Innocent Rose

2. Beyond Beautfiul

The slow days at Whole Foods were always the best. Whenever we had less than 100 orders placed, at least half of the employees would be sitting, waiting for an order to be placed. A majority of the time, I was able to work on some homework and even be able to clock out 5 minutes before my shift ended.

My friends at work and I would sit, chatting about whatever we could. There's my best friend Sammy (the oldest in the group, being only 25) who is practically my older brother, 24 year old Elizabeth who was following in my footsteps with bringing her bleach blonde curls back to life, her 22 year old sister Layla who was the quietest of the group who also had an amazing wardrobe even in sweats, and their 19 year old cousin Jasmine who, like me, was currently in college.

I wonder how they would describe me if someone were to ask them.

At first, it was just Sammy and I, but Elizabeth and her sister went to the same school as him, so they tagged along in our group, and then Jasmine started working and eventually we have our friend group.

It was also a nice day today. Even though it was in the 50s by sunrise, it was going to be in the 70s by the time we were off the clock (3pm to be exact), so since there was low orders, we were all sitting outside on the benches. Jasmine, however was picked to do an order. I was mostly catching up on homework, but I was trying to eat my mash potatoes, which was the only thing that didn't make me nauseous at the thought of eating it. At least for now.

"Sammy, AJ, you in?" Elizabeth spoke.

I looked up at my laptop. "Huh?"

"You wanna go to Cambridgeside with us?"

I turned to Sammy to see what he would say. "I'm going. I need some new vans."

"I guess I'll go too. I'm in no rush to head home anyways." I looked at the time and saw we all had 10 minutes left from our shift.

"Jasmine is still doing an order but most likely by the time she's done, we'll be out of here."

"Hey AJ, you didn't tell us about how your first week went." Sammy nudged my arm jokingly.

"Well, it was stressful but it was pretty cool. I made a new friend, so that's something." I ate yet another scoop full of the mash potatoes that I bought. My god, I wish it had more flavor, but it was bareable to eat.

"Why don't you tell us about her?"

I was only able to eat half before the wave of nausea came so I slid it over to Sammy who was hesitant at first until he decided to finish it for me. I can tell that my eating habits are getting worse if everytime I eat, my friends give me a concern look when I barely eat anything. Plus, some of my clothes are starting to get loose on me.

"He is actually a decent guy."

"He?" They all looked in shock. Why are they shocked?

"What?" I glanced at them all.

"You befriended a guy?"

My eyes darted towards the male. "Sammy, I befriended you before I befriended all the other girls in this group."

"We didn't officially become friends until almost 2 months after you started working here, you befriended the girls within a week. But you befriended this guy the first day of school! You like him." Sammy jokingly nudged my elbow again.

Why do people do this?

"What are you talking about?"

"Is he cute?" Layla asked.

"I mean, I guess? I don't focus on looks, you guys know this."

"Tell us about him. His name, major?" Elizabeth added.