Choir of Moths

Chapter 7

"Shit, shit shit !" Malik's brain searched for more curse words to string together as he hastily flicked through the work shirts that hung in his closet. For the second week in a row, he'd forgotten to wash his work clothes. One week was fine, however, that second one had caused him to use the last of his clean shirts. He honestly wasn't even sure why he'd hung some of them back up based on the odors some of them were letting off. Agitated with himself he ripped all the shirts from their hangers and threw them on a pile on a floor next to his also full clothes hamper. He reached for the most wrinkled shirt and taking a whiff from it decided it was also the cleanest. He hastily put on the bright yellow button-up shirt, tucking it into a somewhat clean pair of his black work pants. His heart thumped in his chest as he looked at the clock, letting out a long and deep groan after seeing what time it was. He'd overslept many times before. In high school, in college, and even during his current job. Never though had he overslept by two hours, well until now. He didn't even remember what time he'd gotten home last night, just that it must have been late enough that his aunt had retired for the night and was snoring softly as he'd walked past her room. He laced up his boots with sweaty palms, stuffed his work jacket and goggles into his backpack, and sprinted out of the apartment. It took a couple of seconds for the apartment door to open again, as he grabbed his keys off their hook and locked the door behind him.

His brisk walk had turned to a jog as he realized the morning work rush had almost completely died down. He dreaded to think about what time it was, choosing to simply increase his jogging speed. He'd practically been running by the time the delivery office came into view. Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, he also took the opportunity to slide on his work jacket; the jacket was dyed the same yellow as his shirt and had black lines along its seams. A majority of the space on the back of it was taken up by the company's name in big black letters, Bright Bee Express Delivery. Malik slid on his goggles, allowing them to rest around his neck before opening the door to the delivery office with a shaky hand.

He walked inside, sheepishly at first, waiting and expecting to be greeted by a torrent of yelling from his boss who usually manned the front of the office. Instead, the only thing he was met by was the silence of the empty front room. Perhaps he'd called in sick and left one of the temporary managers in charge for the day. If Anita or Carlo were running the shop for the day they'd be upset but only slightly. Most likely they'd promise not to say anything as long as Malik finished all the deliveries on his route by the time it got dark. He knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth so he used the computer at the front desk to clock in and turned to quickly make his way to the backroom. As he reached out to open the door to the backroom, time seemed to slow down as the knob twisted on its own. The door was pulled open and his boss stepped into the front room with Malik. The guy, who was just barely older than Malik, had entered with his back to him. He turned and stopped in his tracks, anger bleeding onto his face, opposed to the color draining from Malik's.

"And where the hell have you been ?" Malik's boss, Andrew, crossed his arms, taking a sharp step towards him in the process.

"I-I was...I had to." Malik found he could do little more than babble. At least that was all he could do on the outside, on the inside he was visualizing what jobs he'd apply to after he got fired.

"I asked you a question, Malik! You're two hours late. Two !"

"I...I overslept. I was out late last night helping a friend." Andrew slammed his hand on the counter, causing Malik to immediately stop."

"I knew I should have fired you when my Dad handed me this shop. You're bad for business with that shit on your face and you're a lackluster worker. A fucking headache." Malik felt his guilt slowly disappear, anger settling in its vacancy.