Unintentionally Falling

chapter four

Iris

(tw mentions of ED, body image dysmorphia, and hurtful body image comments)*

"Iris... I want fast food, can you pull over?" Alexia slurs, while tapping my shoulder from the backseat of Crystal's SUV. I'm driving both Alexia and Crystal after they got shit-faced at the party. They got so wasted I had to get help from Crystal's cheerleader friends to help carry Crystal, while I carried Alexia back to her car.

"Yeah. I. Want. Ice Cream." Crystal whines from the passenger seat flailing her hands everywhere like a toddler.

"Come on, give the people what they want!" Alexia pumps her fist in the air, which hits the ceiling of the car. Crystal breaks into hysterics laughing her ass off for two minutes straight.

Looking from the rearview mirror, I grin at Alexia shaking her hand while muttering a string of curse words.

Crystal's a year older than us, I met her at Beau's Diner-- a small dingy old diner in San Bernardino where I grew up. I spent a lot of my time wiping down tables and mopping floors. We didn't work together for that long-- okay for like two weeks or so.

We bonded over the fact that we both despised our boss, Bill. If I was a teacher, I would give Bill an 'A+' for being a total ass. He was one of those people who sucked up in front of others and acted all "love, peace and happiness for everyone". But as soon as they turned their back he acted like a fucking prick to everyone. Nevertheless, people in the neighbourhood loved him for the 'rustic old little touches' he brought.

In a nutshell, she called him out for me when I started working there, I was too scared that if I did say something I'd lose my job. I think it was about my seventh shift at Beau's. Bill was trying to get past me when I was wiping down the tables. He put his hands on my ass, snaking his hands to my waist with his grubby paws and manhandled me to get by. It was very unnecessary. There was so much walking space to my right, and I wasn't even fully blocking an aisle.

I froze up completely, I didn't know what to do. I was seventeen, he was like fifty-one. In a world like this, what power does a seventeen-year-old teenage girl have against an adult man? Sad but true, words like 'attention seeker', 'drama queen', and 'liar' was probably the words people would say.

Crystal was my hero in a pink and blue striped uniform. Crystal had watched the whole scene play out, and her eyes widened like saucers. She and I both almost lost our jobs because Crystal barked at him screaming, "You're a real skank Bill, she's seventeen!" She launched guacamole from someone's table who just left right at Bill. It landed straight on his left cheek.

Let's just say he screeched at us for an hour straight. The fucker then started preaching to us that we're lucky since he's 'so nice' and we'll get to keep our jobs. Crystal did not take that well, she quit dragging me along and yelling to Bill that I quit too.

When my father asked why Crystal and I quit Crystal went off about Bill's actions. It wasn't the first time Bill has done something like this. One of Crystal's first shifts Crystal went he pulled the same shit on her. Touching her, making uncomfortable advances even though he explicitly knew she wasn't interested.

The only difference was he stopped, only though when he found out Crystal is lesbian. The weird snide comments he'd say around her finally made sense to me. Those fucking awful remarks about her being 'troubled' and 'confused' made my blood fucking boil.

I was mad that the fucker touched me. I was mad that he got to say terrible shit like that to Crystal. I was mad that he preached about hospitality and manners but had none. I was mad that he thought he did nothing wrong.