Running In Circles || Nicholas Ruffilo

ten

Nicholas

She has gone completely off grid.

We all definitely understand why, but we're all also insanely worried about her. We all just work in silence at the shop, hoping that she'll come through the door eventually. Our clients have to pull conversation from us, but I think that none of us can forget how Tyler looked, how Cassidy looked. Davis had too good of a time cleaning out his station and I had to stop him from damaging any of his stuff. We didn't need a reason for him to come back. 

It had been a few days later when there was an insistent banging on my door. My heart leaped to my chest, hoping that it was Cassidy, but it was Davis. He looked like hell; I hadn't seen him look this exhausted in years. 

"I found her," he breathed out as though he had ran over here. I turned around to go grab some shoes, waving him in. "Wait, I don't think she wants to be found, just wait." 

I waved my arms in the air, shoes in one hand and keys in the other. "What do you mean?"

"She's at the bar across the street sucking face with some random girl." My heart went into my ass for some reason. "I got her to talk to me for a few seconds and she said she'd be back at the shop next week, but didn't give me much more except for a thank you when I said that she could reach out to any of us at any time." 

I calculated it, thinking about the last things I said to her and how I left her. Either it's, yet again, just me that she's holding something towards or what I said to her actually sank in. I set my things back down before putting my hands on my hips.

"I know that you two don't care for each other," Davis started, making me look at him. "So I already talked to Vincent about her shadowing under him, especially since she expressed interest in his work."

"That makes sense," I nodded. "What do we do when she comes back? Anything different?"

Davis thinks for a moment before landing his gaze on me again. "We should talk about protocols when she gets back, but go back to business as usual. I know I wouldn't want to be ogled at after something like that."

I nodded, going to the fridge and grabbing us a couple of beers, wordlessly turning on Naruto for us as we chilled out for the night.

-

The following Tuesday, Cassidy was there on time. I could tell that the light in her eyes was darker, no matter how she tried to disguise it with makeup. You can't cover up exhaustion. She stopped for a moment in front of her station, probably taking it all in. Davis was quickly behind her.

"It's weird to see it so empty," she said thickly. Tyler had had this corner decked out in different flash sheets, street signs, posters... but now it's just walls and an empty desk. 

"Now you can fill it with whatever you want," Davis says optimistically. I turned and watched from afar, seeing her realize that there was a basket of assorted things waiting for her on there, which we all planned. It had various candy, sketch books, more colors of ink to practice with, and a couple of bottles of whiskey. 

She turned and wiped her face, the tears starting to roll. "You guys didn't have to do all of this," she said quickly, and I know that that's her version of thank you.

"We wanted to, Cassidy," Davis reassured her, gesturing for her to come in for a hug, which she obliged to. Vincent and I watched from afar not quite knowing what to do, but casting small smiles in acknowledgement. "We do need to talk about a couple of things as a staff, though."

"Okay," she breathed out shakily, still wiping tears from her eyes as she sat down. We all just scooted our rolly chairs to her station to meet together.