Perks of the Job

Chapter Six

By the end of our break, Kathryn had downed six pieces of pizza by herself, and I was sure that by the end of the day, she’d probably be hungry again. We left the break room and said that we’d see each other later before heading off into our respective departments.

Once back inside the fitting room, I put the tags onto some final pieces of merchandise, but it didn’t take up as much time as I was hoping it would and I was left with nothing to do until I left. I spent the last hour of my shift bored out of my mind with only one customer coming by to try something on.

By the end of the day, my departure was welcomed and so was Kim, who had come to tell me that I was free to go. Thank God; seven hours in a fitting room, by yourself, was enough to drive anyone crazy.

I walked to the back of the store and  into the break room where I would finally punch out for the day. As I was entering the code, I felt someone behind me, but I wasn’t concerned enough to look up. The door opened and I entered, whoever was behind me following inside. I looked up to see Nick.

This is what I meant when I said that people seem to be around more once you meet them for the first time. “Hey, Nick. You leaving too?” I asked, admittedly to try and make conversation.

“Yeah,” he replied casually before punching out his time. “You?”

“M-hm,” I confirmed. There was slight moment of relatively awkward silence as I punched out my time. Nick took the opportunity to grab his jacket and began to pull it on.

I wanted to give the conversation thing one more shot with Nick, and since music was a solid common ground between us, I decided to start there. “So,” I began, catching his attention. He looked up to me and I continued. “I kind of couldn’t help but think about different bands all day.”

Nick smiled and gave a light chuckle. It was enough to know that he enjoyed the previous conversation but may still have been a little shy about talking in general.  “Not gonna lie; me too.”

This was kind of reassuring; the fact that Nick had kept our conversation in his head afterwards told me that I still had a shot at being his friend. I wasn’t sure what Nick and I were now; co-workers? Acquaintances? All I knew is that I wanted to be more.

“I think I’m going to write a list,” I said with a little sarcasm in my voice, but not enough to come off as an ass-hole. Hopefully. “And then I’m going to give it to you.” Nick laughed at this, taking it as a silly little joke just to lighten the mood, and although it was effective at doing so, I wasn’t kidding.

“Alright, cool,” Nick said, nodding his head. His mannerisms thus far had given away the fact that he was a pretty cool guy, but he didn’t come off as a jerk. I liked that. “Well I guess I’ll see you,” he paused a moment to check the shift schedule behind him. “Tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure. Bye Nick.” He waved me off one last time as he opened the door and slipped out. I punched my time and gathered my things and just as I was about to leave, Kathryn came in.

“Hey, you working tomorrow?” she asked as she scanned her eyes over the schedule.

“Yeah, why?”

“Shit,” she replied, as if it was meant to answer my question. She cleared things up a bit by elaborating. “You’re not coming in ‘till five.”

"Yeah, so?” I asked, still wondering why this was a problem.

“I’m coming in the morning; I’ll be gone by three. Dude, we don’t have a shift together!”

“Oh no,” I said in a fake, 'panic-stricken' tone. “How tragic?” I faked my way through my response with a generous amount of sarcasm and a girl’s fair share of sass. I smiled back at Kathryn who was more concerned with the notion of possibly having to work a shift without Rebecca or me there with her. She searched the schedule frantically, finding relief when she saw that Rebecca was working the same shift with her. “Fuck yeah!” she exclaimed upon finding her times. “I’m with Becky. Sorry Ev, looks like you’re alone.”

“No I’m not; I’ll have Nick,” I said in my defense.

“Yeah, but you guys barely talk.”

It was true that Nick and I weren’t best friends, or even really friends at all, but he was better than nothing.

“Well I think it’s about time I change that.”

Kathryn smiled and rolled her eyes as she turned around to punch out for the day. We both grabbed our jackets and slipped them on before heading out. The store wasn’t going to close for another few hours so Maxine was still there and as we left, we took the time to give her our salutations, telling her that we’d see her tomorrow.

Once we got outside, Kathryn spotted her dad waiting for her in his car. She said goodbye to me, telling me that she’d see me later as she climbed into the passenger side. She waved one last time as her dad pulled out of the parking lot.

I plugged in my earphones into my iPod and started to make my way home. The walk wasn’t long, but it sure was cold so by the time I got home, my hands and my nose were freezing. I welcomed the warm air as I opened the door to my empty house. Dad was probably working late again.

I flipped on the lights of my bedroom as I walked in, depositing my jacket and purse onto my bed. My music still played through the earphones, and as one song finished up, another one reminded me of what I’d said.

Before I’d mentioned to Nick that I liked Bring Me the Horizon, and I was reminded of the list I promised I’d write him as 'Chelsea Smile' started to play.

Listening to music for your entire life pretty much guarantees that you’ll know your fair share of bands. I was the kind of girl who would listen to Led Zeppelin and Mötley Crüe on the weekends with my dad. From what I remember of her, my mother had terrible taste in music.   

She took off one day when I was thirteen and I hadn’t seen her since, so now it was just me, my dad, and my fat cat, Sargent Pepper, Pep for short. I had always been a daddy’s girl anyway, so that was usually what I told myself on the rare occasion I’d actually miss my mom. That didn’t happen often.

My desk was cluttered and messy, but I did my best to locate an index card and some space to write so I could get my list made. I promised Nick a list of music, and god-damn, he was getting a list.

I wrote down every band I’d ever liked along with some songs I thought would be worthwhile for him to take a listen to, and by the time I was done, the index card was completely filled, both the front and back covered in ink. When there was no more space and I had no more ideas left, I set the card aside on my night stand to bring into work the next day when I saw Nick.