Mariano Girl

Presenting Daphne Mariano pt. 1

Daphne was not a morning person in stark contrast to her male relatives. Jess was naturally an early bird, and Luke was able to be out the door by five o'clock in the morning. But Daphne for the love of God could not force herself out of bed before seven even if she wanted to.

Today Jess was supposed to start his new employment at Luke's Diner, though he was running late today.

And due to the new and confined apartment Daphne now shared with her uncle and brother, she had never slept worse in her entire life than this last week. The combined snoring of Luke and Jess shook the apartment, and sounded like a erupting volcano. She decided that maybe she also could work in the diner for extra cash in order to invest in a pair of new noise cancelling headphones.

So when the clock blared it's annoying and loud alarm, twice, Daphne didn't hesitate to reach over to the nightstand to blindly grab it and throw it across the apartment. She didn't flinch at the crash that followed, but her eyes shot open at the scream let out by Jess.

"Geez!" Jess yelled, the clock had hit the wall of the bathroom, narrowly missing his face. "What the hell, Daphne?" he shouted angrily.

"What?" Daphne rose out of bed, her hair a mess, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Jess glared at her in a mixture disbelief and anger. "You almost hit me!"

"No I didn't," Daphne defended herself. Though she could see the shattered clock on the floor beside where Jess stood, but she wasn't caving now. "Don't be such a drama queen."

She finally crawled out of bed and began brushing her hair. "Yes, you did!" Jess yelled again.

"Nuh uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yes, you did!"

Daphne pulled out the few clothes she brought with her, and grimaced. She'd worn her Madonna t-shirt at least twice this week, but the other three she brought hadn't been washed since leaving New York. I really need to unpack all my stuff, Daphne thought. But there was nowhere to put it!

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Daphne snapped at Jess. It was 7:30 and he still hadn't gone downstairs. It was then Daphne took a good look at Jess and what he was wearing; a black Metallica t-shirt with a giant skull engulfed in green flames on the front. "Why are you wearing such an ugly shirt?"

"Whatever," Jess rolled his eyes and retreated back into the bathroom.

"Jerk," Daphne mumbled back. Feeling slightly lazy, Daphne decided simple t-shirt and jeans were fine for the day. She grabbed her backpack and made her way into the diner. The second she stepped outside the curtain, Luke's demanding voice daunted Daphne over her head like a rock.

"Where the hell is your brother?" Luke asked, pouring cups of coffee for customers at the counter. The diner was packed, and without Jess's expected help, Luke seemed to be drowning in work.

"Morning to you too," Daphne replied, grabbing herself a donut.

"Morning," Luke said in return. "Now what is Jess doing up there?"

"How should I know? If anything he's probably staring at himself in the mirror."

Just then Jess appeared from behind the curtain.

"Jess, you were supposed to be down here—what the hell is that?" Luke asked, staring at Jess's shirt with a look of disdain on his face.

"What?" Jess asked confused, as if Daphne didn't insult the shirt two minutes ago.