Chapter 1
“Terri! Get the fries! Can’t you hear that?”, Steve was screaming again. Steve Baker was the fat slob, douche bag, of a manager, of the Burger Barn she’d been working at for the last three months. This was her first job since graduating earlier in June, and Steve was the most disgusting, annoying slime bag she’d ever met. He was always yelling and bossing her around. She supposed part of the reason was that she had never given him the time of day back in high school. He had been two years ahead of her and thought he might have had a chance when she started high school as a freshman. Fat chance!
“Terri! The fries!”
“Okay, that’ll be $14.22”, she was taking an order or she would have screamed back and told him to get them himself. “Here you go. Your order number is 234. It’ll be right up.” She said as she handed the cups over and went back to pull up the fries.
“Damn it Terri – “
“I’m on it Steve. I was taking an order. Why couldn’t you get them?”
“Because I’m the manager Terri. You’re the worker. I manage. You work. Get it?”
“Whatever.” She didn’t know how much more of his crap she was going to be able to take. What a fucking loser. Back in the day he was a Friday night, football star. Now all that muscle had turned to fat, from eating too much Burger Barn.
“And you can check that attitude. You have your 3month review coming up. If you’d like to get a raise, you’d better straighten up. Try to keep it in mind that I’m the one who gets to decide.”
Oh, my god! What a fucking piece of shit! She thought. He was always reminding her that her future depended on his opinion of her. Like she was planning on working for fucking Burger Barn for the rest of her life. Right! If she didn’t really need the money she wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Six months ago, she was the captain of the Rolling Hills high school cheerleading squad. She was looking forward to going off to college at Penn State shortly after graduation. It was all planned out. Then her dad had a sudden, massive heart attack at work and died 3 days later when they pulled the plug on his life support. He was just 46 and seemed to be in perfect shape for his age.
Turned out, there hadn’t been any life insurance policy. It was something they had just never gotten around to, her mother had said. They’d never been rich, but they did better than most in their neighborhood. She’d had a new, cute little Toyota that was the envy of all her little cheerleader friends. Her dad had even gotten her vanity plates that said MSTERRI. The bank had taken that back last month. She cried for 2 days after that one.
Now going off to Penn State looked like a dream that was never going to come true. Her boyfriend Austin had told her the night before that he had been accepted at MIT and that he thought it would be best if they agreed to date other people at least while he was away at school. Like there would be anyone left in this shitty little town that I would be interested in, she thought. Now to top it all off, she had to take crap from this slimy urchin Steve just to help her mom make the rent on the shitty little apartment they’d had to move into the month before.
“When you get a chance there’s a customer waiting at the register who would probably like to order today.” Steve said as he headed back to his little office where he probably spent most of his time diddling his little pecker.
She looked over and saw a lady that looked as out of place as Terri felt. The lady was dressed to the T and built like a model. Her hair was glorious and her makeup was impeccable.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
“It’s okay, honey. I could see you were busy. No worries.”
“What would you like today?”
“I’d like to give that manager of yours a piece of my mind, but I’ll settle for a Chicken salad to go instead. He shouldn’t be talking to you that way in front of the customers. It’s very unprofessional.”
“Unprofessional is his middle name”, she whispered.
“I can see that. Why’s a pretty little thing, like you, putting up with that kind of crap?”
’Oh. I… uh… well, just trying to make the bills, is all. Thank you though.”
“Bills? How old are you honey? You look like you’re still in high school.”
“Eighteen. I just graduated earlier this year.”
“And you already have bills to worry about? You should be heading off to college somewhere and costing your parents a fortune.”
“Yeah, well that’s a long, sad story.”
“Terri! Move it along! There are tables in the dining room that need cleaning!”
“Let me grab your salad, before he totally loses it. Oh. What kind of dressing would you like?”, She asked as she turned toward the fridge behind the counter.
“Ranch please.”
She grabbed the previous customer’s order as she came back.
“234. Here you go. Sorry about the wait. And here’s your salad ma’am.”
“Thank you honey. You hang in there. Hope that long story has a happy ending for you.”
“Me too. Thank you and come again.”
