Sugar Rush

02 | crush | i

0 2

c r u s h

To reduce particles by force.

(part i)

"ONE VODKA SODA, one vodka cranberry, and one Long Island iced tea. Go easy on the tea," I added, as I set the glasses down. Two of the drinks were snatched up immediately by the girls at the table.

"We go big tonight!" one of them shrieked.

I barely held back a wince. You could tell a lot about a person based on the kind of drink they ordered. Long Islands, for instance, were a hot favorite among people who wanted to get drunk. Stereotypical, but often true enough. This girl already looked like a lightweight; one strap of her shirt had fallen off her shoulder and she giggled unbearably.

Mental note to self: no matter what Marc says later, do not clean up after this table.

Vodka cranberry drinkers, on the other hand, were often young women. The second girl, a brunette who looked barely a day over twenty-one, picked up her drink. "Cheers," she said, as she turned to her other friend. "I still can't believe you're getting married."

"You are?" I glanced at the last girl. The blonde seemed like the quietest of the lot, and the least likely to wake up with a hangover tomorrow morning. She took a dainty sip of her vodka soda and nodded. "Congratulations!" I said, smiling. "Consider this drink on the house."

"Can you actually do that?" the brunette asked, eyes wide.

"Well, I've seen the other waiters give out free drinks for birthdays, being single again...and even turning eighteen," I added with a wry smile. That had been an eventful day, when two of the waiters had fought over giving an eighteen-year old her first drink. And then had fought to get away from her when she threw up all over the bar. "I think getting married deserves some kind of celebration too."

"What about finally shagging my boss?" the first girl demanded. She took another gulp of her drink. "I mean, I've been trying to get him to fuck me for ages, but his wife kept calling him at work, and then he had to go to his kid's stupid recital! But I finally succeeded earlier today. I just went for it, you know? Went under his table and everything, then unzipped his pants so that I could put his cock in my—"

"Yeah, you're cut off," I said as gently as I could, then grabbed the tray and straightened up. The brunette had slapped a hand over her friend's mouth to keep her from talking, so the girl could only blink up at me. "You need to go easy on the drinks and make better life choices, okay? Let me know if you two need anything else," I added to her friends, who both nodded.

"Thank you," the blonde said, with an apologetic look.

"No problem. Have a lovely wedding!" I left the table and glanced around. No one else needed to order, so I headed back to the bar.

"Hey, Jack, put table nineteen's vodka soda on my tab, will you?" I said to the bartender. He nodded and saluted me with two fingers, before he returned back to his work. I leaned back against the counter and turned to the woman perched on the barstool. "So, what were we talking about?"

Stella took a sip of her mocktail and shrugged. She'd dropped by the Lemon Lounge earlier this evening in a bid to "show some support", as she so kindly put it. Really, I knew that she just wanted a free drink. It seemed to be one of the perks that came with having a friend who worked at a bar.