And They Were Roommates...

Chapter 3

Skeppy blinked open his eyes, remembering where he was. The small bedroom of the new apartment felt unfamiliar, but he wasn't confused. He had fallen asleep a little while after he had eaten breakfast, but he was unsure of what time it was. He reached over to grab his phone off the table, but saw that it wasn't there. He scratched his head, wondering where it could be. Standing up, he stretched and left his room. Must've left it on the table. He thought to himself, heading out toward the kitchen. He found his phone sitting next to the box of cereal he had left there, turning it on to check the time. It was almost 3pm.

Skeppy had finally gotten a full night's rest, but he didn't feel much different from when he was running off of a 30 minute nap. He heard footsteps from behind him and jumped to find Bad standing behind him. "God, you scared me!" He said, knowing he was jumpy due to the remnant effects of sleep deprivation.

Bad laughed a little bit, "sorry, didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to give you this!" Bad held out a packet of papers for Skeppy to take.

"What's this?" Skeppy asked, grabbing them from Bad's hand and skimming the words.

"It's a few shift times for the cafe," he explained. "The ones with the red dot next to them are my shift, the ones with a green dot are already taken by two people, and the white dots indicate your options."

"What, do I just choose some? Don't I need... An interview or something?"

"Well, I sorta skipped the application process for you and my boss said you can come in and talk to her for a bit and she'll probably give you the job. I picked up the schedule just so you could take a look," Bad explained. "It takes two people to run the cafe and recently my old shift partner moved out of town, so most of my partner slots are empty. Isn't that a funny coincidence?"

"Great, then I guess if I get the job, you can show me what I need to do."

"Yeah! You can just put some blue dots on top of the white dots and then that can be your shift," Bad said, seeming excited.

...

Skeppy looked in the mirror and brushed his hand through his hair one more time. "Come on, Skeppy! We're gonna be late!" Bad whined from the other room.

"Coming!" Skeppy said, grabbing his backpack and heading out to the living room.

"The interview will be simple, you just need to tell her about yourself and-"

Skeppy zoned out as Bad kept rambling. According to Bad, getting this job would be the easiest thing in the world, so he wasn't too worried about the interview. They walked up the street, passing Skeppy's old apartment along the way. It looked like someone had already moved in. A few minutes later, they arrived at the front door of a small coffee shop Skeppy had never paid attention to before. It was a small place on the corner of two streets, attached to a larger building with a few other stores in it. Above the glass door was a pink neon sign that read "72 Muffins Cafe." Skeppy assumed the cafe must've opened in 1972 or was once located on 72nd street or something, because the number 72 seemed pretty arbitrary.

"This is the place," Bad announced, opening the door. A small bell rang above the door, alerting anyone of their arrival. He noticed a woman with a laptop sitting at one of the tables by the window, drinking from a coffee cup, and a blonde woman wearing a pink apron behind the counter. She was mixing up a drink for someone who stood by the counter. It was a quaint little shop, nicely decorated and felt very cozy. It seemed like the perfect place to sit and work.

"Hey Emma!" Bad said.

The woman behind the counter looked up from the drink she was mixing and noticed the two standing by the door. "Oh, hey Bad! One sec!" She finished making the drink for the customer before walking out from behind the counter. "And you must be Skeppy," she gestured. "Nice to meet you!"