Made of Glass Chapter 3

My biggest problem with Bella is how much of a whimp she is. So I made sure Dollie was a total badass that could solve her own problems.

By Wednesday I pretty much had the routine down. I got my first points that day. (Ashley had neglected to inform the others about my triumph with Edward.) Curtis was a pretty boy with greased up hair who clearly never walked into a department store. He cockily demanded my presence for dinner that night. It took every ounce of the self control I had been building up in the past years to not take the beers in my hands and dump them over his head. I gave him a curt no and continued on. The worst part of it was that Curtis was sitting a couple of booths away from Edward and I could have sworn that he actually started laughing when Curtis asked. It must have been something funny he had read though because he couldn’t have heard through the din of the busy bar. But still when I was walking back to the kitchen he glanced up at me as I walked toward his booth still smirking. Up until I passed by him then his smirk slid away to that same hostile look he gave me after our last meeting. He was clearly a very bizarre boy.

I wouldn’t have reported the incident to the gossip girls but Elaina had observed and gushed over me as soon as I walked back to the kitchen.

“Oh my gosh! Curtis for your very first!! He’s like twenty points! Uber cute right! And he always takes us to the best restaurants!”

All hopes of quashing the whole business were squished when Ashley walked in and overheard. She glared at me like I was something revolting and brusquely walked back out.

“Oh ignore her! Curtis and her had a thing. I don’t think it’s so bad that she actually liked him or anything but he did dump her. I think he likes playing the game too much so now she has like a thing with anyone he asks out. She’ll get over it. But we have to put your name on the board!”

They actually did have a board with everyone’s name on it and little star stickers with cute little smiling faces on them like an attendance board for Sunday school. My name was added to it and two little stars placed next to it. It was pretty comical, actually. I didn’t see any harm in letting them play their little game. It’s not like I was going to get involved in it. I’d let them put little stars on there all they wanted but there was no way that I would ever go out with any of the swine that haunted this place.

Unfortunately either because of the Edward situation or because of the Curtis one I had managed to get on Ashley’s bad side. I didn’t much care at first until I realized exactly how much power she had over the whole establishment. She had Monica in her back pocket and she assigned people to tables which meant I only got the really horrific people sitting at my tables. (Brian being a frequent and Edward never even came in a close vicinity to any of them) Lauren too was constantly giving me the wrong drinks. I didn’t have the slightest clue what any of them were supposed to be so I blindly delivered them and was sent back to get the right ones over and over again. In less than a week I had everyone hating my guts. Might have been a new record.

My only salvation ironically enough was Elaina. Originally I determined I wouldn’t like her because of her nonsense gossip but that is exactly what kept Ashley away from her so she wasn’t squished under her thumb. I spent my breaks in the back with her counting the floor boards and nodding my head along with whatever she was saying. Listening was never necessary and Bucky would slip me onion rings and give me pitying looks although he never said a word to me or anyone as near as I could tell.

Whenever I got really frustrated I popped in a jolly rancher and chomped down on it hard. It was supposed to replace the happy pills I would normally have taken. It certainly didn’t produce the same effect but it did help slightly.

At the very least I had somewhere to hide from the glares of the rest of the staff back in the kitchen. I was settling in until the weekend came. I thought it had been busy before, but apparently it hadn’t even been half of the Blue Flame’s full capacity. The weekend before school started college students poured in in droves. The Blue Flame had no reservation or wait list policies of any kind. Anyone who arrived was let in. It didn’t matter if every seat in the joint was taken. Then they lounged along the walls or leaned on other people’s tables. I refrained from counting how many there were at any one time but I was willing to bet that it was well past the fire safety limits. I kept apprised of all emergency exits and lingered near them whenever I could, just to be sure I wouldn’t be caught in the massive meat press that would occur when dozens of college kids pushed frantically out of the one sad door. I’d probably be trampled. There were less breaks for me now and more running around like a crazy person. At least it kept my thoughts occupied.

School was an entirely different situation. I’ll admit to being a great big nerd when it comes to school related things. Studying was usually an escape for me. When reading anything from Stephen King to Henry Gray I had this great ability to block out the entire world while my nose was pressed into a book. Since I spent my entire life savings on the books for this semester I was sadly lacking any pleasure reading so I just read my text books which back fired big time. Since I had already gone through all of the material for each one of my classes, the lectures were even more boring than I expected them to be. Boredom is my nemesis in life. It is almost impossible to keep your thoughts on track when you don’t have anything to focus on but the monotone of the professors telling you stuff you already know.

I’d come back from classes in a deep depression, with five or six jolly ranchers shoved in my mouth and craved the distractions of the Blue Flame. That worked for a little while until I learned each of the regulars and their drinks and routines of the entire establishments. After only a couple of weeks the routines were second nature. So my mind was wandering to all sorts of dark corners and everyone hated me at work. I was running low on jolly ranchers and happy pills these days.

 

Things ran like this for at least the first month of my college life. Until finally a little excitement turned things around.

Elaina was talking off my ear while Bucky and I were trying to master the art of frying mozzarella sticks. Apparently someone had demanded that we start serving the sticks of death and Ashley for some odd reason thought that I, someone with absolutely no experience in the fry cook area, would have to be the one to develop the recipe. I had printed off several dozen recipes and Bucky was helping me test them. I attempted to do it myself but after I started my fourth fire and downed an entire bottle of Mylanta Bucky graciously stepped in. That beast could take on dozens of those artery clogging death traps and wouldn’t slow down in the slightest. The only problem is he didn’t have the most advanced palate. Also, there was the problem of translating his critiques. I had to guess at the deliciousness of each recipe by the volume and intensity of his grunts. I still thought it quite hilarious and dissolved into giggles after each new batch but Bucky seemed to be taking the whole thing very seriously.

I was so into my task I hardly noticed when Elaina’s chatter suddenly cut off. The unusual silence eventually caught my attention and I headed over to the window separating the kitchen from the bar to see what had caught Elaina’s attention and done the impossible. A young man had just entered the bar. He was a tall fellow with poor grooming standards. He dressed a little ratty too but he didn’t look so dangerous. No piercings or tattoos so I didn’t understand why he had caught the attention of every girl working on the floor. Everyone was staring at him with cautious eyes. Especially Lauren, who was tending bar. She looked more timid than I had ever seen her before. The man took his seat at one of the empty spots at the bar and gave a smug smile to her.

“Who is that?” I asked Elaina.

“Damion.”

I was stunned at her short reply and the malice in her voice. Apparently this guy was bad news.

“Why do we hate him so much?” I was excited that someone had finally decided to join me in my dark place of hate. It would be easy for me to add this guy’s name to the long list of people who had fallen out of my favor.

“It’s a long story.”

I stared at Elaina with eyes bulging. Maybe she was feeling sick.

“Alright, here it is!” Nope, she was back. She turned to me with excited eyes. “So you know how Lauren’s all like too cool to be bothered to be cool.”

“No,” That sentence made absolutely no sense to me.

“Well, she is. She’s like a total badass right and like doesn’t even give the guys the time of day. Kind of like you, but Lauren is more like I’ll kill you with my mind because that’s how cool she is. While you just seem sort of clueless I guess.”

Well that’s nice.

“So like this guy Damion starts coming in like every day for a little while and he’s all wooing Lauren off her feet. He doesn’t even pay any attention to the other girls so we all were like he is so totally into her right? But Lauren doesn’t just agree to go out with people so his points start racking up till he was like just behind Edward. But Edward is the only one who’s ever held out so long. Not even Lauren could pull off an Edward. Anyway she finally agrees after he tries like ten thousand times. They go out a couple of times and Lauren shockingly actually likes this guy. She’s like totally falling for him for like the first time since she started working here. But then there’s this other chick that I guess you never met. Her name was Brittany and she was like s****y mcslut s**t big time! She would go out with anyone any time as long as they promised some action somewhere in there. Thankfully she graduated last year so we don’t have to deal with her anymore but not before she and Damion broke sweet little Lauren’s heart”

“He cheated on Lauren with Brittany?” I summed up her spiel  feeling very disappointed. Is that really it? I was expecting a little more drama. Not that this barely out of college girl got her heart broken. She’s too young to even know what her heart wants. She’ll probably get over him the minute another badass comes in the bar. I was totally not convinced to join the hating Damion part. He was just a jerk like all the rest of them.

“Oh but it’s worse than that!” Elaina continued. Thank God! “Like apparently Brittany and him were having this thing before any of it started and Brittany just wanted to get his points up so she set him on asking out the girl that was least likely to accept him. And he was all charming till he set it up so that Lauren would walk in on him and Brittany so that he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of breaking up with her. He was totally jerking her around the whole time.”

So that was a little better.

“The only good thing Brittany ever did in all her life was dump that loser when she got out of here. But now Damion doesn’t have demon-spawn to hang out with so he just comes to the bar to taunt Lauren every once in a while, the dirt bag. He just likes to rub it in her face. And worse he gets like super drunk and well you know what drunk guys are like. He’s like the worst of them all.”

“So why don’t we just kick him out?”

“Mrs. W won't let us kick anyone out until they’ve actually done something regardless of their past actions. So we can't like call the cops on him until he breaks Lauren’s heart all over again.”

“Well that’s crap.” I turned to walk out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to tell that jackass to get the hell out.”

Elaina put a restraining hand on my arm. I flinched away from her.

“He won't go. He knows we can't force him out,” she said.

“Like hell I can't force him out.”

“No really. There’s nothing you can do to him that he’s afraid of. And he's like a really bad guy. He could like do something to you or something. I mean if you have a baseball bat somewhere . . . but then that’d be like second degree murder and you couldn’t work here anymore.”

That last part put Elaina a little closer to my “almost possibly could like them” list. Although she did have a point. I didn’t have a very intimidating presence. But Bucky sure as hell did. I had to use what God had given me and God had given me a miniature Hulk to do my bidding.

Bucky stood back by the stove focusing on the mozzarella sticks. He’d glance over at us every once in a while but it was with more of a worried look than a I’m-so-angry-I’m-gonna-go-hulk-on-this-guy kind of thing.

“Come with me, Bucky”

He looked up at me, shocked.

 “You heard me, come on!”

It was Elaina who came to his defense “Come on, Dolly. Bucky couldn’t hurt a fly. He wouldn’t be any help,”

“He doesn’t have to do anything. Just stand there and look intimidating."

“He doesn’t know how to do that.”

“He’s doing it right now!” I looked over at Bucky’s huge mass with his missing teeth and scarred arms from all the hot oil jumping off the fryer and burning his skin. All that was missing was an eye patch and he could pass for a super intense Russian mobster.

“I don’t know about this,” Elaina said still unsure.

“Look Bucky. Just make your hand into a fist like this,” I held my fist up to him and he hesitantly did the same. “Take your other hand and wrap it around that. If you feel like cracking a few knuckles at the right moment you’re welcome to that but it’s not necessary. You just stand like that behind me and stare at that guy like you’re staring at a batch of fries. Only you cannot break eye contact. It doesn’t matter if he looks directly at you. You just keep staring right back. Do you think you can handle that?”

Bucky nodded his head with a determined look settling into his eyes.

“Excellent. Just relax I’ll do all the talking. Just follow me.”

I stormed out of the kitchen and walked straight up to Damion who was trying to get Lauren’s attention but she was studiously ignoring him. He had a cocky look on his face like he was enjoying her pain. He also had a drink in front of him that looked like a whiskey something to me.

I drew close to his stool and greeted him, “Hey, a*****e,” I said with my typical cheerful voice.

He barely acknowledged me. He turned his head just a fraction of a degree so I could see just enough of his eyes to note the roll. He clearly didn’t feel like I was worth his time.

I picked up the drink in front of him and dumped it into his lap. “I’m talking to you.”

He stood up with a string of oaths wiping at his crotch.

“What’s your problem, b***h?” he said finally giving me his full attention.

“Hm. I wonder,” I said sarcastically. “You, jackass."

He looked me up and down with a smug look and a cocked eyebrow. Clearly dismissing me as a non-threat. He wavered a bit as his eyes grazed over Bucky but then returned to me.

“F**k off,” he said while retaking his seat.

Lauren stepped in before I could launch my next attack, “It’s alright, Doll. I can handle it.”

Little did she know, I had him in my sights now and he wasn’t going to get away with this behavior.

“Shut up, Lauren,” I told her. I had never seen Lauren cower before but she took a step away from us. Clearly this guy had messed her up bad. It was a good thing I hadn’t brought along my baseball bat.

“You’ll take her advice if you know what’s good for you,” Damion said only talking to us through the corner of his mouth.

“You have twenty seconds to get the f**k out of this bar or so help me God we will take it upon ourselves to remove you,” I knew I didn’t sound threatening. To me I hardly sounded angry at all. I had been pretending to be cheery for so long I couldn’t even stop it when I wanted to.

“You couldn’t if you tried,” Damion dared me.

“Correct. I sure couldn’t, but he could,” I cocked my head over my shoulder signaling to Bucky behind me. He cracked his knuckles at just the right time. I sneaked a peek at him. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the object of that glare. It affected Damion just like I hoped. He stood up looking flustered. But then instead of heading toward the exit he took a step toward us.

Curiously at that moment I noticed Edward out of the corner of my eye. At Damion’s threatening step toward us he stood tense in front of his booth like he was ready to jump in. It both pleased and annoyed me. First, that he would want to protect me was sweet and all but that he thought I needed protection was quite insulting. Well he would see I could handle this on my own.

“Is that right?” Damion said breathing his nasty alcohol breath in my face. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “You see I don’t think your big guy there will actually do anything to me. I think this is too . . . respectable of an establishment to allow something like that.”

I giggled. “That may be true. But I’m not a respectable girl.” With that I drew my knee up into his groin with all the force my tiny body could muster. It did its job. Damion crumpled to the floor with a groan. “I’m going to ask you politely one more time before I bring out the big guns,” I whispered into Damion’s cringing mass on the floor.

I couldn’t see what face Bucky was making behind me but from looking at Damion I could practically see through his eyes what he was seeing there. Bucky still hadn’t broken off his stare only now it seemed to have gotten more intense and there was a small smirk on his lips like he was about to enjoy whatever came next. I could imagine Damion’s fear in response to this just as clearly as I could imagine the look. He was done acting the tough guy now and had made up his mind to get out before Bucky messed up his perfectly formed nose. I personally didn’t think his nose was all that special but he evidently thought a lot of it.

Damion stumbled to his feet and took a couple of unsteady steps away from us. He pointed a menacing finger at me and then at Bucky then back at me and then all around to anyone else while stuttering trying to get out some threatening words. He couldn’t find a suitable target however and just turned and half ran out of the bar.

Elaina was the first one to give a congratulatory cheer and soon the rest of the bar was joining in the clapping and wooting at our success. I turned to Bucky and held up my hand for a high five. He gave one of his rare smiles where he flashed all of his teeth or where all his teeth would be if he still retained them all.

“Good work, buddy. You were a total badass.”

His answering chuckle was like low thunder coming from far off in the distance.

As he and I headed victoriously back to the kitchen I noticed again Edward. He was the only one refraining from applause. He stared after us with a puzzled look on his face. He could at least be happy for us. Jerk.

Reviews

[Summer]

I giggled when I learned her plan...The thought of that little thing wooping some dude's butt was so funny. Keep it up because I love it. You should redo other books series because I bet they would be great. Loved it.