Looking For Misery (John O'Callaghan)

Chapter 1

The next morning I woke up sluggish and stayed that way until about 2 hours before my shift began. Julia kept trying to talk to me about that guy throughout the day. I didn't know how to put it nicely, but he was boring and I wasn't interested.
It's not like I'm 13 and having a boyfriend is the most vital part of my life either way. It's really nothing special, it's just having someone around that makes all the difference between having a boyfriend and not, which is understandable, but I'm not gonna settle. That's just dumb.
I got ready physically and as much as I could mentally and headed over.
With the job that I have, I'm used to being yelled at by old people, but sometimes you really gotta prepare yourself just in case. The restaurant is expensive, and all I'm saying is that if you have a problem with it, don't come in the first place. It's not like I create the prices or cook the meals.

In the parking lot, I still had 4 minutes left. My boss would yell at me if I came in too early, but of course if I was four minutes too late I'd be fired automatically.
So I walked in at 5:45 on the dot, ready physically and mentally to work this shift, when someone drops a plate. Not a server this time, but a customer. Since they must "always be right", I have to be the one to tell them not to worry about it and pick it up myself. Not even clocked in yet. Yes, they treat me like a slave here, but this job has oddly done a lot for me. I've learned a lot, met so many good people, and also met my fair share of bad people. Places like this are where you learn about life.

As I was thinking of how this person better pay me a gold encrusted tip, they just leave. Didn't even thank me. They just leave. Nice. That shows how today will go.
I continued to struggle throughout the night when a couple about my age or older came in-- I'm not sure if they were really a couple, because it's obvious when they don't really know each other, but they looked somewhat together at least.

Anyway, they were seated at my table and the girl acted really sweet and bubbly. She was cute, like, really cute, which must have been why she had been taken on a nice date at a nice restaurant with a fairly attractive guy. The guy was hard to read, kinda stand-offish and maybe cocky to an extent, but I served them and made the required and dreaded small-talk nonetheless. Mostly with the girl, but it's fine. I get what it's like to be introverted. I mean, I'd probably be the same, but I had to do this for tips. Old couples on date nights are much easier targets for that kinda stuff, so I attended my other guests, who were almost regulars, which meant they either were filthy rich or spent a huge amount of money on retirement, but good for them and good for me because that also meant tips.

At the end of the night, I had already busted every table I was responsible for and no one was left to be served, no one besides the people just sitting there talking about how successful their children are. Those kinds of people and that one couple. They sat there, the guy was trying to convince the girl to go home with him, but I didn't hear any other details of the conversation. All I noticed was that they were gone soon after.

Cleaning that one last table of the night, I picked up the cash tip.
Damn. It was $50. I had received more before, but it was unexpected coming from what I inferred to be a couple of college students.
Unraveling the two twenties and the ten, a small piece of paper fell out of the very tightly-wadded cash. I picked it up to find a phone number. Cliché.

But I thought they were on a date. I was confused until I got home much later that night and texted the number. "Who is this?" I had expected that they probably wanted to set me up with their friend like everyone else in the world. Plus, I'm hit on quite a lot at work, because that's just what happens when you work in food service for some reason. Usually boys will ask for numbers though. It's rare to see them leave numbers, but if it was that boy that I saw today, I wouldn't be surprised by his apparent arrogance.

My heart began to race at the buzz of my phone, which made me feel like I was in high school again, caring about and waiting on boys. But I only felt this way because I had no idea who I had just texted and I was scared to find what they had replied.
It was just Julia.

"By the way, here is Nick's number just in case!.."

Wow. She really was pushing this. My heart slowed back down to its normal pace from the dissapointment. I love Julia, but I'll continue to ignore her on this one.
I continued to wait for this random person to reply, which is weird, like why was this one thing bothering me so much? At this point, it was just the curiosity; the principle. Some random person set a random phone number out for me to find and I don't know what they want from me-- I mean I'm not naive but why'd they feel the need to do that at that place and time? I was probably just overthinking it.

As I started falling asleep, I realized I wasn't gonna get that text back, so it was best just to forget about the whole thing. I had this image in my head of the boy that I had most recently seen, the boy who was with the girl. He was with a girl. If the phone number boy and he were the same, I'd feel bad for her, because that's such a douchebag move, but what do you expect from boys. His kind especially. He wore nice clothes. He had a smug look about him. He was clean cut and he looked good, which was most likely why his appearance was in my head seconds before sleep, but he was with that girl, and if it was him, he was also an asshole. My mind spun itself in circles until it tired itself out enough to fall into unconsciousness.

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Waking up, thoughts about how odd that last night situation was still danced in my head. I just wanted to have some explanation; I was left hanging.
After my eyes adjusted to the sunlight in my room, I looked at my phone to find that my instincts were wrong and the person actually did reply. At 5:06 AM.

"Hello. This is Katie, right? Sorry about tonight; I failed to introduce myself. I'm John. Thanks for getting back to me. I was hoping that once I got rid of that girl you'd help me with something."

Got rid of?? And help him with what? That's so rude? And cocky? What does he want help with? Why could I help him?
I texted him back just because I was totally confused about why he thought he needed my help.

"Umm why would you need my help? And what with?" I guess that would work.

I attempted to sound as stand-offish as possible because I wanted  him to know that I wasn't just gonna go with the bullshit he was pulling. The next time he replied was later throughout the day, when I imagined he might wake up.

"You'll find out. Just meet me at that park in downtown Scottsdale at 7:30 tonight and I'll explain."

Um? He's definitely a murderer? But also probably just cocky. It's kind of repelling, but I think I might just have to see what he's trying to do here. I can't just let him win, but I gradually became more curious, so I decided to give in this time. Just this time.