My First Job

The first job I ever had was delivering pizzas in high school for a small, locally-owned pizza place called Varsity Pizza. I always thought it was a stupid name but the place was mobbed every Friday evening after high school football games, so the target audience probably had quite a bit to do with the name.
I started working there at the beginning of my junior year and, having only had a driver's license for a couple months, I thought it was the greatest job ever. I got to drive around town in my own car, listen to my own music, and I always left with a good $50 is cash tips in my pocket at the end of every shift. It was a great way to always get invited to high school parties when you're one of the few kids who had a car and always had cash! And not only that, but there were a few incidents that took place on certain deliveries that were memorable, to say the least!
I lived my parents and two siblings in a pretty wealthy area, though we were definitely not wealthy ourselves. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a lower-rent community surrounded by incredibly affluent neighborhoods. There was also a university in town, so my nights were typically a mixture of deliveries to college kids in dorms and deliveries to rich people in multi-million dollar mansions.
I remember being surprised and excited when I first started working there and made a delivery to a house in a gated community called Telescope Hill. Everyone knew about this neighborhood. It was nestled like a crown on top of the highest hill in town, and it was gated with a guard post at the entry, an ornate, glassed-in office where uniformed security would monitor everyone coming or leaving, 24 hours a day. Tall, adobe walls surrounded the entire circumference of the neighborhood, flanked by a mixture of lush, leafy trees and perfectly manicured bushes. There were always rumors going around school that someone or other knew someone who lived up there, this or that person had actually visited someone in some crazy mansion, etc. But to my knowledge it was all rumors and hearsay. I never knew anyone who lived there or who had even visited, and I had definitely never been there myself. The place was a total mystery.
Anyway, though that first delivery there was a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the super-rich, nothing truly exciting happened that first night I entered through the walls of the mythical Telescope Hill other than being able to see first-hand how these people lived. I did have a more memorable experience there about a year after that first delivery though. That story I'll tell in a future chapter.
For now, this is the story of a very different and much more common delivery, which was to a fraternity house near the university campus.
It was near the end of the evening, only about an hour left before closing, and we got an order for five pizzas and a couple calzones to be delivered to a well-known frat house named Alpha Phi Omega. None of the other three drivers wanted to take it, everyone always seemed to want to just hang out and chat for that last hour of the night, and frat houses were notorious for shitty tips.
I, on the other hand, was the youngest person on staff that night, so I happily volunteered. Even another $10 tip or something would be worth it to me, and the order was going to be well over $100! I figured I might actually do pretty well that night.
I had no idea how true that was going to be.
Once the food was made, I loaded up my car and put the address into my GPS. It was a quick 8-minute drive, so I arrived pretty quick and parked my car at the curb in front of the frat house. It was a blue and white, two-story building with a beautiful wooden porch that extended the entire width of the front of the house. The Greek letters of the frat were displayed prominently on the front of the building near the roof in blue letters about two feet tall. The wide porch was full of locked bicycles, dirty recliners, and a cheap-looking, glass-topped tables covered with a smattering of red cups and beer bottles. The aftermath of beer pong, I figured.
So in other words, your typical frat house. Although as always, I was amazed at how huge it was. How in the world do college kids afford to live in these massive, two-story mansions? As a senior in high school, I was clueless at the time about the world of sororities and fraternities.
I grabbed the hot box with the pizzas and the bag of calzones from my trunk and walked up to the porch and rang the doorbell. I could hear loud music bumping inside and a variety of male and female voices talking and laughing. I felt a little self-conscious because I was still in high school and wearing a super nerdy Varsity Pizza t-shirt with the required black shorts and white shoes, and was about to walk into a house full of cool, partying college kids. I remember hoping they would at least tip well.
After a minute or so, the door opened and a tall, athletic guy in a workout t-shirt and boardshorts opened the door.
"Pizza's Etlik Escort are here!!" He yelled over his shoulder into the house, causing an eruption of hooting and cheering.
Hey, at least they're glad to see me! I thought to myself. I was starting to feel better about being the little high school kid who still lived with his parents surrounded by the cool crowd who had moved away from home to go to college and were now out partying and having the time of their lives.
"Come on in, buddy!" The guy said to me, cheerfully putting his arm around my shoulders and walking me into the house. He shut the door behind us and we walked into the living room area, which was full of an astonishing number of sofas. This night happened many years ago, and I do remember that it was a very large room, but there must have been at least 6-8 sofas of varying sizes in it, and in this case, covered with around a dozen or so college kids, some male some female, and all of them in varying states of drunkenness.
"Alright everyone, get your cash together!" said the guy who had met me at the door. "What's your name, man?"
"Adam," I said shyly.
"We're giving Adam a good tip tonight!" he yelled into the room full of drunk people. "Poor kid's stuck delivering pizzas to parties on a Saturday night!" I was amazed at how he was able to make me feel great about getting a good tip, but also pathetic about my current lot in life. I couldn't wait to graduate high school and then go to college myself.
"Jason, you said you're buying for us, right?" Said a gorgeous brunette sitting on one of the sofas next to good-looking blonde. They each had some kind of wine cooler or something in their hands and were sitting very close together. They seemed to be very close friends being protective of each other while getting drunk in a house full of dudes.
"I thought you were buying for me!" Jason yelled back, laughing. The girls drew in their breath sharply, as though offended, and laughed back. "Tell you what, Shanna" Jason added. "I'll pay for your pizza, and you and Cheryl just get the tip. Sound good?"
"Just the tip?" Cheryl, apparently the cute blonde, asked.
"Just the tip." Jason added with a smile and a wink. "For now."
Both of the girls laughed and turned toward each other, as though sharing a secret that only they knew. Or maybe Jason knew, too? I had spent almost no time at all hanging out with college-age kids and hoped that one day I would be confident enough to flirt like they were. I guess I was assuming they were flirting, although even at my young age, even I knew what "just the tip" meant.
Jason went around the room collecting cash from people. Mostly guys, I noticed. I remember there being maybe seven or eight guys and only four girls.
Bit of a sausage-fest going on here! I thought to myself, trying not to laugh. I suddenly felt a little better about being the youngest person there. Even these cool college guys had to put in some work to get laid. But even though there were easily twice as many guys as girls, I had to admit the girls who were there were all pretty fucking sexy. It should be expected that competition for chicks was going to be stiff, as it were.
By now, I knew who Shanna and Cheryl were, the brunette and the blonde I saw when I first walked in. They're the ones I remember most clearly to this day. There was also a fair-skinned, reddish-haired girl on another of the sofas sitting between a big-breasted blonde on one side and a passed-out Asian guy on the other. I noticed the red-haired girl had beautiful green eyes and a tight, athletic body. The blonde looked like a volleyball player and was wearing a gleaming white t-shirt and short jean shorts that showed off her shapely and beautifully tanned legs.
As I was appreciating the figure on the volleyball player blonde, admiring the voluptuous size of her breasts on her otherwise tall and athletic frame, the brunette on the other sofa, Shanna, spoke up. "Can we get the tip too, Jase?" Cheryl, the blonde next to her, laughed a little too loudly, but quickly covered her mouth and dropped her head onto Shanna's shoulder. I noticed when she straightened up that she threw a quick glance in my direction. Made me a little nervous, actually.
"Ok fine, but you're buying next time!" Jason said with an eyeroll in my direction.
"Get used to this shit, my good man." Jason told me. "College life is expensive in more ways than one!"
I stood there smiling like an idiot, not sure how to respond. I was still holding the hot box full of heavy pizzas and the bag of calzones. All four girls glanced at each other and laughed again. Now it seemed like they were the ones who knew something no one else did. Another guy in a t-shirt and shorts came over to me and Jason and helped me unload the food onto the kitchen table.
"Don't worry, man," the new guy said to me as he cleared a space among the red cups, Keçiören Escort beer bottles and shot glasses that cluttered the tabletop so we could lay out the pizzas and calzones. "We're gonna take care of you. Chicks are too cheap to give good tips."
"Oh, whatever Zach, no way your broke-ass is going to take care of him!" The redhead called out.
"How old are you, my friend?" Zach asked me with a quick scowl in the general direction of the previous comment.
"Almost 19," I lied. I was too embarrassed to tell them I had turned 18 less than a week earlier.
"Ahh bummer! I was hoping you could join us all for a shot before you go!" I was also bummed. Joining a bunch of college guys and a handful of college hotties for a shot would have been an awesome way to end an otherwise uneventful evening at work.
"Becky, he's too young to drink with us, so you better hook him up with something good tonight!" he called over his shoulder to the cute redhead. "Unfortunately I wouldn't get your hopes up too much, Adam," Zach said to me, patting me on the shoulder. "She thinks she's the greatest thing in the world but she's just a typical sorority tease." He smiled and winked at me. Now that I was close to him I noticed his face was flushed red, like he had a bad sunburn. But even way back then I knew he was just super drunk. I was feeling more comfortable by the minute.
The laughing and chatting continued in the room as Jason came over to join me and Zach at the table. I finished unloading the food onto the table while Zach added his own cash to the stack of crumpled bills that Jason had collected from everyone.
"Uhh, the total is $110.52," I said sheepishly. For some reason I almost felt a little guilty delivering such an expensive order to a bunch of drunk college students.
"The girls better put out this time, man," Jason whispered to Zach as he handed me the cash. "None of them gave me any cash even for the tip!"
"Pretty sure we both already knew they weren't gonna cover the tip, dude," Zach replied. "They're hot but they're not used to paying their own way in life. Why would they start now?"
I watched this exchange with a mixture of amusement and dread. It was funny to consider that this wasn't even the first time all these guys had hung out with these few girls and still no one had gotten any action out of them, but also I worried about the struggles I would almost certainly face myself with women in college. These guys seemed much cooler and more confident than I was. If they couldn't get any action, what hope did I have?
I thanked them and as I turned and headed for the door, I ran right into Shanna and Cheryl, who had gotten up and were headed the opposite direction toward a hallway into the back of the house.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed in embarrassment.
The girls laughed drunkenly. "It's ok!" Shanna said, smiling and putting her hand briefly on my chest. Even through my t-shirt I could feel the warmth of her hand on my skin. My heart rate picked up a little.
"Thank you for the food, cutie," Cheryl added. Ice formed in the pit of my stomach. I smiled nervously and moved to the side so they could pass. Cheryl smiled and winked at me as she followed Shanna down the hall.
"Have a good night," I called over my shoulder as I let myself out of the house.
"You too, buddy!" Someone called back as the laughter and talking resumed.
I closed the door behind me and walked across the yard toward my car, suddenly feeling very lonely. It was indeed Saturday night and I had absolutely nothing going on. I knew that as soon as I got back to work I was going to count out my cash for the night and then go home to my parents house, where even they were almost certainly going to already be asleep.
I opened the trunk and tossed the hot box inside, then closed it and stood behind my car, counting out the cash. $136, all a mix of crumpled $1, $5, and $10 bills.
"Whoa!" I whispered to myself. "Definitely wasn't expecting a bunch of college students to hook me up with a $25 tip!" I started arranging the bills in order from smallest to largest, an old habit that continues to this day, and then heard a noise behind me.
I turned around and saw Shanna and Cheryl emerging from the darkness on one side of the house. They were walking quickly and slightly hunched over, kind of sneakily, and I noted they were grinning widely and holding hands. My hands froze in front of me, still holding the cash. I turned toward them in slow motion as they approached.
"Hi!" Shanna said to me in a loud whisper.
"Uhh...hey..." I said, totally confused.
"We snuck out the back door," Cheryl added, throwing a quick glance at Shanna and then biting her lower lip as she turned her eyes back to me. They both smiled and raised their eyebrows slightly, but didn't say anything else for several seconds.
I was completely confused and still had Kızılay Escort no idea what was going on or what to say, so I said literally the first thing that popped into my head.
"Umm, are you trying to escape?"
They both laughed a little too heartily, as if I had said something super clever, which I clearly had not. Cheryl again exchanged a glance with Shanna, their hands still clasped together, and reached over with her other hand and placed it on Shanna's forearm. They were standing side by side, pressed together at the shoulders. They were learning their heads toward each other slightly, and I remember thinking they seemed nearly as uncertain about what was going on as I was. This, obviously, would have really surprised me.
"Sooooo......." Shanna said, trailing off as they both descended into a fit of giggling. My brow furrowed and I looked around the yard, starting to get the feeling the lot of them were playing some kind of prank on me. They struggled to regain their composure and stood there for a moment, still holding hands.
"You say it! I can't!" Shanna whispered to her friend, laughing. Cheryl giggled again and looked up at me, her head tilted slightly to one side and a coy smile on her face. She took a slow, deep breath before she spoke. By this point I was still confused but thoroughly intrigued by now.
"Wellll...." Cheryl began, as though trying to figure out the right words. "We said we would cover your tip, but we didn't actually give Jason any money," she said. Shanna had her eyes closed tightly and was biting her lip as Cheryl spoke. She appeared to be struggling not to laugh.
"Uh well, you guys did give me like a $25 tip, that's actually pretty good," I said, looking down and fanning out the crumpled small bills that I had nearly forgotten were still in my hand. "That's probably going to be more than half of what I'll end up with in tips at the end of my--" Shanna suddenly opened her eyes and put an index finger over my lips, shutting me up.
My eyes shifted from the cash in my hand to the two girls standing in front of me, Shanna's finger still on my mouth, but more softly now. I could smell lotion on her skin, and the ice in my stomach returned. Cheryl seemed to be working to choose her words carefully again.
"No, Adam," she said to me in a low voice as Shanna slowly withdrew her finger from my face, her eyelids now dropping slightly and her smile returning. "We want to cover your tip." A loaded silence fell as we stood there behind my car, that last word hanging mysteriously in the air between us.
I looked back and forth from one of the girls to the other, suddenly noticing their beauty in a new way. I saw the second I entered the house that all four girls in the room were very attractive, but I only had time to make note of this vaguely. Now, the ice in the pit of my stomach was dissolving and turning into a tentative confidence as I realized they might actually be flirting with me.
Trying to maintain eye contact instead of too obviously undressing them with my eyes, I became more aware of their attractiveness. Shanna had lush, shiny brown hair, slightly wavy, and gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. Her lips were full and pouty and had a striking light-brown pinkish color. She licked her lower lip as I watched, leaving it glistening in the low light. I slowly dropped my gaze to the cash in my hands again, this time more slowly drifting my gaze up to the girls, allowing myself time to notice the short white shorts that accentuated Shanna's shapely calves and thighs, and the alluring bulge of her breasts under her college sweater.
Cheryl had gorgeous, flowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing grey yoga pants that left her calves bare, showing off her pale but silky skin and tightly hugging the tight, athletic curves of her legs. She was also wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt that fit somewhat loosely but that was pushed out from her chest by her breasts, which were clearly slightly smaller than Shanna's, but still looked to be at least a full B-cup. Her shirt seemed to tent at the nipples and hung down straight over her flat stomach. It was with no small amount of effort that I brought my eyes as quickly as I could to meet theirs, so I wouldn't be too obviously checking them out.
"My tip," I repeated, very slowly folding the cash in my hands and then placing it in my back pocket. The girls both nodded very slowly, now smiling deviously.
"You know, I may still be in high school but I'm not a kid," I told them. "I have a feeling I know what you're talking about."
The girls again exchanged a quick look and then turned their eyes back to me. There was a pause, and then Shanna looked straight into my eyes and said, "Adam, do you think we're attractive?"
Now it was my turn to pause. My confidence faltered slightly, but remained. I appreciated Shanna asking me that question and removing all doubt as to whether or not they were flirting. I was determined to come up with a good response.
After a short pause, I said almost in a whisper, "Yes, you're both very beautiful."
Not quite as clever as I had hoped, but I was almost sure I could see them both blush, even in the low light of the evening. They smiled and took a step toward me, then they both reached forward and gently laid a hand on each of my arms.