Page 2 of Pitbull
Perfection, is an illusion.
1
Working should be illegal.
Anke Fischer was tired and her feet throbbed from being on them all morning. Every muscle in her body ached and she could feel the beginning of a migraine pulsing behind her left eye.
Ugh—just what I needed today.
Each day she arrived a work, she planned a way of escaping—go back to school, win the lottery, marry rich—all spectacular ideas but all wound up taking a back seat to her exhaustion at the end of each shift. By the time she made it home, all she wanted to do was have a shot of tequila and pass out atop her sheets. Sometimes she didn’t even make it to the shower. She’d wake up the next morning at the ass-crack of dawn, smelling like day old grease and regret.
There had to be more to life—right? There had to be more to life than being born, working oneself into a coma then death.
There had to be!
But there she was again atBrutus’ Food Bonanzaserving enough junk food to kill a small village trying to make sure her rent was paid. They had the same customers daily. They were too far off the beaten path to cater to many tourists. The only ones who came through were those on their way to Sankh Augustin or on their way to somewhere else. Hennef was a stopping point between the middle of nowhere and God’s nowhere until they could get where the beautiful people were.
No one truly wanted to eat at a place calledBrutus’ Food Bonanzabut they didn’t really have a choice. It was the only place to eat and get gas for miles. She supposed it made sense then—capitalizing on a need.
Still she sighed softly.
Mom was right—I wasn’t going to amount to anything.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried—far from it. Anke pushed and fought her way through high school. Not only did she graduate, she did so at the top of her class. It was before Germany abolished tuition at its universities for undergraduates and though her parents were wealthy, at eighteen they told her they were finished with their obligation to her.
Anke scoffed.
Over the years, even after the government dropped tuition, Anke couldn’t find her way back. School would be covered but the bills wouldn’t stop. She was stuck in a cycle of self-destructive unhappiness and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
Frustrated with where her mind went, Anke glanced at the clock for what felt like a million time. The last time she’d checked, she had twenty minutes to go before the end of her shift. Well, technically, it hadn’t been hers. Her friend Claudia Hunt was supposed to be working but she hadn’t shown up. Their other friend secretly called Anke and she broke every speed limit to get to the diner. To cover, Anke apologized to her boss, explaining she’d switched shifts with Claudia and had merely forgotten. Since, she wasn’t usually late for work, her boss nodded and the situation was settled.
Claudia missing a shift hadn’t at all been like her. No matter what, Claudia would have been there. Rain or shine, Claudia had been one of the most responsible people Anke had ever met. If she was going to be away, very rarely, Claudia would call Anke to take the shift.
It wasn’t like jobs were easy to come by for anyone without a university education. They all needed the money and with the little education they had, this was as good as it was going to get.
The next nineteen minutes slipped by painfully slow. Still, she danced around other servers and customers to get her orders filled, cleared tables and somehow managed not to drop anything or fall over. When her time was up, she dumped all the cash into the safe, accepted her tips and grabbed her things.
“What’s the rush?” Ruby Foster asked. Her bright eyes shimmered like it always did.
“I’m heading over to Claudia’s.” Anke dragged her fingers through her hair in a way of combing it after removing her hairnet. “Something isn’t right.”
“What do you mean?”
“Claudia missing a shift and not calling in?”
“You’re right. That’s new.”
“Yeah.” She spritzed some perfume to her neck in an attempt to not smell like subpar food, slammed her locker and kissed Ruby’s cheek. “Be safe going home later, okay? If Patrick flakes picking you up, you call me.”
“You don’t have to. I can figure out a way home.”
“Like hell. That boy needs a swift kick in the family jewels.”
Ruby laughed. “I guess.”
“See you later.”
Anke hurried out to the parking lot and tossed herself behind the wheel of her second hand car. She dumped her things to the passenger seat even as she turned on the engine with her free hand. Buckling up, she exited the parking lot and to Claudia’s apartment. The building seemed as if a good breeze would knock it over. It always gave Anke the creeps but it was what Claudia could afford. Sadly, even with both their pay the couldn’t afford something better together.
