Day in,
Day out.

The same old shit every single day.
Same rude customers.

Stressful customers.
Abusive boyfriend.

It felt like my life was forever on a loop.

"That will be $17.98 please." I said to the old man, my smile fake and my hands clammy.

Two hours.
Two hours till closing time.
Two hours till I have to back,
-Back to Daniel.

"Are you ok, dear?" The old man asked, his forehead creasing in concern, and his ocean blue eyes held worry for a stranger he didn't even know.

"I'm fine." I mumbled, struggling to keep my eyes from blurring with unshed tears.

Lie.

I wasn't fine.

But the customer didn't really care about my wellbeing, people didn't really care.
They only ever asked out of the curiosity of human nature, and societies pressures to be polite.
Otherwise they would easily be able to see behind my facade of fakery and the repeated phrase of,
'I'm fine.'

The old man gave me a pursed lipped smile as he handed me a slightly crinkled twenty dollars, and I walked back to the till to get his change.

I noticed a man in a corner booth's eyes would not leave me, watching me were ever I went in the diner. He had sandy blond hair and piercing green eyes, I would have seen him as attractive if it were not for the disturbing way he was watching me.
'What a creep...' I thought to myself.

"Hurry up Amora, your slowing the rest of us down." Tamsin sneered, and I noticed that she had undone several of her pink uniforms buttons so that her extremely pushed up breasts where exposed, she looked me up and down disdainfully and scoffed loudly,
"You'll never get tips looking like that." She said gesturing a manicured hand towards my uniform.
"You should show more, live a little." Tamsin sighed exasperatedly, "Sometimes I really wonder how you ever got a boy as good looking as Daniel, or why he even keeps you around,"
I grit my teeth and clenched my palms so that my nails were biting into my hand hard enough to draw  blood. But Tamsin simply turned her back and walked off, her honey blonde hair swaying to a land fro as she went.

If only she knew...
If only she knew the hell I go home to every single day.

Thought it wasn't ever a home to me, it was merely just a house that bad things happened in.

I tried my best to shrug off her comment as I returned to the elderly man to give him his change.

"Here you go sir, $2.02 change." I said handing him the coins,

"Thank you dear," He smiled, "Are you sure your okay?"

"Yes, thank you."
And with that, he gave me a polite 'goodbye' and a curt nod before getting up and exiting the diner, the old bronze bell that hung above the door, tinkling loudly as he went.

Something about that old man gave me a strange feeling...
But I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
-Probably his eyes, an unusually bright blue. Though not that I could talk much about strange appearances, with my stark white hair and vivid purple eyes, I had always wondered why I had been cursed with my mother's appearance, she was beautiful no doubt, head turning it beautiful in fact. But then that was the curse, the states people gave me, the second glances and the questions to ask if my appearance was natural or not, which it was of course.

I glanced up at the clock that hung on the wall over the register

6:30 PM

One hour and a half left...
All of a sudden my uniform collar felt to tight and my hands began to sweat profusely.

I felt trapped.

The monster of anxiety awakening deep inside of me to claw at my eyes and throat, it's sharp talons gripping my heart in a vice like grip.

A customer snapping their fingers inches away from my face brought me back to reality.

"My fries are too salty." The lady snapped, shoving her plate of half eaten chips in my face.

I mumbled a vague apology before walking back to the kitchen to fetch the lady a new portion of fries, returning minutes later with a fresh batch of fries and placing them infront of her.

I subconsciously rubbed my cheek with the back of my hand, only to be met with a sharp jolt of pain from the dark purple bruise that Lay hidden beneath my makeup.

When the lady looked up at me she gave me a funny look, her eyes darting to my cheek for a split second before meeting my eyes again.

She furrowed her brow and opened her mouth as if to speak, before shaking her head slightly and closing it again, returning to her fresh plate of fries.

Why was she looking at me like that?

Oh...shit.

I must of subconsciously wiped off some of the makeup concealing the discoloured bruise beneath.

I ran to the staff toilets, dodging customers and their requests, shutting and locking the door behind me.

I turned to face the mirror only to see the dark purple bruise that cover my entire cheekbone clearly visible.

I grabbed my bag on the way to the toilets so I opened it, briefly scanning its contents, before pulling out my makeup and began reapplying what ever was needed to hide the bruised flesh.

No one could ever know.

If someone were to find out, things would just get worse.

No one could save me.

This was the way it was ment to be.

And the thing that kept me going was the thin strand of hope that one day... maybe...just maybe, everything would be okay.

In the end everything would turn out as planned.

I would marry Daniel,
We would have children.
And hopefully he would stop his abusive ways,
And then we could just grow old together.

Average.

I never wanted to be anything other than average.

Just another plain Jane following the stream of the crowd.

Because to be unique would be to expose yourself.

And exposure ment you where targeted.

I couldn't loose myself again in the throws of normality.

To drown myself in the utter mundaneness of everyday life, just trying to scrape together enough money and hope to survive.

Because this,
This wasn't living, this was surviving.

***

The next book I'm going to write is going to be a lot different from my others, and I have never read a werewolf similar to it before so hopefully you guys will enjoy it.
Anyways...
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-🍟