Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp

Author:Laekan Zea Kemp [ZEA KEMP, LAEKAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2021-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

14

Pen

MY FINGERTIPS SKIM THE door handle of El Pequeño Toro, and then I stop. I count the fear in needle pricks, every moment of discomfort that’s led up to this one—putting on my uniform, catching my reflection in the bathroom mirror, pulling into the parking lot. This morning has already been full of impossible tests, but I’m here and I can’t turn back.

The door pushes open, knocking into me. I shake the surprise from my face just in time, one of my new coworkers looking down at me with an amused smirk.

“You all right there?” he asks.

“Oh, I…” I straighten. “I’m great.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “Look, Josie’s not here yet, so if you need to go to the bathroom to cry or something, go right ahead.”

“I don’t cry,” I snap, a little shocked at how big of an asshole this guy is.

“Right, just wait till your first shift’s over.” He clips on his name tag: DAVID.

Needle prick number four—David’s assumption that I am weak and can be easily reduced to a soggy puddle of shame.

I step to him. “Is that some kind of threat?”

He winks, amused again. “Only if you want it to be.” He crosses his arms. “Making little girls cry… it’s sort of a specialty of mine. There’s an art to it, really.”

He’s more pathetic than sinister, but it still ignites a pang at the pit of my stomach. Because I know that for the next several hours, the next days, weeks, David will be watching me. And I have to decide in this moment who I want him to see.

I cross my arms in response, feigning the same wicked amusement. “And my specialty’s making little boys piss themselves, so I suggest that if you don’t want to be the one in tears, you’ll stay the hell out of my way.”

He hangs his head back, laughing. Then, without warning, he grips both of my shoulders, grinning even wider. Before I can shove him away, he says, “I think I’m going to like you.” Then he disappears to the back of the kitchen.

For a minute I just stand there, trying to calculate where I went wrong. I can still feel his grubby hands on my skin, his enthusiasm—or maybe it was admiration—making the hairs on my arms stand on end. It definitely wasn’t terror. Why the hell wasn’t he terrified? Why the hell did threatening him compel him to put his hands on me? Why the hell didn’t I punch him in the fucking nose?

Because you’re weak.

The voice passes through me like a chill and I try to shake it off.

As I come around the corner, I spot the shift manager, Claudia, in the back of the kitchen, freezer door propped open against her back as she lugs out boxes of food. David walks right past her, fingers racing across his cell phone. He hops up onto the counter next to me, legs swinging as he laughs at something on the screen.

I look from David to Claudia. “You’re not gonna help her with that?”

He barely glances up.

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