CHAPTER 5

It had been an hour since Richard scared Karin and me and he still was buzzing around the café. Karin had left about forty-five minutes ago a long with all the employees and even the boss who trusted me enough to clean up and lock the café. I was working over time so I could buy some food for Karin tomorrow so she doesn't starve. Richard was now tapering with the microphone. He was tapping it and saying "Testing, testing, 1…2…3."

I walked back behind the stage and unplugged the microphone.

"Hey!" Richard shrieked as he saw me came back from behind the stage.

"Grayson, the café is closing, and I need to clean it up. Stop being a child!" I yelled, wiping of the tables with a damp cloth. "Why don't you go home? It's 7:30!"

"Nice try, but I'm not leaving. I live by myself in an apartment." He explained. "So there's no parent to worry about me."

"Did they make you move out because you were so annoying?" I asked in a rhetorical way.

"No…" Richard lay down on his back with his arms behind his head. "I wanted to be by myself and since my father…well step father, Bruce Wayne, is a millionaire, I have enough money to support myself.

I went into the kitchen to empty the dishes from the dish rack into the dishwasher. And to my surprise, Richard didn't follow me. He was still laying on the stage. I started putting the dishes in the dishwashers (We had two to keep up with all the dirty dishes.).

"Crap!" I screamed as a plate slipped out of my hands and shattered on the floor.

"What? Are you okay?" Came Grayson's voice from the other room. He ran in to see me kneeled down picking up pieces of the plate. "Let me help you." He offered bending down picking up shards of the plate.

"Ouch." I groaned as I pulled my hand away from where I laid it. There was a sliver of the glass stuck in it.

Richard looked up as soon as I uttered the pain filled word and came over to where I was kneeled. He took my hand and I pulled it away from him.

"Don't touch it!" I demanded.

"I won't, just let me see how bad it is." He said with his hand open. When I didn't give him my hand, he gently grabbed my hand. I started to pull it back but he took his other hand and held my wrist so I couldn't escape his grip.

"Grayson…" I began, my voice thick with warning.

"Relax, Roth. I'm only trying to help." He examined my finger and then looked at me. "I can take it out. That is only if you let me."

"Fine. Just get it over with." I sighed in defeat.

Richard fairly touched my hand. It kind of tickled so I made the mistake of slightly laughing.

"Did that tickle?" He asked doing the same thing again. He was grinning ear to ear.

I laughed a little harder and then abruptly stopped realizing I was laughing at Grayson, the annoying guy. I blushed, but looked away so he couldn't tell. He went back to my finger.

"This might hurt just a little…but…" he trailed off as he yanked the sliver of glass out of my hand.

I cringed and pulled my hand back. I looked at my hand. There was a little blood but the splinter was out!

"Th-thanks." I stammered getting up to get the broom. He stood up and started to put he rest of the dishes in the dishwasher.

"You're welcome. Anytime."

We did the chores quietly for a few minutes. I swept up the remaining shards of the plate, and he put the dishes in the dishwashers.

"So do you like working here?" Richard asked once again trying to break the ice.

"I just started today. But other than the fact that there was this guy who wouldn't leave me alone, it was fine." I replied throwing the last of the plate away and putting the broom back.

"Well, if this guy wasn't here bugging you the whole time, then maybe you might be dying from a fatal glass wound wishing he were still there to save you." He had his cocky grin on his face has he finished up with the dishes.

"I doubt I would be dying, but I would be pretty lonely…" I stopped. 'What the hell did I just say? Oh shit! That just slipped out…'

"Rachelle Roth, you're blushing." Richard teased walking closer to me.

That only made me blush harder. ' Now what?' I started to panic.

"Rachelle Roth would be lonely with out the annoyance of Richard Grayson?" He kept teasing.

"I got to go!" I rushed into the back room and threw my apron on the hook and grabbed my backpack. I ran for the door leading out into the night. Richard followed. I shut the door and locked it. I started walking fast down the street.

"Wait! Let me walk you home!" He cried running to catch up with me. I didn't stop. He walked beside me, a couple of times looking down at me.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Fine, except I just totally humiliated myself." I responded walking faster.

"It was only me." He matched my pace.

"And I only met you today…" I said walking just a tad faster.

He still caught up to me.

"But you like me." He smirked looking down at me.

"What? No!" I yelled.

"But you said that you'd miss me if I wasn't with you…" He said slipping in front of me to slow me down. I stopped and went around him.

"I was just blabbing. I didn't mean it." I protested.

"Prove it." Richard dared, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards him.

"I don't need to prove anything." I said looking at his eyes.

"Then you admit, you like me." He let go and started walking a head. I run to catch up.

"I didn't admit anything." I turned to walk up the steps to the hotel.

"You live here?" Richard looked at the building.

"It's all I can afford." I explained.

He opened the double doors for me. I stepped inside.

"Good night, Rachelle." He called from the doorway. I turned and waved. Richard grinned and walked back down the steps.

I pressed the up button to the elevator. I waited until the elevator blinked and opened its doors. I rode it to my floor and got off. I was thinking about the events of the night in the elevator. 'I don't like him…' I opened my door and stepped inside, turning on the light. I set my backpack down and my keys on the table. I set the teakettle on the stove and turned to the refrigerator to grab a snack. I sat at the table and ate my apple and cheese. Then I changed into my pajamas and prepared my tea. ' He is soooo annoying! He pushed me into a lake, he scared the shit out of me, he followed me everywhere, and… he took out the sliver of glass, he has the perfect grin, he is handsome, he said good night to me, and he makes me laugh…No, no, no! This is wrong! I just met him and he's Richard! I am an angel…a-a half Dark Angel! What do I do?' I was gulping down my tea. I wasn't sipping it like you should to calm yourself down. I practically chugged the last half of my tea and put the mug in the sink. I got ready for bed and set my alarm clock.

That night, I fell asleep fretting that I was actually attracted to Grayson.

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and turned off the alarm clock. I started off my morning ritual by turning on the hot water for my daily herbal tea. An hour later I had showered, packed, had breakfast, and dressed in my uniform and was ready for school. I locked the door behind me and headed out for school.

I made it to the school grounds within thirty-five minutes. My head was down and I clung to my books as I walked through the doors, entering the school halls of mass chaos. Somewhere in the crowd, Karin found me.

"Morning, Rachelle." She said a little more cheerful than usual.

"Why are you so peachy?" I asked opening my locker.

"I felt like today was going to be a good day." She explained leaning against the locker next to mine.

I dumped all my school stuff into the locker. I shut the locker looking at Karin.

"Feelings can be deceiving." I warned walking through the crowd towards first class.

"Well look who's not peachy this morning." Karin snickered.

I held the door open for her and we walked to our assigned desks. I placed my books next to where Shelly was sitting and flirting with some helpless soul. Then I walked back to where Karin was seated.

"What'd you do after you got off work?" I asked her.

"I went back home and made my dad dinner." She said in a 'fatter-of-fact' tone.

"Karin. Did you have dinner?" I questioned looking worried.

"Well, n-no…" She looked away.

"Are you hungry now?"

She only looked at me with sorrow filled eyes.

"Let's get ready to start." Announced Mr. Michael. He placed his brief case on his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. "We are having a pop quiz today on what we observed yesterday. You may work with your partner."

I looked at Shelly who was examining her fingernails. I sighed realizing she was not going to be any source of help. The teacher passed out the quizzes to each pair.

"You will sharing a paper with your partner." He explained as he handed the last paper out. "And I need to go to the office real quick, so I'm leaving you guys alone. Can you handle it?" He asked. The class responded with a 'Yes'.

"Are you going to help me?" I asked Shelly who had moved on to looking at her hair to make sure there were no split ends.

"I don't want to." She whined.

"That's only because you don't know anything on here." I pointed to the piece of paper.

"Well why should I know anything on there. I paid no attention yesterday." Shelly had this spoiled brat tone.

"You paid no attention because you were to busy being a bitch and getting guys to worship you." I was getting really pissed really fast.

"Why don't you just crawl back to where you came from and make someone else's day a hellhole?" She cracked back.

I ignored her response and read the first question out loud.

"What was one new species that you learned about?"

"It was slimy, mean, and was named Rachelle R." Shelly laughed. "And not to mention it had bad taste in friends. It hangs out with an anorexic."

That was it. I couldn't take her trash talking my friends and me. I kicked the leg of her stool causing her to fall backwards onto the ground. The class shot their heads over at us.

"You little hoe!" Shelly screamed kicking my stool's leg. I fell to the cold tile floor with a thump. Some kids got out of their seats to get a better look at the fight.

"Oops…my foot slipped." Shelly mocked.

I growled and stood up. I looked at her and snorted.

"Pathetic…" I mumbled under my breath.

Shelly got up.

"What's the matter? Afraid that I might hurt your sorry ass?"

"I'm not sorry." I gave a slight evil grin as I looked at Richard. He was smiling at me. Shelly turned to the person I was looking at. Richard looked back at her and grinned his cocky grin. A few kids constrained their laughs. That's when Shelly noticed the inkbottle that was opened on Richards's desk. She slowly turned around and cried out when she realized when I had pushed her down, she had fallen into Richards ink puddle. Her face became the definition of horror has she ran out of the classroom. As she ran you could see the huge ink blob on her skirt.

"That look was so priceless!" Richard howled in laughter.

I grinned ever so slightly and picked up my stool. Richard lifted the other stool off the ground and smiled.

"Thanks." I bluntly stated with no emotion in my voice.

"I heard you guys bickering so when I saw you lift your foot I spilled the ink down right before she hit the ground! It was awesome!" He still looked cocky.

"Since when did people still use ink from a bottle?" I asked.

"There is such a thing called ink art. Bruce makes me take it because he says it's an elegant art." Richard explained. I stepped off the stool and went over to the sink. I grabbed a few paper towels and brought it back to the ink buddle. It was mostly gone because Shelly had sponged it up so I just had to add some water and clean it up.

I sat back down in my seat and looked at the paper.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Richard asked scooting into Shelly's old stool.

"What about your partner?" I didn't even lift my head up.

"He'll be fine, considering he's not at school right now." He beamed.

I looked over at Richard's desk and sure enough there was no one there.

"Fine, if you don't bug me." I said pushing the paper in between us.

"Promise." Grayson took the paper and started to fill out the first question.

Thankfully, the class had gathered itself together by the time Mr. Michael reentered the room.

"Sorry, I was stuck helping fix the microwave." The teacher defended himself.

By that time, we had finished our test. At least Richard and I did. We were just sitting there. He pulled out a piece of binder paper. He scribbled something on it and slid it over to me. It read…

So, you know how you admitted that you'd be lonely without me?

As soon as I read his sentence I glared at him.

I didn't admit anything, Grayson!

I slid it back to him. A few seconds later…

Yes you did, but anyway…I didn't want you to be lonely on the 27th…are you available?

I took one look at the paper and just about died. 'Is he asking me out?'

Why? What's so special about the 27th?

He replied…

You're kidding right? It's the prom…