My British Bear

Chapter 9

Look, a long chapter! Featuring Tiaz and Olympian, look at that! :D How happy are you now? ALSO, comment your name below and I'll dedicate a chapter to you! <3 

Monday.

It was Monday.

It was almost Christmas (Saturday was Christmas, actually), and so everything outside of our house was decorated beautifully and the air was nippier than usual. But with Christmas comes alcohol.

Lots of alcohol.

I moaned and stumbled into the bathroom, clutching my arm. The night before I had gotten into a spat with my uncle, unawares he had gotten drunk, and paid for it. I took a quick shower and wrapped the bruise with gauze, hoping nobody would notice it.

After slipping on a purple turtleneck and some jeans, I peeked into my uncle's room. His breathing was steady and slow. He was still asleep. I quietly crept down the stairs and into the kitchen.

I began to go through the cupboards, looking for anything to eat besides cereal. I pulled out a box of unopened crackers and checked the best by date. It had expired last year by a long time.

Yeah, no.

I threw the box away and continued to go through everything we owned. There wasn't anything for breakfast except the things I've eaten so many times. I'd rather eat cardboard. I finally sat down with a bowl of Fruit Loops (yes, you can get tired of those) and a poptart and looked around.

The walls were once a nice tan color, but now they were a dark yellowish-brown from all the smoking my uncle's friends did, and it was cracked slightly. The tile floor hadn't been mopped in a month (had it even been swept in that long?) and the fridge had grime caked on the sides.

Now, you can't blame me for the house being so disgusting. I'm busy with school and working at the coffee shop.

Not to mention trying not to die.

I rubbed my eyes and stood up. I deposited my bowl in the sink and grabbed a piece of paper. I wrote To Do big on the top.

Clean kitchen

Chloe's party

Groceries

Find those books

I tapped my pen on the table, trying to think of anything else. I eventually gave up and threw on my coat and headed down to the bus stop.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ☕ ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ☕

"Brooks! Tiaz! What am I doing today?" I called, stepping into the back. It was quiet, as Monday's four o'clocks usually are, but I knew that by five all the college kids from River Rock University would be studying and doing reports over large cups of coffee.

"What?" I heard Tiaz call loudly.

"What do I do today?" I repeated, walking into the office where Tiaz was writing stuff down in a binder.

He glanced at a side note. "Uh- make a poster for your mustache cookies, work at the register, and don't forget to mustachify the cookies Brooks made up."

"Is Brooks here today?" I glanced around for him.

"Nope."

I sighed. "Okay." Brooks hadn't been at school, and I'd hoped I'd get to see him at the shop, but no. "Seeya!" I called.

He waved once and continued to scribble out stuff. I made my way to the frosting area and took out a dozen cookies Brooks had made up. I quickly added the beautiful mustaches.

I placed the cookies in the display, both surprised and overjoyed that Reese actually wanted to promote them.

I grabbed a piece of yellow posterboard out of the old store closet, grabbed some colored pencils and highlighters, and settled down at an empty table. I began to draw a big cookie and traced out Mustache Christmas Cookies in big, block letters across the top.

"Hi, Maria!" I looked up to see Jess skipping over to me.

"Hey, Jess." I smiled.

"What'cha doin'?" She sat down across from me, the pulled a caramel out of her pocket. "Makin' a poster?"

"Yeah, for my mustache cookies." I plopped a caramel she offered in my mouth.

"Cool!" She popped a caramel in her own mouth. "I wanna try one!" She tapped a pastel colored nail on the table in thought. "Hey! I just had a thought!"

"Well, that's dangerous," I tried.

She fake pouted and poked my nose. "So mean. Anyways! I'm part of the Student Council, so I can suggest the cookies for the Christmas Dance next week!"

"Really?" I was a little surprised.

"Oh, yeah! Hey, get me a poster board and I'll make another sign!"

"You wanna help?" I asked skeptically.

"'Course! You're fun to hang out with!" She scratched the back of her head. "Unless, of course, you don't want any help..."

"No! I appreciate it!" I stood up and quickly returned with a second poster board and a mustache cookie. "On me," I said, handing her them both.

Jess grinned and jammed the cookie into her mouth, then started to draw on the posterboard. After it was apparent that I wasn't going to say anything, she looked up. "So what do you like? Books or movies?"

"Books," I murmured, letting my brown curls fall in front of my face and not really wanting to talk about my personal life. It was too awkward and self reflecting.

"Really? Sweet! I like books too. I'm a weird-o like that. I looooooove older books and fantasy." She waved a hand. "Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, Wings of Fire, Redwall. They're all my thing."

"Wait-- you like LotR?" I looked up.

"Yeah! It's super amazing. I've read and watched all of them, like, a dozen times!"

We cannonballed into a deep conversation about Lord of the Rings. After we couldn't talk anymore about that, we started to talk about school while making a couple posters for the commons.

Finally, five o'clock hit.

I stood up as the college students began to trickle in and sit down. "Sorry, Jess. I gotta work register since Brooks isn't here today."

"I'll help!" she exclaimed, bouncing up. "I've always wanted to help! I'll take their orders and you can prepare them!"

I thought about it for a second. "Okay. I guess it's fine."

"Yay! Repayment for the cookie!" She whisked over to the counter, grabbed an unused tablet, produced a pen out of her shirt pocket, and skipped over to a girl furiously typing on a Mac.

I smiled, rolling my eyes, and headed behind the register.

This was gonna be fun.