Somehow Managing

Chapter 4: O-okay then.

      We stepped out of the taxi to find ourselves outside an unbelievably tall building. It looked like your typical modern style home, only 5 billion times bigger. And it was a skyscraper instead. There wasn't any sign saying what it was, but Grandma had triple checked the address, so we were good. She walked in, and I followed right behind, holding onto the strap of my light purple mini backpack. 

      The lady at the counter was skin and bones, and had an ungodly amount of makeup on. Her brunette hair was pulled up in a bun, with enough hairspray that you could tell her hair was as flammable as a lighter itself. Her bored grey-green eyes looked up from behind her dark red glasses. "I'm sorry, this isn't the right establishment for... you." She practically hissed out her last word as she dragged her eyes across us. I almost grimaced at how she spoke. 

      "Well, sorry if you think this establishment isn't for everyone, but we need to sign up for a recent job application." My Grandmother said with a smile and a kind tone, almost intimidating. The lady paused. "Huh. I didn't know being a bad example was a job. Either way, one, you. You're WAY too old to be a model, and two. Hun, you're so flat you couldn't wear half the clothes we have. And you're both way below this building's league. You should know your place." She sneered. I started to open my mouth to speak bullets about the foot long stick up her ass, ready to kill. 

      "First of all- that's intentional- second o-" Grandma abruptly interrupted me. "Hmm, weird that you think I care about your opinion. Anyway, where are the applications?" The lady made a disgusted face and grabbed a company phone. "I'll see if the higher-ups have them." She trailed off as she punched in numbers. It rang for a solid 10 seconds. When someone finally picked up, the lady snarked into the phone, 

      "Hi, Front Desk here. We have a couple of freaks here to look for a job application?" A muffled voice spoke loudly into the phone. "Yeah, I know we— you know what? Simpler question: do we want some Emo wannabe kid and some 1800s girl applying for model positions?" A moment of silence. We were too stunned to speak. "Uh-huh. Thanks, bye." She hung up and said "Mkay. You can't sign up. Bye!" 

      She continued doing whatever she had done before, which (I assume she didn't know I could see her phone screen) was just shopping for new perfume (good, she smelled like burnt garbage), and Grandma started forward to argue. "No, it's fine. If that biatch isn't anything more than a fake little plastic Barbie doll, that's ok. We can leave." I grabbed her arm, turning to leave. She protested a little, but she honestly would rather be far away from that woman. 

      As we left, I said rather loudly, "Though she should be finding a better perfume. 'Dumpster fire' doesn't quite suit her." With a completely blank face. As the door shut behind us, I glanced back to see her slight shock. Not much of a reaction, but it was something. We were back on the street, and as soon as we left the doors, we were almost trampled. 

      I pulled us over to a light pole. "Okay. What do we do now?" I looked down at her, awaiting her response. She still seemed a little mad and disappointed. "Hey, everything will be easier if we both forget whatever she said. Okay?" I set a hand on her shoulder. She took a moment to respond before giving a quick 'yeah, sure.' I nodded and grabbed my phone to look up new job applications in my field. She leaned forward to hug me, and I typed on my phone behind her back as I hugged her back. 

      It took a bit, but we were still hugging by the time I saw one I was interested in and had decent pay. "Ooh! Hey! This restaurant wants a live singer! It's a little alt cafe uptown." Grandma pulled away. "A what cafe?" She said, seeming genuinely confused. "An alt cafe. Basically, a cafe for alternative dressers. But it's open to everyone." I responded, kind of hoping I didn't have to explain what an alternate dresser was. (I didn't know how to). She just nodded and gave a look saying 'Okay, whatever.' "Well, where is it?" She looked down the street, glancing around the traffic. 

      "It's not too far from our hotel, actually. If we taxi there, it would take roughly six to ten minutes to walk to the cafe. Should we head there now?" "Sure, it'll give us something to do." I visibly smiled. "Great! I'll wave down a taxi and we can head there now." She checked herself over for some reason, and it took me a couple minutes to flag a taxi down. 

      This one was in better shape, but the outside needed washed. The driver was an older- maybe in his forties- black man, who wore a black overcoat and a floppy hat. "Where you headed?" He said, the soul in his voice particularly pleasant to hear. My Grandma kindly smiled as she sat down in the black leather seats. I sat down next to her and read off the address with a slight happy tone. He nodded as if he knew the place, saying a quick, "I've taken people in and out of that place before. Very colorful." Before putting the car into drive and merging back into the traffic.

The drive was nice, the driver smelled like maple syrup. I showed Grandma pictures of the place on the way. Some newspaper guy outside was loudly rambling about something, but the light we had stopped at turned green as I heard him say the word 'monster'. 'It could be anything. Could be some event or a front-page costumer. Though, it would be awesome if there was a monster out here. It'd be my luck to never encounter it, but I could find pictures afterward. I just wish I would be part of some big picture of something interesting. Especially here.' I gave a quiet sigh as we pulled up to the cafe on the corner. 

      He took the $20 Grandma handed him and waved us off with a smile. I slipped my backpack on and opened the decorated door to the building. The outside had a mural on either side of the door, one being an Invader Zim character waving a blaster at a man in a political outfit, and the other still being painted. The person painting it was working on a section of a creature's silhouette wearing a scarf. Above the figure were the words 'NYC monster? A year where things get interesting!' In a speech bubble being said by a woman in scene clothing. This piqued my interest. I paused for a moment, deciding to ask the painter about it before we left. Grandma had walked in, and I followed close behind. 

      There was a medium stage in the corner to the left of the door, a bar on the right wall, and a line of booths by the back wall. The room was covered in posters and wall art, graffiti too. It was fairly dark, and there were colored lights slowly circling the tables to a slow Nirvana song. The bar was lit in pink and green, and the barista was fixing a coffee for an obviously gay couple sitting at the counter. Grandma looked around, a little hesitant. I patted her shoulder and said, "Let's go see about that job application, hm?" I smiled down at her, hoping she wouldn't veto the whole thing. 

      "If you can get a job here, you can keep it. But I need to know where you are ALL THE TIME. I'm not gonna have you get kidnapped on my supervision; you got that? Your mother will never let me see you again. And -please- don't do anything stupid? Like- "I cut her off. 

      "You really think I would do anything that could get me killed?"

       Eye contact. 

      "Okay you really think I would do something that involves drugs or whatever you're implying? -I know you're implying something-"

      "I don't think you would, but I need your common sense on guard at all times. Don't drink anything you suspect may be spiked, don't-"I tuned out at this point. If anything weird or suspicious were to happen, I have ways I can get out of it. "-Okay?" I tuned back in. 

      "Yes. Ok. I'm not even old enough to drink. They'll probably keep me far away from the bar itself. I'll be ok. Let's go!" I dragged her over to the counter, brushing the crumbs off the bar top and leaning on it to get the barista's attention. "Hold on, I'll be right with you." And I motioned for Grandma to sit.

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Hey! Sorry I didn't post last week, my cat died, and I was preoccupied with that, so I'm sorry for the delay. The chapters will get slower, but longer and in a little more detail. Happy to see people are seeing my story! I would absolutely love to hear your input, so if you would, please comment your questions about characters or the storyline. Thanks for reading, Toodles!!