The start of something good - Jake

Alex sighed as he took his latest order to the kitchen, and posted it for the cooks. That was normally his job, the cooking not the delivering of orders. He loved it in the kitchen, and he was a pretty good cook, actually he was probably one of the best working here. However, if you wanted hours, you had to be flexible and be willing to take hours where you could get them. Living on his own and paying bills didn’t generally work out if you only worked the fifteen hours a week the cooks got. Money was tight enough as it was, the small amount of money he got from his parents didn’t go far, and the bills always seemed to be higher than his wages.

It sucked, it really did but what choice did he have? His Aunt and Uncle had kicked him out because of his sexuality when he was nineteen years old, it wasn’t like he had had the money or chance to go to school. That was a dream of his though, one of these days something would finally go his way and he’d get out of this one horse town. Do something worthwhile, and stop living paycheck to paycheck. Hell, maybe one day pigs would fly and he’d find love too? Who knew right? If you were going to dream, might as well dream big.

“Hey, Alex wake up and get your orders out kid, you’re not being paid to daydream,” the cook on duty tonight told him sharply as he indicated to two plates sitting under the heat lamps. Oliver moved quickly and grabbed the plates, nearly dropping one of them and getting an eye roll from the cook. Blushing slightly, Oliver left the kitchen to deliver the food to his table.

Most people (including the ones he worked with), never called him Oliver. Actually, no one did anymore. His aunt and uncle would when he lived with them, but he never talked to them now. His parents had but they were long dead and gone. His sister called him Oli, and she was the only one who got away with that, but to everyone else he was Alex. Short for Alexander, which was his middle name. Which was what his name tag said, and was the name he introduced himself as.

He delivered the food to the waiting couple with a friendly smile and told them to let him know if he could get them anything else before heading back behind the counter. He was good at customer service, but not great. The biggest reason was probably because he tended to believe everyone hated him, and found him annoying the second was lack of practise. Generally management kept him hidden out back due to the amount of tattoos Oliver had, he was literally covered. Head to toe, there were only a few select spots on his body that hadn’t been inked.

Somewhere for obvious reasons, and others were simply because he didn’t have a design ready or the money to get it.

”Hey, Alex I need a favor,” The young girl who had followed him behind the counter said in a near whisper.

“You always do Nat, what’s up?” he asks as he grabs the dish bin, getting ready to clear the empty table in his section before turning and facing the blond, moving a piece of his black hair out of his face as he does.

“Table five, take it please?! I’m seriously begging you Alex, that guy is creepy...” she says trailing off slightly. Oliver sighed, of course that’s what she wanted. She ALWAYS had some creepy guy in her section that she didn’t want to wait on for whatever reason. It kind of made him wonder about her life outside of work. It was sure as hell more interesting than his life...

He nods before handing her the bin, “I’ll get it, and you clean up my section deal?” he asks, his brown eyes watching her.

She nodded and gave him a quick hug, “You're the best Alex, thanks!” she tells him before grabbing the bin and taking off to his section. Leaving Oliver to just shake his head and sigh again before moving around the bar and heading towards table five and the creepy man that Nat didn’t want to wait on.

Oliver only payed enough attention to the guy to know that it was a guy, who was sitting alone in the booth, but really nothing past that he was just another customer after all in this eight hour shift. “Hey, I’m Alex and I’ll be your waiter this afternoon, can I get you something to start off with?” he asks with a friendly smile, trying to keep from speaking too quickly and avoid issues with his accent. Most people around Mystic Falls had a southern type accent, so Oliver’s English one stuck out like a sore thumb, and had in the past caused issues with customers. He kept his smile on his features as he waited for the guys reply.