Wild and Free

(Auden’s POV)

The little bell above the door chimed when we entered the diner.

Cassie and I had walked from the school which wasn’t that bad since it was early to mid afternoon, and the main town was not too far from the school. Kenzie drove her car and was waiting for us outside when we got there. There was virtually no one there except Sean, who was in the kitchen, Macy, our day time waitress, and Mel, who was probably in the back office.

“This place is so cool!” Kenzie beamed, looking around the charming, retro diner.

“Yeah Auden and I love it, the only bad parts are weekend meal rushes,” Cassie told her, making the two of us shudder simultaneously. Kenzie giggled and she and Cassie slid into our favorite booth by the windows while I went up to the counter to get us some food and drinks.

“Hey Sean!” I called into the kitchen.

He looked up from the counter he was wiping and smiled when he saw me.

“Auden, what’s up? How was school?” he asked.

I shrugged and sighed, “It was school. We’re gonna get some fries and drinks to refuel.”

He grinned, “So what’s on the crazy coffee recipe order for Cassie today?”

“Predictable as always isn’t she?”

“Technically she gets something different every time so it would be considered unpredictable but the fact that she never gets the same thing is in fact predictable.”

I rolled my eyes and Sean laughed.

“Who’s your pretty new friend?” he asked, tipping his head toward our booth.

“That’s Kenzie,” I clarified. “She moved here and couple days ago. She said she’ll just have a ginger ale.”

He nodded, “And you a raspberry lemonade?”

“See I am predictable,” I grinned before turning around and heading back to our table.

We got out our things for the project and worked for about an hour, mostly reading and trading some notes and presentation format ideas. We came to the simple conclusion that we’d do a slideshow with different photos and facts, and just explain more about the plot as we went through.

Kenzie was a great addition to our usual group. She was extremely smart, saying that her parents had put her an her brother with the best tutors since they were little.

“So you’ve never gone to a public school?” Cassie asked her, popping a fry into her mouth.

Kenzie bobbed her head to the side, “Well sort of. May and I have been to public school but most of our lives we’ve been homeschooled.”

I held back a laugh for the cute nickname labeled upon her brother very uncharacteristically.

“Any particular reason?”

She shook her head, “Not really. I think my dad wanted us close to home and he thought that it’d be more effective for my brother if we learned from there.”

“Why does he wane the decision?” I asked, capping my pen and sticking it in my bag, along with the rest of my things that I had laid out on the table to work on. “Other than the fact that he is your father.”

“Well Mason will take over my father’s position when my father gets too old so he wanted to teach him about the, um, business,” she explained, hesitating before saying it. Cassie and I subtly exchanged a knowing look.

“Honestly, I’ve never liked the idea of family businesses,” Cassie thought aloud. “It just seems like so much pressure. Like, what if you want to do something different with your life? You’re basically forced into the position with no choice! It just seems wrong to me.” she stirred her straw around in her now empty iced coffee concoction glass.

“Me too,” Kenzie agreed, “I’m just glad that I was a couple minutes late for my call.” she joked, making the three of us giggle.

“So you talked about dad but what about your mom?” Cassie asked.

The grin on Kenzie’s face fell, replaced with a distraught, sad expression.

“Um, she passed away a couple months back.”

Cassie sat up a little bit, “I’m so sorry I totally shouldn’t’ve brought it up.”

Kenzie shook her head, “No it’s okay, you didn’t know. And we’ve been getting along okay without her so… Anyway, what are your families like?”

Cassie shrugged and sighed, “I have the absolute epitome of average parents. We live in the most average house, in the most average neighborhood. Oh and they have the most average jobs and also both come from, yep, you guessed it, the most average families.”

“Sounds….”

“Average,” I finished for her, laughing.

“I’m serious!” Cassie threw her hands in the air. “There is not a single unique thing about how we live. I’m a middle child. My younger brother Caleb is in middle school and my older sister Kaelyn is in her third year of college. We go on an annual family vacation to Disney in the summer and have those extremely cheesy family reunions as well. I could not possibly be more bored with my life.”

Kenzie smiled at her exaggeration.

I almost pointed out that, well at least she had a life. What I had didn’t even come close to falling under that category.

“Auden what about you?”

“What, you haven’t heard the rumors?” I laughed at her joke.

She shook her head completely serious, “Rumors?”

“The idiots at our school have made up some stupid stories about Auden’s parents,” Cassie explained for me.

Kenzie shared the disgusted face that I wore whenever I thought about it. She didn’t say anything in response to what Cassie told her which was surprising because most people would want to know the juicy gossip, especially if it was on the school wide level.

“You don’t want to know?” I asked, confusedly.

She shook her head, “I don’t think it matters if it’s not the truth. And I’m really sorry if that was what my brother was talking about, you know the other day. He can be an asshole.”

“Well the truth is that I moved here about two or three years ago. My parents abandoned me and I live by myself in and apartment that Cassie helped me get. I work here for money to pay rent and get food,” I explained vaguely. Technically it wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t the entire truth. “The people at school say that I’m mentally insane. They have many different theories about me and my parents, some of my personal favorites being the divorce, or abuse, or neglect which I guess isn’t technically untrue.”

“I’m sor-”

“Yeah I’d rather not go to the pity place on like the third day we’ve know each other,” I cut her off. “I appreciate it but I’m fine. I might be parentless and matured a couple years ahead of my time, but fine.”

“And that’s why you lied the other day about your house? When you said you weren’t allowed to have people over?”

I nodded in response.

“Is it ever lonely?”

I shrugged, “Sometimes but I’ve kind of gotten used to it.”

“Do you remember them?” Kenzie asked, “Your parents I mean.”

I nodded, “We didn’t have a good relationship. I’m better off on my own.”

Cassie looked down at her hands in her lap while Kenzie just looked baffled and confused.

“How bad could it have possibly been for you to think being alone is better than having a family in your corner?” she asked.

I glanced at the clock on the wall and it read five fifty seven.

“Look, my shift starts in like three minutes so we’ll talk some more tomorrow. Feel free to stay if you want, the food here is great if you’re still hungry,” I told her as I slid out of the booth, slinging my bag over my shoulder. “Please don’t tell anyone about what I told you, okay?”

“I don’t understand, if people knew the truth then maybe they’d stop making up stories and show some remorse-”

Cutting her off once more I said, “And remorse is just more pity. Plus, if people knew the actual story about my parents they would just ask more questions and make up more stories of the reason behind it. Trust me, it’s better for them to just wonder.”

“Auden! Get your butt back here and get to work!” Mel called to me from the kitchen door.

“Coming!” I yelled back, before turning to Kenzie again, “I’m sorry. I’ll see you later.”

She looked as if she wanted to protest but I made her swear not to tell before I apologized again and went into the back to get ready for my shift. Cassie stayed with her for a little while longer because her shift, for some reason, started a couple minutes after mine. Later she told me that she’d scheduled another session for us to work on the project at her house.

I pushed open the door to the kitchen, making my way down the hall towards the break room to get my apron and store my bag.

“Hey Auden,” Mel poked his head into the room, “do you think you can cover for Macy this weekend? She said she has some interview in the city and the drive is so long she doesn’t think she’ll be back in time.”

“I’ll see what my schedule’s like but I should be able to do it,” I said, pulling my long brown hair up into a ponytail to get it out of my face.

“Thanks kid, you’re the best. I don’t know how you do it, juggling school and work all the while doing it so well. Your parents must be so proud,” He said with a warm smile. That was Mel, always welcoming and kind.

“If only they knew,” I muttered to myself.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” I laughed dryly. I grabbed my apron and notepad before heading out to the dining area.

The dinner rush was steady. Weeknights were always like that, most of the business coming from families that either came for takeout or little gatherings. Weekends were the worst with everyone wanting to go out to eat and not have to cook for themselves.

Nothing all that eventful happened other than someone knocking their drink off the table on accident, to which I helped clean up. Sean made me a grilled cheese with tomato for dinner which was delicious and my shift was just about coming to a close when a big racket came from the door.

And then entered a swarm of hornets, their stingers sharpened and ready for a fight.

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Comment, don’t hate, and read on!

~your Cheshire Cat loving friend