Action (DNF)

Chapter 4: Call

Welcome to day 2!

Yeah that's all I have to say, on with the chapter...
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George POV.

Shifts at the bar were slightly shorter than regular shifts at other jobs. Instead of eight and a half hours it was seven and a half hours. I started at noon, and the bar opened at 1pm, then my shift finished at 8:30pm.

Me and the female bartender that I shared a Wednesday shift with both finished at 8:30. She was someone who’d turn up to work five minutes later than she was meant to. Then at 8:28pm she’d already put things away and slip out at 8:30 on the dot. I’ve wanted to complain about it several times, however I’ve never complained because everyone already hates me enough.

I was still serving drinks up until after 8:35 despite the fact I didn’t need to, solely because a large group came in and the two people coming in to take over my job were finishing getting ready. Wilbur was one of the people on the shift after me and we stopped to say hey before I stepped out.

Since it was Winter, the sky was already quite dark as I walked for twenty minutes to reach my house. I didn’t mind though, it was a good time to think about my day. The only issue was this part of town was known for its crime rate, meaning I always had to be on edge in case a gang, or a pickpocket, or some homicidal stabber was waiting for me in an alleyway.

But tonight was one of the nights when nobody was around, and so I made my way home without any problems. It was a relatively small house painted a beautiful light blue, with white frames for the windows door, and front porch. I took a moment to check the mailbox as I did everyday when I got home and found a letter inside, containing the electricity bill.

I stepped up onto the porch, which had a motion sensor light on it. The moment I was walking over the wooden deck the light switched on, causing me to momentarily shy away so my eyes could get adjusted. Then I took the three short steps the rest of the way to the front door and unlocked it before flicking the light on in the hallway.

My home was a single story with two bedrooms, one of which I just used as storage since I lived alone and never had family over to visit. This house was smaller than the bricked terrace houses you get in the city, but it had a nice backyard that you wouldn’t be able to get in the city either.

As I went around my house, closing curtains and flipping on the lights I felt my flip phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out, and saw that there was a message from Clay in my inbox. I sat myself down on the couch before opening it, wanting to see what he sent.

‘How was your day?’ He asked in the message, and somehow that made me happy. Nobody really cared to ask me that kind of thing, and even though I know it is pathetic it made me feel good. So I typed out a response before sending it back to him.
‘Not bad, how about you?’ I pressed send after reading over it more times than needed.

I hit send and less than a second later I had my phone ringing. The name that flashed on the screen was that of the blond’s, and so I quickly answered without even thinking about it. “Hi,” I greeted him.
“Hey,” he responded. “Is this a good time to talk? Or are you busy?”

“No, I’m not busy, I just got home from work.” I answered. “Why did you want to call though?” As I spoke I walked around my house, wanting to get myself something to eat because I hadn’t had anything since lunch.
“Just thought it would be easier than texting.” Clay told me. “So how was work?”

“Work sucked.” I sighed. “My coworker today is a pain in the ass. She arrived late to work and then left as early as possible, but all of my coworkers already hate me so I can’t complain to my boss.” A small chuckle could be heard coming through the speaker of my phone.
“That’s a shame. I still can’t believe your coworkers would hate you, you’re so fun.”

“You’ve met me twice,” I laughed. ”They probably know me better than you do. But that makes me even more pathetic for going on a date with someone I’ve met twice.”
“How does that make you more pathetic?” Clay asked, and that question made my mouth clamp shut and my cheeks flush as I tried to come up with an answer.

The blond clearly knew what was going on on my end of the call and he laughed. We both fell silent for a couple of moments while I carried my shitty flip phone back and forth through the kitchen and grabbed food to make myself dinner.

“So what are you doing right now?” He questioned to break the silence. “I can hear a lot of noise coming from your end of the call.”
“Just making myself something to eat.” I replied, holding my phone with one hand while rummaging through the fridge with the other.

“What are you making?” Clay continued. It felt like he was only on the call because he was bored, but I didn't mind since I usually got lonely at night after work.
“Maybe some pasta and salad,” I hummed, deciding for myself as the question was asked.
“Sounds tasty,” he responded. “You’ll have to make it for me some time.”

“We planned our first date less than ten hours ago, if you can even call it that, and you are already planning another dinner date?” I laughed out loud as I asked the question, and Clay joined me in laughing a moment later.
“It doesn’t have to be a date. Just a nice dinner between two friends.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you still have planned two dinners and we only agreed to one less than ten hours ago.” I said with an eye roll.
“If you don’t like the idea of me planning two dinners I could plan a third. Tomorrow night perhaps?” Clay’s tone made it clear that he was joking and I rolled my eyes again.

“I’m working tomorrow night,” I answered with a smirk on my face. “Your third dinner date for the two of us will have to wait.”
“That’s alright then.” He said as I heard him moving around wherever he was. “There is this cool bar that I know of with a really fun bartender, I could go there instead.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you.” I reassured him. “But I’m going to go make pasta now, so maybe I’ll talk later.”
“Alright, see you George.” The blond responded, and I said goodbye to him a final time before hanging up.

A lonely feeling shot through me the second his voice was gone, but I pushed that thought into the back of my mind as I set my phone down on the countertop. I then began boiling some water for my pasta as my stomach rumbled hungrily.
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1244 words