𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙊𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙁 | Marcus White

Spring Cleaning

"Okay, let's give a warm first-day welcome to our newest employee, Bo Thompson." It was far too early for Glenn's joyous tone, though when was it not? The loud claps that resounded around the break room didn't help either.

"I can't believe Glenn actually hired Bo." Amy scoffed, her cup of coffee muffling the already whispers words, loud enough that only you could hear. "Bo who staged a shooting to propose to Cheyenne, Bo who then ran away at the thought of having a baby with Cheyenne and we had to hunt him down, Bo who-"

"Yeah I get the idea, Ames." Folding your arm across your chest, you turned in your chair to face the man who was slipping out of his chair to stand and introduce himself to the people in the break room. You other hand held your cup of coffee in front of your lips, the steam heating your face and keeping you warm. "But Glenn's all about expanding his cloud 9 family. I'm more surprised he didn't do it sooner."

"What's up?" Bo's shirt had an all-too explicit cartoon penis on it, attached to a hand and being held up as a middle finger. The image was only accentuated by a big red circle and thunder bolts surrounding it, the word 'off' in big, black block letters beneath it.

"Who apparently wasn't filled in about the dress code." Very clearly so.

"Why does his middle finger look so weird?" Mateo asked, staring intently at the shirt and trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with the image, the realisation dawning on him as soon as he'd asked the question aloud. "Oh, it's a penis. Ha, clever."

At the stark silence that settled over the break room, Cheyenne looked up at Bo, squeezing her juice box between two hands and fiddling with the cardboard flaps. "Bo, maybe you should change."

"Change into what?" Bo sassed, his hands flying to his sides in an over exaggerated shrug. "Where am I supposed to find another shirt?"

Jonah let out a sigh, your attention turning to him as he ran a hand over his face in frustration. He looked oddly tired, by Jonah standards, and you were beginning to worry that he hasn't been taking care of himself, a series of unusual break room appearances beginning to get to you. "We work in a store."

"Okay, moving on. Uh, today, we're gonna be spring cleaning, which is gonna be buckets of fun." Glenn had barely got his words out, holding the bucket beside him up for everyone to see, before Jonah was letting laughter slip past his lips.

Something was definitely wrong, you were sure of it. Jonah's laugh was forced and scratchy, and as the attention of the break room moved to him, his face paled. "What? That's that was funny."

"No, it wasn't." Garrett deadpanned, staring down Jonah who was shifting anxiously under his gaze.

"Literally nobody laughed, except for you." Staying out of the drama for a change, you let the debate ensue, watching it play out of the brim of your cup of coffee.

"It's barely even wordplay. He just said buckets, and held up a bucket." Even Dina was intervening to comment of the absurdity of Jonah's laughter, and not unlike usual she was right. It had barely been wordplay, and if it warranted any laugh at all, it would have been a delirious, sleepy or sick one.

"It's called prop comedy, Dina."

"You're just kissing up to him, 'cause you're dating his daughter." Mateo had assessed the situation and hit the nail on the head, Jonah's face and neck flushing red and quickly coming to defend himself against the accusation.

"That's not true at all." He shuffled in his seat under the intense stares of everyone on him, and Glenn's upset and confused one. Stumbling to an explanation, he attempted to hide the older man from the truth. "In fact, just this morning, Kristen said she respects how much I don't kiss up."