3 I'm with you (Part 1)

The chirps of birds on the window wakes me up, my drowsy eyes open in slow-motion as it tries to adequate into the brightness of the room, the sun is already up in the sky. I yawn as I stretch and flail my arms out, my chin hurts for resting on the hard desk all night; my body still half asleep I head to the bathroom. As the door opens the smell of soap lingers in the air, I bend forward to wash my face on the sink, the sound of the running water completely wakes me up. I turn the faucet off as my other hand blindly looks for the towel that is hanging on the wall; as I dry off and clean my face a horrid view appears in front of me, the thing that I feared already happened and it is reflecting on the mirror, two huge blackholes beneath my eyes.

"Morning eyebags."

I murmur as I reluctantly accept the horror, my hand drop the towel back at where it was and I stagger downstairs, I move with sluggish movements as I am being guided by the rails of the stairs. The air is filled with a mouth-watering smell as I walk to the kitchen, I see dad in front of the stove frying something as I hear sizzles and pops; I approach him and rest my hand on his shoulder,

"Morning dad, what's for breakfast."

"Morn-. Wow, nice bling bling!"

He greets me with irony first thing in the morning and laughs at my misery, I grimace and respond

"Shut up dad, these are the fruit of my hard work!"

"Haha, yes I know. As an apology, I'll make your caffé latte. Can you please call your mom? She's in the garden."

dad says as he puts the fried eggs and bacon on a plate. I smile at him and trot to the main door as I look for mom on the window, the knob clacks as I twist it to open the door; mom is standing near the flower beds as she waters them, I stealthily go near her and tickle her sides, her most sensitive and vulnerable spot.

"Morning mom!"

She squirms and flails her arms making the hose spurt water everywhere; with quick backsteps, I dodge with ease and avoided to get wet. I chuckle at the show in front of my eyes and as I expected, mom glares at me with a grumpy expression while she executes her vengeance. But before mom could make the move and drench me completely I was already back at the main door,

"Breakfast's ready mom. Let's eat!"

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We ate breakfast and soon after we open the eatery, quite popular in the vicinity and also to the youngsters of the university I go to. As I arrived I immediately cleaned the windows, mopped the floor and arranged the seats, I got already used by this routine since I always help them during my weekends and I am not an outgoing person and I spend my free time inside my room anyway so I try to be more productive. Dad comes inside with bags of ingredients freshly bought from the supermarket and eyes popping out as he sees my job well done.

"Wow, cleaned in a speed of light."

he remarks my work as he walks towards the kitchen and scanning the whole store. I smug and flip my hair in the air,

"Yes, I'm awesome right? Right?"

"Yes, yes. I'll help mom with the cooking, can you handle the cash register? She will help you later."

"Leave it to your cute daughter!!"

We laugh at each other before going to the assigned work. I look at the passerby on the window, first, there were only a few then as time slips by it gradually increased until it became a horde. An hour had passed since we opened and the eatery is now completely filled, the business hours had already begun and my hands are already full with serving and taking the orders. The odor of burgers and fries wrapping the whole room and the chatters of the customer resonates and damps the music of the radio.

"Ash, go to the cash register. I'll take care of the servings and takings!"

Mom says as she pops out beside me holding a memo pad, a simple nod as a response and dash to the register. It is always like this when it is brunch to lunchtime and the work becomes lighter when it is afternoon.

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"Thank you for coming sir, have a great day!"

finally the last costumer for the lunch hours, I crank my stiff shoulders and sit at the nearest chair as soon as the guy goes out of the eatery. Mom takes the used dishes in the kitchen with a tray, she giggles as she sees me,

"Why don't you hang out with your friends now? We can handle the afternoon by ourselves."

I respond her with a smile; my mind and body still exhausted from work, I stare at the empty eatery that a few hours ago it was a hellish warzone. My cellphone suddenly rings and I grab it out from my pocket.

"Hello?"

"WHAT THE HELL ASH! WHERE YAH? I KNEW THAT YOU'LL FORGET IT!!!!"

my ear became deaf for a second for the shouting, the one on the other line is Amber, my best friend and classmate, I frown as I try to remember while trying to calm her

"Woah, Amber, relax!! Forgot what?"

"Relax your arse!! We have an outing and we're at the station and waiting for you, hurry up!!"

she hung up the call all of a sudden. I leap into the kitchen as I finally remember and explained the situation to my parents; when they gave their consent I bolted outside the store as I fix my hair with precise strokes and rode the first bus that arrived.

"Sorry, Amber. I just arrived, where are you?"

I called Amber as soon as I arrived at the station and frantically looking for them in the chaos.

"Ah! We just rode the train, but don't worry Ash. He'll give you company."

"He?"

I sense something fishy about this, and my intuition wasn't wrong. Amber wants me to ride the train with him and here he is; Yohan is standing beside a pillar waving his hand and smiling at me.