Page 7 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Blue?”
I jumped at the voice, thinking back to the Grimguard and his dumb nickname for me on battlements.
But it wasn’t a Grimguard standing in the doorway of the shop. It was a young man, roughly my age, holding a ceramic chicken in his hand.
“Can I help you?”
His smile was crooked and boyish and stupid under his messy blond hair. My eyes narrowed at his hoodie with “Von Leer University” plastered over the university’s coat of arms on his chest.
“I’m looking for Ethel. Is she downstairs?” He set the chicken back on the shelf.
“Basement is for employees only.” I was being difficult on purpose, if only to punish him for his offensive attire. “She might be up in a bit, or I can give her a message for you.”
“That’s okay.” He pulled his hoodie off as he crossed to the ice-cream station. “I’ll let her paint in peace. She’ll see me when she comes up.”
He went to stand behind the ice-cream station, and my warning of “employees only” died on my lips when he pulled on an apron with an embroidered name tag.
I didn’t even have an apron with my name embroidered on it.
The pregnant couple brought a couple of hoodies and a small collection of chickens up to the counter. I tried to smile as I wrapped them in tissue paper, but the young man, my apparentcoworker, grinned at me with an impish smile from behind the couple.
Neither Gams nor Mom had warned me about a coworker.
The young couple left, leaving me alone with the boy.
“I take it Ethel didn’t tell you I was starting today?”
“That’s Miss Warrender to you.” I pressed my lips together, suddenly a bit more sympathetic to Jonquil’s plight of having me invade her living space. “And if it’s your first day, how’d you get that apron?”
“She hasn’t been Miss Warrender to me in years.” The boy laughed. He was laughing atme.He was mockingme.“And this apron is old. I’ve worked for Ethel the last three summers.”
“Fan of Von Leer?” My eyes darted to his hoodie hanging on the wall hook behind him.
“Student. Just wrapped up freshman year. Go Vikings.”
Of course he was a student. It was a good school. It attracted all kinds of kids, but why did it seem the only ones to get in were the people I actively disliked? The geophysicist father I’d never met, Linsey Harper, and now this guy…
Not that Linsey Harper would be going there in the fall, and I didn’t really have any grounds to hate my surprise coworker other than the fact that it was easier to dislike new people and rob them of the chance of disliking me first.
“You’ll mess up your make-up if you do that.” Gams came out of the basement, drying freshly washed hands on her apron. My hand snapped away from my face where my fingers had been inching towards my eyelashes.
“I wasn’t touching them.” It was a lie. I knew it. She knew it. She nodded approvingly anyways.
“And you!” The grin that broke across her face deepened the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth yet somehow made her look younger. “Returned after all these months! Are you smarter yet? And when’s that lazy cousin of yours getting in?”
“Don’t worry, Riley’s on his way. I know he’s your favorite.” The young man with the stupid smile stepped out from behind his ice-cream barricade to hug Gams, and my dislike for him grew. I wasn’t just an only child, but an only grandchild too. I didn’t like suddenly having to share my grandmother.
Even Jonquil seemed to like him, trotting after Gams with her fluffy tail held high.
“I take it you’ve introduced yourself to Wren already.” Gams released him, and he turned that infuriating, quirked smile back to me.
“Sort of.” He dipped his head. “It’s Liam.”
“Teddy’s nephew.” Gams patted Liam’s shoulder, which was eye-level for her. “Why scoop bagels when you can scoop ice-cream?”
“You shouldn’t be scooping bagels at all.” I scoffed. “If you’re going to spoon all the bread out of a bagel to make room for more cream cheese, just eat cream cheese.”
“Exactly.” Liam nodded, and I fumed inwardly. I pretended to recount the cash in the register while Liam recounted his freshman year to an enraptured Gams. As much as I loved my grandmother, I was secretly relieved when she disappeared back to her basement.
