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Familiar

Song: Two Beers In - Free Throw

Your alarm goes off at 7:00 am, signaling it's time to return to the place you hated the most. You sit up in bed and stare at the sunlight peaking through the window blinds, then back at your pillows. You contemplated just going back to bed, but the risk of being fired and having to start the ruthless job-searching process again makes your chest tight. Plus you were making almost 20$ an hour, you sigh and get up. You're saving to try to move out of your parent's house but your efforts feel fruitless. The cost of living continues to rise in the city. You go to the bathroom to get ready for the day. You find yourself staring in the mirror for a little too long. You pull at the dark circles under your eyes. The color of your eyes has dulled and you feel like they lost the glimmer they had when you were a kid. Your hair has turned 3 shades darker from the dirty blonde color it was when you were younger. Your skin paler by the day. Sure the city is hot in the summer but the constant overcast of smog is taking its toll and you feel it.
I'm even starting to look more like mom...

If it wasn't for the genetics you got from your dad you would be her clone, but you got his ears, too big and bad at listening. You've pierced unsymmetrically, resembling different constellations on each one. Your nose, it's too pointy, and kids in school have picked on you about it your entire life. You've pierced your nostrils with a stud on each side. Your slightly crooked teeth, yellowed from your bad smoking habit, and how much coffee you drink make you want to sew your mouth shut. You brush your teeth for longer and harder than needed. A neurotic habit you've had since a teen, you feel like your teeth are gonna fall out of your mouth if you don't almost make your gums bleed from the excessive brushing. You wash your face harshly it'll help how you feel about yourself. You glare at yourself and turn away going to your room to change into your uniform.

You arrive at work and clock in
Here we go again...
The morning goes by so slowly as you wait for the pallet of flowers to get off the truck
Your manager calls over the intercom for all managers to come to the back room. You had meetings every morning to talk about how your departments were doing, how much product you had to report as a loss and toss out yesterday, and if inventory happened you talked about the gross profit your department had gained or lost for the period. You sigh heading to the back rooms.
You stand around in the circle around your boss, he goes around asking the other department leads the list of daily questions. You zone out until he calls you
"Floral do you know how you did what was your shrink yesterday"
"Um I didn't check the computer today, but I didn't throw anything away yesterday" he looks up at you through his glasses
"Okay well how are you doing in sales"
"I know we're up from last period sir"
The meeting goes by quickly but at the end, Morris has an announcement
"As you all know Joja is expanding to a few different locations! I will be transferring to one of the new stores, the new project being built in the valley. There will be a new store manager here tomorrow to start taking my place as I prepare for the move. I expect you all to stay motivated during the transition." He looks at you when he says motivated and you try to shake off his glare. The thought of Joja spreading its poisonous work environment to other towns makes you feel sick to your stomach, no matter where you go you probably couldn't escape their grasp. The new stores tend to drive other city development projects, more people, and more trash. That could destroy the humanity of small communities and all the charm that's left in this already depressing world.
You feel more upset than usual after that meeting, finding it hard to stay focused at work. This is the first day since starting when you didn't process all the new products for the day. You take more smoke breaks than you normally do. You're outside smoking when June approaches you. " You look so mopey today (Y/N) what's up." You take a drag and pass it over to her. " Did you hear Joja is expanding more? " You say. She shrugs. "It was kinda inevitable I know, they put their greedy fuckin hands where ever they can." "Ugh, I heard. At least Morris is leaving. He's so overbearing." Smoke leaves her mouth with her words. She passes the cig back to you and you hit it again. " Seriously you should've seen the look he gave me during today's meeting. Like he knows how much this shit gets under my skin. Like he's reading my mind, he knows I hate it more and more every second I'm here. I feel my mask slipping dude, I don't know how much longer I can do this." She puts her hand on your shoulder. "You need to get your mind off all this shit for once, My boyfriend and I are going to a local band's house show tomorrow night you should totally come with." "Please."