His Hand in Mine

Chapter 3

When I arrived at work it was quiet like usual, a few regulars came in, ate and left with little to say. That wasn't until a large group of teens pulled up in their cars on a road trip of some sort because I had never seen them before in town and their laughter was mainly jokes about getting lost a lot.

They all gathered around the breakfast bar loud, rambunctious and somewhat overwhelming. Trying to gather all their orders as they talked amongst each other ignoring me then calling me back when they realized they weren't done with their order made me flustered and kind of neglect some of the other costumers sitting at the booths near the windows.

After getting all their orders I ran out from behind the bar. Old man Jenkins grumbled and glared at me as I apologized for his wait. I then moved onto a man sitting in a booth near the corner of the bar.

I shoved my falling hair behind my ear, "I'm sorry for the wait sir, what can I get you?" Elvis' voice replied, "Kinda busy aint you?" I looked from my notepad seeing his face eased my stress a bit, "Hey Elvis, I'm so sorry about the wait and all." He shrugged, "Aint nothin..." I sheepishly smiled as he looked at me funny, "So what can I get you?"

As Elvis was ordering one of the rowdy costumers at the bar tugged on my apron, "Hey lady, me and my friend need refills on our pops!!" I forced a smile to his pimple-covered face, "Um, just one moment sir, I am with another costumer." I went to turn back to Elvis when again the boy yanked on my apron tie, ripping it from the front pulling me back slightly.

I yelped and they began to laugh, Elvis immediatly stood from his booth, "Hey, dont do that!" The pimple face rolled his eyes, "What are you gonna do about it sideburns..." Elvis glared angrily at him, "You dont wanna know, now be nice, cant you see she is busy and you aint the only costumer in this place... I'm still ordering my burger so you can wait for your coke."

I placed my hand on Elvis' arm, "It's okay Elvis, just sit back down... I don't want you to get into more trouble on my account." Elvis continued to glare at pimple face until he was settled in his seat.

I thought it was kind of strange how Elvis had quickly come to my defense. I had never seen a guy do such a thing like that for me. I placed Elvis' burger order in and went to grab pimple-faces coke and Elvis' pepsi.

I opened both bottles and placed pimp-faces down first. As I went to jog away, I felt something cold splash down my back all the way down to my bottom. Unkind laughter burst from the rowdy group.

I placed my hand on my bottom and felt pop running down my legs. Pimple face wolf-whistled, "You know for an ugly chick you got some nice gams under that skirt!"

My whole face turned a bright red and from the corner of my eye I saw Elvis rise from his booth. I slammed his pepsi down and rounded the corner before he could grab pimple face. I took his arm like I was guiding him somewhere... his temper subsiding slightly confused at what I was doing.

I pulled him outside. Blushing he looked at me confused, "What are you doing?" I shrugged, "I didn't want you to get into a fight." He shook his head, "But that guy is being an ass and spilled coke all over you!!" I nodded,"I know... but I just don't want you to get in trouble over some ugly jerk like that being a child."

He shrugged adjusting his light green satin jacket, "Good thing you grabbed me I would've laid him out on the floor after what he said to you." I laughed, "Stop... just go back inside and everything will cool down." The situation did cool down, though Elvis got a few glares from the group upon re-entering the diner with me.

Elvis had been long finished with his meal that Jerry insisted his meal be on the house for saving me the night before.

When the rowdy road trippers finally left, the diner was a huge mess left for me to clean but Elvis was still there waiting patiently. I gathered plates and saw he took the last sip of his 3rd pepsi; I stood there a moment looking at him. I never really 'looked' at Elvis that hard before.

I grabbed another pepsi and headed towards his table, I placed infront of him but as I went to walk away he said, "Hey can you sit here real quick?" I looked at the halfway cleared bar, "Um..sure."

I sat across from him smiling; he laughed a little looking away from me. Twisting his previously finished soda on the table he said, "You busy tomorrow evening?" I shook my head, "No, no plans at all."

My heart was racing when he finally locked eyes with me again a little nervous, "Would you like to go catch a movie at the drive-in with me or somethin?" I played with the edge of my apron, "Sure, what time?"

He tilted his head in thought, "I dont know around 6 or something, that work?" I nodded, "Yeah that will work." He smiled his shoulder relaxing "Great..good" He stood from the booth standing in front of me, "Thank you for the burger and all. Momma is probably wonderin' where I am."

I was quiet a little flustered that Elvis had asked me out, he must've been sitting here this whole time just to do so, "Well see you tomorrow at 6 then?" I nodded, "Yes sir..don't be late" He laughed making his way to the door, "I wont be. I promise"

As I gleefully made it home I ran into the house Aunt Brenda already had diner made, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I flung my purse onto the couch laughing, "Aunt Brenda guess what happened today?"

She shrugged making my plate, "Well must be something good if you're in this kind of mood." I sat down as she placed the meatloaf infront of me, "Elvis... you know Elvis Presley down the road asked me out to a movie tomorrow evening!"

Aunt Brenda nodded, "Well... thats good" I giggled biting into a fork full of meatloaf when she said, "Just don't let Elvis do what Mark did to you!" I dropped my fork and said, "I wont."

She shrugged, "I'm sorry Kristin, and I don't want to make you upset but all boys want is one thing and one thing only at this age." She just had to ruin everything, "Elvis is different Aunt Brenda, he is actually real nice to me." She sighed. "Okay if you say so honey"

I glared down at my food and mumbled, "He is different..." I wasn't going to allow her to ruin this for me, so I pushed it out of my mind bringing up another subject, "So did you go to your book club meeting today?" Aunt Brenda just kept going on about some kind of romance novel and some women she didn't like, the only thing on my mind was my date with Elvis.