"Maybe," he conceded, shrugging and looking up at the menu, smile still on his lips.
They ordered and found a table outside where it was less crowded, and Annabelle somehow managed not to freak out too many times when they said words to each other, or Lyle did something particularly charming. She could do this. She could totally do this. This was working. They liked each other, or at least she definitely liked him and she was pretty certain—like ninety eight and a half percent certain—that he liked her too. Like, they were talking! About so many things: stupid things and deep things, this is what her mom was always saying was important in relationships and oh god, she was getting ahead of herself again. This is only the first date, she reminded herself. First date, she repeated silently to herself. First date, first date, first date. First. But, also—date! She was on a date! And yeah, she was maybe a little stuck on that, but it was going great!
Okay. She needed to calm down. And pay attention, because Lyle was definitely talking and listening was very, very important.
"You still there, Anna?" he asked, waving a hand in front of her face in a way that would normally annoy her, but she was riding on too much of a high to be annoyed right now.
Then it occurred to her what he had said. "Annabelle, not Anna."
He smiled and looked down, grabbing at a French fry and stuffing it in his mouth rather than actually responding. "So, where are you going next year?" he asked. "You're going to be a freshman, right?"
She nodded. "Yeah, but I'm just going to the local community college. Four years were just a bit out of our price range, so we figured I could go to community to cut down, you know? But yeah. What about you?"
"Same," he said, grabbing another fry and tapping it against his lips. "Well, I'm a sophomore, but yeah to the community college. I mean, it wasn't really a money thing, but I wanted to stick around... And I mean, my high school grades weren't the best. I was having a hard time, uh, motivating myself then."
He was still holding the French fry in his hand, seeming as if he had forgotten that it was there until he stopped talking. He looked up at her almost shyly and then took a bite out of the fry finally.
"Why?" she asked, then her eyes widened. "I mean, if it's okay to ask."
He smiled, smaller than before. "My parents are sort of well off and I kind of got it in my head that that meant I didn't need to work hard in school because they could just get me what I wanted. They... they decided to stop that before I got too stupid, basically cutting me off for the most part. Like, I used to get an allowance and everything. Now, not so much."
Annabelle nodded, not sure if she was surprised to find out that his parents were rich or not. On one hand, he apparently rode his bike everywhere and his clothes looked like he bought them at Walmart. But on the other hand, he did spend just about everyday at a theme park and she knew for a fact that season passes were stupidly expensive.
"So what are you studying, anyway?" she asked him. "I mean, like, what's your major?" She winced internally at how awkwardly that had come out. He didn't look too offended though.
He scratched the back of his head. "Some kind of engineering, I think. It's what my mom does, mostly, and it seems pretty interesting. I mean, it's mostly just a lot of math and science right now, so I don't even know what kind of engineering I want to do, but it's cool."
She leaned her head onto a hand and licked her lips, weirdly at a loss for words. It wasn't like his words were really profound or that she was even surprised by his choice of major, it was just that it seemed suddenly real. Because now Lyle wasn't just the cute boy who kept her company at the info booth when she was getting particularly bored at work. Now he was also a guy who had parents who wanted him to work hard and who had a major... It felt weirdly real and weirdly adult. Sitting at the cement table outside of In 'n' Out, Annabelle felt eighteen for the first time, despite the fact that her birthday had been months ago.
It wasn't a bad feeling though. It was really nice, actually, if a little daunting. Because now it occurred to her to think about what this was like for Lyle too. Had he dated before? Was this new for him too? Or was this old hat?
"What about you?" he asked then, bringing her back to the moment and away from her weird thoughts.
She shook her head at herself. "Physics? English? I don't know. I'm eighteen. Not that you can't decide at eighteen or whatever... but yeah, I have no freaking idea. Like... nope. I got nothing. That's another reason why community college is probably a good idea for me. Why spend money taking a bunch of random classes while I try to figure out what I want to do with myself."
And there he was, grinning again. Ugh. How was she supposed to last to nineteen when he was giving her a heart attack every time he smiled? She hoped she would get to see him smiling a lot. Often. For a while.
And now she was giggling again, which, oh god she must look so crazy! She wasn't supposed to giggle randomly in front of other people! Lyle didn't seem to get the memo about that though, because he was suddenly laughing along with her. And, well, that was kind of great because suddenly she wasn't the crazy chick laughing alone, but the crazy chick laughing alongside an equally crazy guy. How was this her life and how could she make it last forever?
*~*~*
The following week found Annabelle back in her uniform, standing in the meager shade provided by her info booth, and fanning herself with an old pamphlet. A couple of kids had come by earlier and regaled her about the gold mine ride until their parents finally pulled them away with apologies, despite the fact that it had been a respite from her boredom to hear their nonsensical excitement over fake gold. She wasn't really a huge fan of kids, but when she was bored she really enjoyed their antics. Well, when they weren't crying anyway. So she was sort of sad to see them go, leaving her to stand around, trying not to lean on the counter too obviously while she waited for someone to come ask her the same questions she heard every day.
And, yeah, it was mean of her to get annoyed with people for continually asking what seemed to her to be really obvious questions. It's not like each individual had asked her the same question before a million times. Sometimes she had to repeatedly remind herself that this was most of their first times here. They really did not know. So she tried not to be judgmental, even when the third person in under an hour came over to ask her how to get to the panning for gold area ("Just follow the sign over there," she said every single time, pointing to the giant golden arrow sign that literally pointed the way, "and it will be on your right").
But anyway, she actually was in a pretty good mood, all things considered. She had spent the weekend texting with Lyle, working on scholarship applications (and seriously considering throwing someone out the window of a very tall building—preferably whoever decided that college was both basically mandatory and so god damned expensive) and being generally productive (there were no clothes on her floor, which was probably a first since finals in June). This was her first shift since last Thursday too, so she was feeling pretty refreshed, even if it was still pushing up towards a hundred degrees (but not over a hundred yet, so yay, progress!) and she was three hours into a six hour shift.
And then a teenager who was maybe two years younger than her flounced over to the booth, clothes brightly colored and soggy, probably from the drop at the end of the Gold Mine ride that all the kids loved. It actually seemed kind of like an amazing idea right now when she was literally dying from the heat. Well, maybe not literally, but it was really hot and she was getting really freaking tired of this stupid weather, okay?
But yeah, the teenager, who besides looking absolutely drenched, actually looked really mad. Oh crap. She really did not want to deal with another guest yelling at her. Why did the angry ones have to come yell at her? Did they not realize that she had about as much power as the people taking out the trash, and was probably paid less? Because seriously, she could not do anything for them except answer questions and pass them up to a supervisor who usually couldn't actually do that much ei
ther.
Soggy teenager did not seem to know that, however, or at least wasn't interested in considering that the info booth girl was not actually there for people to yell at, because they were coming toward her looking ready to throw punches. This was not going to be pretty.
"Hi, Annabelle?" the person—a girl, probably? Annabelle was working on not judging unless she actually knew, but it was weirdly hard to do—said her name in an amazingly shocked manner for someone reading a name tag and dripping from head to toe. They must have been in the front row... "Look, I just came from that stupid Gold Rush ride and my phone fell into the water and it's ruined now!"
Annabelle held in the eye rolling and just managed not to let out a resigned sigh because this was a story full of stupid that she just did not want to hear, now or ever. She couldn't do a thing for the girl because the park wasn't going to reimburse her for a damaged phone and it wasn't like Annabelle had any kind of sway over that sort of thing anyway. But she knew that she was going to get to hear all about the phone and why it was the park's fault that it was dead now.
"It was three hundred dollars!" the girl shrieked, slamming a hand down on the plastic counter top. Annabelle took a step back, startled by the vehemence even if she had totally seen it coming. She could spot an irate guest from ten yards and this one had been obvious from fifteen. Protocol said she should just pick up her walkie-talkie and basically send out a distress call to the nearest supervisor by way of cop-like code, but that had always seemed like a weird thing to do when someone was yelling at you. Just, would that not just make them even angrier? She wasn't sure, but she knew that if it seemed like anyone was actually getting physical—i.e. hitting the info booth where Annabelle was standing—she was definitely supposed to call it in and leave it in the hands of someone who had actually been trained to deal with this sort of thing.
She was kind of frozen where she stood, unsure what to do, all the while the teenager continued to yell at her about her stupid phone.
"I'm sorry, there's not really—" Annabelle tried, but was cut off by another shriek of outrage and an honest to god kick at the info booth. Yeah, she definitely needed to call in help for this because this was so far outside of her training and comfort zone, it may as well have been a whole other planet from the one she was used to. She really was not paid enough to get yelled at by fifteen year olds in neon clothes.
"Hey!"
A voice cut through the brightly dressed guest's screaming rant, making Annabelle suddenly aware that there were other people there and a lot of them were actually staring openly. The person who had shouted out in the first place, however, continued and drew Annabelle's attention away from the watching crowd.
She felt sort of like she was moving in slow motion because she just could not get herself to react at a normal speed after the amount of aggression the guest had been pushing her way by banging on the counter and yelling so loudly. As such, rather than actually keeping up with how fast things were moving, she felt like she was moving in water to look at who had basically come to her rescue. Then she felt even more idiotic when she realized that it was, of course, straw haired, flip flop wearing Lyle. Lyle, who looked weirdly in his element, calm and composed next to the teenager despite the fact that he was probably an inch shorter than her and wearing the same ridiculous clothes he was always wearing (though if board shorts and a baggy T-shirt were any more ridiculous than neon workout clothes at a theme park, Annabelle couldn't say).
"I'm really going to need to ask you to calm down," he said, his voice at a normal level, but still unwavering. "We can talk to a supervisor and see what can be done, but getting mad at Annabelle isn't going to help here."
The guest snorted in disbelief and then actually swatted at Lyle as if he were a fly in her way. "I don't think this has anything to do with you, so why don't you just back the hell off?"
Lyle's eyes widened for a moment and then he straightened up a little more. "Considering my family owns the park, I would say this has a lot to do with me. If you have complaints, they might be better going through me than yelling at a minimum wage employee with no power to actually help your situation."
What.
The guest was finally silent then, the glint in her eye something between outrage and intrigue. Annabelle was just left standing there unable to shut her mouth, which had fallen open and now seemed pretty stuck that way.
What?
The teenager was back to lodging her complaint, now at Lyle, though with considerably less yelling now and all Annabelle could do was stand there with her mouth still hanging open and her hand motionless on the walkie-talkie like it had been glued there. All the while her mind seemed to have ground to a screeching stop because she didn't think she actually had the ability for higher brain functions anymore. If she did, maybe she would be able to process what it was she had just heard.
What?
"Annabelle, you should call your supervisor."
Annabelle stared blankly down at Lyle, who was beginning to look spooked finally. It seemed like a screaming teenager who looked two seconds away from getting someone to pay for her phone through violence was not nearly so scary to him as the fact that Annabelle was still staring at him with what was probably a nearly comedic look of shock on her face.
"Annabelle?"
She shook herself after a moment, because she seriously needed to do something besides stand there with her mouth open. Her jaw snapped closed, rattling her teeth together and she nodded down at him. Call her supervisor. Right. She had been about to do that anyway, before Lyle showed up. Seriously, it had been taking her a little bit to get over the fear that cutting off a guest in mid rant in order to walkie-talkie a supervisor would not help matters, but she had definitely been working her way up to it. So she would do that now. Right.
That took all of five seconds and then she was standing there, staring as Lyle worked to talk the still fuming teenager down from kicking anything again. It was like she couldn't focus on anything with Lyle's words floating around in her head on repeat and she wasn't even sure why. But it kept running back and forth inside her head, unable to really move beyond that because holy shit Lyle was kind of her boss. Or at least her boss's kid. Or well, probably more like her boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's kid... He was just super high up. What the hell was he doing talking to her? Did he always do this? Oh god, maybe he just constantly hit on the employees in the park because he could be here all the time. Because why else would someone who basically owned the place she worked want to go out with "a minimum wage employee with no power".
Wow, she had to be the biggest idiot. All the signs had been there. His parents were rich. Of course they owned the theme park where she worked. They were super supportive of him being transgender. The park only had unisex bathrooms and non-gendered children's toys. Lyle practically lived at the park. And, yeah, so maybe it was still sort of a leap to get from those facts to Lyle's parents owning the park, but still! She felt like she should have known, should have figured it out somehow because now she just felt like Lyle had been lying to her from day one. Why had he never mentioned that to her? Like when they were actually talking about his parents? Or when she was complaining about her job... Oh god. She had complained about the park to someone who practically owned the place. Could she possibly be any more of an idiot?
Once she had finally let all those thoughts settle into place, Annabelle was suddenly and startlingly angry. He had lied to her! Sure he had been up front about basically everything else, but this was important, right? You don't go dating your parents' employees without at least telling them who you are, right? That just didn't seem right.
And if a voice in the back of her head was trying to tell her that she was possibly being unfair, well that voice could just shut the hell up because she was mad and she had a right to be!
But she couldn't say anything. At the very least not right now, because she was only half way through her shift and look, here came her supervisor—another o
f Lyle's parents' employees. That was way too weird a thought. She just had to make it through her shift and then she could yell at Lyle all she wanted. And boy was she going to. She was seething enough to throw a tantrum like the teenager that had started this whole mess, though she was definitely not going to give into that particular urge.
Annabelle didn't get to wait until the end of her shift, however, because as soon as her supervisor had swept away with the slowly drying neon teen, Lyle was pouncing on the booth like he knew exactly what was going through her head.
He probably did know, considering the fact that the first words out of his mouth were: "Annabelle, I'm so sorry I didn't say something sooner. I know I should have, but—"
"But what? You thought it would be funny to lie to me?" she demanded, her voice low because there were still people milling about on their vacations who did not need to hear her drama.
"No, it seriously wasn't like that. I was going to bring it up soon, seriously, because I really like you, Annabelle, and I really want to get to know you more. But if you don't think I didn't know how weird it was to date my parents' employee, you're wrong."
"So, what? You thought, that's weird, I should do it?"
He looked like he was grinding his teeth together for a moment there and then he continued on. "No! And that's why I only finally talked to you like last week. Because I was afraid of how you would react if you knew. But seriously, I don't have any more power over you than anyone else that comes here to visit. Even if something happened between us, I wouldn't go to my parents to complain about you. I know we're still getting to know each other, but I was hoping you'd know me enough to know that I would never mess with your job like that. I get how important this is."
Annabelle stared at him for a long moment, taking apart the words and trying to see if there was truth in them. Because it was hitting her again just how short a time they had known each other, but she really liked him too and she wanted to get to know him still.
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