Regrets

1

As the sound of rain hitting his window echoed through the room, the unwelcome sound of an alarm clock overpowered the peaceful rain.

Groaning, Tom tossed his only pillow to the source of the sound, turning to face the wall, satisfied, when the sound ended with nothing but a clash to end its time.

But right when sleep began to take over once more, sudden banging on the wall ended it.

Not again. Right when I was finally getting good sleep.

Choosing to ignore the banging wasn't an option as muffled yelling followed. "Toooommm get up already".

Every day, Tom breaks an alarm. And every day, Edd bangs on the shared wall to get him out of the bed. The banging would only stop a minute or two later, leaving Tom wide awake and no longer able to return to slumber.

Curse these thin apartment walls.

This was the routine every weekday. Tom breaks the alarm, Edd wakes him up, Tom gets dressed and goes to work. He did feel bad though, his laziness leaked into Edds sleep schedule, poor guy had to do that each morning.

Although it was hardly a job. Waking at midnight and working until 8 isn't the ideal job, but it almost pays the bills. Gas station money is not the best.

Nonetheless, he got ready and left off to work.

And as the hours passed very few people came and went. It was only 6 am, but Tom couldn't wait to return home.

Through a tired mind he pushed on, he hardly ever got customers at these times so he would sleep in the back. The bell of the door rang, waking him and his coworker. Being Toms turn, his coworker drifted back off to sleep while he peaked his head out from the back, only to see two oddly shaped horns of red.

Oh great, the devil himself.

He could hear three different voices, all speaking a familiar language. He couldn't understand them but recognized one of the voices.

Panic spread throughout his body.

Anxiety pulled at his heart and he couldn't seem to move. Something within him sacred to him to run.

When he realized they were coming towards the counter, he ran to the back and found his sleeping coworker. 

Upon waking up, he could tell that Tom was clearly in a panic.

"Whoa! You alr-"

Tom covered his mouth and looked towards the door and back at him. "Can you ring these guys up? Just them and you can go back to sleep. I'll even cover the rest of your shift." He said in a low whisper.

Confused, he agreed. Tom watched as he walked out of the break room and heard him greet them. He couldn't hear them clearly due to the door, and he wasn't even sure he wanted to hear them. But curiosity was on the tip of his brain, he pressed his ear against the door and only caught them saying thanks. The bell  of the door rang once more, followed by the sounds of someone approaching the back.

He stepped back, and his coworker walk in, clearly confused.

Without letting him talk, Tom gave a small explanation. "Thought it was someone I knew."

Leaving it at that, they returned to normal, with Tom taking the rest of the customers for their shift.