Freak (Troyler AU)

Chapter Seventy-Nine

*Tyler's POV*

*Timeskip to six months later*

"Here you are, enjoy your meal." I beamed, setting the plates down in front of each customer surrounding the small table. I noticed they'd stolen chairs from the table beside them to accommodate every member of their party, making a mental note to make sure they put them back afterward.

"Thanks." The mother said, giving me an apologetic smile when a rogue drop of spaghetti sauce from the toddler's plate nearly hit me. Man, that kid was chowing down. You'd think it hadn't seen food for months at the rate it was eating. Then again, who am I to talk? With that in mind, I kept my staring to a minimum, giving them a quick farewell before heading back toward the kitchen.

I was still stopped three times on the way back, but I couldn't bring myself to mind. Everyone was nice and I enjoyed making their dinner experience better in one way or another, knowing how miserable I felt when it took ages for my waiter to come back by my table. Of course, I wasn't actually their waiter, I spent most of my time behind the counter in the kitchen cooking, but I figured it didn't hurt to cover the back of our waiters and waitresses. Even if the reason their backs even needed covering at all was due solely to laziness.

I paused again just before walking into the kitchen, drawing in a shaky breath as I studied the familiar posters. They were strung up everywhere, they had been for a few months now. Nobody really talked about it anymore, but it didn't stop my breath from catching every time I saw Caspar's name scrawled across those missing posters. I just hoped he was okay. 

Troye and I had went to his house right after it happened to snoop around a bit. He read his father's mind, finding out for sure that he wasn't the reason he was missing. It really just seemed like he'd been abducted by someone else entirely, or that he'd ran away. I hoped it was the latter. 

I pushed through the doors carelessly, immediately going for the hand washing station and rinsing them clean. I slipped a new pair of gloves on after turning off the tap, taking a deep breath before walking back over to the stove. My kitchen help was here, in the form of a very familiar woman peering at the soup curiously like she had no idea what to do next.

"Mom? Is everything under control?" I laughed, pausing beside her to lean my weight onto one hip, waiting impatiently for her response. My time was limited and I really would have liked to be out of here by now, but I couldn't leave her here looking so unsure.

"It tastes weird." She observed simply, giving a guilty expression like she somehow blamed herself for whatever the mishap had been to ruin my soup. Whatever it was, it was probably fixable. If it wasn't, it was just soup after all.

I grabbed a new spoon and quickly scooped some into my mouth, not even needing a moment to process what the food was lacking. I knew instantly.

"Needs salt." I said simply, rushing to grab the box of salt off the opposite counter. I walked back to the stove with it in hand, dashing some onto my palm before dropping it innto the pot. I watched the top of the water fizzle just slightly over the additive, hurrying to grab yet another spoon for her to taste it again. I felt bad for whoever was on dish duty tonight. Actually, I always felt bad for the person on dish duty, considering it was never my job. "Better?" I asked her, not even trying to hide my curiosity as I watched her facial reactions to the spoon I'd just barely shoved past her lips. She nodded, swallowing harshly before flashing me a wide smile.

"When did you get so good at this! The Mellet's knew what they were doing when they hired you!" She beamed, wrapping me up into a hug. I blushed, knowing one of our co-workers could walk in and see our embrace at any second. That wasn't quite enough to get me to back out of it though, instead enjoying being able to rest in her warm arms. In some ways, I really missed living with her. In other ways, I was very thankful Troye and I were on our own.