Disgraced || [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 3 - GABE

MARCH 2015

I sat in the classroom, watching the seconds pass by. Mr Handson had given me detention for something I didn't even do. I mean, even if I had been the last person seen leaving the bathroom, it doesn't mean that I clogged the toilets; I only washed my hands! I had tried to reason with Mr. Handson but he wouldn't have it and that's why I was here right now, waiting for the bell to ring.

When it finally did, I jumped up and dashed outside to my locker. "Thanks a lot Mr. Handson, now I'm almost late for work too. Again," I muttered to myself as I watched the clock. I went outside and took my bike to cycle to The Booknote. Of course it was just my luck that every traffic light on my way was red. When I finally walked in, I was greeted with a "HAI GAAABE!" and a hug. "Erm.. Hi Kate," I said and hugged the enthousiastic girl back, feeling a bit uncomfortable. 

"How was your day at school? Is your friend Luke coming over tonight? Did you know that Japan has its own Universal Studios? I want to go there when I'm in Japan, but that costs a lot of money, so I have to work more. I should ask Clarisse if I can work more next week," Kate rambled. 

"Eh.. My day was fine I guess? And I don't know if Luke- " 

"Hold on a second there Gabe, a customer wants to order and you should get ready before Clarisse sees you're not doing anything," Kate cut me off.  I sighed happily. At least for the moment I would be freed from Kate's questioning. She was nice, but sometimes she intimidated me a bit. At that moment, Clarisse walked in from the back. 

"Gabe, why are you not in your working gear yet? Hurry up, you can't let Kate and Brandon do everything by themselves!" I quickly went to the changing room and changed in my working clothes, dropping my school bag in my locker.

When I was finished and got back in the café I noticed the place was quite full, with quite some people reading in the booths and others just hanging out with friends, drinking coffee. I took a few orders and stored some books back on the shelves. I loved working in this place, firstly because I loved books -  and I could rent the books from the café, which was a privilege costumers didn't have - and secondly because I earned a lot of money, which I really needed since I had to pay the rent and all of my bills. That's one of the disadvantages of living on your own. 

But for me, it was the better option. All my life I had lived in foster care. I moved from one family to the other, and never really stayed in one place very long because at a certain point, the families wouldn't want me anymore. The reason for that was usually that I got in a lot of conflicts with people. More often than not I didn't do anything, but somehow I always got the blame. I guess I had a thing for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Now all of that was in the past though. I turned 18 last summer, so I was allowed to live on my own. I had an apartment at the edge of the city - although it was small it did the trick - and a nice job which payed the rent. The only thing missing, were my parents.

Foster care didn't know who they were; my parents left me at the foot of the doorstep with a purple necklace and a credit card for me to use when I was eighteen. One day I was going to find them though, and Luke was going to help. He had promised me, and Luke wasn't one to forget his promises. He was a great friend.

And that was yet another reason why I loved this job; this was where I met Luke. I could still remember it clear as day. It was at the beginning of the summer holiday when he came in here. It had been a quiet day too. On these days I'm usually allowed to read in the café myself. I was still reading when someone interrupted me. And this, as you probably guessed, turned out to be Luke. He started a conversation with me about the book I was reading. Since I really love talking about books I didn't mind talking to a stranger for a bit; he made me feel at ease as if we had already known each other for years, while usually I am quite nervous around new people. The next day Luke came by again, and he asked me about some good reads for the holiday. I gladly helped him. He came back again after a couple of days, but after that I didn't see him for a while anymore. However, when I started my new school year I found out he was in my classes. We started talking again, and we instantly became best friends.

For the rest of the evening I worked hard and didn't have much time to take a break. After a while I got quite hungry, so I went to find Clarisse. She was in the back, doing the inventory. 

"Clarisse, I have been working for a couple of hours and I was wondering if I could take a break and eat something." 

"Of course Gabe," she said with a warm smile. "You don't have to ask, you know that. I made some lasagne last night if you'd like some. There is quite a lot left. You can share that with Brandon and Kate. Brandon is outside filming for his internet thing, I think."

"Thanks!"

I walked towards the back door. When I opened it, I heard a loud bang. Quickly I looked behind it and saw Brandon standing there with a bleeding nose. I rushed towards him, frantically apologizing. Luckily I had a pocket handkerchief with me, and I continued apologizing while handing this to him so he could try and stop the bleeding. When I looked around I noticed that Brandon's camera was on the ground and I sent a quick prayer to the big man upstairs. From what I could see it was only scratched though, and my panic subsided for a bit; I was sure I wouldn't have enough money to repair it for him if I really had broken it. "Dammit! First my bike, then the clogged toilets and now this.. What a great day," I muttered.   

Brandon took my handkerchief and while holding it against his nose he said: "Don't worry about me or the camera. I know you didn't do this on purpose, because if you did..." Brandon put his other hand in front of his face and made a boxing move. "Were you coming out for a reason?  Your shift isn't over yet, is it?"

"No, I just came in here to ask if you want to share Clarisse's lasagne for dinner? I mean if you want, you don't have to."

"Of course, I'm starving man! Haven't eaten anything since I started filming and that was about 3 hours ago.

I chuckled. Brandon did tend to forget the time when he was out filming. Luckily he had long breaks scheduled. "Then we should head back in, eat something and help Kate, because it is getting quite busy again."

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