I held the back of my head as the short pain settled. I didn't even turn around before I knew who the culprit was.
Her loud voice already echoed behind me. Still, the professional in her wouldn't let her screeching voice reach the two men eating their burgers.
"Cosima, you chased me customers away, didn't ya?!" she yelled.
Did I chase them away? Okay, maybe I did, but how did she find out?
"I know they must have run off when you refused to take your 'ugly' face out of their sight!" She was about to whack me again with the ladle, but I dodged swiftly.
Phew!
I thought they complained or something, about how the rotten egg smell that lingered around me made the girlfriend puke and caused them to leave.
Of course not!
I shouldn't be silly. They only went to settle the bill at the counter and left afterward. Maybe I could defend myself now that she thought it was my 'ugly' face that chased them away, not my smell.
"No, Mrs. Del Monte. The girlfriend wasn't feeling well and needed to see a doctor immediately!" I lied.
As if she could see through me, Mrs. Del Monte turned to Susan. "Cosima must never attend to customers! You take the orders while she grills the patties and makes the burgers!"
"Yes, Mrs. Del Monte," Susan answered hurriedly, like a soldier saluting her general. Then, turning to me, she said, "You make one more mistake and you're out of here!" She hollered before storming back into the inner room of the store behind the counter, fuming all the way. "I took pity on you, but you want to repay me by ruining my business!" were the last words I heard from her before she disappeared.
Mrs. Del Monte had threatened to fire me whenever I messed up. Those threats, I feared, would one day become reality. Finding another job, on top of my other two part-time jobs, would be difficult, not to mention the mortgage.
The loan sharks wouldn't listen to my pleas and wouldn't care less if I had a job or not. Sighing, I threw the tray in my hand on the counter and wiped away the tears running down my cheeks.
"Don't let Mrs. Del Monte's words get to you, Cosima. You know she just rants," Susan tried to console me, but even she knew deep down that one day, those rants might materialize.
It didn't help that this was such a menial job, not suitable for an educated person like myself. Why should talents be judged by looks?
[Second round; Beauty assignment starts in an hour!]
The system blared its reminder.
Right, I almost forgot about it again. I decided I would summon all the courage I had to fulfill the task this time. If this system was real and I was to get an extra 'ugly' feature to the ones I already had, I would slit my wrists or jump off a cliff.
I would rather hear "Bye-bye Cosima" than "Cosima, you look worse than yesterday!"
My heart began to pound every time the front door's bell jingled. I'd panic and fear if the target was among the people walking in, but I knew the system said an hour, not minutes. I was just being paranoid and nervous.
The store was bustling in the early minutes past seven AM until all the workers had gone to their jobs and students resumed classes. The restaurant was less crowded now, and Susan and I could finally catch a break. It was a tough job.
Those of us who were always on the morning shift were sure to face a rush, but it always got better after about two hours.
"You're lucky to be on the morning shift, Cosima," Susan said to me.
We were sitting on the chairs behind the counter, the ones kept for workers but could only be used when the restaurant wasn't crowded and all orders had been taken care of.
"Why?" I asked absentmindedly, picking at the dirt under my nails.
The sound of Charlotte opening the door of the counter interrupted our conversation. However, we resumed as soon as she passed by and went about clearing the used dishes and wiping down the messy tables.
"Because you're on the permanent morning shift. The restaurant is only crowded in the early hours of the morning. You get to sit the rest out," Susan shrugged.
Out of habit, I shoved the dirt I picked from under my nails into my mouth and sucked on the nail.
"Well, I'm only on the morning shift because I have to be Barney by one o'clock in the afternoon," I explained.
"Eww," Susan stuck out her tongue in response to seeing me suck on the dirt. In all honesty, such remarks didn't seem didn't seem to get to me anymore.
Even when I was body-shamed, I showed no misery or distress. The only times my size and looks saddened me were when I lost a part-time job or the opportunity to be employed by any of my dream companies, all thanks to it.
"What Barney though?" Susan inquired out of curiosity.
I removed the finger from my mouth. "My second part-time job is to wear Barney costumes or other kiddy costumes in a fun fair," I provided. Susan's long face stretched into a small smile. "Oh," she nodded.
"Yes, oh," I mimicked, trying to inject some humor.
"Well then, you should have lost a lot of weight since you have so many jobs to do. Those are enough exercises, I must say," Susan blurted out.
And there we go again. Why did every conversation I engaged in always end up with references to my size or weight? It was one of the factors that contributed to having close to no friends at all.
I could blame no one but myself. Close to no friends? Heck, I had no friends at all!
Here I was thinking Susan was different, but just like every other time, she always ruined it by making indirect remarks about my body and self in general.
[Beauty assignment starts in twenty-five minutes!]
The system's reminder reverberated in my head. I had no idea how to go about engaging whoever the system would pick as my next target in a conversation since Mrs. Del Monte had already restricted me from leaving the counter. The system better shut the—
Oh no, I was going to swear at it again.
Wait. Why should I care about its rules when I hadn't even seen it in action? "Shut the hell up, system!" I hollered in my head.
If I had said that out loud, coupled with my ugly status, I would've gained another tag- an insane one.
[Foul language detected! The host will receive only 1 point upon task completion!]
Why couldn't the system come out, and I could sit my 'fat buttocks' on its one point until there were none left?
"Cosima?! Cosima?!"
Argh!
The wicked witch of the West was at it again. What the heck did she want this time?
"Mrs. Del Monte!" I called back and rushed to the inner quarters of the restaurant, where her private room, the staff storage room, and the restaurant's storage room were located. She was already almost by the door of the counter.
"We ran out of beef and pork at the same time!" the older woman exclaimed, flustered. "Our suppliers won't come until noon. Run along to any fresh store nearby and get substitutions until the arrival of the suppliers," she instructed me.
I was about to ask for money to purchase the beef because obviously, I wasn't the one to pay for that.
Mamma Mia - I couldn't even buy myself breakfast. Come to think of it now, my stomach was churning. Perhaps, that was why the dirt under my nails tasted a little yummier than usual.
It was the toil of hunger.
"Go to Dane, tell him I sent you on an errand, and collect enough to purchase the beef," Mrs. Del Monte ordered, swaying her buttocks as she walked away.
Old divorcee, that woman. I couldn't help but mimic the movement of her old strides as I walked back to the counter and then over to the accountancy counter.
I saw Susan's baffled look as she watched me walk like a hunched-back old woman. If only she knew I was mimicking the way her boss walks. I knew if it wasn't for the order she was tending to, she would have barked out an inquiry about the reason for my naughtiness.
[Beauty assignment starts in ten minutes!] The system came with its reminder once more. If I hurried enough and left the restaurant ten minutes before, then I'd be outside. I would stand a better chance of fulfilling the task if I was outside.
"Hi, Dane," I hurriedly said to Mrs. Del Monte's young, blonde accountant.
Dane was a year or two younger than me and seemed to savor the presence of gum in his mouth. Almost all the freaking time I saw him, he would be chewing aggressively on a piece.
"What's up?" he asked, blowing a bubble that momentarily covered his entire freckled face.
I forced my gaze away from the gum and reminded myself that I needed to be out of there before ten minutes.