A/N: This is my first time trying my hand at a canon character x OC romance, so please be gentle with me. Also be aware that only this chapter is going to be in third person narrative. The rest will be in first person.
Enjoy! :)
Anyone who works for a restaurant, café, pizzeria, or any other food service industry will tell you that Saturday nights are absolutely hellish. People bustle in and out all night long, staying as long as they like and being as loud as they desire, leaving the workers scrambling to seat and serve everyone before anyone gets the chance to open their mouths and complain about the slow service. It's crowded, loud, and busy as all hell. Even a café in the bad part of town is besieged by patrons. It's the absolute last place on earth a teen wants to be at on what should be a fun weekend.
The tired brunette behind the counter rushes to hand yet another impatient customer their chicken salad sandwich and Diet Coke, ignoring the scowl on the woman's face from having to wait in line so long. It seems no matter what she and her coworkers do, it's never enough for the ungrateful people they wait on. Oh well, thus is the food service industry. She's not about to complain. Keeping this job is too important to her.
"You have a nice night, ma'am," she recites instinctively with a tight, forced smile as she takes the customer's $20 bill. The small, dark-haired woman gives a small grunt that the teenage worker guesses is supposed to be a 'thank you'. Eh, that's better than what she usually gets. At least this customer isn't throwing the diet soda back in her face. Yesterday's shift certainly was an eventful one. On the bright side, now she knows how to get soft drinks out of her clothes.
"Dee!" a gruff voice calls from the back. The teenager turns her head away from her angry customers, watching gratefully as one of her coworkers approaches in uniform, gesturing for her to step away from the counter.
"End of your shift, sweetheart," he says with a small smile. "Go home and get some shut eye. You look like hell." She smiles back, stepping back from the counter with a sigh of tired relief.
How long has it been since I slept? Dee thinks, running a hand through her long brown hair. She shakes the thought off as she heads to the back, taking off her apron in exchange for the ratty old coat that hangs next to the back door and a bag that rests near it. However much sleep she's been lacking, she can make up for it soon. Sundays are Dee's days off, and she plans to sleep the day away. She deserves it.
"See ya, Ronnie," she calls out to one of the more friendly cooks as she shrugs on her coat. The red-headed man waves back to her with a spatula still in hand.
"Have a nice night, Dee. Stay safe out there!"
She rolls her eyes with a playful grin on her face as she walks out the door.
"Don't I always?" she calls back right before she leaves, earning a laugh from her friend. She shuts the door behind her and steps out into the bitterly cold streets of Gotham armed with only a thin, hand-me-down coat to protect her from the winter chill. But she doesn't mind much. The cold is a welcome relief from the overly heated atmosphere of the café she works at. Besides, she values that small portion of time when walking home from work. It's one of the only times she sees her neighborhood seem mildly… peaceful. Quiet, even. Of course, she could walk a few blocks over and see a few hookers no older than her picking up johns, but that's just life around here. At least she gets those few moments of peace.
Spurned on by the sound of an argument going down in the alley near her, Dee clutches her bag tighter against her body and scampers home, blissfully unaware that her actions have set a series of events in motion.
Dee's carefully structured life is about to get a whole lot messier.