Crushing On The Bully (Crushing on You 2)

“You kids these days,” the old man wheezed, “You have no respect for your elders, and this is what I fought in the war for?”

“Sorry, sir, I’ll only be a second,” Clarissa frowned.

“Yeah, whatever, take your time,” the old man sighed, “I’ve got plenty of years left and nothing better to do that wait for you two to work things out.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Clarissa retorted and the old man chuckled.

For a moment she thought about telling the old man what was really going on, but she didn’t have time. If she paused she was only going to let the jerk win and she wasn’t about to allow that.

“You need to go to the back of the line,” Clarissa said and poked a finger into the guy’s chest.

“Vicious,” the guy laughed, “What are you the line monitor? Don’t you have anything better to do? Maybe go read a book or something. You look like one of those nerd girls. What did you have to wait too long on the next book in your sparkle series and it pissed you off?”

“Jerk,” Clarissa spat.

“Excuse me is there a problem?” the nervous cashier asked.

“Nope,” the guy shrugged, “Just trying to get through the line like everyone else.

“He’s cutting in front of people,” Clarissa said.

Clarissa watched in shock as the cashier took the guy’s basket and proceeded to ring him out.

“He wasn’t next in line,” Clarissa frowned.

“Don’t be so whiny, Bookworm,” he laughed.

Clarissa turned on her heels and headed towards the door. She couldn’t believe that the cashier had allowed that to happen. New or not, she should have enforced common cour

tesy. Clarissa bought a bottle of mineral water from the vending machine and headed towards her car.

There was no way Clarissa was going to hand over her hard-earned money to a business that let bullies like that get away with their tactics. The cashier had backed down just because she wanted to get the jerk out of her line. It was people like her that enabled the losers that thought the world owed them something.

Chapter Two

It was a quarter to midnight and Clarissa’s feet were killing her. She had considered closing early, but she knew that her manager would find out. Maggie had a way of knowing things even if she was on vacation in Vegas. For a moment Clarissa felt a spike of envy. She longed to be anywhere but standing behind this counter tonight. For a brief second she allowed herself to imagine what it would be like sitting in Las Vegas next to Maggie at the slots. She’d drop coin after coin in until finally the machine would light up and play music to indicate she had won the jackpot.

Clarissa laughed at her daydreams and shook her head. She couldn’t even afford the new car that she desperately needed, so a trip to Las Vegas with or without Maggie was out of the question. Tips had been great tonight and overall her time at work was an improvement over the time she had spent at the grocery store, but she was ready to go home.

Clarissa had just finished washing the last of the mugs and began to flip through the classifieds looking for a good deal on a car that might last more than a few months when she heard the bell above the door chime.

“Great, a customer. Who drinks coffee this time of night?” she thought to herself and looked up from the paper. Clarissa knew that her bad mood was merely the result of her aching muscles and being sore about the cashier at the grocery store, but it was hard to keep a handle on it this time of the night. There was something about the full moon shining through the front windows of the coffee shop that made her want to speak her mind.

To say everything that she bit back during the day. Those who claimed to know her well wouldn’t believe how much she didn’t say. Sure, she was quick to fight injustice, but she was just as miserable as the others she knew. It was just that Clarissa didn’t like to complain about her life to others. They couldn’t do anything about her dying car or sore feet. Her friends couldn’t fix the fact that a customer had sauntered into the shop at the last minute.

She didn’t even plan on telling her bestie about the incident in the grocery store. What good was talking about something if it did make a difference? That was just ranting and Clarissa had never been good at just venting her frustration through words.

“Hey, how are you tonight?” Clarissa grinned at the guy standing in front of her registered. She’d just keep faking her smile to keep the tips coming in. After all, that’s what customer service was all about. The words had no sooner left her mouth when Clarissa realized it was the guy from the grocery store. He was clad in a black leather jacket and his jeans wore torn at the knees.

“I’ll have the frozen mocha to go, Bookworm,” he said.

Clarissa didn’t notice that he hadn’t answered her question, but she did notice that he had called her Bookworm again. Why did his kind always turn reading into a bad thing? No, scratch that, those losers always turned everything into a bad thing.

“Stop calling me that,” Clarissa rolled her eyes, “I don’t even read much.”

It was a lie, but her life was none of the jerk’s business. So why had she bothered to lie at all? Usually, it didn’t matter to Clarissa what guys like him thought of her, but tonight her exhaustion made her feel more vulnerable and open to the jabs he was making.

“Whatever,” the guy rolled his eyes and Clarissa turned away to start his order.