Roommates & Soulmates

Simon's Apartment

Simon was done with dorm life. It was a nice feeling; even if he could have called it quits in the dorms a year ago, he was glad he hadn't, otherwise he would never have met Jordan. The problem with not being in the dorms was that your cost of living suddenly became your problem rather than part of your tuition.

"Would you like a muffin with your coffee?" Simon asked. He was standing behind a till, and there was women in a tacky white hat and huge handbag on the other side of the counter.

"Do you have those pumpkin ones?" she asked.

"They are all right there," Simon said motioning to the pastry case. He's been working at Tim Hortons for all of a month now, and he was starting to wonder if people were too dim-witted to function. The number of times he'd pointed to a sign when people asked him questions was uncountable.

"Are these them?" the woman asked, pointing to the bran muffins. With a prayer to the customer service gods, Simon told her no, and then had to point directly to the pumpkin ones before she decided she didn't want one. After she paid for her coffee, Simon only had a moment to grumble before someone else appeared at his till.

"So how's work?" Jordan said, grinning.

"Come to gloat?" Simon asked.

"Hardly," Jordan grinned. Then to Simon's surprise, he walked around the counter and come to join them behind it.

"What are you doing!?" Simon exclaimed.

"I start at ten," Jordan stated, calmly. Simon wasn't sure to be happy or greatly annoyed. He already lived with Jordan. Did he really want to work with him too. Sure, they were friends, but that was a bit excessive. Just then, someone else arrived on the scene.

"Oh great, you've met the new guy." It was Simon's manager.

"Oh I've met him alright," Simon sighed.

"Fantastic," the manager said. "Would you mind training him today, Simon?"

"Why not," Simon replied grinning. Jordan was also smiling, which the manager took to be enthusiasm for the job.

"Great to see that kind of energy," she said. Their manager wasn't that tall, but she wasn't too short either, with blonde hair and a round face. "So I will check in on you boys later." Simon turned to the till, pretending to start training, while she turned and walked away.

"Did you just apply to every place I did?" Simon whined once their manager was out of earshot.

"There are only so many entry level student summer jobs close to the University," Jordan explained.

"I'll take that as a yes," Simon sighed as he moved to actually start showing Jordan how the buttons on the till worked.

It was a very strange shift to say the least, and when Simon finally left the place behind for the day, he was glad of it. He and Jordan had managed to find a cheap place to live near the University, but because it was cheap and near school, it was also horrible. They sort of had a kitchen, shared a bathroom, and took turns sleeping on the couch since the place only had one bedroom. With just two people both working minimum wage, there wasn't really anything else they could afford close to the school. They'd looked at places farther away, but neither of them had a car, and the bus system here was horribly inefficient. With the lost time, and accumulated bus fare, they decided closer to the school was better. Simon's solution to this was to try and spend as little time at home as possible. He would have visited Maia, but she was home for the holidays. He did text her quite a lot though. Simon visited Magnus sometimes, even if he didn't live with Clary anymore, and sometimes he went around Eric's place. When Simon wasn't working or sleeping, he could most often be found at Clary's place. It was also close to the school, but in a beautiful modern style apartment complex, and best of all, it didn't smell.