Page 30 of Forgotten Pieces

“You okay?”

“You scared the shit out of me,” I say as I clutch my fist to my chest. “You could have given me a warning.”

“By doing what? Saying ‘Hello’? I think you still would have jumped.” Ryder takes a seat next to me on the hood of my car. Uninvited.

“Whatever,” I respond oh so maturely. “And I didn’t say you can sit here.”

He laughs at that. “What are you doing sitting here?”

I take a hit off the joint and release the smoke before answering. “Waiting for my manager to get back from the bar so he can lock up and I can go home.”

“What’s he doing at the bar?”

I turn and look at Ryder. “What do you think? Selling bonbons?” I snort at that. “He’s drinking like he usually does. I honestly don’t know how he still has his job.”

“He just leaves you here while he goes to drink?”

“Pretty much.”

Ryder leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. “That’s fucked up.”

“I know.”

“How often does it happen?” he asks me, turning his head back to me.

I shrug. “Almost every night.”

“Why can’t you just leave?”

I nod my head to the back door. “Doesn’t lock without a key. And if I left without waiting for him to lockup, I would be fired.”

“That’s bullshit. You need me to go drag his ass back here?”

I shake my head as I flick the joint away from me. “Nah, it’s fine. He should be back soon. I usually have someone else here with me, but Laney was sick and couldn’t get anyone to cover for her.”

“You shouldn’t have to work like this.”

“Let’s just call it a life lesson,” I say quietly.

Neither of us say anything for a while. And I think he is going to leave, but then he talks. “So you sure you don’t wanna talk about whatever was going on earlier?”

“Still sure.”

His face explodes into a full-blown smile and a tingly feeling shoots through my body. “So something was bugging you earlier?”

Dammit. I guess I fell for that one. “Yeah but what did that customer say? Get over my adolescent attitude or something? That’s all it was.”

“Who cares if it’s an adolescent problem. It’s still bothering you.”

I shrug my shoulders again and look away from him.

I feel his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, I just thought you might want someone to talk to.”

I feel the weed starting to kick in and probably because I’m high and slightly depressed, I answer him. “It’s really nothin’. Was just thinking about how I want to get out of this town.”

“I can understand that.”

“Are you from here?” I ask since I never knew him before that first time he walked into the ice cream shop.

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