My. Heart. Stopped.

A soon-to-be employee

I slip through the front door of the house and pop my shoes off, 

"Shelby could you come here?" mom calls from the kitchen.

I slide into the room to see what she needs, but apparently, my good mood was radiating off of me because mother stops wats she doing and asks me what's going on.  I continue to grin and pick up the dishes she was just washing and start to dry them. But, I just can't keep the news to myself. 

"I got a job!" I squeal, mother jumps a little at my high pitched scream 

"You did what!?" She responds loudly, not angry but surprised for sure, 

"I got a job!" I state again, "At the ice cream shoppe! Lucas didn't even hesitate!" 

Mother looks at me, a small smile playing on her lips but there is also a foreign look in her eye, "Yknow, I have never been a huge fan of Lucas, he's the town weirdo, you know that. Aren't you afraid that working there will cause people to think of you like that?" She hesitates, "But, if you got the job, and you're willing to put effort into it, I have no complaints. 

I nearly drop the dish with excitement, "Really!!?" 

Mother responds with a laugh and says, "Yes, really!" "Just, maybe don't bring it up with your father quite yet, you know how he is." 

My good mood diminishes slightly since I now realize I won't be able to share this with dad, but I do know what mother is saying, father is quite hard set on the belief that women shouldn't have jobs, he's like any man. Mother, however, is a forward thinker and thinks that if women can, then women should, we see eye to eye a lot. Sometimes I wonder how a person like mom and a person like dad could ever find love with each other. I ponder this as I set the table for dinner. 

Before going to bed I slip into Tanners room again, this time on a mission. I rifle through his drawers and hanging clothes and gather as many button ups as I can find. Wearing Tanners clothes today really increased my mood, I felt like he was with me. I leave his room with an armful of shirts, being twins we are very similar in size, the space he takes with his shoulders I take with my chest. Careful to avoid the creaky floorboards I slip back into my room and lay the newly acquired clothes out on the back of my desk chair, hopefully, mother won't come in here in the morning, she'd be a little confused. 

I crawl into bed and expect to drop off instantly, instead, my head is buzzing with anxieties about work. Will I like it? how much money will I make? Will I get made fun of for being a girl with a job? with my head spinning with unanswered questions I decided that maybe I just wouldn't go to sleep tonight. And then I was out like a light, soundly asleep.