The Billionaire Student's Secret.

3

Jade hastily entered a tiny kitchen and put on an apron that hung on the wall. She worked at Tung's, a noodle shop located near Blossom College as a part-time waitress.

Mr. Tung, the proprietor of the small shop cast her a glare as he chopped onions viciously, “Late again?”

“I'm sorry,” Jade apologized with puppy eyes as she tied her hair up in a bun.

“Just get out there and take some orders!” Tung ordered, knife in hand.

“Yes, Sir.” Jade hurried out, happy to be away from the hot kitchen. Bringing out a jot pad and a pen from the apron pocket, Jade began to take orders and dishes to patrons.

Every evening after lectures, students from the university flooded into the noodle shop to get some food before heading back home, so before she knew it, Jade was tired out.

When there was a momentary lapse in the number of customers, Jade sat down on one of the chairs, waiting for her heart rate to stabilize.

Suddenly, the glass door of the noodle shop was shoved opened, and a troop of young men entered pushing each other and laughing raucously.

Immediately, Jade stood up and hurried to meet the new patrons. On her way, her bun loosened and she tried to rearrange it.

Before she could finally put her hair back up, it was dragged down again by one of the men.

“What's poppin', Mouse?”

Jade looked up and found herself staring at Leroy Hawkins' stupid face. He was dressed in a form-fitting vest that accentuated his pectorals, abs and his serratus anterior muscles clearly, and a pair of designer ripped jeans that hugged his powerful quadriceps and calves. All that beauty wasted on the stupid boy, Jade thought disappointedly.

“What do you want, Leroy?” Jade replied resignedly, trying to bring out her jotter pad.

Leroy snapped his fingers in front of her face and said, “What's up with the attitude, Mouse? Don't you know the customer is king?”

Jade rolled her eyes, “I'm sorry, Leroy. So, what will you be having?”

Leroy stroked his clean-shaven chin and pretended to be in thought, “I don't know, isn't it unhygienic for a mouse to be serving food?”

“Ooooooooooh!” one of Leroy's lackeys shouted, shaking Leroy's hand, “sick burn, bro.”

“If you aren't going to order, please leave so I can attend to other customers.” Jade dismissed, looking to see if other customers had arrived.

The next thing she knew, Leroy Hawkins placed a hand on her sternocleidomastoid and pushed her, “Hey, did you just dismiss me?”

His push sent Jade flying into a table she had not yet cleared, sending chairs and cheap plastic utensils flying all over the place.

Leroy and his crew burst out laughing as Jade tried to pick herself up as gracefully as possible.

The ruckus attracted Mr. Tung who rushed out of the kitchen, gripping a cleaver.

“What the hell is going on here?” Mr. Tung queried, eyeing Leroy.

“Hey, old man, I'm not at fault here,” Leroy spat, although his eyes had widened with fear.

“That's a lie!” Jade accused hysterically, embarrassed that she'd been subjected to such humiliation in her place of work.

Leroy laughed mirthlessly, “Your waitress was being rude, and when I advanced towards her to give her a little warning, she tripped and fell.”

“Yeah!”

“That's exactly what happened.”

“She was rude as f**k,” Leroy's goons concurred with him.

Mr. Tung looked at the mess on the floor of his restaurant and sighed. To Leroy and co, he hissed, “Get out of here before I call the cops.”

With a smirk in Jade's direction, Leroy said, “Let's go, boys.”

Following his lead, the men left, laughing and talking.

Mr. Tung faced Jade, who hurried to explain her own version of events, “I swear I didn't do anything wrong. He started—”

Mr. Tung held up his free hand to silence Jade and when she quietened down, he announced, “You're fired!”

Jade thought she'd heard wrong. There was no way Mr. Tung could fire her, right? She was one of his most diligent staff.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Mr. Tung reiterated, returning to the kitchen, “you're fired.”

“I am?” Jade asked incredulously, following him into the kitchen, “it wasn't my fault.”

Mr. Tung faced her, “I know. Those men were a bunch of conceited assholes. I was more than glad to send them away.”

“So why am I fired?” Jade's discombobulation was visible.

“For other reasons,” Mr. Tung waved his hand.

“Like?” Jade wondered.

Mr. Tung began to count them with his fingers, “You're always late, yet you're the first to clock out—”

“I have lectures, Mr. Tung!” Jade cried passionately.

“I can't let my business suffer because of your education.” Mr. Tung shrugged and continued, “Two, if you keep working here, those clods are gonna come back to stir trouble, and that's not what I want.”

“But . . . Please,” Jade begged, putting her hands together in a passionate plea, “please reconsider, I have no other source of income to pay my tuition and accommodation fees.”

“That's none of my business,” Mr. Tung went to the cash register and retrieved a few hundred dollar bills, “here's your full pay for the month, it's the least I can do for you.”

Jade collected the money and took off her apron, hanging it on a nail on the wall. She folded the notes into her pocket and left the restaurant, trudging sadly to her apartment.

Her eyes welled up with tears as she considered her fate, she was actually jobless. It had taken her a week of groveling and promising everything but her first born son to Mr. Tung before he had given her a job, and now, she'd lost it, thanks to Leroy Hawkins.

How would she pay her tuition fees and also pay her rent? She absolutely did not want to drop out of school, she wanted to graduate and get a good job, just like her father had always wanted for her.

She could not console herself by saying she'd get another job soon, because that was nothing short of a lie. Well-paying jobs were almost impossible to find around campus as there were many students in search of part-time jobs, and few offers.

Jade stopped walking and sat on the dirty sidewalk that led to her apartment. Before she knew it, she started crying, huge loud sobs that shook her frame.

People passed and gave her weird looks. Jade knew she must look a sight with her reddened eyes and snot-filled nose, but she didn't care. Only people with secure futures thought about irrelevant things such as how they looked while crying.

After spending almost quarter an hour crying, Jade dried her tears and stood up. She was tired of crying, it wasn't even solving her problems, rather, it was compounding them by giving her a headache.

She continued walking until she came to her apartment building. It was a very old three storey building with cracked white-washed walls. It was one of the cheapest places to live in because it only boasted of rusty plumbing. The building was perpetually hot which was a blessing in the winter, and a curse in the summer, but Jade liked it. Except for a few neighbors who threw all-night parties, the building was usually quiet and the thick walls demarcating the flats afforded the occupants a semblance of privacy.

If she stayed jobless, Jade thought desolately, she could kiss living there goodbye.

As Jade climbed the stairs to her apartment, she vowed she would do everything in her power to make sure she did not lose her education and her house.