Young Annabelle (4 page)

I leaned forward and shoved his left shoulder
with my arm. He yelped, laughing even harder. “Hey, abuse,
abuse!”

“You’re an asshole!” I branded him.

He took a brief moment to calm himself down.
“Okay, relax. Ask me again.”

“What. Is. Your. Name.” I slowly enunciated
each word, hoping to make him feel stupid.

He looked down at me with an amused
expression, as if I were the stupid one who dared to even play that
game with someone of his caliber of smart ass-ness.

He let out a deep sigh and looked everywhere
but at me. “Oh fireball, what am I going to do with you?”

When he finally turned his eyes back to me,
his expression had changed – it was different, weirder, which made
me feel funny. Nevertheless, I was not someone who was going to bow
down to his obvious cuteness.

“For the last time: what is your name?” I
asked, feeling suddenly tired.

“I told you, it’s Ti–”

“You two!” a voice interrupted loudly.

We spun around to find Shelby standing in
front of the cash register with her hands on the counter, giving us
glares of destruction.

“Annabelle. You’re supposed to be training
James. I don’t see any training going on. I see wasting the only
time you’ll probably have available today to train him!” she yelled
at us, well, me.

Bitch!

“I’m sorry. I already showed him how make the
lemonade.”

I felt
James
move close beside me.

“Oh, so he knows how to make them precisely
and efficiently?” Shelby asked with slight hesitation, a strange
look in her eyes.

She thinks I’m full of shit!

I glanced up at James. His eyes never left
Shelby’s. I looked back to Shelby. “Yes.” I did a silent a prayer
that he’d paid attention.

“Wonderful. Show me, please,” she ordered,
indicating the juicer with her chin.

A frozen chill rode a slow elevator from the
soles of my feet to the tip of my head. My ears seemed to be the
only sense my body could account for. Behind me, I heard shuffling
feet and the roar of the juicer.

After a few seconds of listening to the
juicer hard at work, I snapped out of my little ‘
oh shit’
haze and glanced at Shelby, who now reminded me of
skinny blond troll. It might have been the bulged out nose that
seemed to be inhaling everything earthly, including my soul, or
maybe it was the giant forehead that had an invisible logo flashing
on and off just for me. ‘
Bitch in big bright colors
’ the sign exclaimed
.

I heard James come forward, bringing with him
a perfectly made lemonade, complete with the mint garnish.

Thank God!

It wasn’t just Shelby that I was seeing
differently; a hero had just saved my ass and was standing right
next to me under the scrutinizing glare of a pissed off, evil
troll.

“All finished,” James announced, pushing the
cup toward Shelby.

Shelby grunted back a laugh and said, “I’ll
be the one to affirm that.”

She picked up the drink and inspected it from
every angle imaginable. Then she took a sip and, instead of
swallowing (which I felt sure was a lifelong policy for her), she
swished the liquid around her mouth as if she were at a wine
tasting.

This is ridiculous!

She eventually swallowed and returned her
attention to us. “Not bad. Keep it up, sport. You’ll have it in no
time,” she said with a smile and, like the bipolar freak she was,
picked up her clipboard and moved on like nothing had happened.

“‘Sport?’” James repeated, amused.

I shook my head and gave a ‘what the fuck’
grin, watching Shelby trot away like a horse after taking a nice,
long shit.

James sat on the counter behind us. I leaned
against it, beside him.

“Yeah, that’s Shelby. She’s a supervisor. I
don’t know how.” I didn’t understand it and I had a feeling he was
thinking that too. “The good thing though, she won’t be back ’til
before we have our lunch break.”

“Thank God!” he exclaimed in a relieved
sigh.

I laughed at his delivery and glanced up at
him.

I stopped laughing.

He was staring down at me with a serious look
on his face. I gazed at his beautiful green eyes and he smiled
sweetly for the first time. I felt a slow burn around my heart and,
without realizing it, my eyes lowered to his lips. James began to
lean down towards me. I didn’t move a muscle; I didn’t know if it
was because I was frozen or because I wanted what was about to
happen.

Hold on! What the hell! Move out of the way
girl! You’re not easy!

My mind kicked in and I
jerked away from his effort to kiss
me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked,
shocked.

My eyes were wide, my palms were sweaty, and
my knees were jelly. I was experiencing the whole shebang. I
breathed heavily and my vision became foggy, and the man hadn’t
even gotten his lips on me.

James furrowed his brows; he sweet smile was
gone.

“Fireball, you shouldn’t have moved. Could
have made this work thing more fun.” He sounded frustrated.

I didn’t know what to say. I’d never been the
object of a male’s fascination, so I decided to do what girls do
best: pretend it didn’t happen.

“Let’s just work, okay?” I whispered, still
bewildered.

He nodded.

For the next hour and a half, James and I
circled around each other as we took turns making lemonade and
handling the cash register. There was no need to repeat the
instructions for the club’s lemonade making process; James got it
the first time and made them perfectly. We barely spoke to one
another. When Shelby came by and told me I was first on lunch, I
didn’t say ‘see you later’ to James, I just rushed to change room
to eat.

So much had happened that morning I’d
forgotten that Mom packed my lunch. As I opened my locker, I
remembered the snack fiasco.

UGH!

I pulled out a Ziploc bag full of carrots and
celery, another Ziploc bag with four slices of turkey deli meat
between one piece of whole wheat toast, and a 250ml bottle of
water.

Yay?

Fuck this! If she wanted to give me a
sandwich she should have at least given me two pieces of bread. I
didn’t care if it was whole wheat, I just needed two pieces. Wasn’t
it a sandwich rule to always have two slices of bread?

I sat down on a bench between two rows of
lockers. I glanced at the door before diving in to my meal. Every
time we worked on the same shift, Jenna and I hoped we would get
the same lunch break. Sometimes we did, most times we didn’t.

Five minutes passed and Jenna didn’t walk
through the doors. I decided to begin with the worst: the celery.
To distract from the awful taste, I dissected what had happened. I
had immediately locked away my emotions until now when I had the
chance to release them for the first time. I prepared to feel sick
and regretful and, most of all, shocked that a cute guy would
actually want to kiss me.

Oh my GOD! What the hell just
happened?
I thought as I
crunched on celery.

His lips were this close to mine. If I hadn’t
acted like such a wuss, his would lips would have touched mine.

No! I did the smart thing. I don’t know this
guy and he could have had a disease in his mouth or on his
lips.

I finished the celery and moved on to the
carrots; they were better than celery any day.

I continued to dissect as I munched away.

If he wasn’t so tall he
wouldn’t have had to lean in so much and his lips would have been
on mine making it too late for me to move away
.

I thought of his lips. They were wide but not
stretched, and full but not chunky. The color was a lush, vibrant
peachy-pink that glistened from him licking them.

Damn!

I finished the carrots and opened the Ziploc
containing my half sandwich. As I ate the poor excuse for a
sandwich, the realization hit. Now that I was allowing myself to
feel every emotion that I banned this morning, how was I going to
face him? I could barely look at him before and now that I had
dissected every single detail about what happened, I knew I was
going to be a nervous wreck working in such close proximity to
him.

And I rejected him.
Fuck!
I realized and hit
my forehead with my palm. Guys never took rejection
well.

Shit, shit, shit!

And I wasn’t one of those super pretty girls.
What if he wasn’t going to be nice about the whole thing? What if
he decided to make me feel like a loser for turning him down? Like
how dare I? I should be so lucky that he’d even want to kiss me,
even touch me!

I gulped down the last bite of my
sandwich; it went down like a rock. I glanced at my watch; I had
two minutes until my break was over. I had to get a move on or else
I’d have to face the wrath of Shelby for the
third
time. I downed my water bottle and threw it in the
recycle bin outside the change room. The nervous butterflies
returned with full force. All of a sudden it was difficult to
breathe; the anticipation was killing me.

How am I going to get through
this?
I worried as I
pushed through the doors that led out to the stand.

“Where’s James?” I asked when I noticed
Shelby alone inside the lemonade stand, counting change from the
till.

She grunted loudly as if I annoyed her then
dropped the rest of the coins into the till and closed it. “He’s
been assigned to a different sector of the club. Are you going to
be okay working alone?”

I nodded.

Shelby narrowed her eyes and gave me a
peculiar look. “I hope you’re not sick?”

I shook my head slowly. “I’m not sick.”

Liar! Love sick? It doesn’t make any
sense.

Shelby rolled her eyes. “Yeah, then why do
you look like you’re about to throw up?” she demanded,
unconvinced.

I looked away and cleared my throat.

Suddenly, I blurted out the first thing that
came to mind: “My lunch’s making me feel a little funny, but I’ll
be okay, it’s going away.”

Shelby let out a sigh of relief. “Good.” She
didn’t want to be stuck closing up the lemonade stand if I had to
go home sick. She left in haste, probably still fearful of any
germs I might have been harboring.

I sat on the counter in front of the
register; fifteen minutes ticked by, nobody came. My shift was
getting boring, despite the brief excitement I’d experienced
earlier.

Really fun, but now that’s over. No second
chance, no kiss with a cute guy… Why does the world hate me?

I closed my eyes and dropped my head into my
hands, resting my elbows on my thighs.

Why do I always ruin shit? Can’t I, for
once, let things happen? It could have been the best damn thing
that ever happened to me!

And now, he’s gone.
The thought ricocheted off the
walls of my skull, over and over again, mentally bruising me. I
inhaled slowly, hoping it would somehow induce the clarity I needed
to move past the awkward moment. I needed a pick-me-up.

I needed a candy bar.

I imagined going home with the feeling that
I’d self-sabotaged again. The cherry on the shit-sundae would be
the chat with Mom, Dad, Charles, and Katherine. They’d notice my
funk, begin questioning me, and then declare I was selfish for not
getting over whatever was bothering me. Then they’d all gang up on
me and the fight about food would ensue. ‘Looking a little pudgy in
the belly, Anna.’ ‘How many calories did you burn, Anna?’ God, I
hated it.

No. I needed to change my brain waves. So
what if I lost my chance, life goes on. I breathed deeply, allowing
the afternoon air to enter every passage I had. Soon, I felt
refreshed and slowly raised my head from my hands, blinking away my
blurry vision.

Okay! Yeah! I feel great! Ready
to take on the world
!…What just happened?

My brave new
state of mind faltered almost as soon as I completed the thought.
So much for the power of positive thinking. I’d expected a warm hug
around my heart – I felt empty.

I moped for a while longer until I finally
got my first customer: an elderly couple. I pasted on a smile and
made their drinks. I heard the clink of coins hitting the side of
the tip jar. Despite the fake smile, the couple had given me a
two-dollar tip.

*****

An hour later, I had wiped down the counters
and closed up shop. Shelby had come by shortly after I’d served the
elderly couple to inform me that I was closing early and to start
cleaning immediately.

Now what am I going to
do?
I thought as I
grabbed my things and shut my locker.

I was two hours
early and that was two hours I did not plan on spending under the
careful eye of Mom and Dad. It was unfortunate that they worked
from home – they’d set up an office that took up the entire
basement. It was rare to get the house to myself these days. If I
went home, I’d be run over by a stampede of questions and demands
as soon as I crossed the threshold.

Why are you home early? What time did you
eat? Did you eat all of it? Show us your calorie watch! How come
it’s that low? Didn’t you bicycle to work?

Then Mom would have her moment in the
sun…

Did you like what I packed?
Doesn’t it feel great knowing you only had about 600 calories until
now?
(Mom would be
beaming, proud of herself)

…before grilling me on exercise.

How come you aren’t sweating, didn’t you
ride your bike home? Don’t they have a gym at the club that you
could have used? Isn’t that part of the privileges you get when you
work there? Maybe you should go up and down the stairs five times;
you could burn an extra hundred calories! Your brother and sister
are out exercising now, learn from them!