Ihop
(yn)
nine-fifty two pm, Thursday October twenty-third, twenty-sixteen.Two weeks later, I got a call from Bry asking me to cover her shift. I was already in my PJs about to hop into bed with Eli and watch a flick but she was in hysterics, babbling something through tears about her grandmother, so unenthusiastically I agreed, and there I was.
And once again, it was empty. and once again I was sitting down, rolling cutlery with Callie, until she said;
"There's someone at the door, do you want to take them? Or should I?"
"Nah, I can." I replied, sliding off the wooden chair and landing on my feet. I bounded towards the hostess booth where three guys were standing patiently. "Hey guys! Just for the three of you tonight?" I asked in my waitress-peppy voice, I was like a cheerleader, only the customers were my team.
"Ye," Said the dirty blond, after a few minutes I recognized them as the guys from two weeks ago,
"Back again?" I asked, the smile unmoving from my face. I whipped out some menus and walked them to my section, from behind me I heard one of them mutter
"What are you talking about? We practically live here!" It was the brunette, they all sat down and I leaned my arm on their booth,
"Remind me your names again?"
"Max," Said the redhead,
"Ross" Said the dirty blond
"Timtim" Said the brunette, I raised my eyebrows at that, and they must have noticed, because max spoke up.
"It's a little nickname our boss calls him,"
"Ah, so, drinks?"
I punched in the drinks and brought them.
"I'll have this," Max said, pointing at the menu again, I felt myself smile a real smile, not some retail shit, and I shook my head slightly to myself.
I then punched in the food, and I brought that too. Being a waitress sure was repetitive, I hated every second of it. Except of course, for Callie,
And Bry,
And Ty,
And Walter,
And Chad,
And Shay,
And Em,
I did not hate them, in fact they were more family to me than my actual family, and perhaps that was why I continued to work there rather than waitress a different restaurant. Eli was always telling me to quit, always saying things like "Well if you hate it there get a new job!", and quite obviously that would be the right thing to do, But every time I'd walk into Tammie's office with the intentions of doing just that, I'd pass by Ty and he'd give me a warm smile, or Callie would pull me aside and begin whispering gossip about the customers in my ear and together we'd laugh and I found myself incapable of leaving because home is where the heart is,even if you desperately want to get out.
And it's not that I hated customers because I didn't, in fact I befriended most of my customers immediately, it was the repetition I think, and also the fact that I felt as if I were working a part time job, I felt inferior, as if I should be in college or studying to get a real job.
Em, the hostess, she was only fifteen years old, I was seven years older than our youngest employee and I felt as if I was wasting my life.
But I sucked it up, and walked over to the three guys sitting in the booth in my section,
"Everything's tasting alright here so far?" I asked, I laughed maniacally in my head as I saw all three of their mouths were full, and each were struggling to gulp down their food to answer me. Definitely a perk of being a waitress, was watching people crash and burn.
I'm joking,
Not really.
I stood patiently waiting, the Barbie smile plastered across my mouth, hands in the pockets of my apron, and eventually Ross spoke up.
"Yeah, its great"
"Awesome, You guys like it here?"
"What makes you say that?" Asked Max, one eyebrow raised, smiling slightly.
"Well, it's the second time I've seen you here in two weeks, would I be wrong to assume so?"
"I mean, no. We work not to far away so we usually come here afterwards if we want to grab a bite to eat."
"Ah, of course,"
"You never told us, Y/n, do you like it here?" he asked, Tim and Ross looked genuinely interested in finding the answer although the both of them were digging into their meals. I felt my smile waver a bit and I looked away, trying to decipher how to answer this however before my brain could tell me not to, I was opening my mouth.
"The food and the people, they're great."
"And.. the job?"
"It's no walk in the park, not exactly my ideal job, certainly not permanent."
"But?"
"No that's it," I replied, I saw him let out a little laugh.
"What would you rather do?" Tim piped up from the back of the shadowy booth,
"I don't really know, I'm very shy so I don't think anything in customer service." I said, looking up to the wall as if it was going to tell me what my dream job is, it didn't.
"No way, you're not shy!" Max said again, as if in playful disbelief,
"Oh yeah, trust me." I said, "You guys said you work not too far from here? What exactly do you all do?"
"We work at a company called 'sky media,'" Said max, A glance down revealed he was now done his meal. "It's a YouTube company, Tim and I are editors and Ross here is a YouTuber."
"You act as if I'm some endangered species" Ross said to him, I huffed a laugh, as did Tim.
"That's actually really cool," I replied,
"I tend to think so," Tim again called from the shadows.
"Well, it seems we're all finished up here so let me just grab these and take em' outta your way, I'll be back with the bill." I said, grabbing all their plates and placing them on my arm. I left, and returned bearing the bill, and while the guys finished up their drinks and paid, I slid back across from Callie and continued to roll cutlery. After a few seconds, she slipped out of her seat and said, "I'm going to do my closing jobs, I'll see you." And off she scurried to clean the washrooms, leaving me once again to watch as the three musketeers, the three YouTubers, the dirty blond, the brunette and the red-head, walked off into the parking lot, my eyes trailing them as they left.
Authors note:
Hey guys, so I just wanted to say that I'm not really sure how IHop works in terms of seating people, like do people just walk in and sit down? Does a hostess seat them? I am Canadian and since we don't have IHop, I wouldn't know.
I do however work in a restaurant so here's how our's kinda works.
There's a hostess, she brings people to their tables and hands them menus, and the waitresses all have finishing jobs so when they finish their shifts they get assigned 'washrooms' or 'rolling cutlery' (Which btw is when you put the forks and knives in a napkin and roll it and close it with one of those tab things) so yeah that's pretty much the jobs the characters are doing when the restaurant isn't busy.
Seriously though, leave me comments about how Ihop works because I've never been and we don't have them where I'm from.
Okie,
Goodbye Lovelies :D

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