The next day, I met up with Sean from the morning. The owner was nowhere to be seen, so we decided to buy a bag of chips and wait while eating it. Sean paid without me having the chance to suggest we shared.

“You like this stuff?” Sean asked when I took the first handful in my mouth. I momentarily forgot I had my entire mouth full and tried answering with ‘Yes, I love it’, but all that came out was,

“Ush rr lub et.” Sean looked at me and then he laughed. A bright and light laughter that sounded like bells ringing. It made me want to laugh along with him.

Then, he took a handful of his own and shoved it in his mouth. He looked at me and with a grin in his eyes, tried to talk.

“Es gis ge gish anguis?” And then I laughed right along with him, being careful not to accidentally inhale chips and choke.

We laughed and laughed and when we stopped, we looked at each other and laughed some more. My stomach hurt, and stopping was so hard I couldn’t even safely eat the mush in my mouth that once were chips, but had gone soft from spit.

“What did you say?” Sean asked, when we could breathe again.

“I forgot.” I admitted, drying my tears away.

“What did you say?” I asked, curiously.

“What do you think I said?” He teased.

“Uhm… Is this the great anguish?” I looked down awkwardly. Sean started to laugh again. I hid a smile. I liked making him laugh, I thought.

“Close, but no. I asked ‘is this the chips language’?” He still had chuckling in his voice.

“That’s not close at all” I yelled with a laugh.

“Well, speaking like that WAS great anguish!” His tone was suddenly serious for a second, and then he erupted, laughing again. I followed and we were right back where we started. Stomach hurting and uncontrollable laughter. I look at him and he looks at me, and we are dying from laughter over and over.

Until both of us are hit on the head, and I look up and find the very unamused face of the owner. I’m about to say something, anything. An excuse or an apology. Something. But Sean gets there first.

“Sorry, Sir. We were here on time but couldn’t find you, and decided to hold our break early today.” His voice was smooth, his tone serious and controlled. I look at him, awestruck, about how he could be laughing his heart out just a second ago, and now look and act like nothing happened.

“Hmph, early break on your first day. You better be done with the unpacking today.” The owner sent us a glare. We nodded. When he has walked away and was out of sight, we once again looked at each other and I can see it takes him as much effort as it does for me, to NOT break out into laughter again.

I attempt a few deep breaths and get myself under control. Sean has controlled himself entirely by the time I look back up.

“We better get to work.” Sean said. I nodded, and together we went to unpack things. We quickly figure out a system that lets us work together with each other, so we can talk and work at the same time, without it interfering with each other.

The owner came out a few times to complain about how we were slacking off, and how one should be in front and the other in the back, but when he saw how far we were with stacking, he kept his mouth shut and walked back into his office.

After that, it became a sort of tradition for us to buy a snack and share it on our break. We wanted to try every snack in the store. Sean always offered to pay, and I was too broke to decline. More correctly would be to say that Sean just paid without asking, and I never said anything against it.

One day, after work, Sean asked me if I’d like to come over to his place and hang out. His parents were divorced, he currently lived at his mom’s, and she was apparently rarely home.

He lured me with snacks and dinner, so I couldn’t decline.