Fighting fires (on pause)

4

This chapter is mostly dialogue but i think most of this story will be like that.

Tw: throwing up very brief (one sentence), mentions drinking

Buck pov

I wake up with my face feeling sticky.

I try to remember the events of yesterday.

Suddenly it all comes back.

I feel sick.

I run to the bathroom and throw up into the toilet

I hear a knock on the door.

"Buck? Are you ok?" It's maddie.

"Yeah im good." I say coughing between each word.

"Are you sure? Can you open the door?"

"No maddie im not going to open the door."

"Come on buck please? Im worried."

"Maddie just wait until i come out im almost done."

"Fine but you promise you're ok?"

"Yes maddie i promise."

With that i hear maddie footsteps start to fade away.

I rinse my mouth with water flush the toilet and get out.

"Maddie im fine see?"

I walk out to the living room to find Maddie.

"Glad to see you're ok. What time do you work today?" Maddie asks me

"Uhh i dont remember its on the calendar."

I walk over to the calendar and find todays date.

"I should've been there an hour ago."

"Buck seriously?"

"Yeah sorry Maddie. Im going to get dressed and then I'll leave."

"Buck you should really get your time management under control."

"Maddie its fine."

"Buck how many times have you been late for work in the last week."

"How many days do you consider to be in a week?"

"Like Sunday to Sunday buck."

"What day is it today?"

"Thursday."

"I have been late everyday since Sunday."

"Buck you should look into that. Its not good."

"I have looked into it i never get an answer though."

"What have you done to look into it buck?"

"I talked to Bobby about it because he was wondering why i was always late."

"And what did Bobby say?"

"He told me i should look into it."

"And did you?"

"No?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I dont know."

"Buck after work we are looking into it together ok?"

"Ok Maddie now i really have to leave."

"Yeah go do that buck. What time do you finish work today?"

"I think its a 24 hour shift today. What about you?"

"I dont work today i took the day off because i kind of expected you to do the same."

"Sorry Maddie."

"Its fine buck go to work."

I walk out the door and down the driveway to my car.

I get in the car and start my drive to work.

When i get to work i see everyone seated upstairs at the table.

"Hey." I say hesitantly as i walk in.

"Hey buck we weren't expecting you today." Hen says.

"Yeah apparently maddie wasnt expecting me to come in either."

I sit at the table and for the rest of breakfast everyone mostly ignores me which is understandable.

I nudge hen with my elbow and whisper to her.

"I want to talk to you after breakfast."

She nods at me.

"Hey im full thank you for breakfast Bobby." Hen says as she stands up to put her dish away.

I do the same a while after and go down the stairs in the direction I saw hen walk in.

I see her sitting in the locker room.

I go in and sit next to her.

"Hey hen." I say carefully.

"Hey buck whats up?"

"I talked to maddie yesterday she said you called her. And i told her what happened. I wanted to apologize to you for putting you in the middle of my argument with Bobby that shouldn't have even been an argument and im sorry for yelling at you too."

"Buck like i said yesterday im fine. Im glad you felt safe enough to take your anger out on me and Bobby instead of keeping it bottled up."

"Yeah im going to apologize to Bobby after but i wanted to talk to you first."

Hen doesnt say anything she just hugs me.

"Hen if you go back upstairs can you tell Bobby to come here please?"

"Yeah sure."

"Thank you."

Hen smiles at me as she walks out

After a few minutes of waiting i see Bobby come down from upstairs.

"Hey Bobby." I call out.

Bobby starts walking towards me.

"Hey bobby." I say.

"Hey buck."

"I need to talk to you can you come sit please?"

Bobby comes to sit beside me reluctantly.

"Bobby I'm sorry for the way things went yesterday. I didn't mean to yell at you like i did and i certainly didn't mean for it to end with you drinking. I really feel bad for how it went."

"It's fine buck."

"Bobby its not fine you cant even look at me. If you want to yell yell if you want to have a calm conversation lets have one please anything but you not talking to me."

"Buck im not going to yell."

"Then can we please have a conversation."

"What's there to talk about buck? You hate the new guy i drank we both cried you yelled at me and I didn't yell back. Its fine."

"Bobby nothing you just said is fine."

"Buck I'm over it can we drop it please."

"Im not over it."

"Buck say what you want to say then."

"Bobby you have been nothing but patient with me in the years I've worked here I appreciate you putting up with me and all that i am. Im very very sorry for yesterday and i didnt mean to yell at you like i did."

"Its fine its over buck i dont care that you yelled at me."

"Thanks bobby."

I can tell we didn't talk about all there was to talk about but he seemed done so i will let it go for now.

Thanks for reading this chapter

Word count: 988