PURITY

𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩

Shawn's pov.

Once again I find myself spending my time outside the Sinclair gas station in the same bush. Sometimes when I'm alone I wonder if this is all really worth it, but when I see Joey I realize that I wouldn't want to be following anyone else.

It's the same continuous thing almost all day, a few customers coming in and going out as fast as they can, clearly having something more important to do than spend their time in a gas station. Throughout the day I see Joey getting more and more dejected and upset. There's been more angry customers today than there's been in a week and it's clearly hurting him. I feel a small bit of anger rise in me. Why do people have to treat him like shit? He's just doing his fucking job! I think to myself. I realize that I'm getting angry over practically nothing and I shake it off.

The same man as yesterday waltzes in the door once again, a large smirk plastered on his face. Joey almost shrinks into his clothes at the sight of him. The dude takes his sweet time walking around the store grabbing what he needs. Joey looks absolutely terrified. He starts playing with his hair, which I assume is some sort of a nervous habit. The man stalks up to the counter and coolly slides his items across the counter to Joey. Joey's small hands shake as he scans the man's items. He hands him a plastic bag full of the newly bought items. The man throws the bag down on the floor, spilling and breaking everything within. He punches Joey square in the cheek, knocking his face to the side. That's definitely going to bruise...

I want to jump out of the bush and run to his rescue when I see the man's fist collide with Joey's cheek. But I know that would ruin everything if I ran in there. I see the man yell something along the lines of "that was for yesterday!" With some sort of curse a the end. Joey holds his face and cowers on the floor behind the desk, he must be too afraid to fight back this time. The man walks behind the counter and pulls Joey up by his collar. He shouts something else into his face and throws him back down on the ground. As he walks out the door he shouts "clean it up bitch!"

And he does. He slowly walks to the back and gets out a mop and begins to clean up the mess the man made. He looks absolutely exhausted by the time he finishes and sits back down behind the counter. I continue writing tallies for each time he touches his hair, we're currently at fifty.

It gets later and later and nothing eventful has happened since the man walked out. Joey scrolls though his phone until a young woman walks in. He looks up and immediately puts his phone down and runs around the counter to meet her. He engulfs her in a hug that she gladly returns, they stay like that for a long time until he slowly pulls away and smiles. She reaches up and touches his face and says something with a concerned look. Joey plays it off with a shrug and reaches up to touch his hair. Nervous once again.
She must buy it because they make conversation as he walks back behind the counter. She makes her way though the empty store, still keeping conversation with him while looking for whatever the hell she needs. I clench my jaw and ball my fists. Are they dating or something? What's so special about her? His eyes sparkle when he looks at her like she's his whole world. I slowly start to get angry again. Who the fuck is she?! I snap a picture of her and continue watching.

She soon finds everything she needs and walks back up to the counter. He quickly scans everything and hands her a bag with the stuff inside. She smiles and makes her way to the door. He runs after her and gives her another hug, after a minute she pulls away and kisses him. The pure shock on his face was almost funny until he goes with it and kisses back. I'm overtaken by red hot rage, I get so angry that I almost get out of that bush and rip her off of him. I come to my senses and snap a picture before the kiss ends. She smirks and walks out to her car, I take a picture of the licence plate and the car itself, so I can hopefully find her later. Joey just stands there in the doorway, looking like he wants to chase after her to get more. But soon the sadness and exhaustion comes back to his face and he drags himself back behind the counter.

I snap a few more pictures before his shift ends and another worker walks in to take his place. He smiles to the man and says something that must be funny to them both before walking out. He always runs home after work, and as you probably realize, I don't run much. So I follow in my car from a safe distance back, stopping and taking pictures along the way. I do this every night just to make sure he gets home safely.

Once I watch him walk inside I go back to my house. I push open the door and I'm met with screams from the kitchen. Can they not be quiet for once? I think to myself as I make my way to the kitchen where there's a rather large fire burning in the pan on the stove.

"Sid!!" I shout as I rush to put it out. I look around at everyone's exhausted faces, Sid's the only one who's still going strong. The fire being a great example.

"Don't try to make anything ever again." Jim grumbles and sits down on the couch with a heavy sigh. Everyone slowly makes their way to the living room as I clean up what's left behind.

"So how's little Joey?" Chris smirks from beside me.

"Got another good jab to the face but got a kiss from a girl." I grumble and work on cleaning dirty dishes from who knows when.

"Ohhh, so he has a girlfriend now!"

I tense as I clean, "yeah whatever.."

"Someone's jealous! Do you like him?" Chris teases as he helps me.

"I'm not fucking jealous Chris."

"Yeah right! You totally like him!" He laughs.

"I do not!" I snap.

"Whatever you say Shawn.." Chris remarks as he makes his way to the living room where everyone else is. I sigh and finish up the dishes before going downstairs and updating my bulletin board.

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Chapter written by j0eYj0rdis0n
Thank you for reading!
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