She pulled her face away from the bag and looked up at the waitress. Delores offered a small smile of thanks, the action feeling strange on her face. The waitress returned the smile, hers being warmer and larger because the action was frequent and not forced.
“You’re okay now. I’ve got you.” Her eyes shone with kindness, the earlier impatience gone. “My momma used to suffer with panic attacks,” she offered by way of explanation. “Always have a paper bag handy,” she chuckled. Her blue eyes pierced Delores’s soul, reminding her of eyes that she had once met with joy and love. Eyes that now only engulfed her in misery.
She couldn’t help the gag that escaped her lips. Delores leant forwards and wretched into the brown paper bag, bringing up the tablets and black coffee she’d been surviving on. And of course, a small bite of pie.
Delores continued to wretch and wretch until her throat burned and her chest ached. Her eyes streamed and she squeezed them shut as pain wracked her body. The hand was on her back again, doing its circular dance and making her feel worse, but there was nothing left inside her, nothing more to come up and out.
A tissue was pushed in front of her and she gladly took it and wiped her mouth as she finally stopped. She dropped it into the bag and looked back up at the waitress.
“I’m so sorry,” she stammered, feeling embarrassed as people from other tables turned to look in her direction with disgust. “I’m so, so sorry!”
The waitress looked worried, but continued to smile. “It’s okay. I’ll go get rid of this and you go wash up.” With that, she stood, twisting the top of the bag closed. “Bathroom’s back there.” She pointed and wandered off, leaving Delores alone.
*
In the bathroom, Delores threw cold water on to her blotchy face. A thin line of perspiration had built across her forehead, and down the back of her neck, and her hair was sticking to it. Her breasts felt sweaty from the thick heat and she realised that she probably smelt quite bad. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d washed, or the last time she’d changed her clothes.
Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, and she clutched the sink as she stared at her sunken features in the mirror.
“I just threw up in front of everyone,” she mumbled to herself, even more embarrassed. She decided to head straight back to her room, take some more medication and try to fall asleep. Sleep might be better for her than food anyway.
Her head felt even worse now, a heavy thud thumping low at the base of her skull and travelling across to the front of her head. She couldn’t imagine sitting there and eating in front of everyone feeling like this. The pain, and the embarrassment, were too much.
Though they weren’t, not really.
Not with what she’d done. What she was running from. What she was running towards…
She exited the bathroom, intending to head for the front door and go back to her room but as she passed her table the young blond waitress stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder.
“I ordered you the soup. It’s chicken and vegetable. It’s real nice. You’ll feel better after that, I promise.” She offered Delores a smile, and this time it wasn’t fake. This time it was full of something else; understanding. “Ordered you a water also, didn’t know what you’d want to be drinking, other than your coffee, but I figured everyone drinks water.” She shrugged and guided Delores back to the table almost as if she knew Delores had planned to escape.
Delores looked at the soup, her stomach giving a large and painful grumble in response. She nodded and slid into the booth. She didn’t look up at the waitress but instead picked up her spoon and dipped it into the steaming soup, hoping to finish it and get out of here as quickly as possible.
She raised it to her lips and tipped the spoonful of soup into her mouth. It was hot, but not scalding, and flavours burst against her tongue, delighted in the taste of something new. She dipped her spoon in again, and brought it to her mouth before swallowing it down quickly, letting the liquid settle in her stomach before diving in for more.
She should be more careful, wait longer to see if the soup was actually going to settle, but it was the first real food she’d enjoyed since… since everything had happened.
She couldn’t bring herself to wait longer between each spoonful. How much joy did she have left in this life?
A bread roll on a small white plate was placed on to the too big wooden table and then slid across to her. She looked up as the waitress walked away.
Chapter Four
Danny
Danny stood with a stretch.
His back cracked in a series of quick pops and groans and he rolled his shoulders in response. Night-time was drawing in, and he was tired, the sun had long since dipped from view and had been replaced with its reputable counterpart.
Danny had a new video game waiting for him at home, and he had to meet some friends later on, but as usual, Aiden, the owner was late. He should have been here over forty-five minutes ago.
Aiden had no respect for anyone, least of all Danny. They had gone to high school together, but where Danny had dropped out of college and bummed about for a couple of years partying and having fun, Aiden had gone on to study hard and get himself some nice letters after his name. Didn’t make a blind bit of difference though when it came to finding a job. Skills or no skills, there were no jobs out there for anyone right now, and Aiden was resentful of Danny and the freedom that he’d been able to have while he’d had to study hard, because now both of them were in the same place, and going in much the same direction.
Somehow Aiden had scraped the cash together to buy this place. But from what Danny could see it was a sinkhole, and with each passing month the burden of debt was building. Aiden wasn’t a people person; he hated most people in fact. And certainly didn’t like the normal scum that stopped at places like this, believing that he were above them all.
So somehow Danny had landed the job of working for Aiden for minimum wage, and Aiden stayed away as much as possible. When he was here he made sure to make Danny as miserable as possible. Danny was almost certain that locked in the stock room was a forty-inch wide screen tv that got pulled out after he went home. That was just the sort of dick move that Aiden would pull.
Danny trailed around the counter and slipped his carefully folded up newspaper back into the stand so that no one knew it had been read. The headline on the front caught his eye and he reached over to pick it back up.
