The Bodega Boy

the first encounter

     Castiel Novak was 24 years old, and has worked at the same bodega, on the same street, in the same town for the past four years. It was the first job he'd gotten at the start of his twenties. Back then he'd been recently moved out, fresh faced, and eager to take on the world.

     At first he'd enjoyed the laid back and surprisingly well paying job, but the packing of groceries became monotonous and the people just got annoying to deal with. The same people that came in day after day and never even bothered to learn Castiel's name. Tonight he had gotten the graveyard shift. Midnight to five a.m. He didn't understand why they even stayed open that long, no one ever came in after midnight besides the few pothead teenagers looking for some snacks to satisfy their munchies. He was just about to close up shop when someone walked in, making the store bell go off.  He had on a hat with sunglasses, and the hood of his sweater put up and hanging a bit low over his face. He kept looking behind him as if he were being followed.

This guy was new.

     With the neighborhood the small store was in Castiel would have thought him a robber, if not for the I <3 New York text he had on the back of his hoodie. No one actually from the city wore the city merch, that's just a given. It was most likely just some tourist who had gotten a little turned around, no wonder the poor guy looked spooked. This area wasn't exactly the safest.

    Castiel was about to tell the man about the supermarket on the next street but then he made a beeline straight to the snack aisle. Castiel just shrugs and settles back in. Maybe the person did know their way around. Castiel shook his head to himself, it was just another pothead teenager. Cas picked up one of the magazines on the counter as he waited for the rando to finish perusing the snacks and come pay for it.

     Only a few minutes later the stranger finally came up to the cash register with a bag of gummy worms, barbecue chips, a ton of various Reese's candies, and two root beer cream sodas. Castiel raised an eyebrow. "That's quite the sugar haul you got there sir" he started scanning the items he went to ring up the gummy worms and smiled pausing. "I gotta tell you though, buddy. These gummy worms are ass. The sour ones that were next to them though? Fire. Bigger price isn't always better." He smiled. Castiel catches the soft smile under the hood and immediately wonders what the rest of this guys face looked like. Though before he can go too far on the train of thought the man speaks again.

     "well, you work here so you'd know better." His tone is playful. "Hold on and I'll grab a bag of the sour ones." For some reason the voice sounded oddly familiar to Cas, but he'd have no idea where he'd have heard it from. He didn't have too many male friends. Most of his male friends had turned tail and left when he'd come out as gay. To be fair, if they'd left just for that they weren't good friends to have in the first place. While he waits for the man to come back he continued flipping through the magazine he was reading. It was a people's magazine so it wasn't that entertaining, but it was better than nothing.

     A few moments later the hooded man returns with the sour gummy worms and places them on the counter. "I found them." he beams, in a almost proud tone. Castiel almost immediately gets golden retriever vibes, It makes him smile lightly.

     "cool" Castiel responded with an easy smile as he scans them and adds them to the bag with the rest of the items "is that gonna be all for you today?" He asked, his finger hovering over the button to finish up the transaction. He looks up at the man as he waits for the answer. Though the hood is still low he can tell this man has a very nice jaw bone along with that pretty smile. Cas Is momentarily a little flustered.

      "I think so." He nodded "Got enough to snack on for now," He shifts on his feet as he talks, pulling the card out of his wallet. Cas hits the button, and nodded for the man to go ahead and swipe the card. He smiled politely when the register dings, accepting the payment. "would you like your receipt today?" He asked the blonde. He wondered if it would be too forward to put his phone number on the mans receipt. Castiel could only see part of his face, but this guy had to be the hottest Cas had ever seen. Atleast in this city. With castiels luck though, he was probably straight.

     Then the store speaker starts playing a familiar song and cas snorts lightly before he can stop himself. "Oh my God, again? This song has played six times today, and counting. I'm so tired of it" he laughs "It's not even his best either. Not that I'm like a 'super fan' or a hater or anything. He just has better" The song was from an up and coming music artist named Dean Winchester. His style was like a modern version of classic rock, which was a really cool concept. The new stuff was just seeming more 'copy pasted' lately rather than the usual original and somewhat heart felt songs from the earlier albums.

     "I don't need it. Gonna eat all the snacks tonight anyways." He the man replied, Cas notices he frowns just slightly and ducks his head a bit. "Maybe you should just change the station then." the man continued. He seems slightly flustered and defensive now as he reaches for his bag. He doesn't seem want to be involved in this conversation. Castiel feels bad, he hoped he hadn't accidentally been rude. "Sometimes the labels push people into things." The man finished.

      "I can't, it's the store station," Castiel shrugs "and that's fair." He says with a shrug "I didn't say I hated it, I just like his early stuff better. This one is very quickly getting over played is all" he snorts and hits no receipt, a bit disappointed he didn't atleast get the opportunity to slip his phone number to the man via receipt. Guess it wasn't meant to be. "If I had to pick a favorite though, I'd probably say whiskey lullaby" cas continued "which sounds like the name of a country song, but it diverts expectations which is kinda cool" he says. He hands the bag over. "Anyway, you enjoy your evening- er, morning now I guess" he chuckled lightly.

       The man gives a more tentative smile. "That's one of my favorites too actually, and thanks. You too." He looks down for a moment, at castiels name tag "Cas"

       Castiels heart kind of thuds unevenly. He's stunned the man took a moment to actually learn castiels name, and then called him a nickname. It's not a huge momentous thing, but it's a nice gesture he's unaccustomed too from customers. He watches the man walk away and slowly lets out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

      This is when the manager on shift comes out and sees the still open magazine on the counter. Cas sighs as he and starts going off on cas in Spanish for lazying around on the clock so close to closing time. Cas replies that he just had a customer and he's gonna start sweeping the floors now. He wasn't fluent or anything, but after four years of working with the man he'd picked up a thing or two. As he walks over to the supply closet he wondered if the man would ever come back. He doubted it, he'd probably never see the man again.

      After he finished cleaning and clocks out he goes outside and get his bike off the bike rack. He rides home still thinking about that somewhat mysterious man in the I<3 New York hoodie.

      Castiel wishes he'd printed that receipt anyway and not asked first.

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A/N: I know it's a little short, but this is first recent venture into fanfic again since like middle school 😅. I hope I do better this time around. So if anyone is actually taking the time to reading this please be gentle on constructive criticism :⁠-⁠) and thank you so much for taking an interest.