the muse

mid of night

You wiped the table with a long sigh as two fingers rubbed against your eyelid. You mentally scolded yourself, praying that your mascara hadn't smudged along your eye from the action. It didn't really matter, though. Your shift was nearly done, right? You had hoped so.

Your back began to ache, tension growing in the pinch of it. You considered going to a massage place, as you had saw one the other day while shopping at the mall.

Your job was.. a bit complicated to say the least, but you couldn't complain. It might've been mentally draining at times, but all you did was serve drunk people food and beverages, kick the karaoke machine to get it to work again, and work the cash register. And it was (just) enough to pay the bills and groceries, so you were satisfied.

You knew your boss quite well. Her name was Ymir, and you sort of looked up to her in a way, mentally speaking. You were lucky, because the way she worked was laid back and easy, but sometimes it had its downfalls.

Like today, only two people were assigned tonight, one including you. Which meant that you were the only waitress there, and it also meant that you had to serve every single annoying shit that walked into this building.

You kissed at your teeth, and a sound of your tongue flicking out the top of your mouth was heard. You turned your head, internally groaning at the sight of a remaining couple chatting at a table.

You worked yourself up to put on a gentle, fake smile, walking over to the happy pair. You were slightly taken aback at the sight of a small baby girl sitting in the man's arms, chewing on a chip and crunching it with her tiny fingers.

Bringing a baby to a bar? You hoped that they hadn't been drinking. Your eyes flickered to the clock plastered on the brick wall, showing 9:05. You were both relieved and annoyed at the same time.

"Evening," you spoke. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, since it is closing time. We're open again tomorrow, if you'd like to come back."

The couple looked at you, a visible look of disapproval written on their faces. You opened your mouth to continue, but the baby squeals, chucking her arms, palms open.

In your luck, bits and pieces of the moist crumbled up chip flew at your face, some even sticking against your cheek. The couple appeared to be holding back giggles. The woman then cleared her throat, suppressing her grin.

"Sorry about that. She's a bit reckless." she stated. You blinked hard.

"Ah.." you grabbed a tissue from the centre of the table, wiping it across your face. "That's alright."

It wasn't. You swore you were on the verge of a breakdown.

Normally you wouldn't care, but tonight was not the night. Every bone in your body stung, and you wanted nothing more but to throw yourself onto your bed.

You stepped back, watching as they packed their things up, and left with a screaming baby in their arms. The door closed rather harshly.

You wiped their table, and the pain in your back had somehow doubled. You pinched the inside of your cheek with your teeth, attempting to fight against the ache.

Your co-worker, Reiner, wasn't seen behind the bar, causing you to frown. You assumed he was in the toilets, most likely wasting time or popping a smoke. You made your way over to the bar, grabbing more cleaning wipes from the pocket of your skirt.

Once in, you noticed a meticulous and masculine hand placed in front of your lowered eyes, a strangely familiar ring wrapped on one of its fingers. You were that tired, you didn't even notice a person sitting at the bar.