Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story except for Desmond and her family. I just enjoy making them react to my OC in a creative sense. :)
Heat. The cheap ceramic mugs that the diner serves coffee in heat up way to quickly. I know this because a mug lay broken on the floor from where I went to grab one.
"Goddamnit." I muttered looking for a rag to mop up the spilled coffee with.
"Dez, is that another mug?" Anita asked hand on her hip. I attempted a a light hearted smile while reluctantly glancing up.
"It's coming out of your pay" was all she said before whipping her red hair behind her and disappearing into the office.
"Oh god however will I live without that $1.20." I whispered while standing up to go find the broom. I dusted myself off looked around the diner. There wasn't that many people in at 3 in the afternoon, older people mostly. One person who I noticed exclusively was missing was my father. He always came in on Fridays to get a coffee and sandwich and I would usually catch a ride home with him. I shook my head and continued on my mission to find a broom. I walked behind the counter to where we kept the cleaning supplies. I grasped the old wooden handle and swept up the broken ceramic pieces. I heard the bell above the door tinkle and I snapped to attention. It wasn't my father, but my boyfriend. I smiled and leaned the broom on the counter walking over to him.
"Hey Josh, you seen dad around anywhere?" I said greeting him with a quick peck to the lips.
"No I thought he would be here. Isn't he usually?" he replied.
"Yeah, huh strange. Anyway so what are we doing tonight?" I asked while taking off the apron that was wrapped around my waist.
"Thats why I came. I hate to break this to you babe but I have to work tonight, it was a last minute thing. I'm sorry but we're gonna have to postpone." Josh said scratching the back of his head awkwardly. I took a step back rather put off.
"Well if you really have to go." I said looking down at the ground.
"I'll make it up to you I promise." he said kissing the top of my head and walking out of the diner. I sighed and sat in a booth. I didn't really know what to do with my night. My dad still hadn't shown up and now Josh was working late. I felt a flare of anger lick up my spine. It was a crashing noise that caught me off guard. My green eyes snapped up to see another mug fall from the top of the cabinet
"Desmond, what on earth is going on out here?!" Anita said charging into my area of the diner.
"Look you're a nice girl but if you keep breaking things i'm going to have to let you go. I can't afford to keep replacing dishes every goddamn week!" By now the customers were all looking our way. At this point I stood up rather frustrated.
"I didn't do that Anita! In case you didn't notice I was sitting all the way over here!" I exclaimed exasperated.
"It's true Nita' Dez was sitting over here after Josh left and boom the cup just fell." said an older gentlemen I had served coffee to earlier. Anita huffed obviously put out that she had been proven wrong.
"Whatever, clean up the mess and go home. I want you here bright and early tomorrow to call a repairman to fix that shelf. Obviously it must be leaning forward." she said walking off. I sighed and set back to cleaning up.
I got home in relatively good time considering I had to walk. I had tried calling my dad on three separate occasions only to be sent to voicemail every time. I walked up the stairs to my apartment, fishing my keys out of my purse. I unlocked the door and went inside dropping my purse by the end table that I had by the door.
"Hey dad, you here?" I called hoping maybe he was waiting for me here... Still nothing.
"I'll have to call him later." I muttered to nobody in particular. I stood in the middle of my apartment glancing in between the living room and the kitchen. Josh never liked to eat right when he worked late so I might as well make him some supper and leave it in the fridge in his house. I hauled my strawberry blonde hair into a half ponytail. I had a modern hairstyle that was shaved on the left side by my ear with the remaining hair swept over to the right side. I whisked around my kitchen getting the ingredients ready for macaroni and cheese. I wrapped my checker apron around my waist and set to work. It was something simple, yet I knew it would fill Josh up quickly after work. The block of cheese was heavy in my hand so I decided to cut the block in half and make it easier. Wiping my hands on my apron I turned to grab the knife on the other side of my kitchen, only to find it was sitting beside me. I hesitated, I couldn't recall putting it there, but shrugging it off, I set back to work. As the mac and cheese was baking in the oven I grabbed my phone off of the charger and dialed my dads number. There was a heavy feeling in my chest as my fingers punched in the numbers, the dial tone rang loudly in my ear.
"Hello, you've reached George Albright. I'm not here at the moment leave your number and i'll get back to you later." announced his voicemail. Sighing I set the phone down an glanced at my oven.
"Goddamnit." I muttered taking my hair down and shaking it out. I untied the apron just in time for the timer to go off on my oven. Quickly walking over I hit the button to turn off the oven, I opened the door and slipped on the oven mitts. I set the hot pan on the metal coils on my stove top. I turned to where I had dropped my apron on the floor, only to see it folded neatly on my dining room table.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" I called out, expecting to hear either Josh or my Dad giggling from around a corner, but there was nothing. I took a shaky breath and set about looking for a container to put some of the ma and cheese into.
I exited my beat up old toyota walking up the steps to Josh's house. I slipped the key out of my pocket and unlocked the door. The lights were all out and the house was quiet. I let a small smile spread across my face. I hadn't done anything to surprise him in awhile and in my mind it's the little things that count. I entered the kitchen flicking a light on as I entered. I was opening the fridge when I heard the front door open. My eyes immediately flicked to the time on the stove. It was only 9:30, Josh wasn't due to be home for another 5 hours at least. I heard two voices taking and laughing, one was Josh, and the other was a woman. Suddenly it was slightly difficult to breathe. I set the container down and stood up straight, crossing my arms. Josh entered the kitchen with his arm wrapped around another girls waist, a smile on both of their faces. The girl lost her smile first.
"Who the hell are you?" She asked defensively. At this point Josh looked up to me a truly "Oh Shit" expression if I have ever seen one.
"Dezzy what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Well you said you were working late so I thought I would bring you some supper. I can see now you didn't mean working in the Quarry." I said. I could now feel myself becoming angry. Rage was slowly climbing my spine, I could feel like white hot under my skin.
"Oh and to answer your question sweety, I was his girlfriend. Don't worry about me now though i'll just see myself out." I said charging past the pair, breaking them apart as I pushed through them. From behind me I heard glass smash on the floor. "What the fuck was that?" I could hear Josh saying. Before I could reach the door, it flung open and as I walked through it slammed behind me. I turned, angry tears in my eyes. What the fuck was going on? I sped the whole way home, my fingers curling on the steering wheel gripping it as tight as I could. I braked harder than I should have when I finally got home, sending the car along with me lurching forward. I smacked my head lightly off the wheel cursing under my breath. I ran into my apartment before I could damage myself further. As I got inside I noticed something strange, the angrier I was getting the more the stuff in my apartment began to move.
"What the fuck is going on?" I whispered as tears streamed down my face. I was looking around for the source of the movement but there was nothing.
"STOP!" I screamed, all of the nights emotions coming to surface in one word. Everything stilled for a moment, and than as if a strong gust of wind surrounded me, everything was blown backwards, many things getting broken in the process. I stared at the mess surrounding me and fell to the ground blacking out.
Two Weeks Later
The diner was dead, no one was coming or going which was giving me plenty of time to look over the insurance papers for whatever the hell had happened two weeks ago. Almost everything in the apartment was broken and the only thing I could think of, was an earthquake. However, since I was the only one who felt anything or was affected it was making it very difficult to prove my case. I sighed running a hand through my hair when I looked up. Josh had just walked into the diner yet another bouquet of flowers in his hands.
"No." I said turning my back to change a filter on a coffee machine.
"Desmond please, just hear me out." He started while setting the flowers on the counter. I spun around a dangerous look in my eyes.
"Josh how many times do I have to say it. No, never again." I replied looking dead into his eyes. I heard a soft thud as the flowers rolled off of the counter and onto the floor. A cough from behind Josh pulled us out of our argument. There were two men standing there, one was super tall with longish hair, where as the other one, although still tall himself, was a little shorter. The tall one had blueish brownish eyes and the shorter one had freckles with bright green eyes.
"Oh i'm so sorry i'll be right with you." I said grabbing some menus off of the counter.
"Oh don't worry about it we all deal with difficult customers on occasion am I right?" The shorter one asked. Josh glared at him as I passed by.
"Booth or table?" I asked looking at the men.
"Booth is fine" the taller one said passing me a small smile. I gestured to the closest booth in my section. They sat across from each other and I handed them both a menu. The diner door slammed and I saw Josh retreating to his car in the parking lot. The green eyed one looked up.
"Well he was a peach wasn't he?" he asked flashing me a smile.
"Exes are never a peach." I said returning the smile.
"Can I start you off with anything? Coffee, a piece of pie maybe?" I asked taking out my notepad, the short ones eyes lit up.
"There's pie?" he asked.
"Well we are a diner." I quipped. The tall one snickered at this.
"I'll give you boys a minute and than come back." I said giving a small smile to the pair. I walked around the counter and set my notepad down, pouring two glasses of water. The phone started ringing behind me, I jumped to grab it.
"Big Nellie's Diner, How can I help you?" I answered.
"Hello, is there a Desmond Albright there?" A voice asked. My heart started hammering, my father had been missing for two weeks and this could be news.
"T-this is her." I stammered.
"This is Officer Bridges, badge number 24601. Your fathers car was found in Pennsylvania. We don't believe it was foul play as there was no blood found in the car." the officer said. "the investigation is of course on going" I could feel tears in my eyes. I took a shaky breath.
"Thank you officer. Uh, if anything else comes up please let me know." I replied.
"Of course . We'll be in touch." he replied than I heard a faint click of the phone being hung up. I shed a few silent tears before composing myself and walking back to the boys sitting at the table. They were both staring at me as I walked over.
"Sorry about that, what can I get you boys?" I asked reaching for my notepad, only to find I had left it on the counter.
"Oh shit sorry, just give me a second." I said turning to grab my notepad, only to find that it had been sitting by my foot. I bent over and picked it up.
"So which one of you boys wants to go first?"I asked.
"Sammy you go first I just want pie." The shorter one said. Sam gave me a weak smile.
"Sorry about Dean he's always this way with pie." Sam offered. I attempted to return the smile.
"It's ok, he's not the only customer that's like that." I replied.
"I'll just have a cup of coffee and an omlette." Sam said. I looked at his brother Dean who was staring at my notepad.
"and what type of pie would you like? We have apple, coconut cream, and lemon merengue." I listed.
"Coconut, and a cup of coffee as well please." Dean said still staring at my notepad.
"Ok..." I said slowly. As I walked away I heard Sam hit his brother as there was a muffled groan of pain. I was trying to busy myself by focussing on the boys orders but my thoughts kept going to my father. How did he get all the way from here to Pennsylvania? Before my thoughts could get to far away from me Anita walked out of her office.
"Desmond can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked gesturing me into the office. I looked back to where the boys were sitting than to Anita.
"Can I finish doing up this order?" I asked looking at the coffee pot that was sitting heavily in my hand.
"This will only take a moment." was all she said before turning around and going back inside. I sighed and put the coffee back in it's place. My sneakers squeaked on the tile as I made my way into the office.
"Yeah? What is it?" I asked placing a hand on my hip.
"I know you've had a lot on your mind since your father went missing. Than of course there is everything that happened with Josh.." She began but I cut her off before she could finish.
"All of which are personal problems that I can assure you I don't bring to work." I said raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms.
"Which I am thankful for. But, Desmond you need to take some time, you don't lash out at the customers but you're distant and some of the regulars are noticing. I'm doing this out of concern." Anita said placing a hand in front of her on the desk.
"Doing what out of concern?" I asked.
"I'm giving you two weeks off. No exceptions, just take some time fix up your apartment. Find yourself again." Anita said trying to sound as nice as she could. "As far as I'm aware I never lost myself." I said getting rather worked up.
"This is what I mean. You get very emotional over the smallest things now, your time off begins after your shift. And should you feel you need more time just let me know. Your job is always here when you come back." Anita explained. By now I was pissed I wanted to yell and scream and tell her that I never wanted my job back, but instead I took a breath, nodded angrily and left the room. I almost fell over when I saw what greeted me. The coffee pot I thought I had put back in it's spot was floating, just floating in the air. My eyes immediately flicked to the boys sitting at the table they were deep in conversation with each other and thankfully not noticing what was going on. I lunged forward to grab the pot, which I succeeded in but it sent me spiraling to the ground causing me to land on the coffee pot, hot coffee and broken glass covering my arms.
"Ouch! Fuck!" I yelled immediately jumping back up. There were a few laceration on my arms and burns from the hot liquid. Anita was immediately behind the counter looking at the floor where the debris lie as well as my arms which looked about as bad as they fell. The boys were also out of their seats standing in front of the counter.
"What happened?" Anita asked.
"I'm to clumsy for my own good. I grabbed the coffee and of course spilled it, which made me slip. Maybe you were right about the time off." I supplied hoping that the boys hadn't been watching whatever the hell had just happened.
"Those cuts look pretty nasty, maybe I can help." Sam said reaching gently towards me. Anita looked at him with a weird glance.
"You know we do have doctors in town for things like that." Anita said.
"Yeah well these are bleeding pretty bad and they hurt like a bitch so can we do something soon please?!" I said my arms burning like nothing i've ever felt. "Alright we're out of burn cream I'll have to run to the drugstore, but I hate the idea of leaving you here by yourself." Anita said.
"She wouldn't be by herself. What are we chopped liver?" Dean said looking defensive.
"Look N i'll be fine just please hurry." I said staring at my injured arms. "and yes I would be very happy to accept your help." Sam nodded and came around the counter to help, his friend close behind.
"This will sting i'm not going to lie." Sam said as he began to remove the glass from my arms. I winced as he began.
"Look after this is all said and done i'll get you boys your order. Don't worry it will be on the house." I said attempting to smile.
"I was never one to turn down free pie. But look we got to talk, me and my brother saw what actually happened." Dean said. I took a shaky breath and tried to study his green eyes.
"Yeah I fell on top of the coffee pot." I said wincing as Sam pulled yet another shard from my forearm.
"Yeah a coffee pot that was floating in mid-air." Dean said staring right at me.