CHAPTER 2 – DANCING WITH THE DEMONS
Georgia's P.O.V
Work was busy, busy, busy. Not mentally challenging, thankfully, just repeating the same lines to waiting customers at the Starbucks that I worked at. Making coffee at least gave me time to think. It had been 3 months since I had seen that article about Niall in the paper, and since then I really did think about my past. I left because I felt betrayed – my mother had decided that she didn't need me anymore and was moving me out to my dad's, who she knew I hated too much for words. But I really left the country because of what I did – burned down my Mum's one story cottage and made it seem like an accidental fire. So there, nicely packaged and sorted. My life's drama in a nutshell, really. Today I was thinking about the new feelings that had started forming since I came to that pretty obvious conclusion. I felt… guilty. Certainly not about the fire, or about leaving Mum. Really, it was about leaving Niall. We used to Skype call all the time, and he used to tell me all about school and the assholes that were there, and I helped him out with it. But of course that had to stop once I had become an arsonist and dropped off the face of the earth. Had he missed me at all? Had he blamed me for everything? Well that was obvious, of course he did. It was my fault. But we were only step-siblings, so it wasn't too big of a loss for him really. It kind of helped that we didn't live in the same country too. And it looked like he was doing just fine on his own. So really, there was nothing to worry about.
Another interesting consequence of my deep self-reflection is that I have developed a weird obsession with One Direction. Not in a fan-girl way like the 14 year-olds running around the streets, but in a more protective way. I read all the articles about them, deciding which ones are fake and which ones aren't. Looking after Niall in my own way, I guess. It made me feel like less of a screw-up.
"Oi, Georgia! Joe wants to see you!" a gruff voice called from out back. I sighed and left the ordering to Nancy, the girl on my shift with me, and trudged my way out to see what the matter was. Steve, the maintenance man of the building, pointed down the alley near the bins, so I went there and found Mike, my boss, standing there with his arms folded, a frown on his face.
"What's the matter, boss?" I asked in my most cheery, dedicated-employee voice.
"Jenna's not coming, so now I'm one waitress down. Can you do it?" he asked, his voice nearly begging. For a commercial coffee shop, Mike really took the job seriously.
"I guess, but I'm telling you, I'm the clumsiest person ever" I warned him. He just nodded and shooed me towards the door. Thrusting an apron at me, he whipped out his phone and began dialling. Waving my towards the entrance, he answered the door and began a serious conversation with some guy called Hank who was meant to be delivering something important. Duty calls, I guess.
I tied my apron on and ran back into the shop. Immediately I was burdened with 2 trays of coffee's and some pastry things, and I was off. As I was finishing off the last coffee on the tray, having spilled some on its owners lap, the bell on the door rang as someone entered the shop. Turning around and walking back to the kitchen, I glanced back to see who the new customer was, and nearly ran right into another waitress. Walking in the doorway of the shop was none other than every single member of One Direction, just casually walking into my Starbucks. Cursing my bad luck, I walked as quickly as I could without looking suspicious back to the kitchen, keeping my head down. As I was passing through the door I risked a glance back, and found myself looking straight into the eyes of Zayn Malik, one of the band members. He gave me the sweetest of smiles, taking my breath away. But not before I saw the tops of a dyed-blonde head of hair, and I soon regained my breathing. I turned abruptly and ran into the kitchen, slamming the door behind me and breathing heavily.
"What's the matter Georgie?" Nancy said, having just gotten her break and was munching down on a sandwich.
"I… I have to go, Nance. Um… could you tell Mike I'm really sorry" I said distractedly, running towards the back door and throwing my apron on the nearest seat. I made it out the door and into the street without having to pass the band, but I could see that others knew they were there. Some paparazzi were already heading towards the coffee shop, and some unsure girls were milling around excitedly. I quickly turned and walked away, heading towards the bus stop. I was going straight home, and there was no way I was sticking around. How could my luck get any worse? Why had they decided to choose my Starbucks, when it was my shift? Fate had a funny way of bringing me back down to reality, that's for sure.
Zayn's P.O.V.
The guys chose a table near the back corner, as far away from the windows as possible. Luckily, we were there at a time where it was mostly middle-aged business workers out for their break, so only a group of girls out shopping had recognized who we were, but they were stuck outside as the shop was too full for them to get in. It was strange, but he had just had the weirdest feeling. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened – he had glanced up towards the door to the kitchen, and locked eyes with an exceptionally beautiful waitress rushing through the door. It was like a trance came over me, I smiled at her, and her eyes widened so much I thought they would break. She then glanced a little over the top of my head, and her eyes widened even further, which I thought was absolutely impossible, and she dashed straight through the door without a backwards glance. The strangest reaction, really. All I did was smile! But a strange feeling had come over me too – like I knew that I was meant to have seen her leaving.
"Hurry up, Zayn, I'm starving!" Niall complained.
"Mate calm down, it's a Starbucks. We're just getting coffee, staying for 5 minutes, and leaving, ok?" Liam said, already waving a waitress over. They were completely oblivious to the reaction I just had.
"Fine" Niall grumbled, looking at the line of pastries longingly. I chuckled at him, and ordered my coffee along with the others.
"Weirdest thing just happened to me, guys" I said as they all turned to look at me expectantly.
"Yeah, I just looked up and this really gorgeous waitress was looking at me too and the weirdest feeling came over me. Like fate designed the meeting, right?" I said, trying to make it sound funny, not like I was completely dead serious.
"Oh yeah, it was fate. More like you finally met someone as good looking as yourself and you were in a state of shock" Louis said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Whatever you say mate, it was pretty hectic." I shrugged, attempting to sound nonchalant about it all. Truth was, I didn't even know what happened myself. It was nothing, just a look. But somehow it felt like more than that.
"So guys, if you had to choose: Sex or food?" Harry asked, dead serious. We all said sex, obviously, except for Niall, who bellowed "Food!" and smiled cheekily at us. We all laughed, and Louis even fell of his chair it was so funny. All thoughts of the stunning waitress were far from my mind.
