At My Best. (five seconds of summer)

0.2

Bethany Alba

I am awakened by the sound of my phone's ringtone blasting on my nightstand. I reach over and pick it up, checking the ID caller. My heart drops to my stomach when I see it is from Dan and it's 11:46 am.

"Hello," I say, squinting as a preparation for his angered response.

"Hi, I don't know if you know this but you have a summer job, that you have to be at every morning at 10." He says sarcastically. I can picture him with a hand on his hip and stomp his foot on the ground.

"I know and I'm sorry. I overslept." I say while getting up from my bed. I put my phone on speakerphone and set it on the counter so I can get ready at the same time.

"Okay, but I need you here in 10 minutes. I need to leave, I told you this yesterday." He says frustrated as I struggle to put on my jeans.

"Bethany?!" He exclaims.

"Yes, okay. I'll be there in 10." I say quickly and pull out a shirt from my closet. I put it on as Dan says something I could not understand.

"What?" I say but received no answer.

I go to my phone to see he had already ended the call. I sigh in frustration and dig through my closet to find my shoes. I couldn't find my vans so I had to put on an old pair of Birkenstocks that I owned, not to my pleasure since I hate wearing open toed shoes to the shop because my toes get cold.

I grab my phone and go to the bathroom to wash my teeth and face. After I've done that I put my hair into a messy ponytail, I was definitely not going for the messy look but I had to compromise with the time I had.

I rush downstairs taking two steps at a time. Once I get downstairs I could hear the dishes clinking and water running from the kitchen.

"Beth!" I hear my mom call from the kitchen as I was slinging my bag over my shoulders.

"What!" I call back while putting on my sunglasses.

"Come in here for a sec!" She yells in reply. I groan but oblige hoping that Dan won't be too angry at me for being there even later.

"What?" I say walking to into the kitchen. There was a mess, everywhere, and my mom was frantically double tasking. "Mom what are you doing?" I say taking in the situation.

"Honey, Sophia is going to come today, can you bring some sodas when you come back from work?" She tells me putting her hand on her hip, huffing a hair out of her face.

"Wait you're not picking me up today?" I say. She always picks me up.

"It's only a few blocks and the supermarket right around the corner from the shop, you can walk." She tells me and gets back to cooking. I don't reply and leave the kitchen skurrying out of the house. I quickly walk on the sidewalk, never slowing down my pace.

I could not believe that my mother would rather let me walk home from work when it's dark than leave my sister's side for a few minutes. Sophia was only two years older than me and she had just finished her first year of college, she was coming back to spend the summer at home.

She has always been my mother's favorite and it never really mattered to me until moments like these occurred when she would actually put my life in danger for my sister.

I get to the shop with a scowl on my face. I open the glass door and see Dan leaning on the counter with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His foot is tapping the floor impatiently while he looks at his watch.

"Hey," I say, scurrying over to him. He looks at me and lets out a relieved sigh.

"Beth, I thought you would never get here. I have to be at the band convention in...," He looks at his watch again. His eyes widen with horror, "Literally 10 minutes."

I watch as he runs to the back and gets his backpack, and runs to the front door after. "Remember you're closing today!" He says taking his coat from the coat hanger.

"I remember." I smile at him.

"Sorry for leaving you alone today." He sends me an apologetic smile. The doorbell jingles as he quickly opens it. "Bye Beth! Don't let anything get stolen!" He yells as he leaves.

"Bye !" I yell back.

I walk to my counter and think of things to do until my shift is over. I hated being alone at the shop. It was awfully quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the Ed Sheeran album I was playing on a record player.

After a few minutes, the same boys from yesterday entered the shop. This time Michael was wearing a red t-shirt, paired with a pair of black basketball shorts. The tall boy was wearing a slightly dressy white button-up shirt with black skinnies.

"I swear to god this was the last place I saw it at," Michael tells the tall boy who was frantically looking through the shelves of records.

"Well it's not here, is it." The tall boy rudely replies, running his hand through his hair.

"Hey buddy, I wasn't the one who lost your little girly ring, so cut the attitude." The tall boy rolls his eyes before looking at me and heads straight for me. He takes a few long strides before he's right in front of me.

"Hi", he says pausing to read my name tag, "Bethany. I was here yesterday, and I lost my ring here. I was hoping you've seen it or that somebody has turned it in." His blue eyes meet mine.

"I'm sorry, I know nothing about a ring," I say with a frown. "But, we do have a lost and found box on top of the fiction bookshelf in this side of the store," I say motioning to the book section.

"Maybe somebody has put it in there." I shrug.

The tall boy runs to the book section without replying, in hopes of finding his ring.

The other boy, Michael, slowly walks towards me. I begin to panic as he gets closer.

"Sorry about him, he's a little nervous." He says as he reached the counter. I give him a slight nod and a smile, before continuing to 'look' through random files at the counter.

"I'm Michael by the way." He says extending his hand.

"I'm Bethany." I quietly say, shaking his hand. He sends me a wide smile.

"Nice to meet you, Bethany." He smiles before taking a chair from nearby and placing it in front of my counter. I watch as he slowly sits down and runs his hands through his messy hair.

I am freaking out in the inside. I've never had this experience before, especially not from cute boys.

"So, Bethany, have you worked here long? I've never seen you."

"No, I've only worked here since the summer began." I half smile and avoid eye contact.

He opened his mouth to say something but closed it.

A loud crash, coming from the fiction book section, startled us both. I quickly turn to look only to find the tall boy with a ton of books by his feet.

I was thankful for the distraction, I knew the conversation we were about to have would have been awkward.

"Found it!" The tall one yells, holding his ring in above his head.

"Oops." He says, his eyes wide, as he nervously looks at me. I flinch as I see that all of the bookshelves were completely empty.

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