Fury (8 page)

Someone moved behind her I couldn’t see because they were hidden in the office behind the open kitchen. She turned and said something to them then laughed. She waved a hand toward me and said something else then nodded her head before heading back my way.

She pulled a pencil out of her hair but it did nothing to ruin what she’d just accomplished. I stared at her in wonder.

“You thirsty?” she asked me when she reached my table.

“Yeah, uh, could I get a Coke, please?”

“Well, gee, I can see what I’ve got, Beav. Sit tight,” she said, winking then heading to another table and taking their drink order.

She approached a third group of four teenage boys and I sat up a little for some reason. They gave her their drink orders and she wrote them down, smiling and patting one on the shoulder. The one in the back corner on the left asked her a question and she leaned over to hear him better because the music was so loud, which made me hold my breath for yet another reason I didn’t know. The one she’d patted on the shoulder purposely dropped something on the ground and tapped her on the shoulder then pointed toward what he’d let fall. She looked down and he said something to her to which she just laughed at then headed back toward the kitchen, passing me with a smile.

She got everyone’s drinks and spread them in a spiraling circle on a drink tray. She picked the thing up like it weighed nothing and walked our direction again. She set my drink down so quickly I barely saw it.

“Be right back,” she said over her shoulder.

She dropped off the table’s drinks between mine and the boys then moved on to the teenagers, setting theirs down along with a pitcher of dark syrupy soda. She took their orders as well as the middle table’s and then came to mine.

              “Know what you want?” she asked, running her hand down the top of my head, her pencil tucked between her thumb and fingers, and grabbing a few strands of hair, pulling them softly to the ends. Her momentary touch assuaged my frayed nerves.

              “Uh, surprise me,” I told her.

She didn’t question it and walked off to the kitchen.

              She returned with another pitcher of soda and exchanged it for the pitcher she’d set down in front of the boys as if she knew they were going to drain it while she’d been gone. She set the empty pitcher on the bar top and the bartender took it from her. She glanced at her next table, looked satisfied then came to mine, leaning over the tabletop and resting her chin in her hand since the booths were set a few feet off the ground for easy access.

“I think you’re gonna like what I ordered for you,” she said, turning to look over her shoulder at the bartender when he said her name.

“Yeah, Pete?” she asked.

“Grab me a crate of pilsners, will ya?”

“Be right back,” she said.

And that’s how the entire night when on. About five hundred
I’ll be right back
s. She’d brought me a giant bacon burger a few minutes after she’d ordered for me, and I ate the entire thing along with a plate of fries. All the work I’d done that afternoon had caught up to me and I guess I was hungrier than I’d thought I was. That, or it was Finley’s oddly mollifying hands. She may not have been able to talk to me that often during her shift but every time she’d pass me, those hands found the top of my hand, forearm, fingers, shoulder, or occasionally my neck.

Around ten, they called all the servers onto the bar top by blaring a siren sound throughout the whole burger joint. I couldn’t help but cringe for Finley when she rolled her eyes and climbed on top of the bar with all the other girls. She was on the far end, closest to me, and when “Cotton-Eyed Joe” began to play they all wrapped their hands around one another’s backs and line danced. Finley’s face looked tired and she wore a forced smile. She hated it and that made me smirk.

She noticed me and smiled genuinely before shaking her head at me. Her dance moves looked rehearsed but sufficient. When the song was over, I stood up and offered her my hand to help her down.

“You looked really into it,” I teased her.

“See that girl over there?” she asked, pointing to another server. A girl, I’d noticed, who
really
enjoyed the line dance.

“Yeah?” I answered, curious where she was going with her question.

“Well, see, she has thirty-seven pieces of flair.”

I laughed. I mock examined her. “And it looks like you’re only wearing fifteen, Fin.”

“The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.”

              “You’re funny.”

              “Yeah, yeah, sit down, will ya? Wanna piece of cake, Milton?”

              “Nah, the ratio of people to cake is too big.”

              She smiled. “All right, fine. I’m gonna clean up then. My shift is done. They cut me early.”

              “Cool,” I said, then thought of something. “Wait.”

              “What’s up?”

              “Those guys earlier. One of them dropped something on the floor. What was it?”

              She shook her head. “Oh, that. Yeah, he elbowed a sugar packet onto the floor and told me I’d dropped my name tag.”

              “Clever,” I said, almost laughing.

              “They’ve got a new one every week.”

              Finley tossed her apron onto a pile to be laundered, I assumed, then washed her hands for what seemed like the thousandth time that night.

That night’s bartender came up to me just then. “You goin’ out with Finley Dyer now? She’s got issues, you know. I tried it out with her once and she wanted nothin’ to do with me.”

I eyed him. “And that’s why she
has issues
?” I asked. “Because she wouldn’t go out with you?”

“Nah, man, I just heard some stuff. So, you goin’ out with her or what?” he asked, more curious than casual conversation merited. It was obvious he was still into her.

“No, we’re just friends.”

“Cool,” he said, seemingly satisfied. He started to walk away but stopped and turned back around. “You should be careful around her, though. Remember what I said, she’s got issues, man.”

I snorted. “Not any more than I do.”

“What?”

“Nothing, see you ’round,” I said, standing.

“Later.”

I leaned against the edge of the booth to wait for her. Finley came around the office corner removing all her pencils and her hair came tumbling down her back. She tossed them all in her bag on the shelf then swung the strap over her head and across her torso, untucking her hair that’d caught in the strap.

              She sighed, threading her hands through her hair. “It’s been a long night,” she admitted, looking sleepy.

              “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

              “No, my car’s at Sykes remember?”

              “No way. I can tell you’re exhausted. I’ll just pick you up tomorrow morning and take you then.”

              “Fine,” she conceded.

But life rarely makes it easy for you, because my truck had other ideas.

The key turned and the truck began to rumble but died outright. I tried it multiple times but it wouldn’t start.

My hands fell to the seat in resignation. I turned to Finley. “Shit, I’m so sorry, Finley.”

She laughed. “Nah, it’s fine. It happens. What do you think is wrong with it, though?”

“Pretty sure it’s just the battery.”

“Okay, we’ll ask somebody for a ride.”

We got out and shut our doors. I felt so bad for keeping her up because of my piece-of-shit truck. I couldn’t stop screwing up her life.

              “What’s wrong?” she asked, studying me when I met her side.

              “I just feel like you’ve helped me out so much but I can’t seem to return the favors. Small, though, they may be.”

              “Life is strange like that, Ethan. There are going to be times where you’re wondering what the hell is going on with yourself, when you begin to question your world. You’ll be lost as shit but inexplicably someone finds you the moment you’re ready to jump from the ledge and helps you stand back up. Holly Raye did that for me once, and now it seems it is my destiny to help you. There are no debts earned or owed when life is cruel to you like that. It’s my duty as a friend first but also as a human to lift those who need lifting, to lift you.”

              “That’s so comforting to think about, Fin. Not everyone thinks the way you do.”

We began to walk back toward Buffalo’s.

              “Just because they don’t doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. Besides, people will surprise you sometimes. All we need is for someone to shine by example. People inevitably gravitate towards the good when the good can’t be helped but to overshine the awful. It’s human nature.”

              “Many would disagree with you.”

              “Are one of these many you?” she asked.

              “No,” I answered, earning me a glorious smile.

              “We’re bombarded with so much evil in this world on a twenty-four-hour basis that it’s hard to believe we’re capable of anything but the worst. But all it takes is the conscious decision of one. One person can move mountains.”

“What if they fail?” I asked.

She eyed me. “Dig yourself out and move on to the next. Your hands may bleed, but they’ll be made all the stronger for the effort. Failures and trials are designed to make you that much more resilient. They callus the weak parts of you and leave the strong.”

I nodded my acceptance and we kept walking. A loud pickup truck whipped around the corner. My arm shot out to keep Finley from moving any farther. The truck came to an abrupt stop and obnoxious music came spilling out of the windows as they rolled them down. It was the teenage boys from earlier.

“
Oh jeez
,” Finley said under her breath.

“Hey, Finley. What’s up?” the driver asked, eyeing me up and down.

“Hey, Patrick,” Finley answered. She gestured toward me. “Ethan’s truck’s battery died.”

“You need a jump?” he asked.

Finley looked at me for an answer. “Thanks, yeah, that’d be cool,” I told him.

Patrick drove his truck and parked a few feet from the front of mine, and Finley and I walked back to meet him. There was a guy in the passenger seat and two in the bed of the truck but they stayed put, staring at their phones. Patrick got out and opened his hood while I fished behind the bench for my cables. After we got everything hooked, I attempted the engine but it didn’t even turn over once. We decided to let the cables stay connected for a while before trying again.

“So, uh, you guys are together or something?” he asked after a few moments.

What in the world is up with that question tonight?

             
Finley giggled. “No,” she offered, looking at me and smiling. “Ethan and I
are
very good friends, though.” She ran her palm down my arm and squeezed when she reached my fingers before letting her hand drop back down. I nearly closed my eyes at the relief her brief touch gave me. Hearing Finley admit that we were friends out loud after our discussion at the lake was yet another balm to my soul.

Patrick eyed me, sabotaging the reprieve her fingers gave me.

              “
Oh
,” he responded, as if she meant anything other than its true meaning.

              “Finley’s not that kind of girl,” I defended, narrowing my eyes at him. My chest began to burn in anger for her.

              Patrick leaned against the side of his truck, looking out into the field behind the restaurant. A small smile laid across his face. I could already tell Patrick was the kind of guy who needed a good ass-kicking to wipe out that annoying cockiness most guys his age developed. Now, I know I wasn’t much older than him but, to be honest with you, I’d lived a pretty rough life. Maturity came at thirteen and slammed into me with such ferocity it threw me across the field called experience at astonishing speed. I came up on the other side never really having had the opportunity to revel in anything young. At times, I felt like I was
born
old.

              Patrick stared at me hard. “I see.”

I was so close to ripping off the cables and telling him he was no longer needed but Finley looked so tired, I couldn’t do that to her. Instead, I gritted my teeth and sidled closer to her.

              I tried the engine again but to no avail then again with Patrick revving his engine, but nothing.

              “I think I just need a new battery altogether,” I said with a sigh, running my hands through my hair. “I’m so sorry, Fin.”

              She yawned then laughed. “It’s okay. What do we need to do?” she asked, standing between the driver’s side door and me, her arm resting on the window.

              “I think we’ll need to hitch a ride with dumbass over there.”

              Finley laughed under her breath then sighed. “All right.”