"You broke WHAT?" I ask, over the phone.
"My leg..well I think? Maybe my ankle?" Will replies, "I'm not really sure because of the swelling. It's my ankle or...the end of my leg?"
"Do I need to come home? Take you to the hospital? How did–"
"No, no it's fine. I used my skateboard to get to the bus," he says, matter-of-factly.
"...You...used your skateboard to get to the bus?" I ask, "After you maybe broke your leg, what do you mean?"
"I mean, I sat on it and scooted. To the bus." The image of a 20-year-old man sitting on a skateboard and using his hands to push himself around town would have made me laugh under any other circumstances.
Okay, it still made me laugh a little bit.
"Sorry," I say, still stifling a giggle, "that's kinda funny. Are you at home or at the hospital?" I had exactly 8 minutes left in my break to figure out where I needed to meet Will and exactly how I would get him to urgent care with no car and without one of his legs.
"It'll be funnier if they tell me it's not broken. I took the bus over to urgent care across the street from the house, I'll be okay. Dad might drive down and help out depending on how it goes. I'll be alright though, you should probably be getting back to work though, huh?"
I sigh, "Yeah, I suppose so. Are you sure you don't want me to head out early? I could get a ride, maybe, from someone?"
"It's okay, I'm already here. Like I said, Dad might drive down anyway. I'll talk to you when you get home."
"Okay, I hope it's–" my phone beeps. Cool, cool, bye, love you too! I guess I shouldn't get too snappy yet, he just–maybe?--broke his leg. Still. I sigh and get up from the hard plastic chair so graciously provided by my employer and put my phone back into my locker. Only six more hours to go.
Back out on the floor, I head up to my register. At least it's busy today. And I know, I know, usually you'd be thanking god for a slow day, but slow days move by, well. Slow.
There's a lull about an hour in and Izzy comes up to my register.
"Whaaaatcha doin?" She asks, with her regular, uppity energy. I think she actually bounces a little bit when she walks over to me.
"Oh you know...living out all my wildest dreams up here at this cash register, as usual. Nothing else I would rather be doing," I flash her my biggest, most genuine smile.
"Welllllll..." she says, grabbing all the returns from under the counter, "When you're done achieving your life goals up here, can you prettyyyy please update the schedule? My lunch and my second break are like twenty minutes apart again and Jack already left for the day."
A few weeks ago I was "promoted" to shift lead–I'd be more enthusiastic about it had it come with more than a $0.10 raise on top of the extra responsibility and stricter hours. Every day I now get to go through the schedule Jack threw together before running home. He leaves after first shift every day which means by the time I have locked up my bike, got my uniform on, and clocked in, he's already run farrr away from this place, leaving me to deal with disgruntled staff and a literal mess.
"Right, yeah, sorry. It was busy up here when I got here and my boyfriend is an idiot and is at urgent care so I totally forgot to check it, I'll look at it right now.
"Will is in urgent care?" Izzy asks casually.
"Yeah, why don't you sound shocked?" I tease, smiling.
YOU ARE READING
Land of the Long White Cloud
RomanceRiley and Will have been together for years and are happy together in their little apartment in their little college town with their cat, Nebula, Right? Five weeks before a research trip Riley and Will were to go on with their colleagues, Will brea...
