Page 36 of Distortion
I pour the drink into a cup and spray the cream on top before I hand it to her with a polite smile.
She’s still standing in the same spot with her friends. They’re watching me as they speak quietly amongst themselves. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but the whispering puts me on edge. Nothing good has ever come from groups of people talking quietly and stealing glances at me.
She snatches the cup and takes a tiny sip through the straw before making a face. ‘Ew! That’s disgusting.’
Taken aback, I frown at her. ‘I’m sorry that you don’t like it,’ I say.
She scoffs. ‘Were you too busy doing time for murdering kids to learn how to make a decent Frappuccino?’
I’m pretty sure I can feel the blood leaching out of my face.
‘What?’ I whisper faintly.
‘You heard me.’
Her friend leans closer to me.
‘We know what you did,’ she hisses as she glances around at her friends. ‘And we’re going to make sure everyone else does, too!’
Lu walks back into the front of the café at that moment and I see her brow furrow.
‘Something I can help with,’ she chirps.
‘Are you the manager?’ the one who seems to be in charge of the group asks.
Lu glances at me. ‘I am. What seems to be the problem?’
‘Thisemployeemade my friend’s drink wrong.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Lu says. ‘Would you like another one, or a refund?’
‘I wantherto make me another one,’ Jolie, the entitled Blake-sucker answers.
Lu’s smile is sickly sweet, and I side-eye her with a sinking feeling. Is she annoyed with me that I didn’t make it right the first time? Is she going to fire me on my very first day?
Jolie tells Lu her order and Lu asks me to make it while she watches. My hands shake as I do exactly what I did last time, waiting for Lu to tell me what I did wrong. But she says nothing. I put the drink in front of the girls again and,despite it being the exact same drink made in the exact same way, she takes a sip and nods at Lu.
‘That’sokay, I guess,’ she says to Lu, and then she looks at me. ‘Do better!’
With a few more scoffs, smirks, and whispers, the group leaves.
Lu stares after them.
‘What the fuck was that all about?’ she asks.
‘I don’t know,’ I half lie, hoping Lu didn’t hear the other things they said. ‘She didn’t like the drink, but I made the second one the same way. Maybe I did the first one wrong somehow.’
Lu snorts. ‘Those girls are Sorority Row. They’re always hanging around with the KIPs. Bet they don’t like that you’re being seen withtheirfrat.’
‘Oh,’ I murmur.
‘All that Greek life crap is such bull,’ she mutters, and I glance at her in surprise.
‘But I thought ... you seemed really excited about going to the parties.’
Lu waves a flippant hand. ‘Oh, the parties, yeah. That’s different. It’ll befun. The rest of it is so antiquated, though. You know the sororities can’t even hold parties of their own, only the frats can. I mean, what kind of misogynistic shit is that?’
‘Doesn’t seem fair,’ I murmur as I watch them walk off with a sinking, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
