Tomorrow's Blues

8. Melissa's

For the next few days, until I started my job, I started avoiding pretty much everyone. I couldn't deal with any conversations, I just didn't want to talk full stop. Every single night, I dialled mum or dad's number, just to hear their voice. Doing that probably made it worse. I was fairly certain that Joseph hadn't told Alice or her parents about my breakdown, but I couldn't be sure as I was barely talking to him either. Alice had definitely noticed the change in me – she kept throwing me worried glances and often tried to talk to me when I attempted to dodge her. I felt bad, because from this she might have thought I was mad at her or something, when I wasn't. I just couldn't face people for too long at a time.

I was grateful when I started working at Melissa's. It was often busy there and gave me a good distraction. Everyone working there vaguely recognised me as the girl whose parents drowned, but they never said a word about it or treated me differently, even Millie, the girl who was friends with Joseph. I was grateful for that, and I was able to be myself a bit more.

A couple of weeks passed. The concept of time was lost on me. The only reason I ever knew what day it was, was because of work. When I wasn't at Melissa's, I wasn't at the Moore's house much. I loved Alice and her parents, but for a while I just couldn't be around them. Whenever I was, I saw the concern on their faces, the way they tiptoed around me. I forced myself to eat meals with them, but I barely talked. But as the days passed, I began to talk a little more. I noticed time passing. I was less robotic with my movements. But I still couldn't talk about my parents without choking up. I could barely even think about them.

As I was helping close up Melissa's for the evening one day, my co-worker, Grace, said, "God, some people are so rude. You know that lady with the two screaming kids? She came and complained to me that they were bored because we didn't provide any colouring for children, and I just kind of stared at her like...? This is a café, not a restaurant for children. Shut your own bloody children up."

I nodded, not even able to force a smile, and began to wipe down the surfaces. "Yeah. And it was so busy today."

"Always is in the school holidays. Once they're over, it'll calm down a bit," she commented, beginning to pack up the leftover food which could be donated to the food banks. "You used to come here a lot before you worked here?"

"Loads," I replied, swallowing as I remembered how much my parents loved it here too. "I loved it. I mean, the view, the people – everyone's so nice."

"Well, most people," Grace disagreed, wrinkling her nose. "Have you met Millie?"

"Yeah, but she's been okay to me." I shrugged. "She was a little rude when I first met her, but that's because she's got a thing for a guy I was hanging out with at the time."

"You're friends with Joseph?" she said in disbelief, stopping in her packaging to face me.

"Uh... sort of," I said in confusion. "He's my friend's brother, so at the moment I'm living with them all. Why?"

"It's just... wow." Grace shook her head slightly. "Yeah, Millie's got a massive thing for him. They've been friends for ages, but he's never shown any interest like that in her."

"How come they know each other?" I asked curiously. "I swear Joseph went kind of AWOL for ages."

"Yeah, he did, I guess," she confirmed. "They went to this boarding school together. Only he was dating this other girl, then some kind of shit went down, and... I don't really know the story." Grace's eyes widened. "Hey! You could ask your friend – Alice, right – what happened. Bet she'll know."

I shook my head. "Bet she won't. I don't think they're that close. Joseph doesn't like his family much."

Grace wiggled her eyebrows at me. "Are you and him pretty close, then?"