Live~ Jake Webber

Hopefully

    Today is different. I wake up on my own and that's very very rare. I don't know what's going on and my mom doesn't either when I come down the stairs dressed and ready for work.

"Oh look, she can get up without me having to yell at her one hundred times." Mom says and I grumble.

"Come on, since you woke up an hour before you had to leave for work we're getting coffee." Mom says grabbing her purse.

I don't hesitate to get up and follow her out the door.

"How was work yesterday? I never got time to ask you." She asks and I shrug.

"Nothing special happened?" At this I raise my eyebrow. Does she know about Pinkie?

"Not particularly." I mumble

"Why have you been acting like this lately?" She asks clearly frustrated.

"Like what?" I ask  looking out the window. But that was a lie. My sisters death date was approaching and I would be alone.

"Like not you. You've been less active. Not happy." She says

"I am happy." I say and she laughs bitterly. "You are not happy. Anyone can see that." She states and I stare at her.

"How would you know anything?" I raise my voice at her. "Because you're my daughter and I have eyes and ears." She argues

"That doesn't mean that you know everything about me including if I'm happy." I say.

"Tyler, I can tell-" I cut her off with an ear piercing scream. "Mom!"

She slams on the breaks and I breathe in deeply as she quickly gets out the car.

She starts yelling at whoever the hell was in a shopping cart in the middle of the road.

I finally catch my breath and get out too. I immediately notice the pink hair and I walk toward the four.

"Mom, come on." I say to my mother who was lecturing Pinkie and his friends about playing in the street.

"No, they-" I stop her. "They didn't mean to roll right in front of us." I say to her and she huffs.

"Stop playing in the road boys. You should know this, you look old enough." She says and they nod.

Pinkie looks over at me and looks as if he's analyzing me.

I walk away feeling Pinkie staring two holes into my back. Mom is still grumbling about immature kids.

...

I'm finishing up a table when the bell on the door chimes signaling someone has came in.

I turn ready to seat them since all the other waitresses were serving people, and find Pinkie walking in. Wow, I'm seeing a lot of him recently. I can't tell if that's good or bad.

"Is it just you?" I ask and his head snaps in my direction. Something in his eyes clicks and he nods.

"I knew it." He says and I raise an eyebrow.  "Sorry?" I say and he says "I saw you this morning and I knew you from somewhere. I thought of this place." He said.

"Yup that was me." I mutter and look back to him. "So, is it just you?" I ask and he nods.

I seat him at a table and he orders a chocolate milk. I watch him look around as he waits patiently.

Most people would go on their phone or something but not him. And most people don't stare at someone this long.

I snap out of it and bring him his chocolate milk. "Thank you." He says and I smile. "Do you know what you want to eat?" I ask and he nods.

"I'll just take a grilled cheese please." He says and I nod.

After I serve him no one really comes in after that and I can kind of chill. I get up occasionally to make sure everyone is doing fine.

I get up again to check on Pinkie because it looks like he's done.

"Are you done with this?" I ask and he nods at me swallowing chocolate milk. I take his plate and come back with the check.

Before I could walk away again he speaks. "I'm Jake." He says and I shake his hand "Tyler." I say and he smiles. "I like that name." He says and I can't tell if he's being serious. I hate my name. It's a guys name for gods sake.

"Thank you." I say and take his card.

"Have a good day."I say handing him his card back but he stops me again.

"Hey, would you want to see a movie or something with me maybe sometime?" He asks and I stop.

I don't want to say yes. Don't get me wrong he seems really nice and he's cute but I can't get attached. People leave. And they don't come back.

But. I could tell it took a lot of courage to ask that. So I turn around and smile. "Sure." I say forcing a smile and his smile widens.

"Okay, here's my number." He says and we exchange numbers. I won't be texting him anytime soon and hopefully he won't text me.

....

"Mom?" I call out when I get home at five. I walk into her room and she's not in there. The kitchen, living room she's not there.

"She's probably at the grocery store." I say to myself and walk up to my room to do my online classes.