Hello Friends! Happy May! I hope you are all doing well!
Thank you to everybody who has been reviewing and commenting on my recent work! Your support is much appreciated!
This is my new story Break Up With Him. It's inspired by the Old Dominion song. I hope you all enjoy the first taste of my new story :)
April-
Troy had been talking himself up to talk to the prettiest girl at the party. Her brown hair was perfectly curled. Her makeup was natural. He could barely see the shiny sheen on her cheeks. She looked casual which was so refreshing compared to the amount of butt cheeks he saw in the last two hours. "... So."
She looked at him confused. She was probably wondering if she knew him because she didn't look like the girl that would be rude. "So… what?"
Of course he gained all that confidence and just started their conversation with so. He was an idiot but he didn't want her to figure that out yet. He needed to be smooth. "So, why are you drinking water at a party?"
"I'm the DD." She explained. "Why are you drinking water at a party?"
"Because I have work in…" he glanced at the invisible watch on his arm. "Five hours."
She laughed and it was possibly the greatest sound he'd ever heard. "What do you do?"
"I am the assistant manager at Radio Shack."
"Radio Shack is still in business?"
"Not for long." He shared with a shrug. "I'm doing inventory and packing up any excess- sending it back to corporate. Our going out of business sale starts tomorrow."
"Ouch. What are you going to do?"
He laughed, scratching his neck. "Hopefully find a real job so I can eat something other than McDonald's chicken nuggets."
"That's hard to believe…. that you live on chicken McNuggets."
"I also play a lot of basketball… too much basketball people tell me. I broke my ankle in college so it's finally back to feeling kind of decent. Since I have no shot at the pros, I just play." He looked at her then realized he was probably talking too much. "That's really depressing. I'm sorry you had to listen to anything I said."
She laughed again. "I get the struggle. This is my only free weekend of the month. My baby daddy decided he wanted to see his daughter. My boyfriend ditched me to go hang out with his band. My friends were already coming here and I offered to DD since I know my baby daddy could call me at any moment to pick her up."
"How old is your daughter?" He asked. She had a daughter, a baby daddy, and a boyfriend. Of course she would. Any guy would be lucky for her to carry his child.
"She's four- turning five in November."
"Little Scorpio?"
"Worse, Sagittarius just like me."
"She must be pretty incredible then." He said with a small smile.
"She is, despite being my clone." She looked at her cup of water and shook her head. "You have kids?"
"No… but I have four younger sisters. One of which is at this party and I'm hoping I don't have to pull some scumbag off her." He shook his head. "I'm Troy; I'm 25, and way too old to be here. My sister Tessa is 20, she is definitely drunk and I probably should go take her home soon. My sister Taylor is 16; she's into astrology and is convinced she is a witch. I'm pretty sure she is too. My youngest sister Taryn is 12 and she is four foot something and can obliterate me in basketball. Her twin Tegan is also 12 and she hates the world right now."
"Wow. Me and Tegan are on the same vibe." She let out a small laugh. "I'm Gabriella, 24, also too old to be here. I'm in medical school and all my undergrad friends dragged me here. My 4 year old daughter is named Willow. My boyfriend, Ben, is in a band you may heard of Twisted Eagle… twisted eagle?" She questioned. "I don't know they change their name a lot but apparently they're pretty famous on campus."
"Never heard of them." Troy said, making her smile. His smile matched hers until something caught his eye. "Well, Gabriella. It was so nice talking to you but I see some frat boy trying to talk to my sister so I need to take her home. I hope you enjoy the rest of your kid-less, boyfriend-less weekend. If you need any random, outdated technology- come visit me at Radio Shack."
She shook her head to herself. "Meeting you has been the best part of my night. It was nice to meet you Troy."
He tried to hide his smile as he took one last look at her before he walked toward his little sister. "Troy! Thank god. Tell him."
The blonde kid looked at Troy. "Dude, she's my sixteen year old sister. Let her go or I'm calling the cops."
"Oh shit." The blonde let Tess go immediately, walking away.
"That's not what I meant but thank you."
"Are you ready to go back to your dorm?"
"Yes. I'm so tired." Troy took off his jacket and put it around his sister before he escorted her to the car. "When do you work?"
"5am."
"That sucks."
"Tell me about it. But at least I can sleep in peace not in a dorm or stuck at home."
"I prefer home to the dorms. They're gross." Tess said, climbing in his truck.
"Not when you have four sisters and one and a half bathrooms. I had to pee outside nearly every morning of senior year."
"Sounds like a you problem." He shook his head and closed the door.
Two weeks later, Troy was finally getting responses back from his resume. He didn't want to work retail but it seemed like those were the only places that were hiring. He accepted a supervisor position at Target and was starting next week when the store was closed for good.
He looked around the empty store and couldn't help but feel a little sad. He worked at this particular store since he was fifteen. Ten years was a long time but he liked working there and trying to teach technology to old people.
The door jingled signaling a customer. "Welcome to Radio Shack." He said. It rolled off his tongue so naturally and almost habitually every time he heard bells.
"Mommy, they don't have many things in this store."
"I know but they might have some 2-way radios left." A familiar voice said.
"Babe, we should have just gone to Best Buy."
"But does Best Buy have magical orbs?" Troy hopped over the desk to see Gabriella, her boyfriend and indeed her clone, Willow.
He thought about that party so much he almost went back to it after he dropped Tessa off at her dorm. He had to remind himself that she had a boyfriend and now he was staring him in the face.
"Magical orb?" Willow questioned.
He smiled at the young girl. He picked up the purple ball, flicking the switch on the bottom and putting his fingers on the ball. The current followed his fingers as he made spooky animated sounds. "What do you think? You wanna try it?"
"Yes!" She stuck her finger out and squealed when the current followed her finger. "That's so cool."
"Found it, babe, two ways." The man said from behind him.
"My best friend, Cody lives next door and it's his birthday and I'm going to get him Walky-talkies so we can talk to each other in our own houses!"
"That sounds super awesome. I wish I had a cool friend like you who wanted to talk through walls." He looked at the orb and then the girl who was looking at it. "Do you want keep it?"
"The orb?" Willow asked.
"Yeah, you can have it."
Willow and Troy both looked up at her mother. "Mommy! Can I get the orb?"
"How much?" Gabriella asked, smoothing down her daughters hair.
"It's on the house." He said with a shrug. "They're going out of business and I was gonna take it if nobody bought it today anyway."
She smiled. "Really? Well... thank you. Willow, tell Troy thank you."
"Thank you, Troy!" Troy switched it off and handed it to the young girl who held it tightly.
"Babe?"
Gabriella looked up. "Excuse us."
Troy made his way back around the counter. Gabriella looked at the radios and then grabbed some batteries before taking them up to the counter. "Find everything okay?"
She let out a small laugh. "It was hard to navigate through all this merchandise."
"That is a common problem we've been having recently." He joked back. He scanned the items and put his discount on top of the sale. He pressed the total button. "$10.52 is your total."
"Seriously?" Gabriella said, reaching in her purse.
"We have a blow out sale happening."
"When does it end?" She asked.
"When the store closes on Saturday."
"Wow, that quick huh? What about you?"
"I will be the new tech department supervisor at Target starting Monday."
"Wow, good for you."
"Right? I'm moving on up. My supervisor hourly is two whole dollars more than my assistant manager wage. I can afford a soda and chicken McNuggets now."
She laughed, swiping her card. "Well I'll be sure to find you at Target when they inevitably break these."
"It was good to see you."
"You too, Troy." He bagged up her items and handed them off to her. Troy got ignored by the boyfriend but waved to her daughter who was still smiling from the orb.
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