Hope everyone's holiday season was amazing! Bring on the new year! Short chapter tonight.


three

"You're an idiot."

Wally groans. "Dude. You're supposed to be on my side."

"Yeah, but not when you partake in idiocy. " Dick pauses, tilts his head to the side. "Well, without me, anyway," he amends. He tosses a piece of popcorn in the air and catches it expertly between his teeth. Wally snorts. Show off.

On the TV, two ninjas battle. It's some old action flick that Dick chose, but Wally's barely paying any attention. Instead, he's been busy filling his friend in on what transpired with Artemis last night.

"I still don't think I was fully in the wrong," Wally says. "I mean, she was rude from the start! I can't just roll over and accept that."

Dick lets out a long-suffering sigh and pauses the movie. He turns to fully face Wally and places firm hands on his shoulders, brows furrowed in concern. "Have you ever considered," he begins solemnly, "pulling your head out of your ass? Because I'm starting to think that if it gets any further up there we'll lose it for good."

"Ugh, screw off," Wally protests, scowling as he shakes himself free of Dick's grip. "I swear, ever since you bulked up you've been a menace."

Dick makes a kissing face. Wally wants to punch him.

"I'm serious, though," says Dick after a moment. "You… sort of jumped at her first the other day. I mean, you're the only one that seems to have a problem with her. Megan adores her."

"Megan adores everyone," Wally grumbles, grabbing a fistful of popcorn.

"True. But you also know what I mean."

He does. Everyone seems to like Artemis. Even Conner is alright with her, and it took Wally almost two months to finally get the big guy to warm up to him.

At that moment, their phones light up. Wally sees that it's a text from Megan, sent to the group chat.

Megan

Hey, everybody! I added Artemis to the chat, so that's the new phone number you see. I wanted to plan a fun day at the beach for Monday since the store's closed! It's supposed to be 80 degrees which is crazy for May! LMK if you're in.

Wally wrinkles his nose, grudgingly assigning the added phone number to a new contact for Artemis. While he does so, Dick types back a confirmation text on both of their behalfs.

"Uh, what if I didn't want to go?" Wally snarks.

"Please," Dick waves a dismissive hand. "You wouldn't do that to Megan."

God, Wally hates it when Dick is right.


The next time Wally works with Artemis, it goes a little less smoothly. They bump into each other constantly, fight for customers, and are seemingly on entirely different pages (which, yeah, Wally could've told you that). Poor Megan is just trying to do her job, and Conner looks about ready to strangle someone from his spot at the grill. At one point Wally knocks elbows with Artemis and causes her to drop her scoop, and his life sort of flashes before his eyes under the withering glare she fixes him with.

It's a miracle they survive the night. They're the last shift, so thankfully the crowds died down once it hit nine o'clock. It's also Artemis's first time closing up shop, meaning Wally's the unlucky one who has to walk her through it.

"Okay, let's get this over with," he sighs. "I actually want to get out of here before the sun rises."

Artemis scoffs and stalks after him as he leads her back to dry storage. Once there, Wally reaches up to a tall shelf and grabs a sleeve of the plastic cups they use for smoothies. He snags another sleeve of the paper cups for milkshakes from the self below, then marches back toward the shop.

"As you've hopefully noticed, it's three stacks for each of these," he explains, tossing Artemis the paper cups without warning. He's disappointed when she catches them with ease. "Back's the tallest, front's the shortest, blah, blah, blah."

They restock each set of cups in silence. At one point a teenage couple walks in and orders a couple of milkshakes, which annoys Wally. He reminds himself that they technically aren't closed yet, but milkshakes are the worst to make and clean up. He has Artemis do it, holding her bitter stare until she huffs and turns to get started on the order. It's the small victories.

Wally rings the customers out and holds in a scoff when the kid drops only the change into the tip jar. A whole nineteen cents, he thinks sarcastically. Really putting me through college here!

The night carries on in relative silence, save for some snide comments and annoyed sighs. Once the doors are locked, the chairs are stacked, and the whole place smells like cleaning product, Wally begins to count tips. They did surprisingly well tonight. For some reason, people really seem to like Artemis. Probably just because she's pretty. (Look, he's not blind, okay? If there's one thing he's an expert in, it's pretty girls.)

Wally seriously debates keeping more money for himself, but he knows how strict Dudley can be with this stuff. And so he deals the money into two equal piles and calls Artemis over to pick one for herself. Her high ponytail has slid down to the nape of her neck, and he resists the urge to tug on it.

"You gotta consider putting this into a bun or something," he nags instead. "You're gonna get hair all in the ice cream."

She turns to glare at him as she pockets her cash. "Hasn't happened yet."

"Not that you know of," says Wally. "I'm just saying.

"Yeah. Well, try getting this much hair into a bun," she points to her ponytail. "Doesn't work that great."

"Uh, cut it?"

"Oh, wow, never thought of that, Wall-Man!"

"Okay, jeez. Just an idea." He wonders why she's so attached to it. "Hey, by the way, are you actually blonde? Like, you dye your hair, right?"

"'Scuse me?"

Whoops. "Well, I mean, it's just so… like, blonde. "

She stares at him, her gaze bordering on concerned. He thinks she's trying to count his brain cells or something. He doesn't appreciate it. After a moment she sighs, a defeated sound. "I'll just… let you decide that one on your own," she relents.

They're done for the night, so she gives him a halfhearted wave over her shoulder as she exits the store. In Wally's opinion, it looks more dismissive than anything else.

When he turns to put his own money into his pocket, he notices a single blonde hair on the counter.

Right.


As usual, thanks for reading! I've got some longer chapters coming up. Again, I'm really not trying to stress myself out with long chapters like I normally do.