Author's Note: Agghh! Sorry it took me so long to update. I think I got lazy during the editing process. Don't think I abandoned the story so early!

If there's anything good about this, its that I've already gotten a (small) headstart on the third chapter. I promise it will be up faster than this one was!

Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys make my day.

CHAPTER TWO

ITS edges had begun to disintegrate, causing it to flop over. It was taking on a nasty greenish-blue color, followed by the most foul of smells. It was quite possibly the most disgusting thing I had ever seen in my life…

…and it was living in my fridge.

“Leo! What the hell is this?!” I yelled angrily. Leo and Darryl both looked away from their Nintendo game long enough to give me their attention.

“What are you talking about?” Leo asked.

I would’ve picked up the moldy object if the fungus hadn’t spread to the container as well. I’d rather chop off my arm than pick up that thing, especially just to show it to Leo. It didn’t matter—I think if I even touched it my arm would disintegrate.

“Come look and find out!” I shouted. My words were more of a command than anything. Leo looked at Darryl for help but his friend just shrugged and went back to jumping on Goomba heads. Leo sighed and finally got up to come look at what was growing inside of our kitchen appliance. I asked again, “What the hell is this?”

Leo peeked inside of the fridge. He didn’t flinch away like I had. In fact, he barely even blinked. He reached in and pulled out the container.

Oh God, I thought, covering my nose. It smelled even worse outside of the fridge. I backed away in disgust. From the couch, Darryl sniffed the air.

“What’s that smell?” he asked.

Leo peered at the container suspiciously. I started to get nervous, as if it would come to life and eat me.

“You don’t have to touch that thing,” I reminded him, getting worried. “You could just… throw it out. We don’t have to know what it is.”

Darryl, who was curious, got up from the couch and walked next to us. He looked at what was in Leo’s hand before yelping in fear. His face contorted into one of disgust, his nose scrunching up at the smell.

“I think its cake,” Leo decided.

“Blasphemy,” Darryl argued. “That’s the farthest thing from cake that I’ve ever seen.”

“No, really,” Leo insisted. “That’s what the container says.”

“I don’t care what it is, throw it out!” I demanded. Leo stared at me incredulously.

“You’re the one who wanted to know what it was! You even asked me!”

“Well now I don’t care! Get rid of it… now! Before it contaminates the other food!”

“You’re overreacting. It’s not even that bad!” Leo yelled back. To prove himself, he tore off a piece of the ‘cake’ and popped it in his mouth. Darryl and I stared, aghast, as he chewed and swallowed it like it was nothing.

“I think I’m going to puke for you,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. I backed out of the room. Suddenly Leo’s face scrunched up.

“I don’t think you have to,” he said. The container dropped to the floor and he puked all over the kitchen tiles. Darryl screamed in horror and escaped into the bathroom. I pinched my nose so I couldn’t smell my brother’s vomit. Then I retreated outdoors into the hallway, shutting the door to our apartment behind me.

Once in the hallway, I released my nose and took a breath. I reached into my pocket and fished out my cell phone. I took a look at the time. I was going to have to leave in an hour—thank God.

Today was my interview.

I arrived at the coffee shop on time. I was a bit jittery but I decided that an interview was nothing I couldn’t handle. After all, being called in meant that they pretty much hired me already, right? That’s what I kept telling myself, anyways.

Its not like I had never been interviewed for a job before. I had a job before, after all—even though I had to quit to spend more time with Beth who was my girlfriend at the time. It seemed silly to me now that I had quit my job just because of a girl. But at the time, I was pretty serious. Still, I was sure that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Once I was inside, I looked around. To my disappointment, the cute girl Audrey didn’t seem to be working at the moment. I went up to the counter and told one of the employees that I was there for a job interview and I needed to know where the boss was.

“Oh yeah, he mentioned you,” the employee said. “I think he’s in the office waiting. Just go down that hallway and his office is the first door on the right. Just knock and he’ll let you in.”

It was easy enough finding the place. But just as I was about to knock the door swung open. At first I didn’t see anything. Then I looked down and saw a short man with a bald head and a full beard.

I blinked twice. It wasn’t that this guy, who I assumed was in charge of the place, was ridiculously short. It’s just that his stature was… well, unexpected. I mean, considering how I was of average height and he was about a head shorter than me, his height was pretty surprising—especially for a man of ‘power’.

“Hi, I’m here for an interview,” I said, recovering from my shock. He didn’t even give me a second to blink—he was already turning around and delving further into his office.

“Take a seat,” he said.

I quickly walked inside, trying to keep up with him. He seemed like he was in a hurry. I noticed two chairs facing each other.

It was kind of scary to have a chair waiting for me.

I quickly took a seat. Once I was seated, I took a look at the person ahead of me. I managed to read his nametag before he spun the chair around to face his computer. His name was Joseph.

He was clicking away on his laptop. For a minute, I assumed he forgot I was sitting there. After all, he had only looked at me for about five full seconds. I looked around the room, feeling awkward, before taking a peek at his computer screen.

Facebook?

Suddenly, he spun around in his chair again. I froze in place, feeling like I had just dug into his personal business and he had caught me in the act. He didn’t seem upset though. Maybe he even didn’t notice anything at all.

“Why did you decide to apply here?” he asked.

Questions already? Thinking back on it, I should’ve prepared more. Already my mind was rushing to find a professional response.

“Well I was looking for a job when I came across this place,” I replied honestly. “It seemed like a nice place to work. It seems to be a thriving business and it’s nearby. Besides, I love coffee, so I decided a coffee shop would be great for me to work at.”

Yeah right, I thought sarcastically. I hated coffee. Schmoozing, on the other hand, was bearable.

He only asked me a few more questions. Most of them I was able to be honest with. However, he did most of the talking. He talked fast and sometimes he was facing an entirely different direction when he spoke so that, most of the time, I couldn’t even hear what he was saying. Still, I smiled and nodded like a good boy and pretended to be attentive.

Near the end of the interview, I was just waiting impatiently to get out.

Waiting impatiently with a stupid grin on my face, I mean.

“How’d it go?” Leo asked.

After the interview, I went down to the local library and did some research on a paper I had to write. This killed a few hours and by the time I got home, it was getting darker out. Normally people would have lights on but, of course, Leo had to be different.

I flipped on the switch and saw Leo sitting upside down. His legs were hooked over the back of the couch and he had his hands folded over his stomach. His head meanwhile was hanging over the edge. His hair, which had become shaggy and greasy after three days of forgetting (or not caring) to shower, was dangling around his face.

I rolled my eyes.

“Why do you ask me regular questions when you’re doing the weirdest things?” I pried.

“Would you rather have me ask weird questions while doing regular things?” he argued, raising an eyebrow.

“What does that even mean?”

“Like… if I asked you what color your underwear was while I was watching TV—you know, something like that.”

Okay, so maybe he had a point after all.

“My interview was fine,” I said, changing the subject. I wasn’t going to get into a conversation revolving around my underwear—especially with my brother.

“With me as a referral, you’ll definitely get hired.”

“They don’t even know who you are,” I argued.

“Audrey does. And she’s a good employee.”

“That wouldn’t make you a good referral. It would make her a good referral. Stop giving yourself so much credit.” I took a seat on the couch across from him. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Seinfeld was playing. “I have a question…”

“You’re not going to ask me about my underwear are you?”

“Ew, no, that’s disgusting. I don’t want to know anything about your underwear,” I complained.

“I have Garfield boxers on,” he answered anyways.

“What did I just say?” I said, glaring at him. I shook my head. “Ugh, never mind. I just wanted to ask you how you met Audrey but never mind.”

“Oh, Audrey?” he said, doing a backwards somersault off the couch. He bumped his head on the coffee table, rolled off and crashed into one of his potted bonsai trees. I stared blankly at him as he struggled to stand up on his feet properly.

“That’s why you don’t sit on the couch backwards,” I scolded. Honestly, it wouldn’t matter if he did pot or not. Considering the amount of times he hit his head, I’m sure he would have killed off all of his brain cells anyways. In fact, I’m sure the whole somersault-thing just set him back by five IQ points.

“No, wait, don’t you want to know I we met her?” he asked.

“I’ll be surprised if you can even remember,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Oh, well… I banged her.”

The room went completely silent.

Okay, never mind, I thought. I thought I had a crush on her but now I decided that I didn’t like her anymore.

“Just kidding!” he said, laughing as though we were joking around and having a good time. Instead, I just stared at him like he was the anti-Christ…and he was. After laughing a bit more, his face grew serious. “But no, seriously, I almost did.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” I said, not wanting to hear any more of this. “Please don’t indulge me.”

“Well, I mean, I wanted to,” he said, ignoring me like he usually did. This was the Garfield-boxers thing all over again. “But she rejected me before I could even ask her out.”

“Really? That’s so odd. I mean, you’re such a charming guy,” I said. I was being sarcastic but I don’t think he caught it because he kept talking.

“Yeah, I was surprised too. But she had a reason for turning me down.”

This time I was interested in what he had to say. This information could be useful to me. I leaned in closer, curious.

“What was her reason?” I asked. He stared back at me, long and hard. His expression was lost.

“I… don’t remember.”

I nearly fell over.

Of course, I thought bitterly. I can’t depend on him for anything, especially when it comes to useful information.

I leaned back in the couch, crossing my arms bitterly. Even so, I couldn’t understand why I was so upset. I should’ve expected Leo to not remember. On top of that, I shouldn’t have been getting ahead of myself.

It didn’t matter what reason she had for turning Leo down. It didn’t matter how much of a chance I stood.

She wouldn’t have liked me anyways.

Goddamnit, I thought angrily. How could I have been so stupid?

I stood outside of my locked apartment. Leo didn’t have work or school so, being the genius I was, I decided to leave my phone and key at home. I mean, I really had no reason to bring my phone to school. And since I was in a hurry, I decided to leave my key behind too.

After all, Leo was going to be home all day, right?

Wrong, I thought, answering my own question. I slapped my forehead repeatedly. I was so stupid. Of course Leo would leave the exact day that I needed him to be home, especially after I told him to stay because I needed him there. I bet he left just to spite me.

Considering how I was too busy beating myself up, I never even heard someone approach me from behind until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around, hoping it was Leo. When I saw who it was, my face fell.

“Oh, it’s you,” I said.

It was that weird neighbor-kid of mine—the gay one. He was standing there, in all his hipster-gloriousness, carrying a plastic bag of something in his right hand.

“I have a name,” he said, looking annoyed.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said, equally annoyed. “I really don’t care right now.”

“Did you get locked out?” he asked, staring at the door behind me.

“I’m not in the mood to have a conversation right now,” I argued. He raised an eyebrow at me. This small action made me notice something peculiar.

Oh God, I thought. Even his eyebrows look gay.

“Okay, whatever,” he said, walking toward his apartment door. “I guess you don’t want to know where the spare key is.”

“Wait, what?!” I yelled, chasing after him. I spun him around so were face-to-face. Shocked, he stared at me completely wide-eyed. “There’s a spare key?!” My eagerness dissipated when I realized what I was saying. “Wait… how do you know there’s a spare key? And why would you know where it is and I wouldn’t?”

“Leo must have forgot to tell you,” he said, blinking. “I don’t even think he remembers telling me about it.”

I stared at him, horrified.

“Jesus Christ… you’re acting like I’ve been sneaking into your room at night,” he said. He paused, as though he had just thought of something. “Actually, that’s a pretty good idea...”

“No time for jokes,” I said crossly. I was in a hurry. The stuff I had to carry on my stuff was beginning to rearrange my spine for the worse. “Tell me where it is.”

“Well, considering how you can’t even remember my name, I don’t think I should help you,” he said, crossing his arms. He stared back at me defiantly.

I glared at him, wanting to beat the answer out of him. Still, I contained myself.

“Your name is… I don’t know… Gus?” I guessed. He stared at me, looking disgusted.

“Are you kidding me? You couldn’t even pretend that it was a more attractive name?”

“Ugh! Please, just tell me where it is!” I complained. “I just got back from school and my backpack is getting heavier by the second!”

It was true. I felt like my back was going to break in half.

He smiled at me, amused.

Sadistic bastard, I thought when I saw his grin. I wanted to punch him in the face. I didn’t want to play games, I just wanted to go inside and get a glass of water or do something other than stand outside.

“Come on,” he said, smiling at my pain. “You get one more guess.”

I thought long and hard about it. Finally, out of the blue, it came to me.

“Christopher, right?” I said.

“Actually its Chris or Christian but you’re close enough,” he said, shrugging. I felt kind of stupid for not getting it right the first time. Mostly, though, I was just thankful that I got it at least partway right so I could finally go inside my apartment.

“Where’s the key?”

“It’s under the bonsai tree,” he said. “The one with the stumpy branch.”

I thought about it for a second.

“Wait… that’s inside,” I told him, blinking. He just grinned.

“Yeah, I thought it was pointless too when Leo told me,” he said, laughing.

“You bastard! You tricked me!” I accused. He patted me on the head, like I was a kid or something… even though he seemed like he was half my height.

“That’s not true. I still told you where it was. It just… doesn’t help your situation.” He stared at me blankly as I seethed. I think he sensed how angry I was because he added, “If it makes you feel any better, you can use my phone to call Leo.”

“I’m not going inside your apartment,” I said defiantly. He leaned in close—too close for my comfort. He was giving me a suspicious look.

“Why not?” he asked.

“Erm…” I said. Damn, he was really close. I couldn’t understand why but he was making me really nervous. “Because… I don’t want to?”

“Are you afraid of me?”

That snapped me out of my nervousness. I guess it was common for people to get angry when they were insulted but I’ve always had a bigger ego than most people.

“No,” I growled, furious. “I just don’t want to. But if you’re going to insist, then I’ll use your damn phone.”

“Good!” he chirped, clapping his hands together. “Then you can come right in!”

He grabbed me by the wrist and eventually led me into the apartment. He led me to his phone. I stared blankly as he skipped over to the kitchen. He pulled out a bottle of dish soap from the plastic bag he was carrying earlier.

I looked away and picked up the phone. Before I could dial, though, I was interrupted.

“What the hell is he doing here?”

I looked over and saw a familiar person standing in the room. I recognized him as Chris’s boyfriend. At least, I think he called him his boyfriend. What distracted me was that he was only in his boxers.

Queers in their boxers. Fantastic.

“He came to use the phone. He got locked out,” Chris explained. I looked over at Chris and I understood why he bought dish soap—he was currently loading the sink with what seemed like an endless stack of dirty dishes. Staring at all the dishes, I realized that he probably had the same cleaning tactics as Leo. In other words, he won’t clean unless he has no choice. After Chris put another cup into the overloaded sink, he began to introduce me to him. “I’m not sure if you remember but this is—“

“Rob. Yeah, I know. We met before,” I cut in. Chris pouted.

“I see… so you remember his name but you forget mine.”

Of course, I wanted to say. I don’t forget the names that belong to douchebags.

“You actually forgot the key to your own house?” Rob said, crossing his arms and acting like the snotty, pompous dickface he was.

“At least I didn’t forget pants,” I challenged. I heard Chris sigh heavily.

“This is my house. It doesn’t belong to either of you. If someone wants to use the phone, I’ll let him or her use the phone. If people want to run around half-naked in my house, they’re allowed to. In fact, Jake, you can take off your clothes right now if you want to. You’re welcome to. Think of this as your second home.”

“Thanks but I’ll pass,” I said, secretly hoping Rob would get pissed and walk off because of Chris. The last time I had met him, he got jealous because Chris was talking to me and stormed off—even though I didn’t do anything wrong. I secretly hoped he would get pissed off and run away again. I was getting sick of looking at his face… and his boxers.

Not wanting to be a part of this little spat anymore, I took the phone and quickly dialed Leo’s cell phone number.

As the phone was ringing and I was waiting for Leo to pick up, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Rob was talking to Chris.

Was he talking about me? Whatever it was, Chris looked bored by what he was saying. I got caught up in imagining what Rob was talking about that I wasn’t paying attention to the phone.

“Is anyone there?”

I finally snapped back into reality, realizing that Leo was waiting for me to answer.

“Leo, where are you?” I asked. “I got locked out of the apartment. I don’t have my key.”

“Oh, is that all? You realize there’s a spare key under the bonsai tree, right?”

“The bonsai tree is inside the apartment, Leo. How am I supposed to get to it?”

“Oh… I never thought about that before.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Well don’t worry… I’m already on my way home. I was at Darryl’s. As long as you don’t mind waiting for a couple of minutes, I should be there to let you in.”

“Yeah, sure. Just hurry,” I said impatiently. I said goodbye and hung up the phone.

“Is he coming?” Chris suddenly piped up. I looked over and saw Chris looking over curiously. Rob, on the other hand, seemed annoyed.

“Uhm… yeah,” I said. I took one look at Rob and realized how pissed off he looked. For some reason, I wasn’t angry. In fact, I actually kind of felt bad. Not for Rob, of course, but for Chris. I hope they didn’t get in some big argument because of me. “Uhm… thanks.”

“Yep, no problem.”

Feeling awkward, I backed out of the apartment.

I sat against the wall, waiting for Leo to show up. While I was waiting, I suddenly saw Rob walk out of the apartment. He hurried down the steps without saying anything. Chris wasn’t with him.

The next few days went by slowly. I was finally starting to adjust to school. All of the homework didn’t seem to bother me as much anymore. I was even beginning to talk to a few people. The only thing I really worried about, though, was hearing a response from the café I applied to.

“They’ll call eventually,” Leo told me. “Audrey told me it took her awhile before she got hired. Now look at her! She’s their best employee. Don’t worry, they’ll call.”

I tried not to worry about it too much. I had too many things on my plate than to spend all of my time worrying about a stupid coffee shop—things like upcoming exams and Leo’s antics.

Just when I had begun to forget about it altogether, I got a phone call telling me that I got the job. They told me I could start next week.

I didn’t realize how excited I was to get the job until after I actually got it. Leo told me the feeling would fade in about a week when I realized how much I would hate working.

After that, I realized he was right. It was kind of stupid to be excited about having less time to myself—especially when I was going to be working in a shop based on the most annoying beverage in the history of bad beverages.

Oh well. I was happy. Who cares what the reason was?

I tried to keep that attitude with me on the first day. Leo was also getting ready for work.

“I told Audrey to help you out for the first week,” he said as he grabbed his visor. He was a delivery boy for some Chinese restaurant.

“Gee. Thanks, Mom,” I said sarcastically as I pulled on my shoes. “I can handle myself, believe it or not. Whenever you try to help me, you just make me look worse. Trust me for a couple of minutes—you’ll be surprised.”

“It doesn’t hurt to make sure,” Leo said, shrugging. He pulled on his vest and I was momentarily blinded by its neon-green hue. “Besides, what happens if you do get lost?”

“I can think for myself,” I insisted, grabbing my keys. I wasn’t going to forget them this time. “And if I was desperately lost, then I’d ask for your help. But in this situation, I asked for no such thing.”

“Oh come on,” Leo said, rolling his eyes. “You’d be too full of yourself to ask for help. You think you can handle everything! You’d be the one to jump off a roof just to prove to everyone you could fly!”

“I was in fourth grade. Leave me alone,” I said, glaring at him. “I didn’t have common sense back then!”

“Common sense isn’t the issue,” Leo corrected, clicking his tongue and waving his finger at me. “Pride is the issue. You need to adjust your ego, little brother.”

We both headed out the door at the same time.

“I’m not egocentric,” I argued. “So don’t lower me down to those standards.”

Wait, I thought, reflecting on my own words. I grimaced slightly. That sounded egocentric.

“The real issue isn’t my attitude!” I said quickly, hoping Leo wouldn’t notice my hypocritical words. “The real issue is that I need you to stay out of my life. I’m not a little kid.”

If I knew how difficult living with Leo was going to be, I would’ve chosen otherwise. I liked Leo but he was starting to become a little suffocating. Before we could part ways, he flashed me a sympathetic glance.

“Sorry about the way I’m acting. I know you’re not a kid but it’s hard not to be protective. You are my younger brother, after all.”

“Then why don’t you beat me up instead? I’d rather have my brother act like a brother than a worried mom.”

“You never had a worried mom—or a worried father, for that matter. Neither of us did. Sometimes I feel like we would’ve been better off if we had. I guess I’m still hanging on to some hope that I can still stop you from ending up like me.”

I didn’t have to ask what he meant. I may have been young when Leo was going through most of his personal problems but I wasn’t that naïve. Especially not now. Over the years, I managed to put the pieces together and come up with some basic conclusions of why Leo was the way he was.

Even though I understood the words that were coming out of his mouth, I still couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. I turned out just fine. It was Leo who was messed up—and even then, that faded away after his high school years.

“Don’t mistake me for you,” I warned. “Mom and Dad did just fine in raising both of us. All of the choices you made were yours. And just for the record, I’m okay. Really, I’m okay.”

From the expression he made, I could only guess that he was either upset or uncertain. Either way, I didn’t like his response and I almost wished that I could take back my words.

Its not like Leo wanted to be kicked out of the house. Its not like he wanted to do all of the drugs that he did. It just sort of happened.

After all, there were a lot of things that happened to me that I didn’t want to happen—like my entire senior year, for instance.

I had no place to judge.

“Sorry. I’m just trying to make a point,” I said. He shrugged.

“Its no big deal. I know I could be a little less annoying. Well, I guess we should go our separate ways.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “I’ll see you at home later.”

Before I could leave, he stopped me.

“Wait! Remember how you asked me how I met Audrey? I just remembered,” he said. I looked at him, waiting for him to explain. “She and I were at the same party. I looked at her and thought she had a nice ass and I tried grabbing it. Before I could, she turned around and we started talking. She was funny.”

I stared at him blankly, wondering why I even bothered to ask him in the first place.

“She still has a nice ass.”

“Thanks, Leo. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Yup. No problem,” he said, smiling. He turned around and walked off. As soon as he wasn’t facing me, I rolled my eyes.

Once I was at the coffee shop, I had to report to Joseph, my new boss. His short stature was less of a shock to me. However, it still amazed me by how fast he talked and how busy he seemed.

“This job will require a bit of training,” he said, barely paying attention to me. I stood in the middle of his office as he typed away on a computer with gwpm of a madman. “You won’t be serving drinks here unless you take the training. Until then, you’ll be doing handiwork like cleaning up, stocking and sometimes working the cash register… basically you’ll be doing whatever work needs to be done.”

In other words, I’m everyone’s bitch, I thought with a scowl on my face.

He opened his mouth to say more but before he could emit a single sound, the door swung open and interrupted him. Immediately my heart started racing when I realized who it was that walked in.

“Hey Joey,” Audrey greeted when she walked in. I noticed my new boss flinch at the nickname.

“Audrey, this is our new employee. His name is Jake. I need you to help him around and teach him the ropes.”

When she looked at me, her eyes lit up in recognition. I gulped. What were the chances of me getting the exact girl I’ve been thinking of to train me on the job? I was baffled.

“Sure, no problem,” she said with a smile. She looked at me. “Here, come on. I can show you around right now.”

I glanced at Joseph (Joey?) for a second. He didn’t seem to have any complaints. In fact, he went back to checking his e-mail. I followed Audrey into the hallway. She stopped in front of a door across from the boss’s office.

I knew she was going to explain a few things to me and I reminded myself to pay attention. Still, it was difficult to listen to her when I was still surprised that she was the one training me.

“This is just the storage closet. It holds cleaning supplies and such. Wait here for a sec.”

She disappeared into the closet. I waited impatiently for her to return and even tried peaking into the room once. When she came back, she had a black bundle in her arms.

“This is the part of the uniform you haven’t gotten yet. Here, try it on.”

I unfolded the bundle and realized it was an apron. I tied it on. Audrey then took my hand and placed my nametag in the heart of my palm.

“I have a nametag?”

“Yep. And it costs money so now you have to stay here… otherwise the next worker will have to change his name to Jake Scott.”

I smiled.

“I don’t think you have to worry about me leaving. But in case anything happens, just get Leo to replace me. At least the last name will be the same.”

She smiled too.

“I’m just glad I’m working with someone I kind of know,” I told her as I pinned on my nametag. She laughed.

“You won’t regret working here. It’s a friendly environment—it’s managed to keep me interested for a couple of years, anyways. It’s the customers you have to watch out for—they’re not very patient people. Though I’m sure you don’t have to worry about them yet since you won’t be working with people for awhile.”

She walked further down the hall and I followed her. At the end of the hall there was a door that led outside. Once outside, she led me to a small room that was connected to the building.

“This is the stock room. Only the managers and Joey have the keys so you’ll have to ask around before you can go inside.”

Audrey reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a set of keys. She smiled and dangled them before opening the door. I smiled back though, in my head, I was a bit surprised. Leo might’ve mentioned to me before that she was a manager or I might’ve realized it on my own. If I did know at one point, I had forgotten. I can’t believe I was starting to like my manager.

I followed her inside. It was chilly and I had to wrap my arms around me to keep myself warm. Audrey seemed unfazed by the cold—she was probably used to it by now. The room was filled with metal shelves and cardboard boxes—all of them labeled and most of them taped shut. She turned around and saw me shivering. She laughed.

“If you’re wondering why the room is so fucking cold, its because some of the stuff in here has to stay cold. This is where most of our ingredients are. There are also a few things in here like cups and such. It’s going to be your job running in and out of here to get stuff so you better get used to the cold.”

“Oh, great,” I murmured sarcastically.

There was a ladder that slid across the shelves. I thought it was kind of cool—I had never seen such a thing in real life. Audrey grabbed the ladder and put it into position. She adjusted her apron and began to climb up. By the time she reached the top shelf, I was at eye-level with her ass.

Wow, Leo was right.

“You don’t have to stare at my ass,” she said casually without even looking. I looked up, flustered. I even stammered a few lame excuses before she laughed and said, “Thanks for the compliment though.”

Once she grabbed a box—supposedly filled with Thai coffee, assuming that the label was honest—she stepped back down and told me to hold onto the box and carry it back inside. She slid the ladder back to its original position.

“How did you know?” I asked, my face still red. She looked at me, an amused smile on her face.

“Cause your brother does the same thing,” she said.

My shoulders slumped. I couldn’t believe that I was on the same level as Leo. I felt like a horrible person. Sadly, I clung to the box and followed her outside of the storage room. I carried the box all the way inside until she told me to drop it off behind the counter.

“I’m really not a pig,” I insisted. She looked at me, amused.

“Liar. Everyone knows all men are pigs.”

“I’m not.”

“Sure you not,” she said, patting me on the head. Noticing my scowl, she just rolled her eyes and smiled. “I’m kidding anyways. Really, I don’t care. As long as you’re not grabbing anything or making it obvious…”

I think she was the first girl to ever give me permission to stare at her ass. Still, I decided I wasn’t going to make a habit of it. Being compared to Leo was a strike to my ego—an ego which, according the bastard himself, was inflated. Did I really have same integrity (or lack thereof) of my stupid brother?

She crouched down and waved for me to follow. I bent down and watched her open a cupboard.

“This is where all the coffee grains go. It’s your job to make sure they’re stocked. Go ahead and try it out.”

I looked at the box that was set next to me. I showed her I was capable of stocking it—its not like it was particularly difficult.

From then on, things were pretty repetitive. She showed me what I had to do and how to do it. Surprisingly, the day went by pretty fast. Near the end of the workday, I was given some space and was allowed to do my own work. Every now and then Audrey would critique me.

Before the shop closed, I was given my new schedule and introduced to a few coworkers I hadn’t met yet. Overall, my coworkers seemed friendly enough. Afterwards, I cleaned up. Audrey helped me out.

And yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, I stole a few more glances at her ass.

What can I say? Men are pigs.

End of Chapter

A/N: A very short chapter, I know. But maybe its a good thing. As much as I love Bad Luck, it was way too long. Let's hope Bad News doesn't have the same problem.

Speaking of Bad Luck, I was told that it was nominated for some kind of award. But when I checked the website, it wasn't on the Nominees list. Aghhh, how confusing! Now I'm not sure if it was really nominated or not. Oh well, I don't mind. Hahaha. I saw the other nominees and I don't think mine would've stood a chance... plus I'd feel bad for the judge who would have to read it. Its a very long story and I'm sure they have deadlines. Imagine having to read a 330 page story in, say, a week or something. Its my story and even I wouldn't be able to do it... hahaha.

If by chance it really was nominated, thanks to whoever sent my story in! I think its the acknowledgment that counts--not the the actual award. (Uhh... what would the award be anyways? Internet donuts? I don't understand online contests.)

Anyways, yes, I hope the next chapter is up sooner. It shouldn't be a difficult one to write. I'll see you guys soon. Bye!