Luke's POV

The rest of February goes by quickly. More snow falls, and Delilah was right, I am now sick of it. I am tired of the cold and want the snow to go away. I liked it at first, but now I don't. I thought it got cold in Australia, but this is way colder than I could have ever imagined and I just want Winter to be over.

Lucy's birthday was February 20th, and she had a party with all her friends. I was invited too and spent my day surrounded by toddlers, being introduced to all of Lucy's friends by her saying "This is Lukey, my best friend." I bought her an Olaf balloon since we never did go to get the balloons. She was extremely excited, and now it's March 6th and the balloon is half deflated in her room. Delilah says she tells the balloon all about her day every night, so I'll probably have to get her a new one once this one completely deflates because she'll be devastated that she's killed yet another balloon. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to get her a balloon.

Michael and Ally still aren't officially dating, but they're working on it. Michael's too shy and nervous, and Ally is too. They're cute together though. I don't think Ashton is talking to that girl Amber anymore either. She was too quiet for him, according to Delilah.

Today is my first day working. Delilah's stepdad was able to get me a job at his friend's restaurant, so I'm working there as a waiter. I'm standing in front of my mirror, readjusting my tie and tucking in my shirt a little more. I nervously rub my palms against my legs and tug at my hair. I'm so nervous I feel like I could pass out. I've never worked anywhere before, I have no idea what I'm doing. They explained everything to me at my interview, but I don't remember much because I was too nervous to listen. I take a deep breath and head out of my room.

"Dad, I'm ready," I say quietly.

"Alright. Are you nervous?" he asks, grabbing his car keys from the table and putting on his jacket.

I nod. "Extremely."

"You'll do fine. I worked at a restaurant when I was around your age too. It's not too bad."

"You did? I didn't know that."

My dad nods. "I was the host."

I laugh. "So you weren't actually a waiter! A host is easy!"

"It's not that simple! You have to mark the tables, memorize the seating, keep track of who has eaten dinner, deal with angry customers waiting... Very hard."

I roll my eyes. "Okay, sure."

We get in the car, and I nervously tap my fingers against the arm rest. I know I'm not going to do well, and I'm going to mess up and get fired. I never should have taken the job in the first place. I should've just worked somewhere that doesn't have a lot of people, like a library.

The car ride seems to go by extremely slowly, and when we get there, I stay in the car.

"Luke," my dad says, turning to me.

"Dad."

"In order to get inside, you have to get out of the car."

"I know. Just taking my time," I say, unbuckling my seat belt slowly.

My dad sighs. "I promise it won't be bad. If I didn't think you could do this, I wouldn't have had you work here. You'll do great."

I open up the car door and slowly step out.

"Make new friends! Be nice to customers! Don't forget to smile!" my dad says, leaning over and yelling out the window.

"Bye, Dad," I tell him, laughing. I know he's trying to make me less nervous, but I'm pretty sure all the people in the parking lot can hear him screaming.

I head inside and quietly walk into the back door of the restaurant. My manager told me to meet him in the kitchen, and he'd go through all the rules again. I look around the large kitchen and see him talking to who I assume is another waiter since they're wearing the same uniform as me.

My manager, Josh, notices me and waves me over.

"Hi, Luke! Welcome to your first day! Nervous?"

I smile. "A little."

"There's nothing to be nervous about!"

That's what everyone says but there's always something to be nervous about.

Josh walks me through the kitchen and shows me everything in more detail than he did in my interview. There's so many things to remember and so many health regulations, I don't think I'll be able to remember it all. There is also a ton of people running around the kitchen. My interview happened before the restaurant was open, so no one was there. But now there's so many people I can barely move without crashing into someone.

"Think you're ready?" Josh asks when he finishes.

I shrug. "I guess so, if I can remember all this."

Josh laughs. "Don't worry, we don't expect you to start perfectly on your first day. Oh, by the way, no jewelry allowed."

"Okay," I say confused. I don't remember wearing any jewelry. I look down at my hands to see if I'm wearing any rings, but I'm not.

"That includes facial piercings."

"Oh, right! Sorry," I say, quickly taking out my lip ring and putting it in my pocket. I totally forgot about that.

Josh brings me over to the waiter he was talking to earlier and says he'll be training me. His name is Aiden, and he looks a few years older than me. Josh leaves and I'm left alone with Aiden.

"Hey, nice to meet you, Luke!" Aiden says, shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Where are you from?" he asks, tilting his head to the side. 

"Australia."

"That's so cool! Do you really have, like, kangaroos and koalas?"

I shrug. "I mean, there was a kangaroo in my yard once, but it's not a daily thing or anything."

Aiden laughs. "That's sick."

I have no idea what sick means, I'm guessing it means cool. I just nod awkwardly in agreement. "So do I just watch what you do today?" I ask, unsure.

"Yeah, for today. Then your next day, you'll start doing more. Then your third and fourth day I basically just watch you. You'll catch on pretty quickly. When's your next day?"

"Tuesday. I'm working Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays."

"Nice, I work Sundays and Thursdays, too, so I'll see you those days! Are you ready to go? Have any questions?"

I shake my head. "I think I'm good."

"Okay, then let's get started! We haven't gotten a table yet, so we can just hang here."

Aiden tells me he's been working here for four years, and he's in his third year of college. He introduces me to some other waiters, and everyone seems pretty nice. There are only a few people my age, the rest seem older. I don't recognize anyone, not that I even know that many people.

We get a table within five minutes, and I nervously follow Aiden as we walk over. He explains how the tables are set up and that I'll have a different section to serve every night, so I'll have to memorize the tables. He walks so quickly that I practically have to run to keep up.

He walks up to the table, which is three teenage girls that look about fifteen.

"Hi, I'm Aiden, I'll be your server tonight. I'm training Luke today, it's his first day," Aiden says.

The three girls look over at me and smile.

"Is there anything I can get for you to drink?" Aiden asks.

All of the girls look at each other and one girl speaks up. "We'll all have lemonade."

"Alright, we'll be right out with those."

As we walk away, the girls quietly laugh and I can feel them all staring at me.

"Dude, you're gonna get great tips," Aiden says as we walk back to the kitchen.

"Why?"

"Those girls totally think you're attractive."

I nearly choke. "What?"

Aiden laughs as he pours the lemonades. "You'll realize it soon when customers are going to tip you big. Girls around our age are the highest tippers for attractive boys. The more you play along with it, the more tips you'll get."

"Really?"

"Oh, definitely. One girl gave me a six dollar tip for a 14 dollar meal the other day. Plus, you've got the whole accent thing going for you too. Girls will love you. Oh, and old ladies too."

I nervously scratch the back of my neck. "Sounds great."

Aiden passes me the tray with the three lemonades. "Wanna carry this one out?" he asks.

"Sure."

We head back to the table and I give them all their lemonade, thankfully not spilling anything. I watch Aiden take down their meal orders. I take notice in how one of the girls keeps staring at me intently. It's making me feel very uncomfortable.

Aiden shows me how to write down their order and how to put it into the computer system. I have to put in my employee code and type order out. It seems very confusing.

When their meals are ready, Aiden gives me two plates and he carries one. Of course one of the girls had to order a bunch of sides, so Aiden has me balancing a plate on my arm too. He says I'll have to learn to balance plates, or carry a giant tray with everything if there's too much. I walk slowly to make sure I don't drop their meals, but Aiden continues to walk at a quick pace. I don't get how he walks so fast.

Just as we're almost at the table, I notice the plate on my left arm start leaning over and before I can do anything, it falls to the ground.

Aiden turns around and laughs.

I feel my cheeks heat up. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened it just started leaning and-"

"It's fine, don't worry about it. It happens to everyone."

"Are you sure?"

Aiden nods. We bring the food that hasn't fallen over to the table. Thankfully the only plate that fell was the one with all the sides, so it wasn't everything. It's still embarrassing though. I knew I'd mess up. Aiden cleans up the mess quickly though, and he doesn't seem mad.

The rest of the day is very stressful for me because there's so many people and things to remember to do. Aiden's right though, the girls tipped us a lot. Aiden's nice, I'm happy he was the one training me. He doesn't get impatient when I forget how to do something or don't walk fast enough. He seems to understand that I'm nervous.

My shift was from 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock. Delilah picks me up and she's already outside when I'm done.

"How was it?" she asks when I get in the car.

"I dropped a plate," I mumble, undoing my tie.

"That's okay, I've seen plenty of people drop plates. How much did you get in tips?"

"18 dollars. I had to split it with Aiden, the person who was training me."

"That's good for your first day! You look cute in your uniform."

I laugh. "Yeah, right. I suck at this job."

"I'm sure you don't. It's your first day, no one does well their first day. You're going to make mistakes, it's okay."

I shrug.

"Where's your lip ring?"

I almost forgot to put it back in. "I can't wear it. They're not allowed." I reach in my pocket and look in the side mirror to put it back in.

"Wait," Delilah asks, pulling me towards her.

"What?" I ask.

She kisses me and rubs her thumb against where my piercing should be.

"Just wanted to see what it was like to kiss you without it," she says casually.

"You're so weird."

"Well every time we kiss I have to be careful not to stab myself with it or something! Like, what if I accidentally rip it out of you lip," she says.

"You won't rip it out of my lip," I tell her, laughing. I didn't realize that a lip piercing could cause such a problem kissing.

She shrugs.

"Was there a difference?" I ask quietly, putting the lip ring back in.

"Not much. I'm used to it by now."

I roll my eyes.

Delilah tries to make me less stressed about work. I guess it's normal to mess up and I shouldn't be so upset about it. No one is going to be perfect right at the start. Delilah tells me about Lucy and her balloon tragedy. She's had to tape it to her wall because it no longer stays upright. That makes me laugh and helps me relax.

Delilah drives home, and we head to her house. I change out of my uniform when we get there and into a shirt and sweatpants I leave at her house.

"Want some dinner? You have to be hungry," Delilah asks me as I change.

"Yeah. What do you have?"

"Same things as usual."

"I'll just have cereal."

Delilah laughs, and we walk out to the kitchen.

Delilah pours us both some cereal, and we eat it on the couch while watching TV. Our legs are intertwined, and at one point, Delilah's leg twitches and I almost choke on my cereal from laughing too hard.

Delilah throws one of the pillows at me and I almost spill my cereal everywhere. Thankfully, I dodge out of the way without spilling anything.

After we're done, we head back to her room. I have no idea where the rest of her family is, but no one is home. We're lying in her bed, just talking and resting. I like when we do this. We can do nothing and still enjoy each other's company. I like feeling Delilah's heart against mine. She reaches for my hand and gently intertwines her fingers with mine. I play with her tiny fingers, they're so much smaller than mine.

"I'm happy you took that job," she says, smiling.

"Me too, I guess." I'm not sure if I like it that much. Today was kind of overwhelming, but the more I think about it, it wasn't too horrible.

"I know you're overwhelmed," Delilah says, reading my mind as usual. "But it'll get easier."

I nod. "Aiden said I'm gonna get a lot of tips because girls will love me," I say jokingly, trying to look at the positives.

"So I have competition?" Delilah asks, raising her eyebrows and smiling.

"Yep, with some 13 year olds and old women."

"Great," she says, moving in closer and kissing me. Her hands move up to my hair and I pull her closer so there's no more space between us.

"I definitely like the lip ring more," Delilah whispers when she pulls away. "I take back what I said earlier."

"Not afraid of pulling it our of my lip anymore?"

"No, that's still a possibility. You kiss better with it in, though. So therefore I like it more."

I laugh. "You know what I like?"

"Me?"

"No."

Delilah pretends to pout.

"I like your laugh and your nose and your hair and your smile. I like the way you say my name and tell me everything and give good advice and-"

"Luke," she says quietly, putting her hands on my chest.

"You can't just cut me off like that," I whisper, laughing quietly.

"I love you," she blurts out.

BET YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING THAT Y'ALL THOUGHT LUKE WAS GONNA SAY IT FIRST NOW YOU'RE GONNA BE MAD AT ME FOR A CLIFFHANGER DON'T ATTACK ME

don't forget about my announcement on July 7th at 1 PM EST! My YouNow name is singsongash, I'll do one that day. I'll probably do one this week just so I can figure out how to use it haha

TWEET ME WHAT YOU THINK LUKE IS GONNA DO. my twitter is singsongash if you didn't know :)

I also posted my cover of Aftertaste that Shawn told me to do, my youtube is callmeashley98 and I realllyyyy want him to see it, so if you tweet it to him, tag me in it and I'll follow you :)

LOVE YOU GUYS

-Ashley