A thin veneer of glass separated Oliver from the outside world. It was tough to see even under the best of circumstances as he always seemed to struggle with looking past the blank stare plastered to the face of his reflection. He took a few more precious moments to scan out into the parking lot from inside the store, hoping beyond hope that he would see his coworker Jessica's car spontaneously burst into searing hellfire the moment she put it into park. To his dismay, however, he saw her walking towards the front door completely uncharred and brimming with some kind of sarcastic facsimile of life. The bell chimed as the door it was attached to was briskly shoved open and Oliver's most hated coworker violently made her entrance. The way her voice rang throughout the store could somehow put the bell itself to shame with the way it strangled each soft individual chime until it died unceremoniously in the open air.
"Oliver! I see you've decided to exist today. Unfortunately for both of us."
Oliver smirked and replied almost instantly.
"Jessica! I knew there was a reason we stuck you behind the customer service counter. Whoever invented coffee clearly used your bitter personality as a reference."
This trading of insults at the start of the day had grown into a weird formality between the two of them. The dark chemistry they shared seemed to effervesce into something resembling a friendship. A heated rivalry blossomed, the thick roots of which could probably strangle them both. What could fuel this untamed and unbridled rage between them you may ask? The answer was quite simple really. The Honor Wall. The Honor Wall was a simple stretch of paneled drywall that contained (in permanent marker no less) a list of every impressive employee achievement that ever happened inside Buck and Run's humble confines. The piece de resistance of course is the employee of the month photo that has remained unchanged for three years. A gorgeous wooden frame that looked suspiciously just like the ones the store sells in aisle five, housed a picture of a younger Oliver. The best part still was that Jessica (and every employee by proxy) had to walk down that long arduous stretch of hallway to get to the employee breakroom where their personal possessions were stashed all day. Watching the jealousy and anger wash over her every time she went to the breakroom was euphoric. Oliver sighed as his rival walked past him and eventually made her way down the hallway in question. As soon as she was out of sight Oliver raced down the aisles and back toward his own register with a pregnancy test, a pack of number two pencils, and a pencil sharpener. He was going to take care of this after clocking out but he just couldn't wait any longer. The anxiety was threatening to pull him apart at the seams. There were only fifteen minutes before Buck and Run officially opened, hopefully that was enough time. After seeking refuge in the bathroom he opened up the pregnancy test and began answering C for every question. As usual, reading the directions of the test had only made him genuinely more confused. Ten minutes of lead tearing through paper later and a grim realization suddenly set in.
"Who the hell am I supposed to turn this into?
Oliver carefully folded up his test and after nearly five minutes of wandering the store with a confused look on his face, decided to leave it (along with a weird stick-looking thing he assumed was for tracking purposes) inside the store drop box employees used to anonymously communicate with upper management. One of the supervisors or the store manager would surely know what to do with it right? After making it back to his register just in time Oliver suddenly realized he (as usual) forgot to include his name and today's date. A sigh of relief breathed out a measure of tension and anxiety as his cold nerves began to relax. He was absolutely positive whoever graded those would fail him for that alone. The hours soon began to painfully pass as his unremarkable shift neared its end. Every so often Oliver's eyes found themselves drawn to a pink-haired girl who had been wandering the snack and candy aisle for the past three and a half hours. Behind Oliver's thick skull, a series of calculations began running. A complicated web of arithmetic that only he could fathom began to discern the hidden truth behind her presence. The dots began to connect and form a larger picture. Oliver liked pictures. He knew who... or rather what this lady really was. A food critic. He immediately ushered Jessica over to inform her of this world-shattering revelation. Jessica's eyebrows raised in amusement as Oliver began panic-flapping his hands at her to get her attention before utilizing the sacred gestures that every retail employee knows by heart as he pointed at the pink-haired customer and put his arms up in an "X" which marked her to every nearby associate as a threat. Jessica promptly responded by slowly raising her middle finger back towards Oliver, a gesture he's seen plenty of times but still can't for the life of him figure out the meaning of.
"Come... here!!!!"
Oliver scream-whispered across the sales floor, his voice a panicked hiss as he beckoned Jessica over to his register. She sighed and begrudgingly marched over, dragging her feet the whole way.
"This had better be important Oliver."
"Jessica! We have a problem... I think that pink-haired girl is a food critic! She's going to tell everyone our food sucks!"
"Oliver this is a dollar store... our food DOES suck."
"We will never be able to sell candy in this town again! Oh god... what if she goes for the spicy bean burritos next?!"
Jessica put her hands on Oliver's shoulders, her face stern and her expression stoic. With each vapid and unhinged breath exhaling from Oliver's mouth her fingers dug in, a vain attempt to massage away the incoming panic he was feeling.
"Oliver... I mean this in the most platonic and disrespectful way physically possible but I love you. Why don't you channel this creativity of yours into something more productive like helping us figure out who put a pregnancy test inside the management drop box?"
Oliver's face tinted a soft red and his eyes looked slowly and bashfully away from hers.
"Hehe... Yea! Who would put one of those there, am I right? We should definitely take it out and put it where it belongs!"
Jessica pushed her fingers into her closed eyes as if trying to soothe a migraine before abruptly turning around and heading back to her counter. Oliver sighed in disappointment and his eyes once again fell upon the mysterious girl in the candy aisle. At some point during Oliver's conversation with Jessica the mysterious girl had pulled out a pen and notepad and begun writing. She abruptly stopped and without even so much as uttering a word departed the store, the soft chime of the bell marking her swift exit. He wasn't quite sure why but he had a bad feeling, like a storm was approaching and that mysterious girl was the center of it. She had stolen the calm and all that could possibly be left was an uncontainable rage and an uncertain aftermath. Her presence would linger, and her absence would destroy. After finishing his shift and saying goodbye to his coworkers, Oliver walked what he thought was alone to his apartment.
He wasn't quite as alone as he thought.
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