Let Love Win

Chapter 6 - Zeek

"Wakey, wakey it's time for work!" Brad shouted from the hall as he banged his fists on my door.

I groaned and opened my eyes, finding myself in the exact same position as when I fell asleep. I considered that maybe Brad was being the annoying older cousin and waking me up 5 minutes after I fell asleep to piss me off, but then I looked over at my digital clock and saw that it was actually 4:30. I sighed and sat up from the comfortable duvet I had been sleeping on. After stretching out my muscles, I changed into my work uniform and headed back out to the living room.

I grabbed my car keys off the living room table and left the house in a daze. Maybe Brad was right, maybe it wasn't the smartest idea to take a shift that wasn't even supposed to be mine right after a big party. But the only way to learn is to make mistakes, right? I drove to the main campus of the university and clocked in at work. When I got there, I took my position at the first cash and began waiting.

It was a Saturday, so I didn't really expect a lot of people to come in, but to my surprise, I was busy straight through from 5 to 7:30. For the last half an hour, though, the café was dead. Just as I was about to clock out and leave, one of the older employees, Austin, came over.

"Hey man, are you done for tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Ok cool. I'm supposed to be taking you off, but I wasn't sure who you were exactly." He then studied me for a second. "Hey, you were at the party last night, right?"

"Yeah, I was."

"Thought you looked familiar. You escaped off with Hadley at the end of the night, didn't you?"

What was this, the Spanish Inquisition? "Yeah I did. She was showing me around the house. I was trying to find the bathroom," I lied. It wasn't like I was going to tell him exactly what we were doing when we left the living room. He was her co-worker for God's sake. And mine too.

"You don't have to lie to me dude, I know what you guys were really doing. Just know that she may seem tough, but she gets hurt easily and she has a lot of friends in high places. So don't be the guy who ends up hurting her," he warned with a certain darkness to his voice.

I nodded and he clocked himself in to start his shift. I wasn't sure what that whole conversation was about, but I felt like I shouldn't take it lightly. Instead of hanging around to get the next guy telling me the same thing and leaving with a black eye, I grabbed my keys from the hook in the employee change rooms and left. On the drive home, I reconsidered whether or not I was going to call her about the date that Brad so badly wanted us to go on. Now that I knew she had her little fan club keeping eyes on me, I wasn't 100% sure it was a good idea to try and start something with her.

When I walked in the door of Brad's house, I heard him in the kitchen and headed in that direction. "How was work?" he asked when I sat down at the table.

"Fine," I answered.

"Good, so now what are you going to do?"

"Yeah, about that—"

"If you're planning on bailing out on our promise, you can forget about that. I gave you her number, now go and call her."

"Dude, she has a bunch of guys waiting for me to screw up so they can beat me black and blue. One of them confronted me at work today. He said she's easily hurt and if I'm the one to make her cry, then it's over for me. I'd like to at least survive the year that I spend here."

"Every girl has friends that say that. Do you know how many times I heard shit like that growing up? I'm still here," he reasoned. "Go and call the girl and if she says no then the says no."

I stared at him. In the back of my mind, I was more afraid of her rejecting me than he knew. A beating, I could take any day. But knowing that a smoking hot girl has no interest for you whatsoever hurts a little more. Though I would never tell him that. "Why are you pushing this so much?"

He smiled slightly. "Because she's expecting your call."

"You didn't!"

"I guess you're have to call and find out, won't you?"

Sometimes, I hated my family.