{ Hickeys m.g.c. }

{ Chapter 17 }

Fast forward 1.5-2 years

I wake up to the unsurprisingly sound of my alarm and rain, again. It was Monday again and I was already tired of having to get up and go to work. I got too comfortable of the new apartment that Michael and I now share, but because we share I have to help pay the rent. Slipping on a pair of socks I peek into his room so see if he's gone yet. Pushing the door open I listen to the soft snores and tiptoe next to the bed where he he layed. Crouching, I got a better look of his face. It's been awhile since he's dyed his hair and it was now a bleached blond. I poke his face a couple of times before he finally stirred and woke as I stared.

"You're so annoying you know that right?" he mumbles in a low raspy morning voice covering himself with the blanket, I giggle and keep poking him until his eyes open. I poked him a few more times until he emerged under the blankets and attacked me jabbing me in my sides making me burst with laughter. I try and push him off but he just fell flat on top of me, crushing me. I gasped and somehow managed to escape him as he put all of his dead weight on me. By now I'm hiding behind the kitchen counter grabbing a nerf gun which was left on the ground. I silently crouched, peeking over the corner shooting him twice in his torso. I hear him yell and run towards him blindly shooting and again I'm tackled and pinned to the cold floor. I look up and see him smirk, "You know it's not fair you had the gun right?"

"Well if you didn't leave it on the ground then I probably wouldn't have gotten it." I push him off and stand up brushing myself off. "Now you hurry and clean the apartment while I try and hurry to get ready for work." I throw the pillows that were on the ground towards him.

"This is your apartment too Casey, stop using work as an excuse to make me do all the cleaning." he says muffled from the pillow. I scoff and walk towards the bathroom to get ready.

-

I started wiping down tables hoping a customer would enter and to make it seem like I'm doing something.

"I know what you're doing Casey and it's not helping!" I hear Rachel yell from the back of the counter. I huff and continue what I'm doing ignoring her remark. Soon enough a somewhat large group of people entered.

"Welcome to Singer Hill Cafe." I say in a fake singsong voice but the group just ignored me. Working at the cafe wasn't much fun, and I'm still looking for a better job, but it helped me pay for rent and for food. I finish wiping one more table and go back behind the counter helping Rachel get orders ready. She gives me a nasty death glare, which isn't uncommon from her, and I head over to the espresso machine. After finishing the drinks I wasn't surprised to find her flirting with one of the customers. I push her slightly and coughing telling her to back up a bit and hand over the drinks.

"You don't have to be such a bitch." I hear his whisper under her breath, with intentions to letting me hear it. I roll my eyes and take over the cash register and out the corner of my eye I see a guy silently laughing. He catches me staring at him and shyly smiles.

"What a hypocrite am I right." I lamely joke trying. He smiles widely and giggles a little which seemed strange for a reason because this guy looked like a 25 ish year old and he giggled.

"Hey I'm Ashton, if you wanted to know."

"Hey, I'm Casey or Cass for short." I smiled warmly.

"Wasn't nice of you coworker to be talking to you like that." he fiddled with his fingers and the handle of the mug.

"Well wasn't that nice to laugh at her now is it?" I ask questioning him. He thought about it and slumps down a little turing a little red. I laugh at him, "I was joking," laughing lightly "she's always like that and I'm used to it." He says a quiet oh and smiles again embarrassed and sits up a bit. I bring over damp coffee mugs over and to once again look like I'm working whilst talking to Ashton. "I notice the strong Aussie accent, what are you doing here in boring Oregon?"

"Not much, I'm just here traveling, looking around. It's actually pretty great here. You guys have a lot of, um, trees."

"That is true, but it's always gloomy and raining here. Seems like you're one who enjoys a lot of sun."

"Well I'm here for a change, and for the coffee." I nod and put back the mugs. I peek at my phone in my pocket checking the time and I see Ally come in. I take off my apron and head out from behind the counter and to Ashton getting my small bag.

"Well my shift is over and I can show you some places if you're interested?" I offer. I see him wiping his mouth with a napkin after shoving a pound cake into his mouth.

" 'm sorry. This cake is really good," he talks with a mouthful of food swallowing his last bite "and that sounds great. Where to first?"

"Well I'm going to head back to my place really quickly and get rid of this" I say pointing towards my disgusting uniform "and you can either come with me or you can meet me at my place."

"I'll just meet you at your place, here let me give you my number." he hands out his phone and I hand over mine quickly exchanging numbers.

"I guess I'll see you there. See ya" I wave and leave.

// guess who's back, back, back, back again