Hurricane Love

Thirteen

'How was your pizza?' Christine asked, as I stepped into the kitchen upon returning home.

'Good, yeah,' I replied. 'What are you up to?'

'Just finishing off this bouquet for a customer,' Christine said, as she began clipping stems from the ends of some red roses. 'Oh, she actually was telling me that she's looking to hire someone to work at her place; you might have heard of it.'

'Where?' I asked.

'Bernie's Bar and Grill,' Christine said.

'She owns Bernie's?' I said. 'Yeah, I love that place.'

It was a regular hang out spot for the teens from my high school and Abbie, Mason and I were there most weekends for Bernie's famous burgers.

'Yeah, well, she's Bernie,' Christine chuckled. 'I suggested you to her but I did say I'd speak to you first. I think she'd be really interested in hiring you if you fancy that. I put a good word in.'

'Yeah, I have been thinking about a job lately,' I muttered. 'Then I don't have to keep doing chores and snipping flower stems for money.'

'Well, you still have to do your chores,' she laughed.

'Sure, sure,' I said. 'Well, let her know I'm definitely interested.'

'I'll tell her when she collects these from me tonight,' Christine said. 'I'm serious though, Amelia, you'd better make sure you don't make me look bad. She'll be your boss and I know you don't do well with being told what to do but you have to follow the rules and be professional.'

'I know,' I replied, as I shrugged. 'I don't mind if I'm getting a pay check.'

'Okay, then I'll tell her,' she said.

'Great,' I said, with a smile. 'I'm going to shower and head to bed.'

'Early night?' she asked, with a raised brow.

'Yeah, I'm really tired, so, goodnight,' I said, heading for the stairs.

I headed straight for the bathroom where I took my shower before going to my room and getting into my pyjamas.

I felt distracted and deep in thought and as much as I shook it away to focus on other things, I could not forget about what had happened at the pizza parlour. Ryker's expression had completely changed and I'd never seen him that way before. He was always so cocky and smug and right there he had looked so tired and unhappy the second he'd answered the phone.

I fell asleep that night still thinking about it and woke up the next day thinking about it again. Quickly getting ready, I headed out to school and found myself glancing around the halls for him, wondering if whatever had happened had been so bad that he wouldn't be in today.

After walking for a few minutes, I saw him by his locker and moved quicker before I stopped myself and stood there. I had no idea what I was about to do. Ask him if he was okay? Ask if he wanted to talk about it? I knew he would shoot me down right away and make a dick remark to me about minding my own business. At the same time, I still couldn't forget the look on his face. I could sense exactly how he was feeling just from that look and it reminded me of a time in my life many years ago when I'd felt the same way.

'Ryker,' I said, softly, as I approached him from behind.

He turned around and slowly raised his eyebrows, staring at me strangely as if I'd grown another head.

'What?' he asked, after a few seconds of silence.

'Umm...well, I was just seeing if you were alright,' I said, suddenly feeling stupid. I tried to make it sound as casual as possible, knowing he wasn't about to tell me any details of the situation.