Free How To Save A Life by Lauren K. McKellar Page A

sugar, milk and cinnamon for one girl to have in a four-hour sitting. Still, she doesn't relent, and even though I desperately want to ignore her and not fulfil her order requests, Tim's eyes are on me, and he's on the warpath today.
    "You look like shit, Lia," he says as he walks over to us. With shaky hands, I pour the milk into the cup in front of me and smile. "Could you at least put on some makeup before you come in, if you're gonna go out partying the night before your shift?"
    "Sorry, Ti— shoot !" My attention on Tim combined with my lack-of-sleep shakes has meant I've accidentally hit the cup with my milk jug, sending the cup skidding over the counter and falling toward me. It hits the ground and breaks, porcelain shards underneath the counter, hot milk covering my apron.
    "Sorry, Tim." I drop to my knees and grab the dustpan from the shelf behind me, sweeping up the fragments. I wring my apron out over the sink, trying to give it a rinse but knowing that there's no escaping it—I'll be smelling like stale milk for the rest of the day.
    When I turn back to the machine, Tim is still there. I wonder if he ever left, and if I've become so good at ignoring his rants that I didn't realise he was still persisting with one.
    "Have respect for other people's property, Lia. You might be able to make a coffee, but if you're damn well wearing it, what bloody good does that do me?" he hisses to avoid the crowds at tables only a few feet away witnessing his abuse.
    "Sorry again, Tim."
    "Sorry? Sorry's not going to fix my—"
    "I should make a new coffee for the customer."
    "Damn straight you should! And for me, while you're at it. You know how patient I am with you."
    I bite my tongue, smile sweetly and turn the grinder on, letting the angry noise of blades dicing up beans do the talking for me.
    Tim mouths some other words at me, then shoots me a look and walks away.
    "He's mean today," Ana mutters as she brushes past me, a plate of haloumi salad in one hand, the house burger in the other.
    "Right?" I shoot her a look. We share a smile of solidarity as she heads off to table three and I'm left alone at the counter.
    I let my gaze roam over the busy cafe. Everyone is seated, enjoying their meals or enjoying basking in the midday sun. The beach murmurs as the waves lap at the shore, and gulls cry overhead, looking for the next tourist to work.
    I close my eyes for just one moment, letting the warmth of this beautiful spring day sink in. After the sleepless night I've had, those seconds of shut-eye mean everything.
    "You can't ignore me forever."
    My eyes snap open.
    Shit .
    She's standing right in front of me, two hands knuckle-down on the counter, leaning close.
    "One day, you're going to have to speak to me again, Lia."
    I glance left and right, searching desperately for Ana, but Ms Haloumi Salad is pointing to different leaves on her plate and asking questions, no doubt about the bloody eco origins of her food—it's a presumption, but she looks the type to source lettuce leaf information—and I know that my save is a long way away. I bite my lip, my heart pounding in my chest, and—
    That.
    As my gaze flicks back from Ana at table three to the girl in front of me, I see someone in the distance.
    Someones.
    "Table for one, two ... five."
    No.
    No, no, no.
    "Right this way." Tim leads them to a table right in the middle of the outdoor cafe space, so they are surrounded by other diners. Mum trips over a chair and almost collides with someone’s designer dog as she makes her way through the crowd. Julietta's laughter is abrasively loud, and from the way quite a few people wrinkle their noses as the group walks past, I can't help but imagine the stench.
    "Isn't that your mum?" Ellie snaps me back to the present, and the real gravity of the situation kicks in.
    This could not get any worse.
    "Can I get you anything to start?" Tim's asking, and Mum and her friends laugh, as if it's the funniest question they've heard in their