Elizabeth's POV

I woke up disoriented and to the sound of furious whispering. "I think she's waking up." My eyes opened to find Blaire looking like an Italian chef just inches away from my face.

Am I hallucinating?

What happened last night.

"Blaire," I shrieked, jumping back. "What happened?" I asked, clutching onto my head. It felt like someone hit me on the head with a brick.

"Well.. um.. you drank from the wrong cup last night," Blaire said, shakily at first. "And then you urm... got lost..."

Got lost.

I was under the influence of alcohol and wandering around on my own.

The thought brought a sick feeling to my stomach. I held onto my head tightly, praying so that I can remember any tiny detail of what happened last night.

Images flashed in my mind and I saw a pair of intimidating, soft yet dangerous green eyes staring down at me. I groaned at the memory as I tried to remember even the tiniest recognizable facial feature.

"I'm so sorry Liz." Blaire put her face in her hands. "If it wasn't for me none of this would have happened to you." I shook my head. It wasn't her fault. She didn't feed me the alcohol.

"No it's mine," Himari spoke, and I turned to face her. She was sitting at the edge of the bed.

"I don't blame anyone of you," I admitted. My head was throbbing as if someone was banging at my temples with a hammer. "How did you find me?" I asked and Blaire bit her lip as Himari looked down at her hands, neither one of them making eye contact with me.

"Well you went through a crowd of people and then we lost you. I checked all of the rooms downstairs and Himari checked the yard to make sure you weren't wandering around the street, but we found you upstairs. This guy..."So there was a guy. Bile started to rise in my throat. "He was carrying you. At first, Himari thought he did something to you so she tried to attack him, but he said that he was only helping. He helped us get you back home," Blaire finished and I ran a hand down my face, releasing a heavy breath of relief.

"I'm so sorry I ruined your night Blaire."

"It's not your fault Lizzy," Blaire said wrapping her arms around me in a comforting hug. "Besides we all live together now. So we are responsible for each other in situations like these. We a family now, Lizzy." I smiled up at her. It was a sweet sentiment.

I couldn't take Blaire seriously while she had a fake mustache on her face. A smile tugged at my lips as I watched her smooth it out with her fingers. "Blaire?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you have a mustache on your face?" She let out a high pitched laugh and did a little twirl to show off her outfit. It's a chef's uniform and she was wearing a hat that hid her blonde hair.

"I work at this bakery called Taste of Paris. They have all their employees dress up like this. Apparently, it makes the customers smile," she said while smoothing out her long comical mustache.

"Why don't you say something to Liz in french," Himari suggested with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes and a coy smile on her face.

"Haha, Himi you so funny," Blaire said with a roll of her eyes. "You know my french accent makes me sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger."

"If you sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger then it's not a French accent," Himari pointed out.

"I'd like to hear your french accent," I said and Blaire let out a sigh.

"Yeah say something in french," Himari encouraged. Her eagerness and the smile on her face, made me believe she was up to something.

"Je suis heureux de vendre des chaussettes sales," Blaire attempted in a really bad french accent and my eyes widened. Not because of the accent, but because of what she said.

"Blaire, do you say that to your customers?" I asked and she nodded.
"Well, what do they say when you say that to them?"

"Oh, some of them laugh and some of them give me a rather disgusted look."

Himari burst out laughing. She fell off the bed and landed on her butt. I moved to see if she was okay. "What exactly do you think you telling your customers?" I asked, trying to suppress my bubbling laughter.

"Oh Liz, it's simple really," she said with a wave of her hand. "It means I'm really happy to sell croissants," she sat back on the bed and Himairi stood still in laughter.

"Blaire it means..." I paused to laugh. I felt guilty for laughing but Himari was making it hard for me not to. "I'm happy to sell dirty socks," I said and Blaire's face paled.

"Himari!" She shouted and began chasing Himari around the room.

Himari squealed and jumped over my bed and ran out of my room door. "I'm gonna go Jackie chan on your ass. Get back here!" Blaire yelled and chased after her.

"Wait." I got out of bed too fast and my legs felt like jelly as I attempted to walk out of my room. When I made it to the doorway. Blaire was banging on Himari's room door. "Blaire, Who was the guy you found me with?"

She stopped banging on the door and turned to me. "I didn't get his name, but I'll tell you this he was good looking," she added with a wink.

I let out a sigh. I needed to know what happened last night and the more I tried to remember the more my head hurt. "Okay fine keep hiding then," Blaire said and stomped. "I'm going to work Liz," Blaire shouted and began to walk on the spot making her footsteps sound like they receding.

After a few seconds, Himari opened her room door and Blaire ran at her. Himari's eyes widened and she dodged Blaire, causing Blaire to lose her balance and fall to the ground in a thud. "I'm sorry Blaire," Himari laughed, holding onto her stomach. She offered Blaire a hand up and Blaire swatted it away.

"This means war Himi!" Blaire declared and stood up. She ran her hands down her outfit and violently stormed out of Himari's room. "I'm going to work for real this time. Will I come home? I don't know, maybe not!"

"Yes you will," Himari shouted after her.

"Yes I will," Blaire shouted back, throwing her hands up in frustration as she walked to the stairs and disappeared from view.

"Want some breakfast, Lizzy?" Himari asked.

"No thanks. The thought of eating has my stomach churning."

"Was this your first time drinking?" Himari asked and I nodded.

" I see. I have just the thing. Shower and meet me downstairs. I'll fix you up something for your hangover," she smiled giving my shoulder a small squeeze before walking away.

My mother would be so mortified to learn that I got drunk and was found with a strange guy. She would ground me till I was sixty. I'm never going to another college party again.

*******************

Three days later, I woke up early so that I could start my job search. I needed to get a job before university started. I showered, grabbed my laptop, and went downstairs to see Himari standing by the blender, singing.

Every morning she made strawberry, mango, and kale smoothies for breakfast, before going out into the back yard and doing yoga for an hour. Blaire hated it, she argued that bacon and eggs are breakfast and Himari's smoothies look like cow vomit.

Himari is health crazed and she made sure every morning we drank her smoothies. "Good morning," she sang when she saw me. "Will you be joining me for yoga today?" she asked and I shook my head.

"U-r-h, no thanks. I think my core is broken after yesterday's session."

"You and Blaire are both couch potatoes but don't worry I'll make spring onions out of you."

I took a seat at the table. "I need to find a job before courses start," I groaned.

"I'll look around for you maybe ask my manager," Himari offered. She worked at radio shack.

She brought over a glass of satan's mixture and left it beside me. I swear I saw a skull float out of it. "Drink up," she said and walked over to the counter to grab her flask. "When Blaire comes down tell her to drink hers." She then opened the sliding glass door and went outside to the back yard with her yoga mat under her arm.

I opened up my PC and started searching for job openings near the housing complex. "Psssst..." I heard someone. "Cakakaka." I looked up to see Blaire peeking into the kitchen.

"You okay Blaire?" I asked with a humorous smile.

"Shhh. Don't say my name. She might hear you," Blaire shushed.

"Just drink it, Blaire. You know she knows when we don't."

Blaire was adamant. So she snuck into the kitchen and grabbed her backpack from the chair. "You never saw me," she said and backed out of the kitchen all the while keeping her eyes on Himari. The last thing I heard was the front door slam shut and then I was left alone.

I spent three hours phoning diners and coffee shops. No one had a job vacancy. I started hyperventilating. I needed a job. I couldn't let my mother pay for my university expenses all by herself.

I started counting.

One, two, two, three...I'm so screwed! I began banging my head on the table.

The telephone rang and Himari picked it up. "Ai Blaire, why are you screaming?" Himari asked, walking into the kitchen. She had the phone held far away from her ear. "Liz, it's Blaire."

I took the phone from her and put it to my ear. "Blaire?" I said in confusion and she began screaming in excitement.

"Omg... you never going to believe what happened!" she squealed.

"Blaire, please calm down. I can barely make out a word you're saying."I put the phone on speaker so Himari could hear what was happening.

"Okay, okay. So at work today I see Becky sitting at a table by herself and crying her eyes out. She got fired because she cussed some rich ass out in front of his business associates!" She shouted in excitement.

"That's horrible Blaire," Himari said shaking her head and I nodded.

"Yes it is for poor Becky but for Liz it's amazing!"

We all went silent for a while and then Blaire started to whisper. "Okay guys I got to go, my boss is standing in front of me and he is looking at me as if he wants to put my head on a spear. Liz the name of the restaurant is El Royal. I'll text you the address it's on Broadway," she said, and then the line went dead.

"What are you going to do?" Himari asked.

"I'm going to go for a job interview." I sprung up from my chair and ran upstairs to grab my résumé. I grabbed my résumé from my desk and went back downstairs to see Himari standing at the door with her car keys in hand.

"Clearly you didn't think I'd let you take the bus."

"Himari you're an angel," I said and we rushed out of the house.

We got into the car and Himari sped off. "Himari how are we going to get there?" I asked and she snorted.

"Liz we are in the twenty-first century," she smiled. "Google maps of course."

"U-h-r right," I said feeling stupid.

Fifteen minutes later and with the help of google maps we found the restaurant. "Wow," Himari said driving up to the golden gates that had the words El Royal designed into them.

"This is crazy," I said looking at the huge building that was painted grey and had black-tinted long windows. "This is a restaurant. It looks like a hotel."

A guy in a suit walked over to Himari's car and she rolled down her window. "May I park your car for you miss."

"No that's okay thanks sir," Himari said and the man looked taken aback by her response.

We found a parking and I rushed out of the car. "I'll be waiting for you," Himari yelled while I ran up to the steps that led to the entrance of the place. The doors slid open and I was in awe. The walls were black and gold lights hung from the ceiling. I could hear the sound of water as I walked up to the front desk. A man wearing a black suit barely looked up at me as I approached. "Excuse me," I said and he looked up and then back down again.

"Are you lost?" he asked in an exhausted tone of voice.

"No," I said and he looked up.

"No?"

"I'm here for the job vacancy," I said and he scoffed.

"Trust me you don't want to work here. These people will crush your spirit faster than you can say table for two. You better off working at a Starbucks."

"Look, sir, I'm really desperate," I stated and he raised an eyebrow.

"Follow me," he said and stepped out from behind the desk. He walked through the restaurant and I followed after him.

I couldn't believe my eyes as we walked through the restaurant. There was a huge fountain with three angels holding up a circular concrete plate on which water fell from. There were square dark wood tables that had seating for one person up to twelve people. The restaurant was quiet, there was only one elderly couple having breakfast and one lady having a glass of wine.

He led me through a set of double doors. It was a kitchen. The place was neat and there was a woman scrubbing pots and pans by the sink while another man mopped the floors. "Where is everyone?" I asked and the guy turned around and smirked.

"The restaurant is only busy at certain times of the day. Ten am, two pm, and six-thirty pm," he said and took me through one more door.

I walked into the room and he took a seat behind a giant desk that had a black computer on it as well as many other monitors.

"I see everything," he simply said which lead me to believe all those monitors showed footage of everything happening in the restaurant. "Sit," he ordered and like an obedient dog, I sat. "So tell me, how did you find out about the job vacancy. Are you a spy for Raffaello's?" He asked leaning over the desk intimidatingly.

"My friend had told me she met a girl at the bakery she's working in and that the girl lost her job here."

"A plausible story," he said and now it was my turn to raise my eyebrow.

"I'm not a spy," I sighed and he nodded. Who did he think I was. James bond. "I told you I'm just here for a job."

"You insane. I spent ten years working at this ballbusting soul shivering place."

"I really need the money," I blurted and he went silent and sat back in his chair. "I'm going to university in a week and I need a job before it starts."

"Do you have any experience of being a waitress?" He questioned.

"Yes. I worked in diners and coffee shops before."

"I'll have you know that this is no diner or coffee shop. The people you encounter here are unpredictable. If you last more than two weeks then you got some tough skin."

He stood from his chair and walked to a cupboard and pulled out a thick stack of papers. "Everything you need to know about the job is here. Your shift starts at two pm and will end at eleven pm." He placed another humongous box on the table and patted it. "Your work uniform."

"Thank you. Thank you, sir, I said in excitement and stood from my chair.

"Well let's not wait for the zombie apocalypse. Though the zombie apocalypse would be much more pleasant than working here," he said pausing in thought. His face looked frighteningly at peace with his morbid thoughts. "What, what are you waiting for? Leave so you can come back here," he said and I grabbed the box from the table. It was heavy but I didn't dare wobble while I tried to carry it back to Himari's car.

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A/N

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Final word: Smiling is contagious. Don't believe me?
Then smile at someone and watch how they can't help but smile back 😊

Till next time.

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