Chapter 16: Those Left Behind

Kelly Lukic – Thursday, June 24th, 2015

Things were getting awesome! Matthew, the goofy guy in the dish room, was dating Eden, the gorgeous, uh, African Canadian chick, and he was cheating on her! Oh my God! What an idiot! She's going to kill him.

"Kelly, can you clean up the front half? We're going to get busy in a few hours," Ms Flynn smiled at me as she gave me my assignment. She was a good boss. Courtney disagreed but that was before she started waiting tables. She had her first shift today and she was a mess! Well until she got chewed out on her lunch. That was the second loudest thing I had heard in Deborah's office all week. Oh my God! I heard her having sex in there!

"Hey kiddo, you're blushing," Sylvie and I passed each other on the line on my way to the front, "Who're you thinking about?"

"N-no one in particular," I stammered and hurried away to the front before I was asked more questions. This job was crazy. I headed to the bus station by the washrooms and grabbed a tub. I started packing away table 6. It was crazy how gross of a mess people made. The coffee cups hadn't been touched but I turfed them for new ones anyway. Once, I had just rearranged them and a girl came back and picked up a cup to retrieve her forgotten retainer. Now I didn't cut any of the corners Courtney and Sylvie taught me.

"What is this Bobbi? Five weeks?" I had a bad habit of eavesdropping. No, that's self destructive. I had a wonderful talent for espionage. I smiled, that was something Matthew had taught me. Or was it Franklin. Whoever had showed me that stupid self aggrandizing word trick, the other had agreed, "You haven't looked for a job since you moved out here. I can't keep paying your rent and grocery bills."

"Lay off your sister, Flea," The three in the booth behind me were regulars. Two youngish brown women and a smug middle age guy just beginning to go grey, "We love having her around."

"I'm not sleeping with your boyfriend," Bobbi, who was maybe Courtney's age defended herself straight off. I don't think the other two thought of it as a possibility.

"Just look for work. Thirty resumes this week. Do something! Apply to college!" The older girl, maybe 25, probably not, was pissed. I finished wiping down the table and hurried off before I heard any more. Well hurried off before I was asked if we were hiring here. We always were. We hired two new people over the weekend. Girls worked in the dishroom! the first I'd seen of it since I started here. That had been in March. I had run a shift in there once, Matthew had rescued me after an hour. Said I couldn't afford to sweat off any weight or I'd disappear. Idiot. I was trying to lose 5 more pounds. I opened my nose as I walked back on the line. Someone had ordered potato pancakes and like six orders of bacon. I was so jealous. Lunch was too far away!

The afternoon had been slow and so I started the duties on the line. Filling ketchup bottles and sugar jars, wiping down the fridge, just a lot of cleaning. Eden walked in, her usual perfect straight hair showing a curl. Matthew made the right move running away. Still, he was going to come back and she was going to debone him. I smirked. Sylvie walked at her side. She was giggly. Moreso that she should be this early into a shift. She almost seemed like she'd break out in song like a Disney princess.

"Kelly!" She grabbed me around my shoulders with a hug as she came by, "I got her! She can't escape!"

"Sylvie," I laughed and tried to wiggle away but she held tighter.

"No, not her," Eden rebuked, "Just you and Zina."

"Don't be stupid!" Sylvie laughed. We, not by my choice, lunged at Eden. She was surprised and tried to hop back but Sylvie pulled a dangly bracelet out of Eden's bracelet.

"Sylvie!" Eden fumed, "Give that back."

"Not yet, milady," She let go of our hug but kept me between Eden and herself aiming me by my shoulders at the unamused waitress. I laughed and held out my arms to keep Eden from ducking around her.

"Kelly! Don't help her!" Eden pleaded. This was so fun, I had no idea what was happening. Why was Sylvie stealing from Eden?

"Why not?" I asked with a smile. I turned to my left hand to watch Sylvie hook the bracelet clasp around my left wrist, "Oh, is this like the ones I've been seeing everyone wear?"

"Just the same," Sylvie giggled. It didn't seem as excited as it did mean that time.

"Well, I like it but I'd rather a charm bracelet like Courtney," I lifted the jewelry before my face. It looked good on my skin. God! I was so pale! I wished I could tan.

"What have you done! We weren't supposed to—She's too young for this."

"No, I'm not!" Oh, shit did I sound whiny by growling that. I blushed deep red. I was always did it so quickly too and that just made me more embarrassed and it harder to stop blushing. Soon someone would say I was "So cute!" Bitches.

"Older than I was," Sylvie shrugged, "See, Kelly, these bracelets--"

Eden slapped Sylvie. A mommy got into daddy's cocaine kind of slap. Well a friend of mine had called it that. I met her parents, no way were they cokeheads or slappers. Franklin dropped a pan and was coming around from the kitchen. Holy shit! I've only seen Franklin step in between two waitresses once! He let girls sort out girls thing. This was going to be the worst. Eden shoved her finger in Sylvie's face.

"Not even he would've done that!"

Misty Reid – Friday, June 26th, 2015

"Not the best neighborhood," The cabbie warned me as I waited for my change.

"My brother's here to look out for me," I told him. He had been a friendly guy but clearly didn't know Halifax based on the way he had looped Citadel hill. I took the five back from him leaving a $1.20 tip. He left me to the wolves with a lighter conscience. I shifted my backpack on my shoulder, reversed the grip on my wheelie bag and headed inside.

"Yeah?" Joseph answered the call box. Craps or Matt would have just buzzed in whoever had rang that phone.

"It's Misty, I need to get in," I said. A few seconds later the grinding started and I opened the door.

"Hold the door!" I turned to see a blonde girl rushing after me. She smiled and thanked me.

"Not a problem," I said and we walked to the elevator. I hit seventeen and she nodded and fell back against the wall. She wasn't talking to me and I was grumpy and sore from a three hour bus ride that I welcomed the silence. The elevator was slow. She left first and I followed, completely surprised that she went for Matt's door.

"You a friend of Craps's?" I asked. I had been calling Ryan Craps since I had developed object permanence it just didn't sound right to say Ryan. But his sluts usually preferred it. She might have been one of them. She looked confused over her shoulder at me as she opened the door.

"Matthew's not called Craps is he?" She asked.

"Oh! Cool! You must be Gwen! I'm his sister," I smiled and she shook her head. I thought Meghan had said Matthew's girl he met was named Gwen ... Meg's facebook stalking had reported she was a blonde haired green eyed girl and I could see how this girl's eyes might look green in a different light. Oh well, I could apologize if I had stepped in something. It was Matthew, this clearly had to be the same girl. There wasn't two girls interested in my brother. This was a super cute girl for Matthew. Hell for anyone, "How do you know him?"

"Um..." She walked in and Joe called out to me.

"Hey," He grunted, "Matthew's in Ottawa, he should be back at some point."

"At some point today?" What the fuck was he doing in Ottawa?

"I doubt it,"Joe laughed. Why the fuck would Matt leave without telling me? I had gone out of my way to let him know I was coming to visit. Texts to him and to both his roommates that actually remembered if their phones had said something the day before.

"Well, I'm here with..." I poked the blonde ahead of me.

"Melody," She replied. I can't see how Meghan had fucked up Gwen for Melody. This had to be someone else. I'd need to break out the Spanish Inquisition.

"With Melody. We're going to take over Matt's room. Do I need my gas mask?" I said around a grin. Matthew was the filthiest Reid, er, he or Camille was the filthiest. Their leads weren't uncontested. Knowing my sister and cousins, I might be the only outlier. Excluding Reids by marriage of course.

"Probably not. One of Matthew's many girlfriends will have cleaned the place," Joe's sarcasm had literally no tells. I loved it. I tried to love something about each of Matthew's friends. It was easier with Craps than Joe and Craps was a skeevy perv.

"Cool," I said laughing. I turned to Melody, "Are you one of these many girlfriends?"

"One of, I guess," She had kicked off her sandals but I had been in Matt's rooms enough to leave my own sneakers on defensively. She was hot. Tall even after losing the heels, she stood nearly up to my nose. She was a platinum blond. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She was skinny with long legs, small tits and a perfect ass.

It had been a while since I had seen Matthew with a girl. I remember crying right with him over Janine but that had been a decade ago and I'm pretty sure only Karla had come after her. Wow! Karla! There was three weeks of gloating followed by eleven months of sulking on Matthew's part. Good times. Good times.

"Holy shit!" I announced as I entered the third door on the right. Melody followed me into Matthew's immaculate room. The crooked old bed was reseated. The desk had a plant on it and it looked healthy. The curtains had been exchanged from a bedsheet on a curtain rod to wooden blinds in a translucent gauze. The carpet looked shampooed. The fan wasn't a dust filled cage, "He must love you!"

"You think so?" She had a sarcastic lopsided smile and walked passed me. She flipped open the laundry hamper and pulled a pastel bra from behind the scattered pillows.

"Now I know so," She wouldn't blush, seemed a shame with her complexion. I sat down on the foot of the bed. She picked the laundry card off the dresser. She knocked over an action figure, Matthew had more dolls than I did, and reset the straw hat wearing pirate on his stand. I'm kind of glad he wasn't here, he'd make me blow at least one day trying to catch up on that.

"Are you going to do laundry?" I asked.

"Yeah," She turned, "I probably should do the sheets too."

Reflexively, I hopped off the bed.

"Why?"

"Someone has to do it," She sighed.

"And that someone is Matthew," I pointed out, "Seriously, Matthew needs and likes girls who don't put up with his shit."

"Yeah, well then why me?"

I looked her up and down and grinned. She slowly shared my smile, though she seemed impatient.

"Anyway, I'm going to get this done and head home," She told me, obviously in a hurry to be away. I'd never put up with this kind of stuff from a boyfriend. Well, I wasn't a boyfriend kind of girl.

"Hey do you know when Matthew's coming back?"

"He didn't say, just that he needed to get something," She wasn't happy about that. I could imagine, I was pissed he had flew off without a word.

"For his business?" I had heard about him starting a catering company for this new girl. I couldn't imagine him pulling through, though Meghan had asked me to keep that opinion until after he admitted he quit.

"Probably not," Melody brushed her hair back with her left hand she looked over at me, "What do you think about Matthew? Can he be a good guy?"

"Hey, you're dating MY brother! I only care if you're good enough for him."

"Oh, yeah, that sounds right," She sighed and trudged away. What a fucking weird girl! She stopped at the door, started fingering this blue stick in her front pocket. I just watched. She slumped her shoulders.

"No that would be against the rules," She muttered, "Sylvie was wrong."

Whatever, Matthew must like crazy. Or assumed that that much hot covered for that crazy. I'd have needed more tits, I think.

"Later Melody," I flopped backward onto the foot of his bed.

"Bye, Matthew's sister," She said after a heartbeat.

'My name's Misty!" I shouted at the closing door. Shit! Oh well. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. No Matthew, no matter. "Claire!" and "Joy!" I texted and dropped my phone on the mattress. Well, it shouldn't be long before I had plans tonight.

Hillary Dodds – Friday, June 26th, 2015

"Lara, get out." I was carrying the wastebasket by the tables tossing away all the candy bar and pack wrappers from that night's FNM.

"Uh, fine," She pushed back her chair and slung her purse over her shoulder and marched out, "Good night, Hills."

"Yeah whatever," I grumped. I was looking forward to getting home and putting on Netflix or getting crushed in Smash Bros. Who was I kidding, I was done. I was going to bed. I swept up and wiped down the gray plastic tabletops. I probably could have been out of there fifteen minutes earlier, I wasn't paid for the extra time, my hours ended at 10:30 whether or not I was finished. I went back up to the main store to put away my sketchpad and grab my bag. The reason I hadn't hurried was because done or not fifteen minutes ago, the bus wouldn't be there for me until now as it was. I was digging to find my wallet when I stepped out the front door. It locked automatically. I lit up to see the green Toyota waiting outside. Lara was leaning in the window talking to Donnie like she was a streetwalker trying to be picked up. I ignored her and climbed into passenger seat.

"Babe!" I tossed my bag in the back and kissed him on the jaw. He turned and smiled at me.

"Later Lara," Donnie interrupted whatever pity me monologue the little blonde was on.

"Bye Donnie, Bye Hills," She slumped away.

"Get home safe," I said without genuineness. Immediately disappearing her from my world I squeezed Donnie's leg, "I'm so glad you came by."

"Yeah, me too," He grinned to feel my hand on his thigh. I found that not plodding through the trek to the bus stop and then our apartment really perked me up. I made sure he knew I was looking forward to bed in another way now. This was great. Donnie was the best. I talked about my shift. Told that stupid joke I had heard from Paul. He was laughing in his whole body shaking way. When we took the wrong turn on North St. I finally asked what had brought him around tonight.

"Drinking, we're going to Geoff's."

"What! Nobody texted me!" I was surprised. I almost always heard before Donnie and when I didn't I hardly ever heard from Donnie.

"Meh, Marjory's picked up a bottle for you," He grinned, "I got the mix and snacks in the trunk."

"Good for her," I poked Donnie, "We should go home first. I need a change of clothes, a shower."

"No can do, little lady," He shook his head, "We're already here."

There was no car in the space, which made sense. No one who lived here drove and everyone else preferred to not worry about a car if they were going to drink. I guessed we were crashing on the couches. Oh well, we'd have sex some other time.

"Ah come on," I moaned about my state of dress, getting out of the car and walking around to the trunk, "So we're another hour late."

"Just get your ass in gear, you look incredible. You always do."

"But I smell like the store," I pouted taking one of the three bags from the trunk.

"These people like the store, it smells like you." He countered and we headed up the walk up to Geoff's apartment.

"I'm so underdressed," I bitched as we headed into Geoff's. Dance music and candlelight permeated the apartment. The smell of liquor and weed smoke was faint but unmistakeable.

"The party's here!" Announced Geoffrey, clearly putting his third sheet to the wind. I smiled, "And Hillary too."

"Hey! I brought snacks!" I stuck out my tongue at him.

"And Hillary too!" He exclaimed in a much more celebratory tone before falling into a laughing fit. He was in a mood and I wondered if the trigger was good, bad or strange. Probably a little bit of everything. He was wearing a beautiful silk shirt under a vest and loose tie. He always dressed nice and that set the tone for his house. His laugh ricocheted through him and ignored his impervious hair.

"Hey pass me your beer and I'll load up the fridge," Harriet was at the fridge to our left. She was wearing a killer black skirt and leather boots. This girl's legs and she had those tits. I hurried over and one handed hugged her as I laid out our bounty across the back counter. We had chips, dip, cookies, vodka and whiskey. There weren't many beer drinkers here tonight, I had only seen Victor and I guess Harriet, the fridge was full up with two growlers and a two-four.