Meet Me at Infinity ➵ Ashton Irwin

[17] Missy Higgins

[Ellie]

“Don’t ever say you’ve tried to leave me in this life. Don’t ever say you’ve tried for the last time” – Missy Higgins

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When I skate into work, Kate is already getting changed in the backroom. I slide in and see her stripping, then laugh when she shrieks and covers herself when she notices my presence.

Her eyes roll and she continues dressing, revealing a glimpse of the black lace bra and panty set she’d bought at Victoria Secret with me the other day as she tugs her uniform over her head. She almost looks like she’s posing for one of those kinds of shoots, standing there half-naked in roller-skates.

‘Don’t do that, Ellie,’ she grumbles at me, a half smile pushing at her face as she shakes her head to settle her hair.

I remove my bag from my shoulder, hanging it on my hook. I send her a judgemental look. ‘I wasn’t the one getting changed in the middle of the room. May I remind you we have a staff bathroom for that sort of thing?’

‘Yeah, but it stinks like shit,’ she says, pulling a face. She reaches up and in a swift movement, ties her bandana around her head.

‘What if it had been Harold and not me who had caught you? You wouldn’t be smiling then,’ I smirk, at which point Kate groans loudly. Harold is a slimy character from Moscow who has the creepy sexual accent and eye-undressing combo down to an art.

‘Don’t even joke about that,’ Kate murmurs as she slaps me on the shoulder, skating off to begin the day. I chuckle to myself and move into the bathroom (which still smells like shit unfortunately) and take out the air freshener I had bought solely for the purpose of giving this bathroom some fragrant love. I wrinkle my nose at the initial stink but spray around a few times, happy to notice an improvement – now it doesn’t just smell like week-old diarrhoea, but week-old diarrhoea and jasmine.

After I’ve gotten changed I skate back out and begin serving people as the steady influx of customers moves through the doors. I serve a man and his pet ferret at one stage – I haven’t worked here long enough to know the regulations about pets, but his ferret was cute and hungry-looking and the guy had a cool bowtie so I figured it couldn’t hurt to serve the duo.

About halfway through my shift I spin around on my skates and bump right into someone. Luckily I wasn’t carrying anything, because I stumble on my feet before falling right onto my ass.

‘Oh shit, I’m so sorry Ellie,’ a familiar voice says as I rub my rear end and struggle to a stand. Through my annoyed scowl I make out the face of…Luke?

My eyes go wide as I steady myself on the counter. ‘Luke?’ I ask incredulously. ‘Who-wait-what…what are you doing here?’

‘Oh, um, I came to see you, actually,’ he says nervously, wringing his hands. I feel myself tense slightly but try to not act abnormal. I brush my hair back from my face in an expaserated way. Two members of 5 Seconds of Summer dropping by to see me in two days…nearly every girl’s dream, really.

‘Well, I’m still on my shift, so you better hurry,’ I say, glancing at my boss as she waddles past and into her office. Kate skids by and notices Luke, grinning at me before whispering I’ll cover your tables for a minute.

I mouth thank you at her and turn back to Luke, who looks as awkward as ever. His eyes dart nervously all over the place.

‘I just wanted to make sure things are cool between us,’ he says. He sighs, rubbing his neck awkwardly. While we were dating for those few months it was something I noticed he did a lot when he was embarrassed or anxious. ‘I know things didn’t exactly end well, but–’