Runaway

Chapter 20

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~Uploaded May 4th, 2014

My Sunday morning started off pretty simply: wake up, shower, get dressed, eat, then get to Minnie's for a bit before eleven o'clock, around a quarter to, and deal with cranky customers. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was at 11:30 that everything went absolutely bonkers.

The reason for the "bonkers"? It had to do with a certain blonde, and for once, I wasn't talking about Dylan.

I was carrying plates out for a family of three from the kitchen when I was almost hit by Hurricane Nora as she passed through the door. And by that, I mean she literally looked like she had just walked out of a hurricane. And she was close to half an hour late. Nora was never late.

Her strawberry blonde hair was always either in a low bun or a braid, but today, it looked like she had taken a special liking to making her fair hair look like something a wild animal had slept in. Her street clothes were dishevelled and rumpled up and she was carrying a duffel bag on her shoulder. There were even dark circles beneath her eyes, though the blue-green of them were bright with both excitement and anxiety.

"Dani, bathroom, now", she told me in a crazy voice. Um, hello to you too?

"Nora, I-" I started to gesture that I had customers to attend to.

"Now." She got that crazy look in her eye that made me wonder if she had a Monster before coming into work. Without waiting for my answer, she hefted her heavy bag and took off down the narrow hallway to the bathroom.

I sighed, excused myself from the family, and went to the kitchen to ask Nick to keep an eye out for other clients and to come and get me if anything happened.

"What's going on?", he asked as he dried his hands with a dishcloth.

"Nora's freaking out about something and she wants to talk to me in the bathroom." Nick made a face. "What?", I asked him.

"Isn't it kind of common that when girls have a major problem, they meet in the bathroom?"

"Good point. Keep an eye out, would you?" He said he would and made himself comfortable by leaning against the back counter. I moved from behind the bar and walked to the bathroom. I opened the door and shut it behind me.

"Can you make this quick please?", I asked as I moved further into the washroom and leaned against a wall. "I have clients to serve and- Nora, what is going on?" Her duffel bag was sticking out from beneath the stall at the end of the row with a bunch of clothes sticking out of it. Why did she need that many clothes for work?

"I need help." Nora emerged from the bathroom in her work clothes:, a pair of black pants, red polo shirt, that polka-dotted apron and her close-topped Crocs. "Like desperate-otherwise-I'm-going-to-die kind of help."

"With what, your hair?" I gestured to her explosive mop, that was curled oddly on one side of her head and frizzy on the other. I didn't even know how that was possible. "I'm no good at that kind of thing. You're on your own for that."

"No, not for that." She pulled a brush out of her overstuffed bag and started brushing out her hair as she kicked her bag over to the mirror. "Well, yes for that, but for something else too. I really just need someone to talk to right now. Please, Dani."

Between her pleading eyes and kind of pathetic and messy look at the moment, not to mention her lower lip that she somehow made quiver, I couldn't refuse. Plus, if she was coming to me for help, instead of someone like Andie, then she must have been desperate.