It was 12 o'clock at night and Abed was struggling to keep his eyes open. He tried his hardest to focus on anything but the comforting hum of the lights above him. he was finishing up his shift, scanning various food items for an silent elderly woman who wouldn't even look at him. he didn't mind it too much though, he was used to being treated like he wasn't even there. he looks up at the clock.
'Damn.' he thinks to himself, 'I really need to get home.' He quickens up his pace and gives the woman her bags after taking her money and putting it away. Abed is just about to leave his tiny cash register area at the grocery store, when an obviously intoxicated man charges into the front window, head first. The man bounces of the window and on to the ground, but no one is around to help him up, so Abed decided to be the good person in this situation and help the man up. he runs out of the store and out where the fallen man lays. the man is groaning and holding his hands up to his face. Abed hesitates, not quite sure what to do to help the poor drunk man.
"Hey," He says, "Are you okay? Do you any need help?"
The man doesn't respond. He tries to grab onto the window to pull himself up, but the window didn't have anything he could grab. the next best thing to grab was Abed, a skinny little Arab boy with no muscles. Without warning, the drunk man grabs onto Abed's wrist, pulling down on him with all of his might. Abed screeches as the man pulls his arm from out of it's socket, or at least, it felt like it. Abed ignores the pain as best he could to get the man standing on his own two feet again without falling back down. Once he's up, the man pats Abed on the back and laughs. Abed looks at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Thanks man." The man says, before walking into the store.
Abed follows the strange man, walking his ever move. He was scared that the man was a felon and was going to do felony things in the store. Though, the man didn't seem all that dangerous, he just swayed back and forth, going through the isles, picking random objects off of the shelves, taking them with him for a few steps before putting them back of a completely different shelf. Abed didn't stop him from messing up the isles he had worked so hard on perfecting, for some reason, the man had this sort of attraction about him making Abed just want to watch him even more. The man went from isle to isle for 10 minuets before coming back to Abed with a hand full of random items.
"Is that all today, sir?" Abed said from memory. The man looked up at him and smiled, plopping down all of the items down on the conveyor belt.
"Yeah," He says, his speech slurred. "The name's Barnes. Troy Barnes. What's yours, sweetheart?" Abed stops making eye contact with the strange man, his focus instead turns to the items that he was purchasing. Everything looked normal, or at least, normal for a 20-year-old man. He had several bags of Cheetos, ramen, and a full pack of the cheapest beer they sold. "Not gunna tell me, eh? Well," Troy hiccups, "I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," He squints at Abed's name tag, "Aye-bed"
"Abed." He quickly corrects.
"Oh, sorry, Abed." He gives Troy a small uncomfortable smile and finishes packing away his things.
"$7.98, please."
"Are we talkin' 'bout you or the food?" Troy laughs at his awful pickup line. Abed's heart starts racing and he feels beads of sweat running down the back of his neck. Troy notices Abed's obvious discomfort and to try to make him feel better, he reaches for his hand and says, "Hey, I was just kidding. You're worth a lot more than 8 bucks." Troy lets out the loudest belly laugh that Abed has ever heard. He rips his hand away and hands Troy his receipt, leaving Troy to pick up the rest of his stuff. Just as he's about to leave he says, "Oh, I almost forgot." He dives a hand into his bunny hug pocket and digs out a box of condoms. Abed's ears burn and without taking his eyes off the cash register, he rings up the last item and takes Troy's money.
As Troy takes the condoms, the shit-eating grin still on his face, he says, "Meet me behind the building after your shift. I'll be waiting." He winks before walking out of the store with his bag of chips and condoms in one hand and the pack of beer in the other.