Work Text:
Finger Lickin’.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…
The more Violet stares at the clock, watching the minute hand crawl around the blank face, the more convinced she is that time has slowly begun to dissolve into itself. A shapeless, endless void of boredom, sweltering heat mixing with the scent of sweat and grease.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…
The corner of her eye twitches in time with the same dull metronomic beat as the bright red hand that counts down each second. She still has almost half an hour left before her shift ends and she can clock off for a week. A whole week. It’s summer vacation and she has plans to have fun with her friends and make memories with her girlfriend.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…
Unfortunately for her, said plans cost money; which is why she is now standing in a starchy and stiff fast-food employee uniform and grouchily swiping away the errant beads of sweat that roll down from her hairline with a screwed up napkin.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick…
And then an alarm goes off. A loud electronic wailing that has her jumping in surprise and Marlon diving for the little flashing button on the deep fryer that blinks obnoxiously in time with the noise. Grabbing the basket from the oil, the teen drains and shakes off the excess grease before dumping perfectly fried, golden nuggets onto a metal tray and sliding it into the hot-hold unit in front of her. “Look alive there, Vi. Got some hungry customers up-front.”
Barely able to contain her irritation to a simple eye roll, Violet takes a long breath and reaches for a pair of disposable gloves, her gaze slants toward the monitor that dangles over her head, one brow lifting as she reads off a strangely familiar order displayed there.
One spicy chicken sandwich, extra mayo and lettuce, and a ten-piece nugget box.
Then she hears a voice, one that she recognizes from the pretty intonation more so than the words spoken and it tilts the edges of her lips up into a whisper of a smile. As Violet drops a split bun into the rolling toaster and reaches for a sandwich wrapper she leans out to peer around the corner of her assembly station to gaze longingly at the girl tucking her card back into her wallet as Minnie pushes a medium cup toward her.
Clementine.
The brunette steps back, her cup in hand, allowing Louis to take her spot at the counter and place his order with Minnie while also allowing Violet the perfect opportunity to admire her simple outfit -a plain white spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of denim shorts that hug her hips and thighs. But what catches Violet’s eye more so than the soft, bronze skin on show is the green and black plaid shirt that is knotted loosely around Clementine’s waist.
Her shirt. The shirt that Clementine had wrapped herself up in the last time she stayed overnight with the blonde and refused to be parted from the following morning.
There’s a peek of champagne pink in Violet’s cheeks as they dimple under the shy little smile blossoming on her lips. Her eyes shine and her ear-tips heat with the little rush of fondness that swells in her chest as she finishes assembling Clementine’s order, carefully sneaking an extra nugget into the box before she closes it simply because it looks more like a little heart rather than the standard lame-ass boot and because she wants Clementine to have it.
Gathering the box and the neatly wrapped sandwich into her hands, Violet makes her way towards the counter; towards Clementine, her journey only pauses once so she can collect two little pots of sweet chilli dipping sauce -Clementine’s favourite- before she arrives and arranges the items neatly on the tray.
“One spicy chicken sandwich; extra mayo, extra lettuce and one ten-piece nugget.” Her eyes lock onto Clementine’s as she repeats her girlfriend’s order to her and her gentle blush darkens as light peridot irises slide down to fixate on the plump lips that curve into a pretty smile as the brunette beams back as she hastily adds. “Sweet chilli, right?”
“That’s right.” Reaching out for the tray, Clementine is extra careful to ensure that she strokes the tip of her finger along the length of Violet’s, delighting in the deepening blush of the fair girl’s cheeks. “You looking forward to the trip?”
Not trusting her voice enough to cooperate with her and verbalize her thoughts without it cracking, Violet simply nods and mumbles a barely intelligible, “uh-huh” before Minnie -loudly- clears her throat.
“She’s been staring at that clock ever since she came back from her break like some love-sick puppy.” The redhead’s own smokey tones interject, drawing to her the attention of both the blonde and the brunette as she finishes ringing up Louis’s order and hands him his receipt. Eyes of aquamarine dance merrily beneath a scarred brow that arches high in gentle teasing as Minnie, her arms folding over her chest, leans back and shows her teeth in a wide grin. “Honestly, it’s kinda revolting just how much she’s pining for her shift to end just so she can ‘spend the week away with my girlfriend’ and leave the rest of us poor saps to stew in this heat-trap.”
Sharing a good-natured smirk with Violet, Clementine tilts her gaze toward Minerva. “What’s the matter, Min?” The brunette pauses, her eyebrows pinching upwards as her lips press together in a mock pout. “No plans for the summer?”
The older girl rolls her eyes at the younger, but her grin only widens. “Oh, I got plans. The folks’re taking Tenn out to see all the local cheesy tourist traps. And Soph’s picked up extra apprenticeship hours down with Jane at the tattoo studio; I’m guinea-pigging for her tomorrow…. Don’t give me that look.” Her eyes flick over to Louis, narrowing slightly when she notices how his face is scrunched up in disapproval as she thrusts his soda cup at him. “Soph’s really freakin’ good. Jane’s just waiting for the paperwork to be approved for Sophie’s license before she can let her loose on paying clients, I’m just helping her build up her portfolio.”
Taking his cup from the redhead Louis offers her a sheepish smile. “I’m just teasing, Minnie. That’s actually really cool of you to help her out like that-”
Whatever was to be said next is lost as Marlon leans around the hot-hold unit and clears his throat before barking out the blonde’s name and breaking up the little group of friends and their cheerful banter. “Vi!”
Violet’s head snaps up and swivels around just as the heads of the other three, snap up. Eyes of green, blue and two shades of brown slide over to the blonde boy as he switches off the little buzzing timer and changes out the old batch of nuggets. Dumping them into a box and replacing the tray with fresh, new ones. “I know that you’re dying for your shift to be over, and you know normally I’d not ride your ass quite so hard-”
“She’d rather you didn’t ‘ride her ass’ at all, Mar, you’re not her type,” Minnie mutters under her breath. Her warm voice is pitched low and just barely loud enough for the other three to hear her comment, but they do hear her and stifle their quiet laughter behind tight lips and set jaws.
“But we just got slammed on the drive-through and you’re not at your station. So move your ass, help us push these orders out then you can go.” He holds up the box of nuggets and gestures it toward the blonde girl. “And you can take these with you, okay?”
Violet snorts, her lips twisting into a smirk that she aims at the scarcely older boy. “A bribe? Really? You act like I wasn’t gonna take them anyway.”
“Or that she doesn’t already graze on them throughout her shift,” Minnie adds sharing in the blonde’s amusement as she looks over the slender girl’s frame. “How the hell do you stay so skinny with all the crap you eat?”
Violet cocks a brow at her friend and casts a sly glance to Clementine, just in time to see said brunette lift the cup of soda and take the straw between her lips. “Oh, I have my ways.” She smirks. “I’m quite active.”
Another shrill alarm blares from the fryers behind Marlon, pulling the teenaged boy’s attention away from his friends and his colleagues; but it doesn’t prevent him from tossing a final reiteration of his instruction as he retreats to manage the cooked products.
“Just move your ass, Vi, okay?” Marlon sighs as he stalks toward the screaming fryers. Violently jabbing the two flashing buttons and lifting the baskets to drain before he tosses the golden fries into the fry dump and takes up the scoop to fill the fry cups. “You got orders stacking up, including Lou’s. Once you fill ‘em, Mitch should be back from his lunch and then you can clock out.”
Turning back to the counter, Violet catches Clementine’s cinnamon swirl gaze and offers her a soft little smile. “I’ll see you in, like fifteen minutes, okay?” She murmurs quietly, shyly reaching out to hook her pinky finger around Clementine’s as the brunette finally moves to take her tray of food. “I lo-”
“Violet!” Marlon hollers, breaking the little affectionate moment between the girls. “Station! Now!”
Pulling her hand back, Violet throws a scowl over at the other blonde as she grumbles under her breath. “Yeah, yeah. I hear ya… fucking slave driver.”
As she saunters back to her station, she slants her eyes toward her monitor and reads off the three - three - orders. Busy, yes but slammed? Hell, no. A couple of orders of nuggets and a few sandwiches to assemble… she could do this in her sleep.
Opening the hot hold and snagging one of the fresh nuggets, Violet places the scalding hot chunk of battered and fried chicken between her teeth, as she pumps sanitizer into her palms and tugs on a fresh pair of gloves to cover her hands.
“Goddamnit, Vi!”
Marlon’s voice is so sharp, so sudden and so close to the teenaged girl’s ear that she almost chokes as she quickly sucks the pilfered nugget into her mouth and uses her tongue to shove it into her cheek so she can speak without spitting convicting morsels of food.
“Holy shit, Maron!” With her words mumbling as she speaks around the scorching hot nugget that she’s chipmunked, Violet glances up at her fuming colleague; hoping that the look of exaggerated innocence on her face, even as one cheek bulges slightly and her eyes water, is enough to throw Marlon off her ass. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Seriously, Vi? I’ve told you, like five times this week alone, that you need to stop sneaking nuggets!” Marlon then stabs his finger toward the box filled with the nuggets from the older batch. “Hell, I even said that you could take those at the end of your shift and you still did it!”
Working her jaw as subtly as she can, Violet shifts the stolen food from one side of her mouth to the other, temporarily easing the burning in her cheek as she binks owlishly at the boy. “I swear, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
From the corner of her eye, she can see the staffroom door as it opens. Mitch strolls through it taking a final swallow from his drink cup before he pitches his meal trash into the garbage and clocks back in. He only pauses his journey long enough to wash and sanitize his hands before swaggering his way down to the assembly station and taking up his position beside Violet. He barely pays any attention to the two bickering blonde’s as he pulls on his own gloves and eyes the order monitor above them.
“Which order you got, Vi?”
“I got the first one.” She says, turning away from Marlon as she focuses her attention on assembling the last two sandwiches for the order -Louis’s order- as quickly as she can and clearing said order from the screen. “Marlon said I can go when you got back from break, you good taking over?”
Dropping a couple of buns into the toaster, and pulling the sandwich wrappers down Mitch nods. “I’m good. You have a good vacation, yeah?”
Tugging her gloves off and gathering the food she’d prepared for Louis’s order, Violet glances back to Marlon whose furious expression had softened but not faded entirely. “Can I go?”
With his head shaking, Marlon takes the sandwiches that Mitch has wrapped and walks away- back to running the fryers and packing up the take out orders for the drive-through. “You can go.” He says, placing the sandwiches into a bag and adding the fry cups to complete the order. “But this is the last time I’m covering for you, Vi. If you get caught sneaking food again, they’ll be taking it out of your wages.”
Nodding wordlessly, Violet ducks around Mitch and moves toward the counter again. With her back to Marlon, she rolls the nugget from her cheek to her teeth, chewing as quickly as she can as she places Louis’s food onto his tray before adding her box of gifted nuggets next to his. “Holy shit, that was way too hot.”
“What did you expect? It was like, just out of the fryer.” Louis shares an amused look with Minnie as he casually leans on the counter and grins, watching as Violet mixes herself one of her odd milkshake flavour combos. “But real talk, Vi. Was it worth the burns?”
Placing her chocolate-banana milkshake onto Louis’s tray as well, as a handful of sweet and sour sauces, Violet offers her friend a little lopsided grin. “Oh, definitely worth it.” She says, hugging Minnie goodbye for the week. “It was one of your nuggets, Lou.”