Bullied, But not Broken

4. Birthday Gifts

Sasha

When Sasha passed the tattoo parlor on her way to the diner, she gasped in surprised shock, when his assistant, Lola, unexpectedly caught her arm and dragged her inside with a broad grin and then into a big hug.

“Happy Birthday, Sasha!” She all but squealed with excitement.

Vaughn chuckled at her and shook his head, before he stepped forward and pulled a very surprised Sasha into a big bear hug that felt so good she wanted to stay there for the rest of the day. “Happy birthday, Girly. We got you a little something.” He answered with a grin and pulled a birthday card out of his back pocket and handed it to her.

Sasha felt tears well up in her eyes; this was the first time someone even remembered her birthday without her having to tell them. She hadn’t even expected to get anything, just like every other year, so this card was something amazing to her. Opening the card to read the humorous message inside, she was surprised to find a gift card to the superstore in town.

That just ruined any composure she had had and the sob escaped out of her mouth without warning and had Vaughn looking like a deer in the headlights. “I’m sorry; why are you crying? I can get you something else if you don’t want that?” Vaughn tried to soothe, flustered at her tears.

She shook her head, gasping to gain control of her emotions. When she finally could catch a breath, she spoke through her sobs. “This is...the first...gift I ever...got. Thank you...I’ll always...treasure this…”

Vaughn’s and Lola’s faces crumbled at the emotions and they both wrapped her up in a group hug. She’d never had one of those either. When they finally stepped away, Lola was also crying. “I…want…to…give…you…something…too…” She managed in between her own sniffles and tears, then she disappeared into the back and came out with a bag before handing it to Sasha.

“That’s part of the gift…” She managed while she wiped her eyes where her dark make-up had started to smudge with her crying. “The other part is that I’ll give you a piercing and the jewelry for it, free of charge, anytime you like.”

Sasha wiped her face with the back of her hand, still holding the card with the gift card. Then she opened the bag and found a warm, waterproof jacket inside it. It was a gorgeous navy blue and she realized that she wouldn’t be that cold this year. Her tears started flowing again and she hugged them both, thanking them profusely for the gifts that only seemed to embarrass them.

Finally, she had to say goodbye since she was about to be late for her shift at the diner. Sasha was still wiping away the tears when she walked into the back room and gasped in surprise when Mabel stood there with a small cake along with some of the kitchen staff and they sang to her.

That just started her crying all over again and she was soon enveloped in more hugs, before the kitchen staff had to return to their posts and Mabel pulled out a new backpack that seemed to be stuffed full of things.

At her urging, Sasha opened it and found several sets of clothes rolled up inside. This was her third gift for the day and she had never expected anything like it. She was completely breathless with tears while Mabel held her and soothed her tears. Then she made her eat an extra slice of the cake before she was finally allowed to change for her shift.

Unfortunately, she had to deal with some of the kids from her school today; the one group being Garrett Steele with his football friends after their practice. While she served the loud and obnoxious team that always seemed to sit in her area, she kept feeling eyes on her. Glancing up, she stared Garrett Steele in the eye, before she broke the stare and continued with her work.

She had no idea why he suddenly paid attention to her. Couldn’t he just leave her alone? She had already told him that she would do the whole project and allow him to get free marks for the effort of continuing to ignore her like before. What was his problem?

She hoped it wouldn’t last that long; having his attention on her could not mean anything good in her future. Was her being bullied daily not enough? She continued to serve the team without many spoken words on her side, despite some of them making crude remarks about helping her rise in the pecking order at school or demanding something more than was offered on the menu.

She would calmly write down their orders and then bring them to them when it was done. She didn’t expect a tip. None of the kids from school ever left one to her, but at least she got a salary and some of the other customers made up for it, especially some of her regulars.

One of which was just sitting down at a table nearby. After she had dropped off the last of the team’s food, she went to Mr Kimble, a lonely widower in his early sixties who came to eat dinner in the diner when the silence at his house became too much for him.

She smiled welcomingly at Mr Kimble. “Hello, Mr Kimble. How have you been lately? And how is the weekly bridge game going?”

Mr Kimble glanced up at her with sparkling eyes. “Hello, Sasha. I didn’t think you’d remember that.”

“Of course I do, you just told me about it two weeks ago and –“ She hid her face behind her booklet as if she was imparting a big secret to him. “ – you are my favorite customer, by far.”

Mr Kimble chuckled at her answer. “Then what about that young man over there, staring at you right now?”

Confused, she followed his gaze to find Garrett Steele staring at her with a frown, currently ignoring his meal in front of him. She rolled her eyes and looked back at Mr Kimble. “He’s annoyed because our teacher paired us up for a project. He’ll be over it soon.” She commented dryly. “Do you want your usual or can I convince you to live on the wild side, tonight?” She asked with a grin.

Mr Kimble chuckled at her question. “What would the wild side be?”

“Instead of your regular fish and chips, let’s go wild and try the regular nachos with a piece of our truly divine chocolate cake as dessert?”

Mr Kimble laughed out loud. “Well, I think you just sold me on the wild side, young lady. Let’s try that tonight.”

Just as she was bringing out Mr Kimble’s dinner, she noticed Mabel sitting down to her own lonely dinner. “No, Mabel, we’re not doing that tonight. I have this other customer that’s also eating alone; I vote you keep each other company.” Sasha took her arm and dragged her along without giving her a chance to react.

“Mr Kimble, would you mind terribly keeping this other lonely diner company? I found her sitting alone by the counter.” Sasha smiled impishly at Mabel’s attempt at a stern glare at her.

“Of course, please have a seat.” Mr Kimble came to his feet like a true gentleman and indicated the seat across from him with a kind smile, thereby forcing Mabel to be courteous about also having a seat while Sasha placed his plate in front of him.

“Mr Kimble, this is Mabel. Mabel; Mr Kimble. Please enjoy your dinner.” She grinned and winked at Mabel impishly.

“You little imp.” Mabel chuckled with amusement when she realized that Sasha had just set her up.

Sasha giggled and left the two to get acquainted over dinner. She knew what it was like to be lonely and Mabel and Mr Kimble were both very lonely. So maybe if they hit it off by the time she left town, she wouldn’t feel so bad about leaving Mabel.

When she glanced at her tables, she noticed that the football team indicated they wanted their bill, so she quickly printed it out and set it in the bill folder along with a handful of mints as was the custom, before she placed it on the table and left to have them go through it all. They would leave the exact amount for their food on the table, like they always did when they left.

Hopefully, that would be the last of the school kids for her shift. She helped a few other customers and then turned around and stopped short in her surprise when she came face to chest with Garrett Steele staring at her.

Glancing down at his hand that he held out, she found the bill folder. Sasha frowned in confusion when she saw that he had brought it to her when they usually just left it on the table. She had to clean up afterwards. Was this going to be a prank? “Thank you.” She answered hesitantly when she took it and carefully opened it to be sure there was money in there and nothing else.

A few kids from school had actually left her with their bills unpaid a few times, and she learned that lesson quickly. She always checked the bill folder before they went out the door after that.

He frowned when he saw her suspiciously checking the folder for the cash; as if he thought she should just accept that they would pay for their meal like everyone else. “Give me your number.” He said after a moment.

“What for?” She asked with confusion while she stepped behind the counter to put the cash in the register and he angled his body to face her directly again.

“So we can meet up for the project.” He answered as if she had asked a dumb question.

“I already told you I’d do it like I do with everyone else that gets paired with me.” She answered and selected their bill on the computer to mark it as paid.

He came to lean on the counter. “I do my own projects, so you have to give me your number so we can work together.”

She put the money she had been counting down and glared at him. “Look; neither of us want this; you were annoyed enough to sit next to me in class, so I’m sure working together on the stupid project would make it that much worse. Can we just get past this already?” She snapped before she counted through the money and stopped short when she found there was extra in the bill folder. Ringing up the amount, she put the amount in the cash drawer and then held out the change for him.

He looked confused at her hand holding the money out to him. “That’s your tip.” He answered as if it was common sense.

“The people from school never tip me and sometimes even stick me with their bill.” Sasha answered coldly after rolling her eyes and nudging the money to him over the counter.

“What?” He asked in shock, as if he wasn’t part of the teens that always did that to her whenever they came into the diner. His group had always paid their bill, at least, but some of the cheerleaders had left without paying their bill a few times.

“There’s your change, now, if you don’t mind. I have work to do.” She answered coldly and then turned to walk away, leaving him to stare after her in open shock.