Chapter 3

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“Hi Claire, I’m ready for work.”

“Hi Ellie.  Why do you have your books with you?”

“I didn’t get a chance to finish my homework at home.  You don’t mind if I brought it here, right?”

“Of course not.  You can work on it when we’re not busy.  Blythe will be working the evening shift from now on.  Do you remember him?”

“Yeah, we worked the afternoon shift together one time.”

“He switched to the evening shift, so you guys will be working together now.  Is that all right?”

“Sure, it’s fine.”

“Perfect.  Time to get work then.”

            After fifteen minutes of helping high maintenance customers who demanded me to go in the back to find their size, Blythe came in.

“Sorry I’m late Claire.  Family problems delayed me again.

“It’s all right, I understand.  Blythe, you remember me telling you about Ellie?”

“Yup, nice to meet you Ellie!”

            He suddenly pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, which shocked me, causing me to nearly fall over.

“Sorry, I’m a bit of a hugger.”

“It’s fine.  I don’t get hugs often, especially from strangers.”

“We’re not strangers.  We go to the same school.”

“We do?”

“Yeah.  You probably don’t see me because I’m usually hiding from the dumb jocks.”

“Why do you hide from them?”

“They like bullying me.”  He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

            I was afraid to ask why, because it might be a sensitive subject, but curiosity got the best of me.

“Why?  What did you ever do to them?”

“Nothing.  They just hate me because I’m gay.”

“Like, gay-gay?  As in, boy like boy?”

“Is there any other kind of gay?”

“Gay can mean you’re happy.”

“Well, they probably hate that about me too, but yeah, I like guys.”

“Oh, well they’re a bunch of ignorant assholes.”

“Yeah, I say that all the time too.”

            I took a good look at him.  The way he talked, the way he dressed, the way he acted; he didn’t seem gay at all.  He caught me looking at him and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Like what you see?”

            I chuckled, “Funny, but the thing is, you don’t seem gay at all.”

“That’s a stereotype, darling.  You don’t have to look, talk, or act feminine to be gay.”

            I nodded thoughtfully.  I noticed some bruises on his arm.

“What happened to your arm?”

“Just family problems.  What about your arm?”  He pointed to all my bracelets.

“Family problems, too.”

“All right kiddies, chat time is over.  Back to work.”  Claire waved her hands in our faces.

            I chose the evening/night shift because there are fewer customers, and I don’t have to be at home and deal with Mother.  I managed to finish all my homework, also.  At nine, Claire closed the store.  I was about to leave the mall when somebody called my name.  I turned around and saw it was Blythe.

“Hey Ellie, I’m just wondering, but were you asked to be in the Therapy Group?”

“Yeah, were you?”

“Yeah.  Did you join it?”

            I nodded, “What about you?”

“Yup, see you tomorrow!”

            He waved goodbye and left.  I got in my car and went through the events of today in my mind like a movie.  Tomorrow was going to be more interesting.

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The picture on the right is Blythe~

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⏰ Last updated: Nov 24, 2012 ⏰

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