Chapter #5More friend than vegetarian by: Unknown Danny shifted nervously behind the counter it was nearly the lunch rush and this was Danny's first day. Danny looked out at the empty parking lot as cars began to pass by, the traffic was getting heavier, the lunch hour rush would soon be pulling in and his boss would be watching to make sure he could handle it. Danny adjusted his small paper hat for the fifth time in an hour and made sure his name tag was still straight since the last time he looked five minutes ago.
Danny patted the counter as a car or two pulled into the parking lot, but rather than park and come inside they pulled around to the side to the drive through. Danny looked over at Diana, the girl working the window, she'd been working here for 8 months and didn't look nearly as nervous as Danny. Danny let out a long sigh trying to calm down, this job meant a lot to him. He could finally buy something to impress Paulina that his normal allowance didn't really have a budget for, or even afford a nice date, minimum wage wasn't much but at 190 dollars every two weeks after taxes he could certainly afford a very nice candle lit dinner. Yeah Paulina would sure be impressed, he mused to himself
"or Sam..." His subconscious murmured in the back of his mind
Danny shook his head "Sam.. just a friend" he thought back. Danny looked up at the ceiling "It's not like I got this job to impress HER, I mean she's rich, just because it would be a really romantic gesture to ask her out and pay for everything rather than split the bill like we normally do... she might find that sweet... wonder if she'd kiss me..." He began to whisper. Danny choked nervously, was he saying that out loud!? Danny looked around wildly to make sure no one heard him, he sighed with relief when he saw no one was close enough and rested his back against the counter to clam himself down. Suddenly a voice from behind him shook him not only back to reality but also scared him half to death, it was Sam herself.
"Hey Danny!" She said as cheerfully as she would get, the happy sweet girl voice not really her thing but she managed one every now and then when speaking to Danny. "How's the first day going so far? Make any big mistakes yet?
"Gah, heh, hey Sam. M-mistakes? What makes you think I'm messing up?" Danny worried getting slightly defensive
"Whoa whoa calm down Danny" Sam cautioned him "I was only kidding, I'm sure you're doing fine."
"Right, kidding... heh heh" he nervously laughed "Sorry first day jitters you know?
Sam and Danny looked at each other quietly for several moments before Sam cut into the awkward stare
"Well?" she asked him quizzically
"Well what?" Danny asked suddenly worried
"well.... aren't you going to take my order?" Sam asked him with a sarcastic tone
"OH! uh sorry... you're making me nervous" Danny said with a sigh as Sam shot him a questionable look "Er, I mean not you making me nervous, but just the situation, you're my first real customer, the boss is watching and..."
"Oh, say no more, lets just pretend you gave me the stupid Nasty Burger greeting your corporate puppet masters force on you, I didn't want to hear you reciting that stupid line anyway, you'd sound like a tool." Sam joked "Ok I'll have..." Sam began scanning the menu "3 nasty burger cheese burgers, 2 orders of fries and a large chocolate milkshake"
"Ok 'miss' coming right up" Danny announced trying to sound professional as he hopelessly hunted for the cheeseburger button on the reregister.
"Danny... you taking me seriously?" Sam laughed "You must be freaking out about this job, you know I'm a Vegetarian, well technically a Vegan... but Nasty burger's options are limited and I can live with eating a vegetarian's lunch, after all I couldn't see you if I was going to be picky about your menu's options."
"Oh! Right" Danny chuckled, Sam's joke wasn't helping, his palms were dripping with sweat and his knees were beginning to shake, he was sure his boss was behind him watching him mess up. "Um, we have a new veggie burger you know, tofu and everything you guys like" Danny tried to continue, picking up a paper stand up ad for the burger off the counter and reading the quotes as if Sam couldn't "Try out new Veggie burger! Now even you meat hating tree huggers can have some nasty in you burg-"
Sam yanked the ad from his hand before he could finish and threw it behind her, Danny leaned on the cash register trying to grab the ad before it was thrown out of his reach, he pushed several buttons. "No Danny I don't want one of those cheap attempts to profit off the green crowd. Besides those things contain very little tofu, they are mostly fatty grease and processed Fat to simulate the beef taste, they are worse than the real burgers. Look just give me a large salad and a small order of fries" Sam said trying to make things simple for Danny. "And no receipt, I don't want to kill trees so I can have a paper reminder of what I ate!"
"O-ok" Danny sweated hunting keys again. He had trouble remembering what all the abbreviations on the keys meant, before he was done Danny had entered 2 large orders of fries and a bowl of ice cream covered in cookie bits. And covered in chocolate in addition to the other buttons he had hit earlier. Danny looked at the total, 12.35 "that can't be right" he thought, Danny assumed the register was messing up and added up the order of a larger salad and a small fry in his head. "That will be 4.24, your order is number 97a" Danny said at last and began to wait for the fry cook to slide the tray through with her order on it
Danny tapped his fingers on the counter nervously smiling at Sam who seemed to be finding the whole situation down right comical poking fun at Danny a few times while the waited by telling him his hat was on backwards or his name tag was upside down, every time Danny freaked out and checked she'd burst out laughing.
"Order 97a up!" came a voice from behind the wall of equipment and a tray covered in far more food than they were expecting slid through the small opening.
"Danny" Sam exclaimed "just what did you order me?"
"I don't know, I must have hit the wrong buttons" Danny nervously told her as he moved the tray to the counter so they could inspect the order. "I wasn't sure what buttons were which but I know I didn't hit this many!" Danny tried to explain and checked the receipt on the tray to make sure it was the same order number, to his dismay it was.
"Danny you ordered me 2 of these greasy veggie burgers?! With cheese? 2 orders of large fries? An apple pie? A chocolate fudge sundae with cookie bits? Danny do you want me to spit on my vegan ideals and ruin my diet?! Sam scolded him
"I, I don't know how..." Danny started before he heard something that made his blood run cold...
The manager clear his throat and stepped in behind Danny, "Is there a problem here...?" He asked glaring down at Danny. "Did you mess this young lady's order up?"
"I... I mean I..." Danny stammered
"No, he did not sir" Sam dove into the conversation and saved Danny "I was just asking him to help me check the order, to make sure it was right, but he forgot my... um my..." Sam searched for a reason she'd be yelling at him
"Her milkshake!" Danny jumped back in "She wanted a big Milkshake and I forgot to prepare one for her! Sorry Sir and Ma'am, its my first day you know..." He said looking sheepish
"Yeah..." Sam said shooting Danny a dirty look before the manager turned back to her "My... milkshake... a big... chocolatey.... calorie filled.... milk... shake. I was yelling because I mistook his inexperience as an attempt to cheat me out of my full order, I am over sensitive about that stuff..." She finished with a nervous smile
"Yes well... my apologies miss" the manager said and fetched her the milkshake quickly "But if you'll excuse me... I'll be watching to make sure you eat all of it, I'd hate to find out this young man couldn't even handle his first order and needed a customer to cover for him" The manager said menacingly and glaring down at Danny again who practically melted in his shoes from the stare.
Sam looked to Danny as well for help about what she was going to do with all this food. Danny however was sweating bullets as the manager checked Danny's uniform and gave him a stern reminder on the "Nasty Burger image". Sam took her tray and looked at the mountain of food, She wondered if Danny could take a break soon and help her eat some of it, but just as the manager took his leave a crowd of customers pushed past her and the lunch rush began, Danny was to busy to talk to. Sam simply found a seat and tried to manage to eat her feast of fattening foods knowing the manager could be watching...
It DID felt like someone was watching...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.
spleeguy has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
