The strong smell of coffee hovered everywhere in the small coffee shop and although it smelt good to others, it smelt horrible to Gilbert.
The said man was currently staring at the door while leaning against the counter and counting the ticks of the clock. He was in the shop alone at the moment with no coworkers with him since they had ditched their shift. No customers had come in all day and Gilbert was bored out of his mind.
Knowing that no one would notice, he stepped outside through the back door to get some of the fresh air. It was actually dirty city air with smog and all sorts of chemicals hanging around in it, but it was better than the sickening smell of ground coffee beans.
Gilbert took off the hideous apron-like thing his boss forced him to wear and threw it on the dirty ground. He reached into his jean's pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a small lighter. He expertly put the cigarette between his lips and lit it with ease.
Gilbert took a long drag and blew out the smoke through his nose. Smoking made him feel calm when he was stressed and happy when he was mad. He smoked the cigar down to the butt and dropped it on the ground as he blew out the last puff of smoke. He violently stomped on it to get out the rest of his anger towards his coworkers for leaving him alone at the unawesome cafe and reached for the cigars, but refrained himself for smoking another. He was trying to wean off of his addiction with them so he wasn't allowed to smoke as many as he wanted to.
Deciding that he'd been out there long enough, Gilbert picked up the stupid apron-thing off the ground and went back into the cafe to face more boredom. He tried to open up the back door, but it wouldn't budge an inch out of its frame. Grunting in irritation, he turned the knob again and had to slam his body against it until it finally swung open and he flew into the building. Gilbert picked himself up off of the dirty floor and brushed the old, disgusting coffee grounds off of his jeans.
Really wishing he had gone for another smoke now, he looked around the small room and was met with the same empty chairs and tables collecting dust. Groaning in frustration that this small cafe was so hard to spot in the big city, he picked up the nearest thing to him and chucked it at the ground.
The sound of shattering glass met his ears and he opened his clenched eyes to see that he had broke the tip jar. Now, this wouldn't have been that big of a deal if it empty since he could replace it easily and no one would notice, but it was halfway full with all sorts of coins that rolled everywhere when the jar broke.
"Whelp, that made everything better now didn't it?", he muttered sarcastically to himself as he crouched onto the ground to pick up all the coins. He reached for a quarter that was underneath one of the machines and retracted his hand as if it had gotten bit by a snake. Stuck in one of his fingers was an almost microscopic piece of glass that made him start to bleeding all over the floor.
Muttering some curse words to himself, he carefully pulled out the blood covered shard and got some napkins to clean up the floor. The white tile was now just the slightly tinted with blood, but Gilbert didn't care at all. He didn't really care for this job and only kept it to pay the rent for his small apartment downtown.
He stood back up to see if anyone had magically appeared in the shop and was met with the chairs and tables again. Instead of raging this time though, he just rolled his eyes and got the broom to clean up the glass and maybe even the coffee grounds while he was at it.
Sweeping the stuff off the ground outside of the door, he looked back up to see his boss standing on the other side of the counter. She was a hideous obese woman who wore tight dresses that were too short on her because of her bulging stomach and thick thighs. She always wore at least one thing with feathers on it and today it was a sleek dress that came up to her mid thigh with leopard patterned feathers around the neckline and the hem of the sleeves. She was also wearing a tiny, tacky hat upon her head which looked disproportional to the rest of her body.
"Hello there Gilbert.", she said in her raspy voice. She too smoked cigarettes like Gilbert did, except she smoked ten times more. "How's the shop holding up? Where are the others?" She raised a drawn on eyebrow looking for her lackeys.
Gilbert leaned the broom in his hands against the wall and crossed his arms. "They decided that they were going to abandon their shifts today, so I've been here by myself all day taking care of the customers alone.", he said. He knew that the shop hadn't gotten a customer in days, but he thought he might get a sympathetic raise from the pig for holding up shop by himself.
His boss fished an expensive cigar and a lighter out of her feather adorned purse and lit it up. "Well isn't that a shame?", she said, not actually meaning what she said. She let the cigar burn for a bit before taking a long drag and blowing it out slowly. "I know that you're lying about the customer part though and no, you're not getting a raise for being here alone. You were probably just destroying stuff out of boredom like you hooligans always do." Gilbert mentally cursed the witch. It was like she could read his mind sometimes.
"I just came to tell you to close up shop early today. This old place is probably going to go bankrupt soon, so it won't matter whether we close or not. Take the rest of the day off ya hear?", she asked walking out the door. She wheezed out a raspy laugh and slammed the door shut. Gilbert watched in disgust as the so called woman walked away smoking the cigar and her too small dress slowly creeped further up her leg with every step she took.
Gilbert scowled and quickly untied his apron to get the hell out of the cafe that now smelt of a revolting combination of cigarette smoke and coffee. He hung the apron on a nail by the door and left the shop. He already knew he had everything he had brought since the only things he ever brought to work were his pack of cigarettes and phone to call with in case of an emergency. He didn't trust his colleagues to leave his belongings alone, so he'd never brought anything else.
He coughed as his lungs filled with the disgusting city air. "I don't know which is worse, cigars or the air around this shit-hole.", he wondered aloud as he wondered through the filthy town trying to find a way to spend his free time.
oOoOoOo
Gilbert flopped onto his bed and pulled the covers over his muscular frame. He had completely wasted his free time that he'd gotten by just wandering around town and checking out the women shopping nearby and even a couple of sexy guys he'd spotted too. So unless if you say being a total pervert is productive, then you are both a creep and wrong.
Gilbert let out a sigh of comfort and smiled. He smelt the disgusting scent of coffee from the idiotic shop he worked at creep up his nose and his smile disappeared.
"Gott verdammt. I'll need to do the laundry sometime soon. I don't want my house smelling like that dump of a place I work at." Trying to ignore the bold scent of coffee grounds, he laid face down into his pillow and started to count.
"Let's hope that tomorrow won't be as disappointing as today was.", he muttered quietly to himself just seconds before falling asleep.
oOoOoOo
The sharp, annoying sound of Gilbert's alarm clock startled him awake and he grumpily hit the clock to make it stop. He stretched his limbs and heard a satisfying pop the more he stretched. Climbing out of his suddenly comfortable bed, he pulled oped the curtains and squinted his eyes even though it wasn't even that bright out yet.
The sun was peeking slightly over the horizon and the sky around it was a light color of pink. The street just below him was already awake with the cars honking loudly at each other and the sidewalks crowded with numerous people all trying to make their way to their job. Gilbert could hear the other apartment doors opening with others who had slept and were late for work. Luckily Gilbert didn't have to get to work early like other people today. But, he still had important stuff to take care of.
Gilbert cracked his knuckles and looked at his pigsty of an apartment. His clothes were scattered everywhere and a majority of them had unidentifiable stains on them from god knows what. The furniture was out of place and the carpet was thick and greasy from not being cleaned in months. The entire place was screaming at Gilbert to clean it already. The smell of coffee from last night was now replaced by the usual smell of cheap cigarettes and the cologne that Gilbert used when ever he didn't have time to take showers.
Speaking of showers, Gilbert knew that he was in desperate need of one right now.
Striping himself of his clothes that he wore yesterday, he turned the shower knob and waited for the shower to slowly heat up until he got in. While he waited for the shower, he brushed his teeth and used his time wisely since it was the least he could do for wasting yesterday. That, and he didn't was to end up like his neighbors scrambling out the door and bolting to work.
He spat out the foamy toothpaste, rinsed off his toothbrush, and stepped into the shower. He shivered in pleasure at the warm water emitting from the shower head and relaxed his tense muscles.
Now dressed and ready for another uneventful day at work, he picked up his cigarette pack, phone, and a cheap set of earbuds and walked up the street to the dull cafe. He popped the earbuds into his ears and started listening to his favorite songs first with the volume turned up all the way to block out the cars and yelling of the civilians around him. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and kept his head tilted down trying not to make eye contact with anyone.
He had a bad reputation with people in this town since he used to drink excessively, smoked more than three packs of cigars a day, and maybe even tried a couple of drugs once or twice. He had long changed his ways to get an actual job to be a responsible adult and although he was still getting over the cigars, he was doing much better than he was back then. But that didn't stop others from thinking he was still the out of control young adult whom would supposedly beat you up if you even made eye contact with him. The only reason he even kept his job at the dinky cafe was because no one else would hire him anywhere else. He didn't know what he was going to do when the place finally went under though.
Glancing up from the cracked concrete, he spotted the cafe up ahead right between a colorful, tacky clothing store and a business building for some sort of toy company. He straightened his slouched back to walk in a more normal and comfortable way, but was stopped suddenly by a huge, burly man who had blocked his way.
"Gilbert.", the man said glaring at Gilbert who was just a few inches shorter than the enormous man.
"Sadiq.", Gilbert said bitterly to the man. Sadiq was a tall, muscular man who was on the tan side constantly no matter what season it was and had some stubble on his jaw that seemed to never grow any longer than it was. He had a dark brown colored hair that wasn't too long, but he almost always covered it up with a green hoodie that he seemed to never take off. Speaking of covering up, Gilbert had never seen his eyes ever. He always wore this white mask that covered his eyes and Gilbert had a small theory that he never took it off for sleeping either. He didn't know why he always wore it, nor did he care to find out.
"Is there something that I could help you with Sadiq?", I asked bitterly and added a glare to try and throw him off. My albinism usually scared most people and I could tell that deep down, it creeped him out too. The white hair and red eyes probably was another reason people though he was still a psychopath still.
Sadiq frowned and I could tell that he was glaring at me underneath that mask. "Well somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. My shift just ended at the shop. We are finally getting customers, so you'll actually have to work this time." He stepped around Gilbert and headed down the street ignoring the glares from Gilbert. He huffed and went down the alley by the shop to get inside.
Gilbert rammed into the jammed door and fell through the frame like he did yesterday. Picking himself up off the already dirty ground, he brushed the grounds off his pants again.
"Major déjà vu moment.", he thought to himself. He scanned the cafe and was surprised to see that there actually was someone here. It was a man with enormous, bushy eyebrows sipping some tea in one of the flimsy styrofoam cups they used. Gilbert didn't study the man though since he thought it wasn't very important considering they haven't even talked once to each other.
The small television was on in the corner of the room on the news channel with dull, boring news like always. The man was watching it with disinterest in his eyes. He kept glancing down at his watch like he was on a tight schedule or something.
Not even five minutes after Gilbert had taken Sadiq's spot in the cafe, the only customer in the shop got up and left Gilbert all alone again just like yesterday.
"Jesus, it's like when I walk in everybody leaves.", Gilbert though to himself as he lifted himself onto one of the counters to try and watch the news. The humming of the machines were too loud though, and Gilbert couldn't hear a single word the news lady was saying.
Giving up on that idea, he just settled for another smoke outside; just like yesterday. He stepped out the door and quickly lit the cigarette and took the first drag. He blew it out gracefully and leaned against the grey brick walls next to the trash can. He took another drag, and then another, and then another until there was next to nothing left to smoke. He threw it on the ground, put it out with his foot, and opened the jammed door; just like yesterday.
Sighing, Gilbert pulled himself back up onto the counter to maybe just take a nap or something of the sorts. Just because one damn person came to the shop didn't mean others would too. Besides, they were probably jt desperate for some caffeine in their system.
Gilbert slowly drifted off to the sleeping realm and wouldn't return to the waking until a certain blond haired boy would appear suddenly to awake the albino man.
oOoOoOo
… Hello. *angry fans throw tomatoes at me* Ahh! I'm sorry that I haven't updated my stories in a really long time, but I'm working on the next chapters right now I just got side tracked by this idea that I had on my profile and I decided to right it real quick before finishing up the chapter so it'll be out soon don't worry!
Neither the picture or Hetalia belongs to me (darn it!) and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! :D