Powerocalypse

On Our Own

Chapter Two

Austin

"Fuck bro..." I mumble, pushing open the front glass doors. I'm barely able to step inside, the smell of arcade making me want to instantly throw up. That's the one thing that I hate about working at PowerPlay. The smell. After every shift I smell like fryer grease and pizza. It's the worst when you run a ride for hours on end and your hands start to smell like that gross smell of metal. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me dizzy.

"You okay?" Someone asks me. I look up at the front desk and see Jaxon bending over the counter, ass out, eyes on me.

"I'm always okay when I'm with you baby!" I call out, laughing while holding my stomach at the same time. I hold my hand out to Jaxon and give him a fist bump before nodding to Jourdan, who's right behind him.

"Damn are you okay, holy shit?" Jourdan stares deep into my soul, trying to figure out every piece of me like she always does.

"I'm really fuckin' hungover. I drank so much last night." I sit up on the counter, Jaxon and Jourdan both giving me a look of disapproval. After working at the same place for 5 years, you learn how to not give a fuck.

"Did you and Ashley hangout?" Jourdan asks, looking like she's out of it herself.

"Yeah. She must be pretty fucked up, she was downing more than I was last night." I think back on the two bottles of liquor Ashley chugged in under five minutes and barely even flinched while doing so. To normal people, that's blackout. "I think she's working this morning too- fuck I feel terrible."

"She'll be fine, she's got the liver of a Russian." Jourdan jokes and Jaxon slightly giggles along to her comment before the two of them start laughing hysterically, flailing their arms around at each other while they chuckle.

I hear the front doors slide open and I turn my head to see someone with a hood over their head making their way through the crack between the two doors. "Ugh, damn." Miranda flips her hood off and makes her way towards the clock-in computer.

"Clock me in while you're at it!" I yell and Miranda takes a sip of her coffee and nods while walking past me, no eye contact in the process. "Thanks, Miranda!" Miranda rolls her eyes before smirking and setting her coffee down on the counter. Five minutes until we open, and I still haven't seen Ryan, usually he'd be up at the front desk with us just chit-chatting and bullshitting around.

"Where's Ryan at?" Miranda asks, reading my mind almost.

"No clue, haven't seen him." Jaxon looks around the store quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of Ryan.

"Dan's car is also in the parking lot. No idea what's up with that." Jourdan adds in. That's weird. Dan doesn't work Tuesdays. What's so important the general manager would have to come in on a Tuesday of all days?

"Strange." Miranda whispers to herself, it's like she's in her own world all the time and the rest of us just aren't up to her speed. The four of us crowd around the desk, trying to make these next four minutes stretch by as slow as possible. No one enjoys early morning shifts after a night out, especially while hungover. Just glancing at Miranda's coffee for too long makes me feel like I'm about to hurl. "I'm gonna go look for Ryan." Miranda pulls off her hoodie and throws it underneath the counter before pushing her way out of the desk.

"I'll come with." I smile and follow after Miranda, skipping up to her to break the distance between us.

"I can do this on my own, ya know?" Miranda looks me up and down before giggling to herself ever so slightly.

"I know. But I can't so you're the one helping me." I wink at her and she stares at me completely dumbfounded for a few seconds before rolling her eyes and laughing it off as another joke. We walk across the whitely stained black carpet, this place looks like it's straight out of 2000's Wal-Mart, even the uniforms are tacky. A navy-blue shirt and kakis. How ugly.

The giant neon lights posted outside the concession stand flicker and come to life, someone just turned on the breakers. Miranda stops dead in her tracks and flips herself around, beginning to take baby steps towards the breaker room. I sigh heavily and walk alongside with her, trying to not make the start of her morning already stressful. "Chill out, Miranda. You don't wanna overstress yourself."

"Yeah I know, I know." Miranda scoffs and shakes her head. She always hates being told what to do. Miranda asserts her dominance anytime she can get the chance to, especially on men that think they have control over her. "It's just tiring doing the same shit everyday of your life, man."

"I know. If you told little 16-year-old Austin that he was gonna be working at PowerPlay for five years and counting..."

"Tell me about it." Miranda mumbles while hiding behind the lid of her coffee. I look away quickly to resist the urge to purge. The worst part about hangovers is that all food, or anything you have to put in your body really, seems disgusting for a while afterwards. It usually goes away once you're done vomiting up your insides. "I remember the night after my first midnight shift... I went home and just cried and told myself I was quitting the next day."

"Yet here you are." I slowly speak, smiling to myself. "Manager Miranda."

"I'm not a manager..." Miranda whispers to herself. She makes more money than all of us, has keys to the building, does more than anyone else... But she's not a manager. Whatever. "Ugh, God..." Miranda puts her arm infront of her face and coughs in her sleeve.

"What?" I scoff. It isn't allergy season so I don't know what she could be coming down with.

"You don't smell that?" Miranda looks back at me with her eyes wide open. "It smells like mold and grossness." I waft the air towards my nose, trying to catch a scent of what Miranda is speaking of. But I don't smell anything gross besides all the normal smells accompanying this place. "We need to get a new maintenance guy."

"Or a maintenance guy in general." I reach for the handle of the breaker room and pull open the door, letting Miranda walk in before me.

"What the fuck." Miranda stops in the middle of the jammed room and looks around. "No one's in here..."