Alone

Chapter 2

 Much to Sarah's dismay, we walked around town. She wanted to drive, but I insisted that with a search for landmarks we'd know the town better than if we'd driven. We'd have fun in town anyway, so that was Sarah's main motivation to just go along with my plan.

She locked the door behind us and stuck her keys in her purse, a plain brown leather bag. She was wearing black block heels that could also classify as ankle boots, black leggings, and a burgundy long-sleeve shirt with the shoulders cut out and hemmed. I was wearing plain blue bootcut jeans, my Keds that I had worn the day before, and a white silk spaghetti strap tank top that was attached to a white mesh design that was wavy at the hem of the short sleeves with purple, red, and yellow color assortment butterflies sewn carefully into it. Our respective hair was pulled up into ponytails.

We got onto the elevator, Sarah pressed the button for the lobby and I watched the doors close, hands already moving together so my thumb could press and rub linear lines into the palm of my other hand. Less than a minute felt like ten, then the door finally opened and if I had moved, I would have slammed right into one of the tenants who was going up. Fortunately, I didn't move, and Sarah and I got out of the elevator, and building, alright.

As we were walking down the sidewalk, I pointed out Granny's Garage to her, where I had to go for training the next day. It'd been a few days since my interview, if it could be called that, and George had sent me a text the day after I went in. Either they were very short-staffed, or George was just eager to have me start working. No matter the reason, I was excited as well as terrified.

I wanted to start working, but I was also scared of the social interactions that I would have to endure throughout each day, despite the fact that I'd had a number of jobs previously. How many days off would I get? Would I get any at all? How do you call in sick? Can you call in sick if you need to take a mental day?

With all these questions going through my head, I almost didn't realize that time had passed and I was having a conversation with Sarah that I wasn't even really paying attention to. Was I responding? I must have been, because she kept talking with no issue. I was utterly lost on what topic we were talking about.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed suddenly, stopping abruptly and staring up at the hanging sign that looked to be the kind that glowed when the day grew farther into the night.

"Unusual Ornaments?" I read aloud, peering inside to see that it was one of those stores that sold fantasy figurines and weeaboo products. "Yeah, you have fun in there. I'll wait out here."

"I thought you loved places like this? You have two dragon figurines, a tiny wolf, and a wooden wolf -with-background thing. Do you want me to get you something?"

I waved my hand at her, denying her offer. "I'm not in the mood to deal with the tight spaces in there right now. I'll stay out here, right up against that brick wall." I pointed to the cleanest part of the stone wall that held the statuette store beyond its barrier. "I'll just go through my phone. Maybe Tumblr or something."

Sarah nodded with a smile then almost-literally leaped into Unusual Ornaments.

I let out a breath I realized I had been holding, then placed my back against the piece of wall I had previously pointed to, pulling out my phone and opening Tumblr. Things seemed boring on the blog-site, a lot of posts I'd already seen and others I hadn't seen before but weren't really that interesting. Then a blog caught my attention.

Psych2Go...

Before I could go to their blog and binge their posts, someone bumped into me and caused me to drop my phone.

"Holy shit, I mean fuck, ah god, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." the man stumbled.

"No no no, you're fine." My phone was face down on the concrete sidewalk, and I was relieved to see that only a small crack in the corner of the screen had appeared.

"Oh, I can pay for-"

"Hey, don't worry about it. You just broke my screen protector."

Jeez, he is really apologetic.

I put my phone in my back pocket then looked up to meet his eyes. They were dark brown, wide, always seeming to be moving. He had neatly combed light brown hair that wasn't too long but wasn't short enough to classify as borderline-buzzcut. He was pretty pale, though I couldn't tell if that was his actual skin tone or if he just paled like this every time he made a mistake and inconvenienced a stranger. He was wearing some brown jeans with a black shirt with some black and white shoes. His hands were pressed together, fingers of both hands messing with the other.

"I'm Violet Raymond." I stated, holding out my hand.

He hesitated a moment - I could see him swallow - then took my hand. "Trey Renal." There was a pause after he released my hand and looked like he wanted to say something more.

"Is... There something you want to say?" I questioned him.

"Hm? Oh, is it that obvious?"

"You're making a face."

"I was just curious if..." He stopped himself, then kept going. "Are you the new employee at Granny's Garage?"

My eyes widened. "Yeah, why?"

"I'm your coworker. George likes to keep the team up to date with 'new recruits'," he raised his fingers instead of relying on air-quotes. "So he told me you'd be in for training soon. Tomorrow, right?"

This time, it was my turn to swallow the lump that was quickly growing in my throat. This guy was my new coworker? The guy I was going to get to know over the at least two months I'd be working at the craft store? The guy I may quickly get to know and befriend, then have to leave behind and forget ever existed because Sarah and I would move on to another town?

Before I knew it, I was shaking, but only slightly. Thankfully, not enough for him to notice. "Yeah... Uhm, well, I guess I'll... see you tomorrow? Then?"

You always pause in the middle of a sentence when you're nervous, you trainwreck.

Trey nodded without words, paused for a moment, then went on his way, staring at the sidewalk.

When he was gone, I started leaning against the wall again, but not staring at my phone. I thought it best to just stare at the ground, like Trey had done, until Sarah left the store with a bag of a couple figurines I'd probably see back at our apartment.

We spent the rest of the day going through town, finding landmarks and remembering roads that would take us to certain places we may possibly need to go, like the grocery store or some random retail store. Maybe the local dollar store if we're really that desperate for stuff. I'd probably stop there on my breaks from work to get a candy bar every once in awhile. The dollar store, whose logo was just a dollar sign above the front door, wasn't too far from Granny's Garage, a five minute drive at most.

Then we went home as we saw it was beginning to get dark outside, stars and a couple of planets beginning to dot the night sky. I spent the remainder of my time in consciousness that night mentally prepping for training the day after.