WARRIOR'S LOVE (M/G SS)PART 3-page 7

I remember that summer morning like it was yesterday. I was 16 that summer of '66 and had my whole life in front of me. It was during the Vietnam War and it was constantly crazy. I wasn't really a strong peace activist but I did sing along to the occasional Beatles tune, or attend a rally here or there. The Vietnam war was a big topic of conversation, especially in my family. At dinner time father would come in from work, at the local newspaper house, and talk and talk all about the war and how the men were fighting. One minute he'd say that we were going to win the war in a month. Then as it got closer his story would change( I think for a dramatic effect)he would say that there is a high possibility of us never winning the war. Mother was just as bad. She would come home from her afternoon teas with the ladies from the church committee and talk about who has died or who was injured badly enough to send them home. My poor sister Rajji and I had to sit through every meal talking about the war. That is until I got a summer job and my whole world changed.

I woke to the sun shinning in my window and the smell of bacon on the air. My pink room sparkled with sunlight and my lace curtains were blowing gently in the early morning breeze. I knew the breeze wouldn't last. Growing up in Monroe, Virginia the breeze came with the morning and went with lunch time, especially in the middle of July. I kicked off the blankets and rushed to the bathroom so I could quickly change for work. It was my third week working at Geetu's Caf and I was still trying to make a good impression.

Getting a job had been my idea and both my mother and father didn't like it. Mother said I didn't need a job, I had to focus on my studies and father said, what do you need a job for? I make enough money for all of us! But really the job wasn't for the money or for something to do. It was a way for me to get away from my parents and feel'independent.

After blow drying my black hair I put it up into a ponytail and curled it to make it one big curl. I threw on my work uniform, which consisted of a black poodle skirt and a white blouse and some panty-hose and looked at myself in the mirror. Something was missing. I put on some kohl and a little bit of gloss and smiled. Still something was wrong. I grabbed a red scarf from my room and tied it around my neck. I fiddled with it tying and untying it, switching it from one side of my neck to the other before I decided to scrap the scarf all together. I quickly glanced myself over again, turning left then right. I gasped as I realized what I was missing, My BOW! Everyday since I was a baby I wore a bow in my hair. Mom put a bow in my hair, because it was hard for people to distinguish if I was male or female. But as I grew Bows just became more natural.

I grabbed my favorite blue bow and clipped it to my pony-tail. I smiled at myself and nodded for a bit of encouragement before going downstairs for breakfast. Mom was at the stove, humming to herself while making bacon and eggs and Papa was at the table reading the newspaper. Both we're lost in their own worlds and didn't hear me enter the kitchen. I kissed my mother's warm, moist cheek and she jumped slightly.

"Oh, dear. I didn't hear you come in the kitchen." She smiled brightly. Her brown hair was curled and hairsprayed into the perfect position. Her dark brown eyes, ringed with liner and mascara twinkled, matching her yellow dress perfectly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I smiled.

"Are you hungry?" She asked and I nodded. "Well I'll get you a plate ready. You're father can drive you to work."

"Huh?" Papa looked up from the paper when he heard his name.

"Morning Papa." I kissed his cheek too before sitting at his right.

"Morning Princess." He smiled and then went back to his paper. At 42 my papa was a high spirited man. He was the chief editor at the newspaper house and he was coach of the boys football team at our highschool. He had pepper coloured hair and a thin, neat black mustache and he always smelt of pipe tobacco. He had a booming voice that caught almost anyones attention and had a very contagious laugh.

"Do you mind driving me to work today, Papa?" I asked, taking a bite out of a piece of toast.

"Not at all. I need to stop by work anyways." He sipped his coffee, never taking his eyes off of the paper.

"We need milk too dear." Mom said as she placed my breakfast in front of me. "Say you're prayers Geet." I bent my head and said my prayers before I started to eat my breakfast. As I scooped up my eggs, Rajji came into the kitchen. She and I were almost complete replicas. She was 14, and still looked like a baby, but she had the same blue eyes and black curly hair that I did. People said she looked more like Papa where as I looked like Mom, and that was somewhat true to the fact that geet was loud and laughed a lot like Papa did, and I was somewhat quiet and liked to knit like mom did.

"Mom, Annie wants to go to the shops today." Rajji said, her loose hair flopped on her back as she sat down.

"Rajji, don't sit like that. Sit up straight." Mom said as she handed Rajji her breakfast. "And yes you may go to the shops today." Rajji smiled brightly and filled her mouth with eggs and bacon in a unladylike, but amusing way.

" 'isa dif cho 'nna 'ome?" She said with a mouth full of food.

"Pardon?" I laughed and mom scowled disapprovingly at her. She cringed.

"Ha, sorry mom." She smiled slightly and mom huffed before turning back to the stove. "Did you want to come with us?" She asked me again.

"No, I have to work today." I shrugged.

"Ah! The infamous job!" She said dramatically, and I laughed.

"Sorry. I would have gone with you though."

"No worries sis. We're just going to do the usual scope." She winked a me, letting me know that it wasn't the clothes she was going to the shops for, it was all the young boys about to head off to war today. I rolled my eyes at her.

"You're terrible." I whispered to her and she beamed at me. I glanced at the clock behind her head and it said 9:00. I had to be a work in half an hour! I gulped down the rest of my breakfast and raced up stairs to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I gave my hair one last fix and then bounced back down the stairs, grabbing my white tennis shoes along the way.

Papa was already waiting for me in the car, so I quickly kissed mom and Rajji. I was half-way out the house yelling to mom when I would be off work and that I would call when I was finished. But the day was so nice out that I decided that I would walk home after work, seeing as it wasn't that far away from home.

I got to work just on time. I clocked in and started my shift off with wiping down tables and arranging them to make the caf look more presentable. Our first customer came in a 10 and he was by himself. An older man, who seemed to be a regular yet I still did not know his name. I looked toward my manager Sue and she nodded to me to go and take his order. I inhaled deeply, getting rid of those first order jitters, and went to tend to this man.

"Hello. Can I get you coffee or tea today?" I asked flashing my sweetest smile at him.

"Sure can. I'll take a black coffee with some scrambled eggs, white toast with jam and maybe some pea meal bacon?" He asked with a thick Louisiana accent. He was missing two teeth on the bottom and the remaining ones were yellow/brown. He smelt of stale cigarettes. His worker hat and grease stained hands told me that he worked in the factory. I smiled sweetly again and went to give our cook, Johnny his order.

Before I knew it the place was packed. Lunchtime customers flowed in and out like the current in the ocean. I got a couple of minutes to have a break, let my legs relax and to cool down, but it didn't last long before they needed an extra pair of hands. Eventually the lunchtime rush died down around 1:30 and we got our "late diners". One of those "late diners" was an old beaux of mine, Devender Sinha.

Dev was the head of the football team and the ring leader of his group of friends. Where ever Dev went, his cronies went with him. He was tall, had dark brown curly hair and chocolate coloured eyes that gave him the impression that he was mysterious yet charming. That was the most deceptive thing about him and it took me 3 dates to figure it out. He had a head full of air and only talked about two things, football and the war. He talked and talked and talked about the war and how he was going to join, but he never actually did. To me this made him a coward. All those other boys out there who were fighting, and he was sitting at home, sweet talking all the girls, because the other boys were away getting shot!

Anyways when I saw him come in with his friends I groaned on the inside. I looked around to see if anyone else would serve them, but they were in my section and it was my job to serve people in my section. I plastered a smile on my face and walked up to him.

"Hi." I said and he beamed up at me.

"Hey sugar." He said in what was supposed to be a seductive way, but made me cringe with disgust. His three buddies nudged each other, obviously thinking I wouldn't see them, and gave me a grin I wouldn't want to see anywhere that I was not protected.

"What can I get you?" I asked sweetly looking from one face to the other.

"Sweet tea I guess." Dev sighed.

"Me too." Said one boy and the others replied with the same thing.

"Ok." How original! "4 sweet teas coming right up." I practically ran away from them and went to get their sweet teas. On our third date, Dev had kissed me. It wasn't bad, at first, I enjoy being kissed, but it was his advances afterwards that made me feel uncomfortable around him afterwards. Obviously he told his friends something other than what happened because they were giving me weird smiles and winking at me from across the room. I could feel my cheeks heat up just from the thought of what he would have told them.

I placed the 4 sweet teas on a tray and brought them to the table. I placed them down, one by one, very carefully. I bit my lower lip in concentration and congratulated myself when I managed to not spill one single drop.

"So, Geet, how's it going?" Yash, one of the boys asked me. He was the smaller one of the three and had lots of freckles and pale eyes that gave me goose bumps.

"Fine thank you." I smiled back.

"I've missed you a lot geetu, since school's been out and all." Dev looked at me with sad puppy dog eyes and I couldn't help myself. I smiled, but not because I was flattered. I smiled because he looked so stupid and so pathetic.

"Is that right?" I managed to say, continuing to smile.

"Wanna go and see a movie this weekend?" He asked and I noticed him quickly glance at his buddies and wink. I was outraged. Here he was asking me on a date, when all he wanted to do was have sex with me and then tell his friends about it. Well it wasn't going to happen. I was a good girl and would always be a good girl, I told myself.

"No thanks." I said simply and smiled just as sweet. He looked at me puzzled and just at that moment the bell rang on the door to the restaurant and my saving grace walked in. "Excuse me a moment." I smirked as I walked away.

"Hey Sis." Rajji said to me and I hugged her quickly. Her best friend Sasha stood at her side and she smiled brightly at me. I noticed their bags hanging off their arms and gave Rajji a look of warning.

"Mom's going to freak!" I said and she shrugged.

"Oh well, she'd find something to freak about anyways." Rajji sighed looking around the caf. She and my mother had their difficulties, but they were working through it'somewhat. I saw Sasha grab Rajji's arm and nod to Dev and his crew. They exchanged girly smiles and then straightened up when they turned back to me.

"So, where can we sit?" Rajji asked me. I looked at the chart of tables and decided on the table farthest away from Dev. Yet it wasn't far enough because as we walked by, Sasha, the bright one, waved to one of the boys. Rahul, the tall skinny one with a ton of pimples and green eyes like a snake's, called over to them and asked them to sit with them. I started to panic. I didn't want my baby sister to be hanging out with THEM!

"No'" I started to say, but how could I stop them? I was neither their parent nor in charge of where they sat. So when they agreed, grabbing each other's hands with anticipation I brought them over two menus and took their orders.

"Don't worry geetu! I'll keep an eye out for her." Dev said touching my arm ever so gently. It was supposed to make me feel better I bet. I smiled down at him and when I turned to Sasha she was glaring at me. This shocked me for a second and I wasn't sure why.

"We don't need anything else Geet." She snapped, dismissing me. I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Rajji looked at her shocked and pained. Her eyes traveled to mine and her cheeks blushed with embarrassment from her friend.

"Alright then, I'll just get your drinks." I rolled my eyes as I walked away. As I was pouring the drinks the bell to the door rang and someone else walked in. I looked up just as the person sat in an empty booth. His back was towards me, and he had on a green hat. So I figured he was one of the soldiers going off to war.

I carried over the tray and this time, slopped Sasha's drink onto the table, making it spill a bit. She gasped as it splashed her shirt a bit.

"Thanks a lot Geet! This was my favorite top!" She shrieked.

"Oh I'm sorry Sasha! Here let me clean it for you."I said with fake sincerity. I grabbed a napkin and started rubbing the pop stain. She shrieked even louder. I noticed it got the attention of almost everyone in the restaurant. "Oh Sasha!" My hand went to my mouth, to hide my smile, in what I hoped looked like distress.

"You stupid'ugh!" She glared at me again before going into the bathroom. I watched her walk away. People turned back to their meals and resumed their conversations. I glanced at my manager and she just shrugged and turned away. This was my first "Mistake".

When I turned back to the table, Rajji's hands hid her face and I felt terrible. The boys were looking bored and picking at their fries.

"I'm sorry Rajji." I said to her, not even caring if the boys were listening.

"It's alright sis." She sighed through her hands.

"It's just a shirt anyways." Dev said.

"Yea she just bought'4 new ones." Tanish, the fat one with dirty blonde hair that stood our under his cap and his blue eyes twinkled in every light, who was counting the shirts in Sasha's bags. Rajji looked up and snatched the bags away from him.

"Brad! Don't do that!" Dev said, picking up on Rajji's distress. "Cool it!" He said to the three laughing friends and they immeadiatly stopped laughing.

"Rajji'" I said and she looked at me, then looked behind me. She perked up for a second, smiled and then looked at me.

"Don't look now'" She said with a grin on her face. "But there is a beautiful man behind you, waiting to be served." She winked, very subtly I might add, and grinned even more. Dev and the boys turned and looked at the man and we both groaned. "I said DON'T look." Rajji snapped.

~~~~~~~~~to be continued~~~~~~~~~~~

P.s: okay... i might update another part today but only if i get enough replies...😊