Charlie was kind of my first boyfriend. I mean, I think I’ve had one for about a few hours before, but he just kissed me, and wanted to make out with me. We did for a second, but then he moved on to some other girl. I can’t really remember the situation. I think we were at a party. He was probably drunk.
I never really saw him at school, but I always hung out with him at work now. Even David noticed and asked Damien about it. At first this was a bit awkward, but I quickly found it to be amusing. I was also really enjoying Charlie’s company more.
I was working. Zoning the lanes. Charlie kept sending text messages to me on my phone even though he was only on the other side of the store. I kept asking him why he couldn’t come over here, and he said he didn’t want to abandon work but he wanted to keep talking to me. I laughed.
I heard the door open. It was the person I least wanted or expected to see at Wal-mart: Chrissy White. She had a denim skirt so short that her t-shirt almost covered it so it looked like she had nothing on under there. She had her purse and sunglasses, with the latte in her hand giving her the perfect bitch look.
“Paige!” she greeted as soon as she saw me. “It’s so good to see you!”
“Oh. Chrissy,” I said, not sounding as enthusiastic as she did. “I didn’t expect you here.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” she said. “I don’t shop at places like this, no duh. I came here to talk to you!”
“Oh, really?” I said, smiling even though I didn’t want to.
“Mhm. Paige, dear, we all know it’s so obvious,” she said, shaking her head as if sympathetically. “I think it’s so cute you have a crush on Alexander.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Oh?”
“Yes, it’s so adorable! It’s just like when those little kids have those huge dreams that you know will never come true. You just have to smile at them and feel sorry for them when they’re older, you know?”
“I see,” I said. I felt like slapping her.
“But here’s the thing, my dear Paige,” she said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. It was a good thing she wore those gigantic high heels, otherwise she’d have a bit of trouble reaching me. “I want you to stay the hell away from him.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. The Great is mine, ‘kay, love?” She let go of me. “I have a feeling he might like you, you see, so I have to make sure he falls in love with me.”
“What?” I said, a little taken back by her sudden approach. “No, you don’t understand, I’m—”
“Save it, kid,” she cut me off. “You need to go find yourself another perfect guy. Because do you know what will happen if you mess with me?”
I narrowed my eyes, and glared at her. “No, Chrissy White, what will happen if I mess with you?”
She opened the lid of her latte. Steam started coming out of it. When I blinked, her arm moved in one swift motion, and her latte somehow made it above my head, where she then turned it over, letting it pour on me like a water fall.
It was burning hot. My scalp felt like it was on fire. I could feel the coffee running down my face and onto my glasses and the not so dissolved sugar go into my eyes. I started to cry from the pain.
The coffee started making its way down my neck and continued into my shirt, making it all stained and wet. It continued to scald my skin, and I continued to weep.
“This is what happens when you mess with Chrissy White. Stay away from my man.”
She walked out, and I could barely see her butt swaying from side to side due to the immense amount of coffee in my eyes.
I fell to my knees. I could never handle large amounts of heat on my skin, and I could feel it eating at me bit by bit.
“PAIGE,” I heard Damien call. He ran up to me, and sat down. “Paige, what the hell happened?”
He helped me up, and brought me into the break room.
I felt a rag near me, and I took it from Damien’s hands. The first thing I did was take off my glasses and white my eyes, not only to wipe the coffee away, but to also attempt to dry my tears.
I heard Charlie walk in next. “Damien, what happened?”
“I don’t know yet. I just saw Paige on the floor with burning hot coffee all over her. Let her clean herself up a bit and then we’ll make her talk.”
So I started rubbing the rag towel on myself. It really didn’t help much, but I didn’t rub too hard because my skin stung so badly from the heat. Damien got me another shirt, and I changed when the two guys faced the other way.
“Paige,” Charlie said. He was looking at me in a similar way he looked at Katie. “Paige, tell me what happened.”
“Well,” I started. “You know that girl form school? Chrissy White?”
“Of course,” he said.
“She came. She dumped her latte on me.”
“That’s what happened?” Damien asked, sounding surprised that Chrissy would do such a thing. “So she just walked in here and dumped her coffee on you?”
“Well, she said some stuff of course.”
“Like what?”
“Something about staying the hell away from Alexander or something,” I said. “I tried to explain to her that I was already seeing someone else, but she didn’t even let me talk. She just told me not to mess with her, and then she dumped her coffee on me.”
“What a bitch!” Damien exclaimed. “Dammit, I seriously hate her.”
“Are you okay, though?” Charlie asked.
I smiled at him. “Yeah, thanks.” I touched my skin. “It still stings a bit, though.”
“I’ll get you some ice or something,” he said, getting up and leaving the room.
“Thanks.”
“Man,” Damien started, sitting down next to me. “I can’t believe she’d do something like that.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “She’s so desperate for the Great.”
“So why is it hard to believe she dumped coffee on me?”
“I don’t know. She’s such a bitch.”
“I haven’t noticed yet.”
Damien smiled. “You sure you’re all right?”
I smiled back. “Don’t worry ‘bout me. I’m all right.”
Katie ran into the room. “WHAT HAPPENED TO PAIGE KID!?”
“Nothing to worry about, Katie girl,” Damien laughed. “Everything’s good.”
“Paige kid,” Katie said, sitting down on the other side of Damien, “everything is good?”
I laughed. “Everything is good, Katie girl.”
She smiled. “That makes me a happy puppy.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Charlie walked back in. He had one more of those rags, but by the way he was holding it, I could tell there was something like ice inside of them. In fact, there was ice inside of them. He handed it to me, and sat down next to me on the side Damien was not sitting.
“Hey, hey, Charlie boy!” Katie exclaimed.
“Hi, Katie girl,” he said, smiling at her.
“Charlie boy, what happened to Paige kid?”
“Paige kid got coffee dumped on her.”
“Why do you do such thing, Paige kid?” Katie asked me.
“I am sorry, Katie,” I told her. “Next time I will try not to get coffee poured on me by a bitch.”
“Yay for Paige kid!”
I laughed. I guess Katie wasn’t either annoying or amusing, because every time she’d act like her immature self, it made me in a much better mood.
“Paige,” Damien said softly, which sounded odd after hearing Katie’s loud voice, “you can just hang out here for the rest of your shift. I don’t want you to have to work after that. Just take a break, ‘kay?”
“Thanks, Damien.”
“However,” he said, turning to Katie, “I do not believe that you got coffee dumped on you, so I’d like to see you somewhere outside of the break room.”
Katie frowned. “What about Charlie boy?”
“Charlie boy is Paige kid’s girlfriend,” Damien said. “He’s got an excuse to stay with her. He can be here a bit longer.”
“But I love Paige kid!” Katie complained.
Damien sighed. “Katie, please.”
She frowned again. “Fine. But this is for Paige kid whom had coffee dumped on her by a mean person!”
I smiled at her. “Have fun, Katie.”
Charlie stayed with me for a bit longer. Until he knew for sure that I was all right. Once I assured him that I wasn’t going to die, I forced him to go back out and earn some of his own money instead of worrying about me.
It was then when I realized how sweet Charlie really was. I felt like I made the right choice of choosing him, even if Alexander had been a better choice.
I was starting to feel a whole lot better by the time I started heading on home. Damien had obviously told David about what happened, so on my way out, he smiled at me and told me to feel better soon. I thanked him, and got into Damien’s car.
Damien was silent again as he dropped me off at Aunt Clara’s house.
I read for a bit. Just some random book that I borrowed from the library that day I went with Damien to the library. Then, almost stupidly late, I started my homework. I did it a bit sloppily due to the fact I was feeling extremely lazy. I had to resist the impulse to go on the computer while doing my homework, so the moment I finished I grabbed my laptop and logged on. I messaged Damien.
Of course. Damien would be the one to bring the three of us together for a group chat.
So I continued to read The Catcher In the Rye, and I pretty much finished it for the seventh time. I looked at the time. It was almost midnight. I almost forgot that Damien and Charlie were still in the chat party we were supposed to be having.
When I checked, Charlie was offline, but I saw Damien was still on. There were several lines from the chat, so instead of talking to Damien I started scrolling up and re-reading over their conversation.
And his online status went to offline. I couldn’t help but think about all that stuff that he was talking to Charlie about. I mean, I wasn’t exactly used to people talking about me, let alone me knowing exactly what they were talking about. It was awkward, but it didn’t seem to bother me.
But just the thought that people were talking, talking about me, kept infiltrating my mind. I couldn’t even sleep properly. I kept tossing and turning until the dawn hit.
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