× Mercury
"Here's your check," I said with a genuine smile as I slipped the small leather binder onto the table occupied by a young couple. I moved to the next table and placed out four glossy menus to each person sitting in the booth. "I'll be right back to take your order," I told them as I continued on my way to table eight, only a few feet away. "You're food will be right out," I assured them.
I made my way back to the front of the bar to the little window that separated the kitchen and the bar to grab the multiple dishes full of food that were gathering on the ledge.
"How do you do it?" Jillian asked as I started collecting the large order in my hands. "I mean, Christ, Lynn, you only have two arms yet you manage to balance five plates."
Shrugging, I walked off and went back to table eight and started passing out their food.
Jillian had reminded me that there was an open waitress job at The Courtyard Bar, and on a whim, I applied. I needed to get some cash if I wanted to survive off something that wasn't Cup Noodles and TV dinners.
Days had turned into weeks and the next thing I knew it was already October. It had been two weeks since Niall caught me in his room looking through his things. During those two weeks, I had spoken very little to him. It occurred to me then that I had also spoken very little of him as well, only on the small occasions when Chloe would bring him up.
I shouldn't say we didn't talk, because that's not true. We had to communicate during soccer practice to achieve what we both wanted, and that was success. But that was about it for interaction. He never looked at me, he never spoke to me, and he made sure to keep a great deal away from me. I even changed seats in English to the back of the room to avoid him. It was just easier to hate him from afar.
I didn't know if he was mad at me because I had snooped through his things or because I left him after our intimate moment, or if it was something else altogether, but I was happy for the distance.
It was only the beginning of the month, but the temperature outside seemed to match mine and Niall's relationship at the moment; brittle and just plain cold.
Through the weeks, I continued on as I would normally. I did my school work, I went to practice, I went jogging, and even won the game we had played. College life seemed to bore me, but it was a welcoming change from the senseless-ness of the past two months. It felt nice to shut my brain off from reality of pointless emotions and just focus on, well, anything but Niall.
"When did you start here again?" Jillian asked once I was back behind the counter after I took an order. She was in the middle of refilling a customer's beer who looked too drunk to even form an actual sentence despite it being only three in the afternoon.
"Ten days ago," I told her as I handed one of the cooks in the back a small notepaper of an order.
She just shook her head at me. "You're a natural, really. Sometimes people only come here to be waited on you."
"Lynn," someone said from my left. I looked to see my boss, Finn, coming over to us, his flaming orange hair as bright as ever. "That band, whatever the hell they're calling themselves, is here and they're asking for you."
Jillian raised her brows like Finn just proved her point.
I looked up to see where the band was sitting. As I did, the front door opened and some of my teammates entered. Along with them was none other than Niall.
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Game Theory × NH
FanfictionLynn Mercury is your daring, feminist idealist who only wants to get into the Portland Thorns. So when the chance arises to ditch her home city for the opportunity to go pro, leaving behind her UCLA soccer team and her persuasive ex-fling, Lynn tak...