Story of My Life: Ch. 4

Chapter 4
Work Life

A week passed and the cut on my face had mostly healed but a pretty nasty bruise still remained. My side still hurt like hell if I did any heavy lifting but it was a lot better. Twiggy was a big help and as usual, I spent most of my free time with him. When I’m not hanging out with him it’s usually because of school or my summer job. I work at a café as a part time employee. It pays pretty well and I love the people there. All the managers know about my uncle and how he’s such an ass so if I need time off because of him they let me. They also know I wouldn’t lie to them just to get off work. I need the money. Twiggy and his family help out a lot with the money factor but I hate having to take their money. It’s like they adopted me and not my aunt and uncle.
“Cassidy!” Paul, my manager, called to me from behind the counter, “time to change the coffees!”
“Okay! I’ll get those in a minute!” I turned my attention back to the small bag of trash that I was throwing into the giant black bin in the back of the restaurant. I worked the dining room and was in charge of taking the trash back, changing the coffees, refilling the condiments, and busting tables. It was a really easy job and I could close it in about 30 minutes; it takeks most people an hour to close dining. People would ask about how I got my bruises if they noticed them and I got pretty good at lying to them. The usual excuse was that I tripped and fell down some stairs. It was a simple and sweet excuse and it did its job.
A familiar voice sounded behind me, “Excuse me,” I grinned and turned around to face the speaker, “can you tell me where the bathrooms are?”
“Twiggy, you’ve been here how many times and you still don’t know where the bathrooms are?”
“Your short-term memory loss must be rubbing off on me,” He grinned and I lightly punched him on his arm. I didn’t actually have short-term memory loss but it was funny to say I did since I forgot some important things every once in a while.
“Around the corner and it’s on the right,” I pointed down the hall and grinned, “the boys room has the little boy on it, not a little girl.”
He put on a fake serious face and began walking off, “So that’s why there were girls in the boys room last time…”
I stared at him and started laughing at him as I grabbed some half full coffee containers and dragged them into the back to drain and replace them. I repeated this process one more time before the coffees were completely drained and replaced with fresh brewed coffee. I began to wipe down a table that was recently vacated by three children and one very tired looking mother.
“Excuse me miss, can you tell me where the bathrooms are?”
I smiled and turned around to face Twiggy, yet again, “And you say I have short term memory loss…” I trailed off as I noticed the six familiar faces looking at me with amused expressions; their grins faded quickly when the saw the bruise and cut on my face. They immediately crowded around me and started bombarding me with questions, worry and concern written all over their faces. Adam reached forward and lightly ran a finger along the cut but the light pressure still made me flinch in pain.
“How’d you get that?” he asked, his green eyes filled with concern were staring at me.
“Her…” Twiggy began before I cut him off
“My stairs tripped me and I fell down them,” I sent Twiggy a quick warning glance then gave a nervous laugh.
“Then why does the bruise look like a handprint?” Sam, Twiggy’s hunk, pointed out with a frown on my face.
I stammered, “Uh…well…” no one had ever pointed out that little detail so I didn’t have a lame comeback when he asked me.
“Her uncle hit her.” I sent dagger glares at Twiggy who looked back at me apologetically.
The crew boys immediately began questioning me about how long ago this happened and where he was so they could go beat the shit out of him. The only one who wasn’t questioning me about how big my uncle is was Sam. He seemed amazingly calm about this, except for the more than occasional curse word whispered under his breath.
“Listen guys, it’s not a big deal. It’ll heal in a few days and it’ll be like nothing happened!” They started to protest but I cut them off, “now I have to get back to work before Paul fires me. I’ll see you guys later.” I smiled at them and whispered to Twiggy as I passed him, “I’ll deal with you later.”
“They could help.”
“I don’t want anyone else in this.” I lied. I wanted help but any help would just end up in the helper getting hurt as well. I paused, “thanks for trying though…” I continued walking away from the little group and began to switch out the trash bags. I yanked up on the top of the trash bag to free it from its plastic container only to immediately regret it. Searing pain coursed through my body as I hunched over, held my side, and gritted my teeth. Two pairs of arms helped me up and sat me in a booth nearby. I turned my pale face towards Twiggy and Adam who still had their arms around me and were staring at me. Twiggy had a look of immense concern on his face while Adam and the rest of the crew had looks of horror on their faces.
“What the hell happened?” Paul had come over and was holding a glass of water and some Advil.
“I forgot how heavy the trash was and I tried to lift it, it’s no big deal. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
“CJ, I told you, let Chase help you with the heavy stuff. Your side can’t handle the strain.” I merely nodded and downed the godsend pain relievers.
“Your side?” Sam asked
I winced. I forgot I hadn’t told them about that little detail of my night, “Yeah…he kind of kicked me as well…”
The boys began cursing again and Paul told them to cool it, “Chase, can you grab the trash for me? I’ve got to get back and help Sara on line. We’re starting to get backed up over there.” Twiggy nodded and got up off the seat next to me to finish what I had left sitting in the middle of the hallway, “CJ,” Paul turned to me, “Go home with Chase. Get some more rest.” It was my turn to nod
“Thanks Paul,” I smiled as he walked back to help the now frantic Sara.
“CJ,” Adam’s voice to my left startled me a bit, “why did your uncle hurt you so much?”
I shrugged, “he was drunk and in a bad mood for some reason. I never really know why he does things like this.”
“You mean he does this frequently?” Jacob asked.
I hesitated before I whispered, “yea…my aunt has it worse though.”
“Why don’t you call the cops?” Sam asked as he sat down to my right.
“If I call the cops he’ll go away for a little while but he’ll get out. I’ll probably be gone by then but my aunt will have to deal with him when he gets out and who knows what he’ll do to her.” I winced at the thought.
“You’re not going to convince her to call the police.” Twiggy had come back, “I’ve been trying for years now.”
Each boy exclaimed in unison, “Years!”
“Twiggy, I swear, if you say another word I’ll sick Tim on you!”
“Please do! It’ll give me a reason for me to punch him again and this time you won’t have a good reason to stop me!”
I growled and stared at my water glass clenched in my hands.
“Alright, well let’s take Paul’s advice and head home. I’ll make you some lunch and we can watch movies for the rest of the day.” He helped me up then turned to the crew boys, “You guys can come too if you want. We’ll make a party out of this.”
The boys brightened up a little and said they’d join us.
Twiggy drove my car to my home away from hell while the crew boys followed us in their cars. It took about 15 minutes to get home and when we pulled into the driveway Mrs. Laurence was just pulling out.
“CJ? Weren’t you working today?”
“I was, until the trashcan fought back,” I laughed a little and Mrs. Laurence sighed.
“I told you to take it easy with the heavy lifting honey. Your side can’t take that much strain.”
“Yeah…I kinda forgot about that.”
Twiggy leaned forward so he could talk to his mom as well, “We brought some friends along with us and we’re just going to hang out in the basement. That okay with you?”
“Sure, sure, just don’t burn down the house. I have to go to the clinic for a few hours but I’ll be back by seven. Dinner is just leftovers. Your friends can stay for dinner if they want.” Twiggy and I nodded and waved as she pulled out of the driveway and drove down the street.

“I call the bean bag!” I shouted as I ran over to the giant blue beanbag that was on the floor next to the couch. I would have jumped onto the lovely makeshift chair but if my side flared up again I probably would have passed out from the pain.
“Holy shit dude!” the crew had joined Twiggy and me in the basement and everyone was very impressed with his house, “You’ve got a 360 and a Wii!”
“He also has a big screen TV and surround sound,” I pointed out as I laid down on the beanbag and pointed my finger towards the TV for emphasis.
Twiggy held up a 360 controller and the Halo 2 case, “I call first player.” Each crewmember dove for the controllers but only Adam, Mike, and Kyle got the rest of the controllers. The rest walked towards the couch and my beanbag in defeat.
I patted Sam on the foot as he sat down on the couch cushion closest to me, I couldn’t reach his head from my position on the floor, “Aw, it’s okay. There’s always the next game…or game 30!” Everyone laughed and turned their attention back to the game. Unfortunately, I had also joined in the laughter and my side just couldn’t handle it. Pain spread through my side again. I clutched at my side, rolled over onto my stomach, and buried my face in the beanbag.
“CJ,” Sam put his hand on my shoulder, “You okay?”
I responded by emitting a muffled groan into the beanbag.
“Hey Twiggy, can CJ have some Advil or something? Her side’s hurting her again.”
“It’s too early to have some more pain killers, I’ll get your ice pack, that should help some.” Twiggy handed the controller to Jacob who cheered and began playing for Twiggy. Twiggy returned a few minutes later with my cold heaven and some bandages to hold it on my side. I slowly sat up and lifted my shirt half way up my stomach to reveal a nasty bruise a foot long, size 10 to be exact, that ran around my right side and onto my belly. The bruise was huge, blue, black, green, and yellow.
“Good god…” Kyle whispered as everyone stared at my side making me feel amazingly self-conscious.
“What? Never seen a girl’s stomach before?” I teased as Twiggy applied the ice pack. Once the ice pack hit the bruise I flinched and shut my eyes tight against the pain. Twiggy wrapped a bandage around my stomach and tied it in a knot to secure it.
“How’s that feel?” he asked. I whimpered and kept my eyes closed against the pain. “Too tight?”
I shook my head and opened one eye to look at him, “Nope, just hurts like hell.” He pulled me into a one-armed hug and gently squeezed me.
“That bastard will get what’s coming to him, I promise,” Twiggy mumbled.
“For now, let’s just kill people virtually. It makes life violent yet safe.”
“Agreed! Jacob, I’m going to need that controller back.”
Jacob scoffed, “As if! You gave it up!”
“My controller.”
“My…uh…. damn.” Twiggy smiled and took back the controller. The game resumed and the slaughter of virtual aliens and people commenced.

We played video games for a few hours before we put in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. During the movie, we finished three bowls of popcorn, 16 sodas, and 1 energy drink. Daniel had started to nod off half way through so we thought the caffeine would help him; who knew that it would actually put him to sleep. The movie ended, the clock read 9:30, and we were all starving; popcorn and soda is not enough to satisfy the stomachs of seven boys and one girl. We decided it was time to raid the fridge and when we did, we found a gold mine. There was leftover spaghetti, barbeque chicken, steak, and many other goodies that could easily satisfy our growling stomachs. I grabbed the barbeque chicken and some rice, put my portion on a plate, then popped the plate in the microwave for 45 seconds. I watched as the delicious substances revolved around in circles, slowly heating up to a mild tongue scalding temperature.
“CJ, you’re going to get dizzy watching that,” Adam said as he joined me to watch the food spin.
“It’s worth it,” I said as the timer beeped to signal that my food was done. I cheered, popped open the microwave, grabbed my food, ran over to the kitchen table, and began to dig in. I was half way through by the time everyone sat down at the table but all of them finished before I did. Right as I took my last bite of food Mrs. Laurence walked though the garage door to see us sitting at the table with empty plates and full bellies.
“I hope you left something for me,” she commented as she walked behind Twiggy and smiled.
“I wouldn’t hope too hard. We were some starving teenagers,” Twiggy replied while he gave her a backwards hug, “Your fault for leaving a full fridge with seven hungry teenage boys and one slow eating teenaged girl.” I glared at him and lightly punched him in the arm. He just laughed and pretended to be hurt.
“I cooked the food you know.”
“You snooze, you loose!”
Everyone laughed and enjoyed the comfort that radiated around us.