Satan's Vessel

*

Hours went by and the bar was still heaving. She tried to be careful as she passed through the bustling crowd with her plate of drinks. She was sweating. Her body was aching. Her head was hammering. She was so fixated on what she was doing she didn't notice the man walking past her too closely. She didn't notice how his eyes raked over her nor his mischievous grin before it was too late. She spun around with a gasp as he reached beneath her skirt.

The drinks tipped as Kaitlyn stumbled. She tried to grab for them but they were beyond saving. They seemed to fall in slow motion. They went everywhere. Beer and soft drink gushed like a river, all over the floor, all over herself, all over a customer sitting at a nearby table. Two of the glasses smashed against the linoleum floor, so loudly heads turned from every direction. The disgusting culprit had already vanished into the crowd by the time the wet customer stood with an angry shout.

Kaitlyn stood, staring, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think. It was suddenly so quiet. How could a once such busy, chaotic room suddenly be so damn quiet? She felt her cheeks flame. Her stomach bottomed out as the silence stretched.

And then the woman opened her mouth.

The whole room watched as she shouted. Kaitlyn heard her but hardly understood what she was saying, her ears echoing with the sound of her own pounding heart. All she knew was the woman's angry wide mouth and the lines of cruelty around her eyes. It didn't matter to her that Kaitlyn was soaked through. It didn't matter that she was exhausted and humiliated. It mattered even less that she'd just been sexually harassed. The whole room watched in silence and all Kaitlyn could do was stand there copping it, frozen like a statue.

Eventually, the woman's mouth stopped moving. The ends of her blonde hair were damp from the beer. Kaitlyn could see her bra through her wet shirt. With a scowl, the woman turned and sat back down again.

The woman flicked her hair back out of the way as a couple of her friends reached over with their serviettes to help dab her shirt dry. Their lips were thin as they looked up at Kaitlyn in disgust.

'I'm really sorry,' Kaitlyn muttered as she knelt down carefully to pick up the bigger pieces of smashed glass.

The woman merely flicked back her long blonde hair again as she muttered something about "incompetent staff".

Mutely, her ears ringing, her mind whirling, Kaitlyn gathered up what she could of the mess. Her eyes were hot. It felt like there was a rock sitting deep in her throat. Getting up, she wound her way back between the tables, ignoring the whispering, ignoring people's laughing eyes. She reached the safety of the bar but wasn't focusing enough when she put down the plate of broken glass. At an angle, it all toppled into the sink with a crash.

Kaitlyn looked up as Felicity gripped her shoulder. Her friend's eyes were creased with sympathy. 'I'll clean up the rest. Go have a break.'

'No. I'll do it.'

Felicity squeezed her shoulder. Her voice was firm. 'I said, go have a break.'

Tears dripped from Kaitlyn' eyes as she stared down at the sink. The little shards of broken glass glinted sharply against the fluorescent light. Everything turned to a blur. The sounds of the busy restaurant were becoming strangely muffled. With a tearful gasp, she nodded. Turning away, she hurried towards the staffroom, her head down, gripping her elbows.

She went to the bathroom first, pulling off her wet shirt. The beer had soaked into her bra and felt sticky against her skin. She stood at the sink, angry tears continuously filling her eyes as she wiped down her shirt with a wet paper towel. After that, she tried to dry it off as best she could under the hand dryer. Grimacing, she put it back on. It was cold and damp and still smelled like beer.