1

“You are late!’’ A voice barked at Sabastian.

He looked at his watch to see that his boss was lying, he had fifteen minutes before he started work. This was something the fat, sweaty man always did. No matter how early anyone arrived at the Burger Shack, it was always late for him, especially when it came on to him.

‘’I am cutting your pay,’’ the fat man told him.

‘’What? Paul you can’t do that.’’

‘’This is my place, my rules. If you don’t like it then find somewhere else that is willing to hire you.’’ Paul told him before walking away.

Sabastian hated the fat man, that was all he did, rob them of a proper pay.

When he had just started out he was making 15 dollars per hour, then it was cut down to 10 dollars, he was interested to see how much Paul would be paying him now.

Sabastian began to clean the tables and floors, because as it seemed, the person who was there yesterday never bothered to clean up before closing.

After scrubbing the floors, the chef called him over.

‘’Hey kid, I overheard the boss saying that he will cut your pay.’’

‘’Yeah, I hate this place and that man but at the moment this is the only place that was willing to give me employment.’’

‘’What? You are young, I’m sure you can find a job elsewhere. Why don’t you try one of those department stores?’’

Sabastian shook his head. ‘’You know how they are; they want people with certain appearances.’’

‘’It sucks, but don’t worry you’ll make it. I see that you are always hitting those books.’’

Sabastian nodded; he had been going to school as of recent, wanting a better life for himself, but it was hard on him. With the school fee being so high and Paul not paying him like he should, he doubted he would ever be able to finish school.

To him, Paul hated him more than everyone else and he didn’t know why but he would always pick on him the most.

While carrying out his first order, a child was running around the restaurant and collided with Sabastion causing the tray full of food to crash to the ground.

‘’That’s it, you’re fired!’’ Paul came rushing over to him. ‘’Clean this up and get out!’’

‘’Please don’t fire him, it’s not his fault.’’ The mother of the little boy jumped up. ‘’I should have had little Tommy under better control, if not for him this wouldn’t have happened.’’

‘’This idiot should have been looking out for your child, someone like him shouldn’t be working here.’’

The few people who were dining in for breakfast started to side with the lady.

‘’Give the young man a break, he is the nicest worker here, that’s why I study his shift and only eat when he’s working.’’ A man said before shoveling eggs into his mouth.

‘’Yeah, it’s not his fault. Cut him some slacks.’’ Another spoke up.

Paul’s face went red, but with the pressure he was getting he gave in. ‘’Fine, but one more strike and you’re out!’’

Sabastian wanted to ask Paul what his problem was but held it in, seeing that he was already holding on to a thin thread.

Tommy’s mother left Sabastian a hundred dollars in tip, when Paul saw this he rushed over and took it up from the table.

Before Sabastian could protest, he smirked in his face. ‘’That’s for your fuck up.’’

Sabastian frowned but said nothing and walked off to tend to another table.

‘’Hey, I saw what he did.’’ A lady who had a large hat hiding her face said. She reached into her purse and handed him five hundred dollars. ‘’Hope that is good enough.’’

‘’Thank you, this is more than enough. I can’t take all this.’’

‘’Nonsense, that boss of yours is a dick. I don’t know how you stand to work for him.’’

‘’No other option, again thank you.’’

She woman only nodded then ordered and even after eating, she left Sabastian with another five-hundred-dollar tip.

‘’Hey, boy! You have work to do, I don’t expect to see you goofing around,’’ Paul called.

The patrons were getting annoyed at Paul because of the way he was treating Sabastian.

‘’Keep that money, it can’t be fun working here.’’ The woman winked.

During lunch, Sabastian used that time to go over his notes. Apart from working, he was also going to school in hopes of becoming a financial manager.

Paul pushed the door to the staff area open. ‘’What doing you think you are doing?’’

‘’Uh, studying. I have an exam coming up soon.’’

‘’Do that on your own time!’’ Paul yelled at him.

‘’I’m on my break.’’

‘’Well, do that at home. I don’t want that shit here.’’ He then laughed. ‘’I don’t see why you are wasting your time, it’s not like you will come out to anything. You are a poor man and will always be that. I still don’t see how you managed to get such a beautiful girl to go out with you.’’

Sabastian closed his textbook at his words. ‘’What is your problem? Ever since I started here you seem to always be picking on me.’’

Paul sucked his teeth. ‘’You are beneath me.’’

But truly, Paul saw something in Sabastian, something he himself couldn’t be.

Sabastian was determined to be successful, unlike him, he gave up at his first no, and that’s how he settled to becoming a manager of a greasy burger joint.

When he left, the other server came out from where she was hiding and listening to the way Paul was with Sabastian.

‘’I would say he has a stick up the ass, but it’s obvious it’s much worse than that. And don’t listen to him, he seems to be one of those people who are mad at the world and blame others for his failure.’’

Sabastian said nothing, all he did was continue with his reading until his break was over.

Throughout his shift, all Sabastian could hear was Paul yelling at him, but he ignored it all, thinking that the burger place was just a steppingstone, and he would get out of there soon.

‘’Table two order is ready!’’ The chef yelled.

Sabastian did a groan, he hated working overtime and with these indecisive groups of college students who were just coming from some game/pep rally, he knew that night would be one of those nights.

Sabastian moved to the next table to take their orders, he paused and for a while seemed to lose all sense of reasoning.

‘’Hey boy, I’m not paying you to just stand around. You are acting as if you haven’t seen females before. Get to your task before I kick you out! Slacker!’’

A few of the girls at the table laughed, and Sabastian blamed himself.

At first he didn’t realize it until he saw that one of the tables was occupied by girls from his college, a wave of embarrassment hit him as he approached to take their orders.

Molly, the bitchiest girl he had ever met glanced at him, and Sabastian could see the look of disgust in her eyes.

‘’Welcome to-‘’

‘’Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get me this and this.’’ Molly pointed at the menu instead of saying what she wanted.

Sabastian took everyone else’s order before handing it to the chef.

‘’Tough crowd?’’ The chef asked.

‘’You have no idea, Abel.’’

‘’Orders up!’’ Abel yelled and Sabastian happily hurried to get the tray of food, thinking that the quicker he got the food to them, the less interaction there will be and less insult as well.

When he got to the table, he placed all the orders down and Molly looked up at him.

‘’I ordered cheese fries and country style fried chicken,’’ she said in a low boring tone that he could tell was forced.

‘’It’s right there before you,’’ he pointed.

The girl frowned up at him. ‘’Well, my chicken isn’t country enough and my fries need more cheese.’’

Sabastian turned and walked away from them when he heard. ‘’You are so stupid Molly.’’

‘’What? I’m not stupid.’’ Molly replied.

‘’Well, if not, then you are a bitch. That man’s job is hard enough and here you are only making it worse with your childish games. Why don’t you grow up?’’

Sabastian turned to the table to see who was coming to his defense and saw that it was a pretty redhead who had freckles dotting her nose by the name of Aaliyah.

Too bad he was already in a committed relationship; else he would have kissed her as a thank you, even though that would be weird, and she might slap him across the face.

Then Molly began to speak in her annoying voice. ‘’He is a poor man, only the lowest of the low works here. He needs the extra cash so what I did shouldn’t be a problem.’’

‘’It is a problem when you treat people like trash just because you think you have it better.’’ Aaliyah said.

Molly gave an annoying laugh. ‘’Why do you even care about that loser?’’

After their meal, Sabastian went back with the check.

‘’Just so you know, I won’t be giving you a tip. I didn’t like your attitude.’’ Molly gave a nasty smirk.

Paul rushed over. ‘’I couldn’t help but overhear your words, is there anything I could do to improve the service?’’

‘’No,’’ Molly gave a laugh. ‘’I’m done eating and I have several complaints. The food was horrible, meaning the chicken had too much seasoning, the fries were too cheesy and didn’t have much crunch. My drink was too cold, I know I wanted extra ice, but it was undrinkable. The overall service was poor.’’

Paul turned to Sabastian with a look of disgust even though it was clear Molly was complaining just because she could and wanted to make his night miserable. He wanted a reason to fire Sabastian and before he could say the words, Aaliyah spoke up.

‘’Molly, if your food was so horrible, why did you eat it all?’’

Molly seemed last for words. ‘’I had no choice!’’

‘’Don’t take that tone with me,’’ Aaliyah warned. ‘’Sir, she always does this when she doesn’t want to pay. Your employee had been nothing but good to us, all her words is a lie and I hope you don’t take any harsh actions on him because of her made-up story.’’

Molloy’s face went red. ‘’What the hell?’’

‘’Yes, and even so. You can’t blame him for the food if wasn’t cooked properly.’’

Out of anger, Molly threw down a wad of cash and left her friends there.

‘’I’m sorry for any problem,’’ Aaliyah apologized, paid part of the bill, and left.

“Don’t think that you are let off the hook just because of some pretty girl. One last chance, that’s all you have,’’ Paul sneered at Sabastian.

Fighting back his anger, Sabastian cleaned the restaurant along with the help of the two other employees then left for home.

When he got to the apartment he was sharing with his girlfriend, she quickly threw her phone down and jumped off the Persian couch.

‘’Sab, your home!’’ She fake cheered to hide her guilt.

Sabastian tried to hug her, but she pushed him away.

‘’Eww, you smell bad.’’

‘’That’s what happens after a long day of work,’’ Sabastian told her.

‘’Well, if you want to sleep beside me tonight, you better go shoulder.’’

‘’Don’t I always?’’

‘’You want to join me?’’

His girlfriend made a face. ‘’No.’’

‘’Oh, come on Ashley.’’

‘’Don’t mess up my bathroom and please make sure you get rid of that meat smell when you are done.’’

After getting out the shower, Sabastian thought he could have a night with Ashley, but saw that she was already asleep.