⭒𝓶𝓲𝓪𝓵𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓮 𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓽𝓼♡

⭒𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼♡

Tears - The Stone Roses

Prompt - Charlotte breaks down after a long day of rude parents, Mia comforts her. Also Mia got rehired after coming back bc it works for this so that's why she works here.

Charlottes POV

'Fifteen minutes until closing.' I repeated to myself over and over in my head, trying to clean up a bit as alot of the children had already left. I was trying to keep myself busy as I was already at my breaking point. One more angry parent would send me over the line, causing me to breakdown.

As I was helping the remaining two children tidy away the art supplies, in came a mother I was very familiar with, a woman who always had something to complain about, especially since her child had a small incident earlier where he fell over and bumped his head. I rolled my eyes at the incoming wrath I was about to face, I was really hoping it would be the childs dad today, he is actually very understanding in contrast to his overbearing wife.

I took a quick sigh, turning to the child. "Liam, your Mummy is here, go get your stuff out your tray." I put on a happy voice before taking a deep breath and approaching Liams mother. "Hi, so Liam had a grea-" I was suddenly interrupted.

"How dare you let MY child get hurt." The woman snapped at me before I could even finish.

'Here we go..' I thought before responding. "It was an accident, and he's actually been fine since then he-" I was cut off again, losing my composure as the seconds ticked by.

"He was FINE? You told me he hit his head earlier? How can he be fine after that?" She began raising her voice at me as it became more and more difficult to fight back tears. I had dealt with five screaming parents already, and could really feel the mental effects of it. I usually would process everything once I get home, but this was just way too overwhelming.

"Yeah, we monitored him all day and the head bump didn't bother him.." I replied, trying to avoid eye contact and just get the interaction over with.

"Then why bother telling me he bumped his head if he was fine??" She raised her voice even louder, drawing the attention of Mia, who was just passing by the room where she overheard. I stayed silent, staring at the floor, fighting back the urge to lose it when Mia stepped in.

"It's to let you know of the incident so you're not surprised when a bruise pops up on your childs forehead." Mia jumped in to my rescue, as she looked at me, knowing something was wrong with "Char, I'll handle this." She said an annoyed tone in her voice. I gladly walked off to another parent, who thankfully was the last and actually listened to what I had to say.

It's been really refreshing since Mia came back, I've never had to deal with stressful things myself and I actually have been overall alot less stressed. This was just very overwhelming for me.

I wandered over to one of the counters and sat on it, taking a deep breath and placing my head in my hands. I heard Liams mum storming off followed by Mias footsteps coming towards me through the empty room.

"Are you okay, Sweetheart?" She sat down next to me, taking my hand as she began to draw patterns around the palm. It was in that moment that I broke. Tears started rolling down my face, and I honestly felt pathetic about it. I knew I was sensitive, but crying in work was new.

Mia embraced me in a comforting hug, letting me cry into her shoulder. I had never felt so vulnerable than this moment, having a breakdown in the workplace and relying on someone else to deal with a parent for me.

We sat in a silence until I found the words to express how I was feeling. "I feel so stupid, I just cried over a parent who wasn't even that bad." I let out through my cries, looking up at Mia who wiped the tears off my face before responding.

"Sweetheart, you're not stupid. You've had a rough day, I've seen how many shitty parents you've had to deal with today." I sighed at how good she was at comforting me, but I was still really annoyed with myself. How could I let this get to me?

"I've never frozen up like that infront of a parent before. I guess this 'backbone' of mine is wearing off." I pulled myself off of Mia and stared forward.

"You can't always fight back, especially against parents who kill your braincells by the second." She joked, a small smile on her face. I nodded slightly, turning to face her again.

"I'm just glad you were there. Right place, right time I guess." I smiled at her, my tears had finally stopped. I leaned my head on her shoulder and took a small sigh of relief.

"The girls are with their dad today, right?" Mia questioned, obviously planning to spend some time once we had left work. I nodded in response. "How about you come back to mine? Theres this new series on Netflix I think you'll like." Mia stood up, letting her hand out for me to take which I gladly accepted.

God I love being on her soft side.

916 words

Idk how I feel abt this but here you go. Suggestions??