Royal Mayhem

Chapter 1

Chapter One

MELINDA

The lights flickered before shutting off completely.

I let out a groan and flipped the blanket off as I got up off the sofa and headed into the hallway under the stairs, pulling the door open looking at the breaker. All the switches were on, which only meant one thing, we were out of electricity again.

I reached for my phone and pressed the screen. Nothing happened. I pressed down on the power button and the battery image flashed on my screen. Of course, my phone would be dead, that meant a trip to the corner shop, but I needed to find the electric card first.

Now, where would it be?

Looking around the kitchen, I opened the junk drawer, papers spilled on the floor. I sighed, leaning down as I reached for the papers. My hand felt something hard. It had to be the card. Placing the rest of the papers in the drawer, I shoved the card into my pocket.

Now where did I put my purse?

I needed to get better at remembering where I was leaving things. Tapping my foot I tried to think back when I came home from work, kicked shoes off heading to the fridge. I headed into the kitchen looking around the sides opening the fridge. I saw my purse on the empty shelf.

What the fuck was I thinking? Man, I needed a nap.

I opened up the purse and saw I had no money.

Fuck. Could this day get any worse?

I probably shouldn’t jinx the rest of my evening; everything could always get worse.

No phone and no money, first world problems. I peered out of the kitchen window into darkness, usually an overgrown garden would stare back at me, I didn’t know what was worst, the garden or the darkness.

I looked along the corner and noticed some coins on the counter and swiping them into my hand walking out the house heading towards the streetlamp.

I looked down in my hand seeing a few pound coins, I could at least put five pounds on I guess.

At this rate, I would be late for work today.

No alarm, no phone, no electricity, at this point I’d just give up and go to bed if it wasn’t so early in the morning.

I walked back into the house, shutting the door behind me. I slumped down on the sofa.

I was too young to deal with this bullshit.

The front door creaked open, I watched as mum walked in and hit the light switch. “The electricity is gone.”

Mum jumped holding her chest. “Jesus Christ, Melinda,” she gasped. “Why on earth would you be sitting in the dark?”

“Did you not listen when I just said the electricity is gone?” I raised an eyebrow.

Mum shook her head and let out a yawn.

“Well, I have to go to work, here’s five pounds,” I said, putting the money in her hand. “Also, the cupboards are empty. We need food shopping, and I don’t get paid until next week.”

“What happened to your student loan?” Mum asked, raising an eyebrow. “You just got it.”

“Course materials mum, I had to buy a laptop for my assignments and stuff,” I said pointedly. “Also, you just got paid. Where’s your money?”

Mum folded her arms over her chest. “I’m the parent here, not you.”

“The parent who can’t remember to keep our cupboards full and electric on,” I said flatly.

“Melinda—”

I interrupted her, shaking my head and standing up. “I don’t have time for this argument. I need to go to work.”

“You work too hard. “If you would just accept—”

“No,” I cut her off immediately. “I will not accept Roman’s guilt money. You may have forgiven him and fallen straight back into love and bed with him; he stopped being my father the moment he walked out the door at eight-years-old.”

“Mel—”

“I don’t want to hear it, mum,” I shook my head walking away.

Nothing she could say would make up for the fact he left and didn’t return for almost ten years. At times like these, I wish I had chosen to stay in university housing, but unfortunately, it was cheaper to stay home and that was the case for both me and my best friend, Megan.

“It’s more complicated than that, Melinda.”

“I don’t have time for this, I have to work,” I said, grabbing my bag from the kitchen. I poked my head into the living room and looked at my mum. “Please just put some electricity on and buy some actual food for us both to eat.”

I left the house heading straight to the bus stop scanning the bus pass I got onto the bus which thankfully wasn’t too busy.

Forty minutes later, I had finally arrived at campus.

I’d like to say it was quiet when I walked into the diner, but it wasn’t.

The diner was currently getting redecorated, so the American decoration didn’t really fit the vibe of what Daisy wanted this diner to be.

The American flags had been taken down, and the wallpaper was in the middle of being scraped off ready for the new one that she had picked.

Cindy was at the till making herself look busy whilst some of the other girls were running up and down the diner serving and delivering food and drinks to them.

I wasn’t surprised that’s usually how shifts went when Cindy was on, I wasn’t sure how she got the manager position because she was allergic to work from what I had seen.

I walked behind the counter heading straight for the staff room putting my bag and coat in the locker, getting my apron on and tying it around my waist and heading towards the kitchen where Dave stood there, cooking away.

“Good morning, Melinda,” he grinned as he saw me approaching.

“Is it a good morning though?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “How was the night shift?”

He shook his head. “I am so glad freshers are over. Two weeks of hell, hell I tell you.”

I let out a snicker, Dave could always be a little bit of a drama queen, but I had to agree with him.

I understood why the idea of a twenty-four hour diner on a university campus was a good idea and realistically a gold mine.

But damn did it drive those of us who worked at the diner crazy.

They were drunk all the time, and I wasn’t sure any of the freshers attended lectures for the first two weeks, I was confident most of them just drank themselves dumb.

“I don’t think it fazes me anymore after working here for two years, I’m immune to the idiots.”

“Mel, you count as one of those idiots, you’re a university student this year,” he said. “I would have thought you would apply to a university further away than Derby. I didn’t expect you to apply to the one straight on your doorstep.”

“It’s home.” I shrugged. “A shit hole but home. Anyway, I best go clock in.”

“Yeah, you don’t want to be late on the floor. The dragon is in.” Dave chuckled. “She looks ready to blow.”

I giggled. “All I can think of is the dragon from Shrek.”

“Didn’t the dragon have babies with Donkey?” Dave asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded, walking away to the machine pressing my finger on the scanner to clock in. I headed back into the main part of the diner and took a scan of the room. There were a few people scattered across the counter and a few groups in the booths. Cindy was currently taking an order.

The doorbell chimed, I watched as a group stumbled over to the booth, I grabbed my notepad heading over to the table. “Hi, welcome to Daisy’s diner, what can I get you?” I asked.

A hand landed on mine as the man tried to pull me into the booth. “How about you?”

“I’m not on the menu,” I said, firmly pulling away.

Drunk university students for the win.

“Jake, stop.” A girl frowned as she moved her blonde hair from her face. “Sorry, can we just get four large Cokes please?”

“Of course, I’ll be right back with your drinks,” I said politely.

I grabbed four glasses reaching for the soft drink pump pouring it into their glasses. I popped straws into them, placing them on a serving plate before taking them back to the table. I placed them on the table in front of the group.

“So, I have a question,” another one of the guys in the group said.

“Guys seriously, this is why we don’t let you do a two-day bender,” the girl said, shaking her head.

“No, for real, like…are the diner decorations American?” He asked, looking at me.

I smiled a little knowing exactly where this question was going, whilst we had rebranded the menu, the diner had not been refurbished just yet. “Yes,” I confirmed.

“Why is it an English breakfast? Like, that’s tripping me out, man.”

“That could just be the alcohol,” I said flatly.

“Or the weed,” the girl snorted with a laugh.

“But Daisy’s is currently undergoing a rebrand, do you guys know what you’re ordering or should I leave you for a few more minutes?”

“Girl, I’ll save you the trouble,” she said. “Three full English breakfasts for the piss heads, and I’ll have a breakfast bagel.”

“Thank you,” I said, scribbling down the order. I headed to the kitchen handing the ticket to Dave who called it out into the kitchen. “We got this.”

After two and half hours of hell I can confirm we didn’t have this. I clocked out, grabbing my bag and headed into the university. My first lecture started at 9:00 a.m. and thankfully this was one I had with my best friend, Megan.

I headed straight to our seats sitting down and getting my things out. Megan’s dirty blonde hair fell around her head as she looked at her phone.

“This seat is ta” Her words cut off as she finally looked up. “How was work?”

“Drunk people,” I told her.

She went back to typing on her phone, and I raised an eyebrow.

She wasn’t usually this attached to her phone. “Say no more, girl.” She chuckled. “Do you have any more lectures today? I really can’t get to grips with the schedule.”

“Nope, just digital storytelling today. Wednesday, it is writing skills for Media I had got used to not eating constantly.

The conversation stopped as our lecturer came in. Thankfully, the lecture and my shift at the diner went by just as quick.

And before I knew it, I was walking through the front door at home. The house was in darkness. I reached for the light switch, and nothing happened. I walked to the meter pressing the button and saw it said no credit.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered walking into the kitchen seeing the five pounds that I gave mum on the side. She didn’t bother going to get electric which meant any food in the freezer if we had any would have gone off.

I scraped the money off the side and headed to the corner shop, walking in I headed straight to the counter. “Hello, could I put five pounds on electricity?” I asked, handing him the electric key. He put the key into the machine, and I placed the five-pound coins on the counter.

“Here you are,” he said as he passed the key back.

“Thanks,” I said. “Have a good evening.”

I headed straight home into the garden finding the electric box and put the card in following the instructions on the screen.

As soon as the electricity loaded on the kitchen and hallway light flickered on immediately. Now, it was time to see the damage that was the freezer. I just hoped that there wasn’t much food in there. I wouldn’t be able to cope if a freezer full of food went to waste.