Subway au ;) -dreamnotfound

one

Wake up.

On his phone reads 5:23am. Why the fuck am I up so early? The restaurant opens at 8am. After brushing his teeth and showering, why his shift starts at the ass crack of dawn comes back to him. The lead called out and he has to make bread.

Proof, score, season, bake. Put the meats, cheeses, toppings, and condiments out for the day. Put the money for change in the register, and set up other small things here and there before opening. It all seems like clockwork at this point.

Dream had been working at this subway since he was sixteen. There was nothing exceptional about his work ethic when he started, and neither was there anything exceptional about it when they offered him a managing position three years later. He did not have the heart to decline the offer. His parents thought it would be good for him to grow in any way with any company, and his dad's friend was the owner of the shop. It just seemed bizarre to Dream that they would take someone who was a part time sandwich maker, and give them managerial duties before even knowing what shift leads do on a daily basis. He was now twenty-one, in the same place as he was at sixteen.

He almost has a panic attack about this thought every morning, but his youth pushes the bad thoughts away. Twenty-one. He remembers... I still have time.

Dream did not think the alternative, college, was much of a step up anyway. He is the type to like a decent amount of money in his bank account now, not in however many years it would take to get a degree, get a higher degree, and then search many restless years finding a decent job. All while having debt for taking classes he never wanted to take. The money he made at Subway was enough for him right now, and that's all that matters right now. He does not care to think that he could make more money with a degree, and that one day that money will be used for a family, house, better car. Who gives a shit.

The next person of the day comes in, a kid only a year younger then Dream named Alex. Well, Quackity. Dream does not quite care to share his real name at work (or anywhere but with his family), and Quackity expressed that he did not really desire that either. They respected each other enough to comply to one another's requests, and so did everyone else that worked at the Subway.

They were nearly the same age, but when Dream was given the Manager title, a tension between him and all the people professionally under him came with it... no matter how much he expressed that he was still cool, and did not want to be seen as someone who saw himself as a "higher up," at the job. Being a manager puts you in positions that make you seem like an asshole, and people tend to remember those moments more than the pleasurable ones.

"Its so fucking... I mean it's so dang early." Quackity says, letting a cuss word spill out. "Dude," Dream starts. "You can cuss in front of me, I am literally your age." He finishes.

Quackity makes up an excuse as to why he did not feel comfortable saying bad words in front of Dream "If I say it here at all, I might slip up in front of a customer."

He is lying, he has the best fake-nice-to-customers personality in the whole shop. He prides himself on being respectful, and it would be out of character for him to cuss in front of anyone he wasn't supposed to cuss in front of.

Whatever. Dream thinks. It is early. Usually Dream should not wake up this early. Usually he could come in at 12pm , make sure everything is ok at the restaurant, place orders for shipments of food and anything else their Subway might need, overlook any issues customers or employees might have, and leave between 7pm and 9pm. He should not be doing an openers job. In a perfect world, he would not even make one sandwich a day. It is obnoxious how many call outs the Subway had a week. He was working overtime to replace anybody who did not show up. Two jobs at once is exhausting for anybody, even a fairly built and fit twenty-one year old.

He decides he is tired of waking up before 10am. He grabs a sticky-note off the desk he and the owner share (though the owner does not come in enough to really need the desk for anything), and writes

TO DO LIST:
1. Tell Anthony we need to hire more people

He is relieved he finally, maybe, hopefully may have a solution to one of his many anxieties in his life. We will see.

829 words