LIVING THE DREAM ✅

Four: The fight, the job and the realization

"So, Mitchell," Hannah, the shorter brunette whose voice came out softer and a little squeaky sometimes, placed her cup of hot chocolate on the table and turned to Mitchell. "Tell us about yourself."

She almost dropped her own cup. Tell us about yourself? That was the one question she'd never been asked before - which wasn't really that surprising. But Hannah was looking at her with anticipation and she could tell that everyone was waiting for her response. What is it about myself? Is there even anything to say? Her palms started to get sweaty and the cup became so slippery that she placed it on the table right next to Hannah's to avoid dropping it.

"Uh," she cleared her throat and gave a tight-lipped smile. "I have a little sister?"

When there wasn't a single response after her question slash statement - and she had no idea why it came out like that, she went ahead and explained.
"Her name is Hayley. She's twenty, five years younger than me. She's also super smart, not like Sheldon Cooper smart, but smart enough to major in food microbiology. And get this; she got accepted at the biggest food lab in town for internship. It's her first day today and I was looking forward to hearing all about it but she had to ditch me to hang out with an intern she just met. What if he's like a criminal or something? Kids nowadays don't have a sense of self preservation, huh?"

She had to pause to take a breath and rehydrate her throat from all the talking. After taking a sip from her hot chocolate, she turned around to face the three pairs of eyes in the room. None of them said a word. And she was starting to quake. What if I'm boring them? What if they don't invite me to hang out again? What if-

"Mitchell," it was Austin's voice that brought her out of her rambling inner monologue. "Everything you just told us is about your sister. Now, tell us about you."

She pointed at herself. "M-me?"

"Yeah, like something about yourself," Austin nodded

"I'll go first," Claire interrupted. Unlike most females, her voice came out deeper, strong and commanding. She was tall - taller than everyone in the room, including Austin, and combined with the tone of her voice, the piercing sky-blue eyes, her presence screamed nothing but respect and power. "I'm Claire. I am a music teacher and I draw tattoos in my free time."

"Alright," Hannah perked up, her voice even more squeaky. "I'm Hannah. I'm a waitress and I like to crotchet in my free time."

Austin groaned and cleared his throat.
"I'm Austin. I'm unemployed and I don't know what to do with my life."

"You should really stop saying that," Claire frowned at him. "Don't you feel ashamed saying it? I just don't understand how you can be okay with the way your life is!"

"Claire-"

"No," Claire pointed her index finger at him effectively shutting him up. "You know what hurts even more? You aren't even trying to make your life better. I won't keep you in my house forever. I had to work to afford this house and heavens know that I'll be damned if I keep you here leeching on me like a damn toddler. Get a life!"

Mitchell sat there and wordlessly stared at the two siblings. Claire's face was red with anger. Austin's face was hidden in his hands which were placed on his lap. Hannah looked anything but bothered as she sipped from her cup without a comment.

A minute later, Claire stood up and stormed out of the living room and Austin followed her almost immediately.

"Hey," Hannah said, extending closer to Mitchell. "Don't be so worried. This always happens every time Austin is in between jobs. They will work it out, they always do."

"This was so hard to watch," Mitchell sighed. "I don't know what I'd do if my sister and I argued like that."

"Let's not talk about them," Hannah waved her off. "You didn't get to talk about yourself. Tell me! What do you do for a living?"

"Uh," even she felt embarrassed to say it out loud. Although it paid the bills and kept Hayley in school, she hated to say it. "I write novels. And I'm a freelance video editor slash graphics designer. Yeah."

"Novels? What kind?"

"W-well, mature," Mitchell blanched.

Even Hayley didn't know about that aspect of her life. She had a couple of series on a paid site where she updated chapters weekly and in turn, they paid her. The readers liked them. She had no idea how sex-crazy a lot of people were until her first book in the series hit a million reads in less than a month. The site had offered her a contract then to keep the series coming. It wasn't that hard. All she had to do was think of a more steamy content with a couple of plot twists and her bank account would never lack.

Hayley would be mortified if she found out.

"Interesting," Hannah whistled. "Will you let me read some?"

"Uh, no," she nodded. For one, that would mean that she'd have to give her the secret pen name. Who knows what Hannah would do with it? She looked like a blabbermouth anyway. "I-I didn't think that you'd be interested in that kind of stuff. Anyways, tell me about crotchet!"

And just like that, Hannah switched the conversation to different kinds of yarn and how much her hot boyfriend loved the scarves she made for him every Valentine's day and Christmas sweaters for his family too. Somehow, the conversation shifted from yarn to some of the rudest customers Hannah encountered in the restaurant she worked at.

"I swear to you! She deserved it," Hannah said with a chuckle. "That's what she gets for not being polite- dang! It's 6pm already?"

"6pm?" Mitchell jumped

Oh dear Lord! How had she forgotten to check on the time? She and Hayley were going to have a late supper and she was also sure that Hayley wasn't going to love it.

And yet with that realization, she wanted to stay some more. She'd never spent time with someone else other than Hayley - more specifically, someone who seemed interested in what she was saying. She was having fun talking to Hannah and Hannah seemed to be pleased as well.

Was she ever going to have that experience again? What if Claire, Austin or Hannah never invited her back to the house?

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