face.

“Geez I think you broke my jaw,” He exaggerated causing me to shoot a glare at him.

“Okay, I’ll explain!” he exclaimed and offers Andrew his hand as they both introduced themselves.

“It was just a test man to see how you’ll react and you successfully passed it seeing as you are still here. Besides that, the slave stuff was a bit exaggerated, although when she was ten, she lost a bet and acted as a butler for me for one whole summer,” he grinned at him and proceeded to ruffle my hair.

“So, you guys have been friends for a pretty long time?” he asked most likely intimated by that fact.

“Yep, since we were babies but you don’t need to worry about me, I have a girlfriend.”

That was true Andrew had a girlfriend named Carol for five months now and she was the sweetest girl I had ever met. They had hit it off instantly and I have a feeling they would surely marry each other.

Nervously glancing at Andrew, I give him an honest smile and ask him if he was alright.

“Can I have a word with you alone?” he softly speaks and rises from his seat.

I nod at him hesitatingly and follow him to the employees’ room.

I shut the door behind me and it is quiet for a while as we both stare at each other.

It looks like he is deep in his thoughts but I cannot take the silence any longer and so closing the distance between us I take his hands in mine and look up at him comfortingly.

Sighing he tightens the hold on my palms which causes a pleasing sensation to go through me, “I trust you Scar. It’s just that it has been such a long time since I have dated anyone that I don’t know how to react and seeing you have such a good bond with another guy just makes me worry if I can ever be able to beat that.”

I don’t know why but at that moment my heart broke for him a little. He looked like a lost puppy looking for a warm home.

“You don’t need to worry about that I swear to you that he is like a brother to me and nothing else, and know that even though you have little experience you have been doing wonderfully well so far. I won’t leave you even if you tell me to,” I say and this time I soothingly pulled him into a hug unable to see him so distressed.

What had he gone through to make him like this?

“Thank you Scar that was all I needed to hear,” He says as he holds me tightly for the second time in a span of less than eight hours and yet it felt like I had already began being used to it.

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Illustris ❤