Falling For Frost

1

Teach me how to fight, I'll show you how to win

You're my mortal flaw, and I'm your fatal sin  - Beth Crowley

It was my second shift of today, but instead of working at Sugar + Spice Coffee Bar, a small retro, corner shop in my neighbourhood, I was working at Crested Vehicles, a small mechanic in the dodgy part of town. I had suspicions that my boss, the owner, Reuben Calls, was a drug dealer and had short term memory loss, as every shift I would have to introduce myself again and show him the offical papers that I worked for him. 

Reuben was a shady, mid-forties guy. He had an obvious pot-belly, a lack of eyebrows and always either carried a bottle of liquor or had some sort of fast food in his hands. To be honest, I was repulsed by his lifestyle, how he would watch me dive into a cars engines, often barely managing to stop myself from being electrocuted in ways I did not understand, without saying a word.

I was no way a qualifyed mechanic, in fact, barely managed to manually roll down a cars window without my arms aching. But, I needed the money, me and Lilah needed it. Lilah's my 4-year-old sister. The infant had amazing sky blue eyes and natural tanned skin with coffee brown hair. She could, with no doubt, become a model right there and then.

I pushed the windscreen wipers back into place and showered the front of the car in water droplets. A black stream of dust and grease threaded into the once crystal clear water. It dripped off the car, leaving a moist trail of liquid. I sprayed the car again with the hose and majority of the grime trickled off, and a satisfying gleam coated the car.

I just had to clean this car and vaccum the insides in 10 minutes, then I would be able to collect my check and go home to Lilah. I finished scrubbing the Mercedes and left it to dry in the cheap air conditioned room that would one day turn off, unless Reuben payed off the electricity bills, which I knew would not happen any time soon.

I took the vaccum cleaner and crawled inside the car, which smelt of musty dust and tacky perfume. Grimancing, I pressed an orange button and the cleaner came to life, weakly sucking the dust off the car.

Eventually the vaccuming had been completed and the car was predominantly clean. Sighing, I wiped my forehead and lent against the brick wall; my legs felt like jelly and that with the slightest push I would fall over in a heap, unable to move. 

I gave up on being exhausted and grabbed my grey bag, slinging it over my shoulder. I tiredly walked over to Rueben's dusty shoebox-of-an-office and pushed open the door. 

"Excuse me, hi." I raised my hand in a friendly sort of way at the man who was currently chewing a burrito. This sight made my stomach growl, I hadn't eaten in almost 2 days. Reuben raised his eyebrows and tugged his plump legs off the table.

"Can I 'elp you?" I inwardly sighed, as he had forgotten who I was again.

"My name is Kailee and I work for you." I rumaged through my backpack and brought out the offical papers that we had both signed stating I worked for him. 

He grunted roughly and glanced over the papers in disapproval. I mean, I thought, he did owe me almost 250 dollars. Rueben dug through his draw and pulled out a block of cash, throwing it at my head. I just managed to raise my hands to knock the money to the floor. When I picked the rectangle up, I saw that each note was a 100 dollars.

"Oi Kylie, get outta 'ere before I make ya." Even though my insides disagreed, saying that I needed to return the cash immediately, I couldn't bring herself to do it. I estimated that I had around 20 thousand dollars in my fingertips. I could buy myself an apartment, and give Lilah and I enjoyable food.