Lumen Buelow (burninginside_) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2012-10-03 01:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-09-18, farren, lumen |
service without a smile
Who: Lumen and OPEN
Where: Sarah’s Place
When: Just after school
Why was Lumen upset today? Oh yeah, that’s right: she had to be at work. Generally speaking, being at the diner put her in a sour mood, but her mother had called her during lunch to say that she wouldn’t be able to cover tables until Lumen got there and settled – which meant that she had to scramble from school to the nearest bus stop, suffer public transportation, and break her neck to get to work before too many people noticed that there wasn’t a waitress around to take care of them. The urge to throttle her mother was one that was ever present, but days like this just made her want it that much more. “I know, I know. I’m late.” She threw her hands up in a sign of surrender as the cook glared at her through the window that offered the only unhindered passageway from the diner floor to the kitchen. The man was new and completely intolerant of her. She had spent enough time around short order cooks to know that they usually came with a temper, but this one seemed to be personally offended by the fact that Sarah’s Place was practically Lumen’s second home. When he rolled his eyes and yelled at her to get her ass in gear, she fought the urge to give him a hand gesture that expressed exactly where she thought he could shove the orders waiting to be walked out to tables; it was too early in her shift to cause a scene. “I’m guessing these weren’t cooked with love?” She offered the cook a snarky smile as she tied on her apron and reached for the twin burgers at the window. His only response was a glare, which she countered with her brightest shit-eating grin. He wouldn’t last long; it wasn’t typical for those that Lumen didn’t like to remain employed for longer than a few weeks. Sometimes she managed to drive them away with her unpleasant disposition alone. The last waitress they had hired left in angry tears because Lumen had asked her if she paid her bills with the tips she made at the diner or the cash she earned on the street corner – if she didn’t want to be accused of being a prostitute, then she shouldn’t have come to work dressed like one. When they proved to be too tolerant of her bad attitude, sometimes the manager got a little push in the right direction. For some reason, all of the higher ups liked Lumen, more than likely because they had watched her grow up. All she had to do was whisper in their ear about how she only had the best interests of the diner in mind and she could convince them of anything. Considering how much the new cook hated her, Lumen thought it would be particularly funny to accuse him of making inappropriate advances on her. That wouldn’t go over well; not at all. She sighed deeply as she watched someone enter the dinner and take a seat at one of her booths. First table of the day. Some of the other waitresses argued that it was the best part of the shift; it was what determined your tips for the rest of the night. Lumen only saw it as a bad omen waiting to unfold. “Welcome to Sarah’s Place. What can I get for you?” The mumble came out more as one disgruntled word than an actual greeting. Lumen looked up from her order pad and raised an eyebrow, already impatient as she waited for an answer. |