The Waitress: a gripping psychological thriller with a breakneck twist by Emily Shiner

Author:Emily Shiner [Shiner, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Published: 2023-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

23

WEDNESDAY

Dave watches as I pour myself a cup of coffee. I know he wants to know my plans for the day, what I’m going to do, but I haven’t decided. Call in sick and miss out on making the money we need to pay for groceries, so I can try to work things out with his school? Or go to work and throw him to the wolves for what is possibly the first time in his life?

I’m so torn.

“Hey, get the paper, would you?” I turn to Dave, doing my best not to look him in the eyes. He’ll be able to tell that I’m confused about what to do if we make eye contact. The last thing I want is to have to deal with him pressuring me one way or the other. I tossed and turned all night, trying to decide what to do, and now I feel like I was hit by a semi.

Not the joke to make.

“Sure.” He’s been leaning against the counter but pushes off it to walk over to the front door. “You know, Mom, I don’t have to go back to school. If they don’t want me there, then I don’t want to be there.”

The spatula I’m using to poke at scrambled eggs drips onto the floor, but I ignore it. “And what, Dave? You don’t go to school, and you’re going to…what? Get a job?”

He scoffs.

“I didn’t think so. You can’t just hang out all the time with your friends. You can’t possibly think that would be an acceptable thing for you to do. Geez, Dave, use your brain. You have to go back to school. It’s the only way you’re going to have a better life than you do now.”

“Did you finish high school?” He shoots the words at me like they have barbs, like he doesn’t already know the answer to that one.

“You know I didn’t,” I say, my voice even and measured. I’m doing my best to stay calm, but it’s hard. “I wish I did, though. Things would be different.”

Maybe if I hadn’t gotten knocked up by an abusive guy when I was in high school, I would have graduated. My parents wouldn’t have cut me out of their lives. I would have found a real job, or maybe gone to college. There’s nothing wrong with working a trade, but I could have gone on, gotten a college degree.

But I didn’t. And I want more for Dave, want it desperately for him. What drives me nuts is that he doesn’t seem too worried about wanting it for himself. He’s only focused on the now, what he can get now, what he can get away with, and he has no idea how important it is to focus on the future, to try to better yourself.

“Yeah, so different. Maybe none of this would have happened.” He’s angry, and he spits the words at me, but finally opens the front door and walks out onto the porch.

Just having him gone from

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