"...I don't know what sin I had committed in my previous life to deserve a wife like your mother." Pent-up anger poured down from the words of Winter's father.
"I don't mean to be rude, but I would appreciate it if you didn't bad-mouth someone already dead," Winter whimpered. She had been trying her best to keep her mouth shut while her father kept taunting her for her mother. Winter looked too much like her mother—the only exception was having the same green eye color as him—which pissed him off.
"She reaped what she sowed." Regardless of what anyone said about her mother or however she treated her own daughter, Winter loved her mom more than anyone else. So, the words cut deeper in her chest than he could have anticipated.
Seeing her eyes brimmed with tears, David Weston felt bad. After all, Winter was his only daughter—even though her mother, Adeline, left him bankrupt. Even if he couldn't bear to look at her face, just because of the biological connection, he took Winter in after Adeline's death.
David sighed and diverted the topic to the house rules. "Listen, there are a few rules you must follow while you're staying here."
Winter nodded, blinking furiously to make her tears vanish.
"You're not to show up in the dining room when I'm eating there. No, never mind. Don't just get out of your room when I'm at home unless it's urgent. Don't make too much noise. Always behave yourself at home. I don't care what you do outside of this house. Although your curfew is at 10 o'clock. Never misbehave with Carla. Don't mention your mother's name in this house. That's all."
Winter couldn't help but mutter, "What's this, a jail?"
"Oh, yes, and you can't talk back to me," David added. Carla, his present wife, gave Winter a pitiful look. With that, David strolled back to his room with Carla, leaving Winter with her luggage in the living room.
Winter heaved a sigh and struggled to pull her two pieces of luggage upstairs, to her new bedroom. She looked at her palm which was now red due to the heavy weightlifting before turning the knob to her room. She expected the room to be dusty, filled with spider webs and insects crawling around, but to her surprise, it was cleaned up nicely.
She walked into the small purple-shaded room and laid down on the single bed on her tummy, burying her face in the new bedsheets. She hated to admit it but she liked the room. While rolling on the bed, her eyes fell on the plastic bag she kept near the bedside table.
Winter grabbed the bag and sat upon the bed, cross-legged. She took out the ice cream tub from it and smiled. She decided to store the ice cream in the freezer for a little longer before devouring it and laid down on her bed—too lazy to unpack right away.
It was really nice of the stranger to buy her ice cream, but it did bring up the embarrassing memories from before. How would she ever face him if she came face to face with him again?
Ugh, I hope I never meet him again!
°°°°°
The sun was only rising as a canopy of gold and orange when Winter woke up crying hysterically.
Her heart was beating fast, and there was a buzzing in her brain and together they were like a panic with jump-leads. It was the same nightmare. The same bloodied scenario. The same questions that demanded solutions from her. But she had no answer to any of it. Her only response was to cry.
It took her a while to calm down her nerves, and when she did, she checked the time on the digital wall clock. It was only a quarter past five. She wanted to sleep more but she refused to. As if sleeping any longer would become a dangerous thing.
Pushing away the messy hair from her face, Winter started to unpack her belongings to divert her mind.
Out of habit, when the clock hit 7 o'clock, Winter went down to have breakfast but was met with an unwelcomed gaze and scowl from her father.
"I told you not to show your face to me when I'm eating," David rebuked.
Winter lowered her head and mumbled a timid apology.
"Honey, It's her first day here. She doesn't know your eating schedule," said Carla in Winter's defense.
"Whatever." David huffed.
Winter was about to head back upstairs when she got reminded of something. "Um, I was wondering," she started reluctantly, "When will I get my monthly allowance? I need to buy some stuff for myself."
"On the 31st of September," David replied curtly.
"That's too far—" she came to an abrupt stop and let out, "Wait, September doesn't have 31 days."
"Exactly."
It took her a moment to realize. "You mean I won't get any pocket money?" How was she supposed to manage her daily expenses?
"Why would you need any? You get free food in the school canteen and the school bus will come to pick you up every day."
"But—"
"Forgetting some of the house rules, are we now?" David deplored alarmingly.
Oh right, can't talk back to him.
Winter gritted her teeth and dashed back upstairs. She couldn't believe her father was being such a douche to her. Then again, he was also just a stranger to her.
Winter sat on the bed and released a hopeless sigh. She shouldn't have come here. It was a big mistake. She should have stayed back in her hometown. The people there were much nicer and kinder than most people she had met in California yet. But she had no other choice. She couldn't continue living in her mother's house all alone.
"What should I do?" She felt utterly hopeless. That was when she noticed a folded newspaper near the doormat. She didn't remember seeing it before, so she picked it up and many pamphlets fell from within. There were all job advertisements.
"Right! I can get myself a part-time job!" Winter squealed to herself. Her senior year at high school would be starting the day after tomorrow, so she needed to make sure she found a suitable job before that.
She was excited to start her part-time job, but it was better said than done. She was unable to find a single job nearby, even after looking for hours. Thus, she decided to go look around downtown the next day.
Fortunately, she stumbled across a poster that said that they were looking for a female café server. The café was named 'Coffee Secrets'. Winter felt grateful that she was dressed decent enough to go to an interview for a waitress job.
The doorbell jingled as she stepped inside the big cozy café, and a blonde waitress greeted her warmly.
"Sorry, I'm not here as a customer. I want to interview for the waitress job," Winter told the greeter.
The beautiful girl smiled brightly and guided Winter inside while explaining how to pass the interview.
"Best of luck," she wished, giving Winter a thumbs up.
Winter was extremely nervous for the interview, but miraculously, she passed it with flying colors pretty easily. Rylan Tanner, the shop manager, suggested that she could start working from that very day since they were short on staff and that Lucy, the waitress from before, would explain everything to her.
Winter was satisfied with her job. The pay was good, and the place seemed warm and friendly. Probably, everyone wasn't that bad.
"I'm so glad you made it. I was dying to have a friend younger than me here," Lucy chirped, showing Winter to the staff room.
"Do I seem like a man in forties to you?" said a playful voice from behind.
"Yeah, you do," Lucy joked as a chestnut brown-haired boy blocked their path.
"I'm younger than you, you know?" He cocked an eyebrow at Lucy, who was actually a junior college student.
"I'm forever sixteen. By the way, aren't you almost eighteen, Leon?" Lucy challenged. "What do you say, Winter? Who looks younger?"
Both of them darted their gaze at the petite girl. Winter didn't want to offend any of her new colleagues on the very first day, so she settled with, "I guess I look the youngest."
Leon and Lucy chuckled together.
"I like you already," Leon let out.
"That's way too early to confess your feelings, bro," Lucy joked.
"C'mon, she's already like a little sister to me." Leon stood beside Winter and placed his hand on her shoulder, kind of startling her. "Don't we look identical?"
Lucy chuckled and said, "No, honey, you look like a devil next to an angel."
"I'll let you in on a secret, Luce. It's because I'm actually a fallen angel."
"You're going to be a fallen employee soon if you don't get back to work, Mr. Connor," said the voice they feared the most at work.
Leon almost jumped out of his skin and barked out before scurrying out, "Sorry, boss!"
Then Mr. Tanner turned his gaze over to Lucy. She straightened up and spoke up instantly, "Ah, Winter, locker six will be yours from now on. You'll find your uniform there. Please put it on and come out soon."
Winter nodded and was about to head towards the staff room when Mr. Tanner placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. She felt a shiver run down her spine. "I hope you work diligently unlike others." He gave her a smile and went away.
She felt off in his presence but decided to shrug it off. She made her way to the staff room where she found her uniform. Just as she was about to go to the changing room, her vision was darkened by a piece of clothing landing on her head.
"What the—" The fresh scent of the shirt hit her nostrils which got her awestruck for a moment. It smelled sweet like citrus mixed with sweat. It was strangely intoxicating.
"Lucy, please be a darling and put my shirt in the locker. Boss is going to chew me out for being late," said an urgent voice she had heard before.
Winter was about to turn around and reply, but Leon barged in and interrupted, "Zane, that ain't Luce. She's our new colleague."
Zane's mouth dropped open as he hurried to apologize, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice. I was in such a hurry. I'm really sorry, miss." Winter remained silent as she wanted to delay coming face to face with him as much as possible.
"How rude of you. You haven't even introduced yourself," Leon remarked playfully.
"Oh, right. I'm Zane Astor. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope we get along well with each other. Wait a damn minute," he paused, "Since when am I this polite, Leon?" Zane exclaimed.
"Since never. You need to cool off your brain, bro. You're getting out of character," Leon jeered. Zane must have been feeling extremely hot from cycling at a lightning speed to reach the café on time, which was probably making him act unlike himself.
But his edge of irritation had returned. "Shut up, idiot!" he scolded Leon and turned to the girl standing in the corner. "Why are you standing there so quietly?"
Winter finally turned around and said before pulling the shirt from her face, "Because I don't have anything to say."
Zane's hand froze midway between buttoning his uniform shirt as his blue eyes met her green ones. There was a brief pause before he let out, "You're the tampon girl!"
"Now who's a tampon girl?" asked Leon curiously.
Just as Winter expected, meeting Zane again was indeed embarrassing for herself.
She shot Zane a glare which made him correct himself. "I mean, we met at the pharmacy that day."
"Wow, you guys already know each other? That's great," Leon chirped.
"No, we don't even know each other's name," Zane objected.
"Well, I bet she knows yours," Leon deadpanned.
"Sorry, I should've introduced myself sooner. I'm Winter Candace. Pleased to meet you as well," Winter responded.
"That's a really unusual name, Winter," he uttered her name tentatively. "Is your name the reason why you're wearing such long sleeves in this smoldering weather?" Her stomach churned at the unexpected question.
Unknowingly, Zane had asked an overwhelming question she didn't have an answer to—rather she didn't want to answer. The secret behind her long sleeves wasn't for just anyone to know.