creed crumbs.

"Will that be all for you today, sir?"

"Yeah, unless..."

"Hm?" Roya knew it was coming, there was no doubt about it. The classic line, an attempt at her number. She wasn't stupid, and had been watching this particular customer back whenever he spent too much time with his eyes trained on her. She held her tray in front of her stomach under one arm, and her other held the book containing his card and receipt, and Roya was thinking over in her head how much trouble she'd get in for tampering and charging him a little extra-

"How much does it cost to get your number?" 

Roya had to bite her lip to keep in a scream. It was always this, always. If only the creeps stuck to her pictures, and kept her personal work out of it. She offered the customer the sweetest smile she could manage, and replied simply, "More than you'd make in a year, sweetheart."

The customer was shocked to say the least, slack jawed for a moment before he collected himself, and waved her off to charge his card. Roya stepped behind the counter and sighed, dropping off his card at the register, before heading back into the kitchen. It wasn't any more peaceful in there, per se, but it was somewhere she could relax a bit. She stomped her foot against the ground a few times, flexing her claws before burying her hands in her hair, aggressively tugging through even the smallest of knots. It hurt, but brought her back to reality.

"You doing okay?" Charms stuck her head into the door, peeking over at where Roya was currently gently throwing a tantrum. The latter jumped the moment she heard Charms' voice, not expecting to be addressed while she was venting. Roya gripped her ponytail in her hands, taking a deep breath, before nodding.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Could you handle table 5 for me? I wanna take a quick break." Roya smiled as much as she could at Charms, and managed to look away right when the other girl's face nearly exploded with red. She was all too aware of the fondness Charms had for her, and was absolutely not in the mood to deal with it right now- or ever.

"O-of course! No problem." Charms chirped, before leaving to help the abandoned customer with getting his card back. Roya huffed to herself, pulling on a jacket as she walked into the break room. For all she cared, he could lose his stupid credit card. She hoped that he stepped in a puddle or something on his way home. He deserved a little karma.

'No, no, no, Roya. Gotta be nice, you know that!' She reminded herself, taking a deep breath and bracing her hands against the wall. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the cool wallpaper, letting the chill wash over her. It was so much easier to think in the cold, in silence, where nothing could bother her. 

She didn't even understand why people were so interested in her. Wasted potential, her family had said, when she got a job at Bubble and Squeak. They had always insisted she should be an actress, or go fully into modeling, or something! But no, she wanted a quieter life, as a waitress at a cute place- and somehow, she was in the wrong for it. She hated how she looked. There was nothing nice about being seen like this. Her features made her something to be targeted- a goal for people, be it to become her or to date her. There was nothing genuine about people who were interested in her. She didn't know anyone in any way where she'd be comfortable being in a relationship with them, anyways.

She'd always been told that beauty was pain, but she was so tired of bleeding out nothing in return. She hated her face, and the way it always seemed too round. She hated her hair, it was completely unmanageable, but no one would let her cut it since it was 'too cute'. She hated her figure, it made it so hard to find clothes, and to walk, and do pretty much anything.

Roya absolutely hated herself, and as she realized that, she crouched down in the break room, and started to cry. Beautiful, crystal tears, that she hated even more.