Much as it pained him to admit it, David did sometimes actually have to do his job. Normally, he didn’t mind taking on an extra shift or two that much, money was nice and all, but he’d had to ditch Davi for it so he hoped something interesting happened to make it worth his while. He entered McDonalds through the staff entrance at the back, walking past the dumpster as well as the kitchen to get to the POS, which did not stand for “piece of shit” like he thought it did during orientation.

“Glad you could come in today David! I know it was last minute.”

“It’s no problem, Pat,” David lied as he clocked in. Pat was his manager and also Marcus’s mom. She had the same dark hair and dark freckles as her son. The biggest difference was her hair was straight instead of wavy. She wore dark glasses with round frames. She was pretty but not quite a milf, at least not in David’s opinion.

“You look flustered, did you come from a hot date or something?” A voice that was distinctly not Pat’s chimed in,

David wanted to bang his head on the counter. Just what he needed, fucking Eric was working tonight. Eric was a huge dick. He had brown hair shaved on the sides that he kept slicked back. His skin was a bit tanned, his eyes were a deep green and he had a black scorpion tattoo on his bicep. Oh, also he was buff as hell. He even managed to make that stupid black polo shirt work for him and it infuriated David more than words could say.

“No, shut up! I forgot I was working tonight and had to rush here,” He huffed and felt his cheeks burning as he did so.

“Alright hotshot keep your secrets. You’re on register two today.”

David put on his apron. He didn’t mind the register, it was better than having to decipher the goddamn garbled bullshit that came through the drive-thru, even if he could sit when he was on the headset. David had to pick his battles and not having to ask the customer to repeat that a thousand times was one he’d chosen. He went over to the register and got ready for the long shift ahead of him. He hoped Tommy knew he owed David big time for taking a closing shift on a school night of all things. People came in, only like a few families, nothing too crazy. He got the kids their happy meals and sent them off. Eric called him away from the register for a moment to help him move some boxes, he wasn’t sure why Eric asked him. Eric was both taller and stronger than David, but whatever, he helped the guy grab some more paper towels for the restrooms easily enough. He needed to do a restroom check soon anyway, so it was convenient in a convoluted sort of way. He refilled the dispenser in the men’s restroom. Pat or someone else could handle the women’s. He headed back to the counter, glad he didn’t have to deal with another shit volcano like last Thursday.

Just when it seemed like it was going to be a slow night a whole bunch of girls from school came in. Lisa, Laura, and Theresa were the ones he knew by name but there were three more he didn’t know by name. Laura and Theresa giggled to themselves and shoved Lisa towards the counter. Lisa had wavy red hair, and her eyes were bright green, not entirely unlike his own. David remembered when they were younger and she used to wear her hair in braids until kids started calling her Wendy, like the restaurant. She stopped wearing her hair like that pretty quickly. He’d always thought it was a bit mean-spirited. She was wearing a black tank top and a skirt that absolutely would’ve gotten her dress coded at school. She rubbed the back of her neck as she approached the counter, giving Laura and Theresa a dirty look,

“Uh, hey David! I didn’t know you worked on Wednesdays.”

“I don’t, I had to cover for Tommy at the last minute.”

“Ha, well lucky me then I guess,” Her cheeks were rosier than usual, was she overheating or something? Hard to imagine given how skimpy her outfit was.

“I had to ditch someone for it.” He shrugged.

“Hopefully she won’t mind.”

David didn’t bother to correct her,

“You girls have a fun time at the mall?” It was fairly slow, he had time to chat a little he guessed.

“Yeah, we went to Victoria’s Secret,” Lisa held up the pink bag and shook it.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

David nodded, “That’s nice, what can I get you?”

“Lisa show him the bra you got!” Theresa giggled.

“Oh my god, Theresa I’m not pulling out a bra in McDonalds!”

“It’s not like you’re wearing it,” Laura pointed out.

“Still!”

“What do you want, Lisa?” David asked, hoping to get this conversation back on track.

“Oh right uh! The number seven? With a diet coke?”

David gave her a quick once over, Lisa was pretty skinny, “You don’t need the diet,” He commented.

“Oh! It’s, it’s not for my weight I just like how it tastes better than regular,” She clarified her cheeks still oh so very rosy.

He nodded, “Fair enough. Is that all?”

“Yeah, I think so uh, wait! Mrs. Keller’s class was uh, was the homework pages six and seven or seven and eight?”

David blinked a bit as he rang her up, “Seven and eight.”

“Thanks, David, you’re a real lifesaver,” She smiled a little too graciously for him just giving her the pages of their science homework, it wasn’t like he was even giving her any of the answers, not that he knew them in the first place.

“No problem, you can take a seat. I’ll bring you your food when it’s ready.”

“Thanks, David,” She repeated.

He shrugged, “Just doin’ my job.” He nodded toward the rest of the girls, “Whose next?”

The girls gave their orders and David rang them up. He was starting to regret telling Lisa he’d bring her food directly to her since now it would look weird if he didn’t do the same for all her friends. Oh well, other than them the main restaurant was pretty dead.

Lisa's order was done first, duh that’s kinda how it works. So he went over to their table, the girls’ laughter echoed throughout the building,

“Here’s yours Lisa, the rest of you ladies will be up in a bit alright?”

“Take your time Dave, none of us are in a rush to get out of here. Right Lis?” Laura elbowed Lisa.

“Shut up Laura, but yeah don’t stress out over us. It’s all Gucci.”

He smiled at the group, “Thanks, I’m gonna head back up front now.”

The girls waved as he went back to the register. They then came and got their food one by one. Laura teased him a bit about not bringing the rest of them their food. To which he pointed out the group had a lot more food than he could reasonably carry. He neglected to mention he also didn’t feel like doing more work than necessary tonight. Laura seemed to accept this as did the rest of the group.

Lisa gave David a wave as she and her friends left, “See you tomorrow!”

He waved back, and then realized he was totally ignoring a customer in front of him,

“Sorry, can you repeat that for me?”

“Oh sure, young love is more important than my burger,” The customer laughed.

David pulled his head back a bit in surprise, “What? No, I- she’s just a classmate,” He was pretty sure Lisa was nice, she sure seemed like she was from the brief conversations they’d had, she wasn’t exactly bad to look at either but nah. Not his type.

“Really? Could’ve fooled this old timer. Don’t waste your time young man, you’re only young once.”

The customer was a bit on the older side. His hair was mostly gone and what was left was well past what one could call silver. His eyes had an intelligent and somewhat youthful sparkle to them. He was dressed like you’d expect a well-meaning grandpa to be dressed, jeans too high up, and a boring button-up. David entered his order,

“I’ll keep that in mind, Mister,” He said with a placating smile.

“I hope so, for your sake.”

There wasn’t really many more people of note that night. Pat tapped him on the shoulder a few hours before closing.

“I’m heading home early tonight, Eric is acting manager the rest of the night, call me if there’s an emergency,” She said, she’d already hung up her apron for the night and everything.

David glanced at Eric, of course, he was the acting manager. Pat had pretty much been prepping him for the job for as long as David had been working there. He sighed as he looked at Eric, he waved at Pat,

“Goodnight Pat, say hey to Marcus for me.”

“Will do!”

Eric looked at David, “Looks like it’s you and me tonight bud.”

“Oh wonderful,” David rolled his eyes.