𝘾𝙄𝙉𝙉𝘼𝙈𝙊𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙆𝙎 , dreamwastaken

iii.

A LITTLE LESS THAN a month after the candle shattering incident and meeting the cinnamon candle boy, jade was back behind the counter the day before christmas eve. this was another one of the days that made you want to punch anyone that came to you with a question that could easily be answered by simple thinking skills or just looking at a sign. the store was back to being packed after a few weeks of slow, maybe 20 customer days.

jade and her coworkers decided to dress up a little bit to keep the holiday cheer going, and unluckily for her, she lost the bet that made her have to dress up in full costume. she still looked cute, dressed in a brown dress with a cardigan, with her makeup representing rudolph the red nosed reindeer. she had put red eyeshadow on her nose and small white dots across her cheeks. she felt a little silly, but it made her a little more excited to go to work that evening.

jade was on closing duty that day, so about twenty minutes before close, both christian and the other worker she didn't know all that well clocked out, leaving her alone to deal with the final few customers. she was pretty much on autopilot, just scanning and bagging everything that was handed to her. she didn't actually look up at anyone until the last customer in line currently was walking out. as they were walking out, she saw a familiar pair of eyes and dirty blonde hair walking over to her holding an armful of the same spicy scented candles.

"hi again," the man in front of her said with a smile spread across his face. she gave him a funny look and laughed.

"how fast do you burn through these? how strong must it smell like this in your house?" she asked him shaking her head.

"well actually, i still have like three at home, but i wanted to keep these on backup, so here i am," he said, once again handing her the piece of blue plastic to pay with. "when do you close?"

"well," jade replied, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "like, five minutes, so you're probably my last customer." he just nodded in response.

"can i have that?" the man asked her, pointing to the pen and paper in the pocket of her apron. she nodded and handed it to him, confused at what he was doing. she finished bagging his items and placed the bag on the counter. he finished writing whatever he was writing and looked up at her.

"i'm clay by the way." he said, grabbing the bag and placing the piece of paper back down on the surface. she cocked her head in confusion and he made a motion with his head to look down. without another word, he turned and walked out. jade took a quick look at the piece of paper and then put it into the pocket of her cardigan.

she finished closing up the store and went home.

//

jade didn't think about the boy again until she was cuddled up in bed. she had already changed into her pajamas, so she got up and scrambled around her room to find the small scrap of paper. when she finally found it in the very last pocket, she took a minute to decide if texting someone you didn't know well was appropriate at 12:30 at night. she decided she didn't have much to lose and texted him a simple greeting.

jade

hi

the reply was almost instant.

(***-***-****)

hi

how are you?

jade

i'm good

what was your name btw?

(***-***-****)

ouch i'm hurt you don't remember

but it's clay

and what was yours?

jade

it's jade but you can call me j

why did you give me your number?

clay

you seemed cool

and you're pretty

and you have a good taste in candle scents

jade

oh

okay

well you seem pretty cool too

other than the fact this is a little weird but yeah

clay

i can see why it might be weird

how about introductions?

i can go first if you want

jade

okay sure

clay

okay so hi, i'm clay, i'm 21, my favorite color is green,

and if you remember, i have a cat named patches

that's about it

jade

okay so i'm j, i'm 19 but i turn 20 on the third of january, my favorite

color is red, and if you remember, i have a cat named cinnamon who i call cinny.

he's very feisty

clay

i do remember that

is it still weird?

jade

not as much now that i know you're not 40 and a pedo

clay

good

do you wanna ft?

jade

i already took all my makeup off and i'm in bed

we can tomorrow if you're not busy with christmas and stuff

clay

i bet you still look just as nice

and for sure

jade

okay well i'm gonna go sleep

goodnight clay :)

clay

sweet dreams jade :)