The Art of Falling

Chapter Six

I hummed to myself as I sliced the pineapple for dinner. Ellie was in her room, finishing up some work she had to hand in tomorrow. My phone vibrated in my jean pocket. I paused. Setting my knife down, I went to wash my hands thoroughly. I dried my hands and took out my phone. An unknown number was flashing on the screen. I debated on ignoring it; for all I could know, it could be spam. The amount of people who call you to advertise or to con you was shocking.  In the space of a week, I had received five. It’s ridiculous. 

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Focus Ava. I pursed my lips; it could be someone calling me to let me know about the job. I tapped my foot against the floor before entering Ellie’s bedroom. She was bent over her laptop. I knocked on the door. 

“Mhm?”

"Could you keep an eye on the sauce for me please? When it starts bubbling, could you add in the pineapple? It’s already been cut and all. All you need to do is to keep an eye on the sauce, toss in the pineapple and give it a stir every so often."

She nodded her head and unhooked her computer from the charger. 

“Thank you.”

I closed my bedroom door behind me and quickly answered the phone. Surprisingly, the caller had not hung up.

“Hello?”

"Hello. Please may I talk to Miss Connor ?"

"Speaking."

"Good evening Miss Connor. After your recent interviews and some careful consideration, we would like to offer you the job at Knight’s Enterprises."

I hopped up and down slightly and punched the air. "I would be delighted to accept the offer."

"Wonderful. We shall see you on Monday at 9.00 am then."

"Okay. Thank you."

I rushed to the kitchen. Sitting on a stool, I leant over the table and crossed my arms. I stared at Ellie until she looked up. I grinned at her,

“Guess what?”

“...what?”

I shimmied on my seat. “I got the job!”

“That’s great, Ava!”

“I know, right? Especially as it's really hard these days to get a job considering the younger generation, technology and all that… I feel sorry for the future generation. And now, my financial problems are solved..ish.”

She nodded her head in agreement. A sudden hiss came from behind me. I let out a small scream. Ellie jumped; whether it was my scream or the hiss or both that caused it, I didn’t know.

However, at this point in time, it wasn’t my main concern. I spun round, grabbing the fork next to me, and leapt up from my stool. Turning off the gas, I quickly moved the saucepan to another hob and snatched the dishcloth which Ellie handed to me. Wiping down the surface, I hurried to get rid of the sauce from the metal. The rice cooker started beeping. 

“Ellie, could you-”

“On it.”

I shot her a grateful smile as she started to dish out the rice onto two plates. Tucking a piece of hair behind my ear, I focused on trying to save the sauce. Half an hour later, we were eating a slightly burnt sweet and sour chicken with rice. It actually was quite nice, even with the slightly charred taste.

"So, when are we going to celebrate?" Ellie asked.

"Never. Do not say the word celebrate to me for a month. I still feel a little sick from all the sweets we ate last week," I replied, feeling queasy at the thought of them. It was surprising that we hadn’t thrown up.

Ellie giggled. "Celebrate good times, come on! Celebrate good times, come on!"

I groaned and put my hands over my ears. Seeing that Ellie had stopped, I removed my hands and continued eating. Ellie opened her mouth again. Not taking any chances, I grabbed the roll of paper towels and threw it at her,

“Shut up.”

She batted the paper towel away, trying her best to prevent it from falling onto her food. After successfully protecting her food, she shot daggers at me.

“For your information, I wanted the glass of water behind you. So you had better watch your step, girl. You are going to regret that.”

I gulped before pushing away from the table and placed my plate in the sink. I handed the water to Ellie before rolling up my sleeves. Once some washing up liquid was on the saucepan, I picked up the metal scourer and started to erase the sauce from its sides. Ellie soon joined me and started unloading the rack to make room for the dishes. 

After we finished, I quickly washed my hands and ducked into my bedroom. Checking the time, I saw I had an hour and a half until my shift at the pub. I can squeeze in a bath. I grabbed some clothes before heading to the bathroom. Ellie was busy talking rapidly into the phone, waving her arms out. I ducked to avoid being wacked in the face and smiled at her.

“Thomas, just because some people have a flexible job and aren’t busy 24/7  doesn't mean that I’m in the same position as you. I don’t have the time to call you every single day! God. You take your role as a brother too seriously. This should be Mum, not you. Oh hi Layla. How’s the pregnancy going?”

Ellie smiled at me apologetically before slipping into her bedroom. She shut the door behind her.  I smiled to myself. Sounds like Ellie was going to be busy for a while. She usually did when talking to Thomas.

* * *

Never am I ever going to take a bath before I need to go to work. It's too damn relaxing and a key factor in helping people be late to work. Why didn’t I set a timer for myself? I groaned, leaning my forehead against the steering wheel. At least I won't be visiting the pub anytime soon and if I did, I wouldn’t be serving for once. Let’s just hope Claudia won’t have my a*s for being late, again.

I slipped behind the bar and grabbed the growing pile of paper slips to start the first order. Claudia nodded her head to me and mouthed ‘You're late.’ ‘No s**t, Sherlock’ I mouthed back. She glared at me. I huffed before mouthing a sorry. She shrugged and tapped her wrist. Fine. I nodded my head. I suppose it was the least I could do. She smiled and mimed hugging me and whipped her phone out to send a quick text to her boyfriend about her extended break, courtesy of me. I turned to serve the customers and Claudia soon joined me. Drink after drink after drink.

* * *

“Ava?”

I looked up from drying the glasses, “Oh hey Sam.”

"Oh, it is you. Good. At least I didn't mistake you for someone else," he said, sounding relieved.

I smiled, "I’m guessing you’ve done that many times?”

"Too many."

I chuckled. "Would you like a drink?"

"A beer, please."

I grabbed a glass and started filling it up. "So, what brings you here?"

"Drowning my sorrows," Sam said cheerfully.

"Okay…What happened?"

"My boyfriend, ex-boyfriend now, broke up with me."

"Ah. Relationship problems."

"Yeah."

"That sucks."

"It does. We were together for five years. Five years of my life gone down the drain."

"Hey Ava, customers," Claudia yelled.

"On it!"

I shot Sam an apologetic smile before rushing to the opposite side of the bar where a line was starting to build up. Claudia was busy trying to serve them as quickly as possible. Brushing my hands against my jeans, I started helping her out.

Five minutes later, the line had died down enough for Claudia to be able to man it herself. I grabbed a few more kids menus for Claudia and placed them on the diminishing pile. It was around 8 o’clock and people were bringing their kids to a pub. I pursed my lips and made a promise to myself to never ever do that. Shaking my head, I went back to Sam.

“Sorry about that,” I said, leaning against the counter.

“It’s okay; you are in the middle of a shift.”

“Hmm.” We fell into silence. I found it slightly uncomfortable but then again I always did find silences a tad awkward. I mean what were you supposed to say? For all you know, they could be silently judging you. I twisted my fingers, racking my brains to come up with a conversation starter. 

“Hey, you!”

I looked around, trying to source the voice. “Me?”

“Yeah. I've been waiting for my beer for 5 minutes, could you please hurry up?”

He ordered a beer? He must have done the order via Claudia. Why didn’t she tell me? I turned to ask her and saw that she had vanished. Huh? I checked the time. Oh. She must be taking our break, ‘our’ meaning I had to give her mine as well due to being late, not that I minded. I never usually used it unless the pub got too suffocating, then I would dip out for a few minutes. 

“Which type?”

“Lager.”

I filled the glass up rapidly and slid it to him before turning to Sam.

“Um…How do I put this?”

He smiled. “No need to put it in words, just do what you gotta do.”

I shot him a grateful look before rushing to the till to quickly serve the next family. Who has dinner this late? Once I had finished serving everyone, I sat on a stool before jumping up to check on Sam. He had left. In his place was some money and note saying:

Check ur phone

Switching it on, Sam’s message flashed on my screen

Sam

I needed to go. Thanks :)

I frowned. I barely did anything apart from serving him a beer and making some small talk...and finding out that his boyfriend cheated on him.

I unlocked my phone and started typing.

Ava: why r u thanking me?

Sam: for just being there.

I raised my eyebrow. 

Ava: ur welcome then :]

A hand dropped onto my shoulder. I let out a squeak of surprise. 

“I leave for half an hour. Half an hour! And what am I left with? A Long line of people, angry people, and someone who forgot to keep an eye on the till,” Claudia hissed. I did? I turned around. Oops. At the till was a growing line of unhappy customers. 

“Ava...Please please don’t daydream or chat to your friends while on duty. If you do, remember you’re on a shift...please?”

I bit my lip. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

This time, I knew it wouldn't because I wasn’t going to be coming back. Claudia nodded her head and rushed to soothe the customers. I wrung my hands. Why did I get distracted? I inwardly sighed before rushing to help Claudia.