CHAPTER ONE

|•| DESIRÉE DOYLE |•|

"Awww, don't worry, sweetheart. It's all going to be over soon."

Those two sentences—the last line of the chapter of the book I was currently reading, which had me hooked—echoed in my head. It thinned out the incessant chatters of the Café customers and the soft music in the background.

The noise, which got under my skin, dissipated into nothingness, replaced by the words, which seemed to amplify my curiosity the more I dwelled on it. It rendered me restless and absentminded.

A slimy substance splashed all over my face abruptly, filtering into my eyes and it had me blinking rapidly at the stinging sensation it left inside of them.

I dropped the sponge in my hands, bringing them to my eyes to wipe the liquid off, but the stinging sensation only worsened.

The mocking giggles that filled the air gave me an inkling of what was going on. Goddammit.

I pried my eyes open. They watered effortlessly because of how badly they stung, but I didn't snap them shut. My eyes landed on the familiar duo. The redhead and brunette stared back at me with a taunting smirk.

Judging the wider smirk on the redhead's—Stacey

—face, and her soapy hands, I knew she was the one who splashed soapy dish water on my face.

I just stared back at her, not saying a word, and that struck a nerve.

"Daydreaming about your fictional boyfriends?" She tilted her head to the side, mockingly. Dana, the brunette giggled at what her friend just said. Her voice sounded like a screech, more like a broken record.

The boldness of the matte makeup she had on her face felt like a splash of neon colours. It was almost blinding. Her tight-fitted uniform had me wondering if she could breathe in it.

"Cat got your tongue, loser?" Dana chipped in with a frown on her face.

"Come on, Dana. Don't be silly trying to get words out of a dumb girl, you know she wouldn't talk." She said those words with a straight face, but her friend chuckled.

"You should wrap that up as quickly as you can, there are more out there," She nudged her head at the pile of dirty dishes that I had been struggling to watch since, with a smirk on her face.

She threw a disposable cup into the soapy water and it splashed on my dress this time around, causing me to take a step back. I spared her a glance and her eyes darkened with rage. She was sporting a threatening look on her face.

"You were saying?" She inquired with a hint of challenge in her voice, but I didn't say anything.

Truth is, I wasn't even trying to stand up to her or anything. She just chose to believe that I wanted to. That way, she would think I wanted to fight back so that she could get on my nerves, even more.

She was that twisted.

"That's what I thought," She huffed, threw me a stink eye and spun on her heels. Dana giggled, dipping her hands into the water. She splashed a generous amount on my dress, soaking up all my chest area.

I just watched the two of them saunter out of the kitchen. My eyes were fixated on their figure until I couldn't see them anymore. I sighed. My eyes darted towards the dishes and I let out an eye roll.

Stacey was the one who was supposed to do the dishes, but why would she? When she had me at her beck and call. And in all honesty, I would rather just do whatever she wanted to get her out of my hair.

My eyes settled on the black cover of the book— Sinister—which I had been reading, and the urge to pick it up and continue with it was so overwhelming. Too bad I still had dishes to tend to. I heaved a sigh and rinsed my hands off, drying them off with a napkin.

I left the kitchen and made my way to the tables to clear them off.

Tania's was bustling with crowds, just like every other day. The massive Beige-themed space was filled to the brim with customers, and some were still trooping in and out of the Café. Despite how crowded the space seemed, it was still spacious, given how big it was. Tania's Café was no doubt the biggest Café in Nocturne Ville. And, it was by far the most sought-after.

But on the not-so-bright side, the more crowded the Café, the more the dirty dishes. Huffing under my breath, I decided to start by packing the cups and saucers first before clearing off the dirt on the table. I grabbed a large tray from the counter, strutting over to the empty tables to clear them off.

I picked up the tray when it was filled up and spun around to leave, but someone bumped into me aggressively. The abrupt force sent the tray crashing to the floor. The ceramic cups and saucers made a harsh contact with the tiled floor and they shattered into pieces, garnering the attention of everyone in the Café.

The bustling room halted alongside my heartbeat. The chattering ceased and the bubbly atmosphere morphed into something that was much more tense, thick with a deafening silence.

"You wretch!" Those words came out in a harsh growl, causing me to flinch backwards. The shards of broken glasses between my legs made a crunching sound at the contact of my sneakers.

"Look at what you have done to my fucking dress!" She screamed at me.

"Where the hell is the owner of this Café?" Her angry eyes darted around the room that was now filled with murmurs.

"Who hired this dumb bitch?" The dark-haired lady was screaming at the top of her lungs, not caring how her shrill voice was about to split everyone's eardrums.

"I am very sorry, Ma'am," I spoke up, apologising.

"Oh, for the love of God, Desirée, what did you do?" Tania's stern voice filled the room and I swung my head in her direction. The grim expression on her face didn't falter as she pranced forward, stopping a few feets away from the broken glasses.

"Oh, my God…"

"Ma'am, I am so sorry. I am so sorry, Ma'am. Are you hurt?" She squinted her eyes at the customer while I just stood there, staring at them.

"Your apologies won't fix anything! Get this blind bat fired before she chases all your customers away!" She fired at her.

"God!" She groaned.

"I am out of here!" She yelled and picked up her bag, storming out of the Café. Tania's eyes strayed from the lady's receding figure and she turned to me.

She couldn't conceal the disgust that overtook her features. She didn't even look like she wanted to.

"God…" Her voice trailed off.

"You are pathetic. You know that, right?" She queried with an arch of her brow and I swallowed the lump that lodged in my throat, wiping my sweaty palms on my apron.

"Is there anything you can ever get right? You just mess every fucking thing up! Geez, I can't even stand you!" She snarled, her eyes flashing with fury. She groaned out in frustration and eyed me in disdain.

"I am deducting this out of your pay." She deadpanned and my eyes widened.

No, not my pay. Not my pay! It's barely enough.

"Tania, please—"

"Fix this," She cut me off, gesturing to the mess. She shot me a disgruntled look, hissed through her teeth and walked out on me.

"Fuck," I pushed my hair off my face, looking down at the shards of glasses that mirrored the current state of my life.

Clumsy Des. My subconscious snickered, but I tuned it out.

"Well, don't just stand there," A customer huffed at me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

My eyes drifted to hers and she arched a challenging brow at me. When she saw that I didn't say anything to her, she rolled her eyes, swiping away some glasses with her heels in a different direction, before she clicked her tongue in distaste, and walked out.

My shoulders slumped in defeat and my eyes travelled around the Café. Relief washed over me when I realised that everyone was beginning to concentrate on something else.

I stared back at the glass and proceeded to crouch to the floor to start picking them, but I stopped halfway. I huffed and marched into the storage room to grab a sweeper.

The brunette by the counter, who appeared to have been looking frantically around the Café, had her eyes narrowing on me and the relief in them was so evident. I plastered a faux smile on my face and walked towards her.

She leaned over the counter and reached for my hand. Beneath the smile she was trying to put up, I could still pick up the heavy tiredness in her brown eyes.

"Are you okay, Des? Were you hurt?" She bombarded me with questions and that elicited a giggle from me.

"I am fine, Charlotte. I wasn't hurt. Well, not physically, because she deducted from my pay." I answered her, trying to mask my hurt with a smile.

The front I was trying to put on didn't quell the dimness in her eyes.

"I am so sorry, Des." Her eyes mirrored the sincerity her words carried.

Charlotte was very different from the other girls in the Café. She was very empathetic and supportive. She doesn't pick on me like the other girls. And in truth, she treated me like I was family.

"It's okay, Charlotte. We'll talk later. I need to get the mess fixed up." I flashed her a smile and traipsed away from the counter, heading to the shards of glasses that were now scattered across every nook and cranny of the Café.

"A few more hours and you are out of here," I muttered, giving myself a pep talk.

Because, truthfully, Tania's Café was becoming more suffocating as each day unfolds, and I didn't know how long I was supposed to hold on.