Beginning Again

Chapter 7 - I Have No Idea.

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©Sapphiresamo 

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Chapter 7

I Have No Idea.

The following day was as hectic as ever. I woke up late and had to rush out the house to head to work. You see, I work at the local convenience store and have been working there for a couple of months now. It’s just a way for me to earn some money to buy necessary things for myself.

Arriving at the ‘Bayfield convenience store’, I looked out at the empty lot. The only car that was parked up was my boss, who always got here one hour earlier than me. Heading inside the building I was hit by the strong smell of aerosol sprays and cleaning supplies.

Nausea crept upon me and so I covered my face with my arm, my nose resting in the crook of my bent elbow. I hurriedly walked down the aisles trying to find the source of the super strong smell. Sooner than I had expected, I had located the smell and discovered that it was a bunch of cleaning spray that had been spilt all over the aisle and shelves.

Mrs Bernard (one of our regular customers) looked up from where she was hunched over trying to pick up the bottles. As soon as she saw me she sighed in relief. “Hello dear,” she greeted in her mellow voice, “I accidently fell over when I was walking through here. I knocked these over and now they’re just everywhere!” She sighed, shakily leaning down to grab another bottle.

I quickly stepped forward and stopped her from picking up any more bottles. The thought of my brother saying how I would have wrinkles flashed through my head, when I looked at Mrs Bernard’s weathered face.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it Birdie.” I offered, calling her by the nickname she liked to go by.

Standing up she looked at me doubtfully, “Are you sure? You’ve been working awfully hard lately and I should clean up the mess I’ve made.”

“No, it’s okay.” I smiled, “Don’t worry I’ll do it.” I held out my hands for the broken bottles she’d already picked up and she placed them in mine. “Thank you dear.” She smiled, and limped her way out the aisle.

As soon as she had gone, I sighed and calculated the work in front of me. There were roughly almost twenty bottles that had fallen and popped off the middle shelf. I picked up a few bottles, and headed towards the store’s supply closet. Heading inside I pulled out a mop, some rags, a trash bag and a bucket. As I made my way back to the mess my mind flittered back to last night.

I honestly couldn’t believe that he didn’t recognise who I was. I mean, sure there had been some changes from my bulgy twelve year old body. My then short black hair was cut into a choppy pixie style haircut, and now it had grown long and wavy, almost reaching the middle of my back. But still, he should have been able to see some of the resemblance and known it was me. We’d spent most of the beginning of our life together; even our dads were best friends back then. Just like me and Kayden were.

Or so I thought.

I guess being the son of a self-made millionaire came with a bunch of perks, including having more friends than you can even count. 

I was kneeling on the ground with my head and chest stuck in between the middle and lower shelves, trying to wipe the liquid with a rag, when I felt someone come up behind me. I ignored whoever it was, thinking they were just looking at something on the racks in the aisle, and hopefully not my backside that was sticking out.

“Excuse me?” a male voice said from behind me.

I kept my face down, acting as if I was too focused on my work to look up at him, while the real reason was that I was actually trying to hide my now tomato coloured cheeks.