Animatronic Love

A new Start chpt. 1

With a dejected sigh, Mark refreshed the page of his most recent video, noticing the blatantly obvious "3" representing the amount of views. He'd posted the video three days prior, and with each refresh came the ever present feeling of failure. He was already 27, and had spent most of his adult life making widely popular YouTube videos, but nowadays it seemed as if no one really cared about him anymore, and Mark had no idea what to do now. Before, he had been able to support himself partly off of the donations his fans had sent over the years in support, but now he had no real income, and was beginning to become afraid for his future.

Mark closed the tab and opened a new one to Google. In the search bar, he typed "jobs hiring near me," and the very first result was for a children's diner. Mark immediately decided that the job held no interest to him, and continued scrolling. Eventually though, after spending a grand total of two hours and 43 minutes without being able to find a job that might suit him, Mark scrolled back up to the website of the diner.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I get stuck in the food business, but it can't be too bad, right?" he asked himself sarcastically. Clicking the link, Mark read the description aloud, looking for any possible appeal. "Looking for a responsible, hardworking, and sensible adult, willing to work flexible hours as a night guard. Employee will be paid handsomely for each night worked."

Raking his hands through his red hair, Mark sighed in resignation, knowing he had no other choice. This seemed to be the most promising option by far. Hell, the fact that he wouldn't have to deal with taking care of children, or serve food was enough to win him over. The real icing on the cake though, was that the restaurant was going to pay him every night he worked for. This was the only way he could possibly afford to keep his apartment for the time being, at least, until he was able to find something else.

Smiling tiredly, he wrote the address of the diner down, and shut down his laptop. Mark thought to himself, "it might actually be nice to have a new start," then got up and went to bed. He planned on heading to the diner as soon as he woke up, and wanted to be sure that he got enough rest, not realizing yet how much he would truly need it.