Hot topic next to Claire's || Mandela catalogue au || Jonah x Adam ||

Clocked in for you

Holy shit I'm late to work..

BY 3 HOURS!??

I know Sarah's gonna yell at me. God damnit.

I rush inside the mall, passing groups of people and glances from people. The retina burning purple(?) gains a few stares, I hate the employee shirts they make us wear. I take the escalator up to the second floor. I never realized how slow escalators are.. wait, what am I doing again? WORK! Jesus-

I rush across the second floor and reach Claire's. I weave my way around the tiny store and crowded earring displays and into the back room. As soon as I cut the corner of the door frame, I get a close up of Sarah's face.

"HOLY SHIT- Dude!" I take a step back and hold my chest. She scared the shit outta me.. I regain my soul again. Sarah doesn't seem amused at all. She's mad, and I'm scared.

"3 hours.. 3 hours Jonah." She squints her eyes.

I take a step back, "Okay, yes I know.. but I didn't mean too. Half of it was me sleeping in, and there was traffic, and- uhhh." her face is stone cold, I hate when she gets like this. It makes me anxious.

She closes her eyes and sighs before turning away and walking down the small hallway, deeper in the back room. "Its not even that Jonah.. First you come back to work smelling like cigarettes when we are constantly around kids, then you go to a party where there's illegal drinking, AND THEN You come to work this late.." She covers her face with one hand. I cant tell if shes thinking of more to say or if she wants me to apologize. A part of me feels bad, but shes not my mom. I'm a grown ass adult. But... shes worried about me..

Sarah takes a seat at the round table in the furthest corner, I don't want to look her in the eyes. I don think she wants to either..

"Jonah..?" I hesitate before looking at her. There a bit of tiredness in her eyes.. no, its.. sadness. "I cant stay mad at you. I just don't want you to slowly give up our life for a guy. Can you promise me you wont?" She looked up at me. I never planned on quitting, I'm just taking it easy now. It's always been just going to work and occasional hanging out with her. I just want to spend a bit more time on my personal life.. and the rest of adult life.

I cant speak, so I nod. Reassurance is all I can do for her for now. She smiles at me before standing up. We both hug for a minute or two. "You're so lucky our manager isn't here today.. I clocked in for you."

"Thanks Sarah."

A.N:

Y'all happy PRIDE MONTH 🌈✨

Sorry for taking such a long break, I've had the worst case of burnout. But since it's finally summer I can dedicate more time to this fic.

Short chapter for now but its a start as i slowly get back into the groove.🥓

Love y'all <3