Time clicked very slowly at the store. It was an unusually slow day, not a whole lot of people were doing their grocery shopping. Which was fine by me, it would give me a chance to hang around.
Well, to clean out my station a bit and look at Celina from behind.
Okay, I can do this, I set myself up. Just ask her out, just a cup a coffee, nothing to big, just do it.
I took a deep breath and called out to her. "Hey, Celina?"
Celina turned around and I could've sworn my heart was skipping a beat. Her flowing raven black hair swayed over her shoulder when she turned to look at me with her bright emerald green eyes.
"Oh…" She hesitantly tried to guess my name. "Damian?"
"No...It's Darren," I corrected her.
"Ah," she nodded, moving her bangs out of her eyes. Gosh darn it she was so damn cute! "Sorry, I'm still new and haven't learned anyone else's names by heart yet."
"Oh, it's okay," I chuckled nervously. Go on, ask her. "Do you want to get some coffee after work" It's so simple. I opened my mouth…
And nothing...Nothing came out!
I stood there with my mouth gaping open, trying to say those nine words was like chewing peanut brittle. I just ended up looking like a fish out of water.
"Um...okay…" She mouthed before turning back to her cash register.
I ended up face palming myself.
Idiot! Now she thinks I'm some creep. I groaned in misery before leaning against the monitor, shaking my head.
"Man, you suck!"
I jumped with a shout before turning to Steve who was literally laying on top of the conveyer, eating a bag of potato chips.
"Get off of there!" I hissed at him, trying to shoo him off. Trying to block many wandering eyes watching him acting like a fool.
Steve laughs as he hopped off. "Oh lighten up, she's a cutie." He teasingly stuck his tongue out. "If you don't' ask her out, I will."
"Please don't," I groaned, rubbing my forehead.
"It's easy. Just play it cool." Steve chuckled, popping a chip in his mouth. Seriously? He's giving me advice on asking a girl out?
Then again, from the stories he told me about. The girls he met and went to bed with...he might have a point.
I glared at him holding the chips instead. "Are you going to pay for that?"
Before Steve could say, Celina tapped on my shoulder.
I turned around to face her. "Oh, yes?" I nervously asked. I could feel Steve's eyes staring at the back of my skull, mentally egging my to do something now she gotten my attention.
"Um, can you help me fix the register? I got a customer here and it just went ka-poot on me." She thumbed at her machine.
Steve then clasp on my shoulders, roughly squeezing them. "Of course he could!" He answered for me before shoving me forward. "Go get her, tiger." He whispered to me.
Asshole.
I sighed at him before looking at Celina with a soft smile. "Sure."
"Oh thank you!" She cheered before leading me to the register.
I walked over to the machine, giving it a once over. "Hmm, what seemed to be the problem?" I asked her.
"I tried scanning the customer's items but it wouldn't scan." she pointed at the items on the conveyor belt: A bag of skittles, a large chunk of meat wrapped from the deli area, two tall liters of pop and guitar strings.
The only thing missing was the customer.
"She went to the restroom real fast." Celina explained.
"Huh," I narrowed at the weird choice of items before grabbing the bag of candy and scanned the price tag on it. It went beep and read it. "I guess you weren't scanning it right. Don't worry, it happens to the best of us."
"Oh, thank you, Darren." She then gave me a hug from behind.
My heart nearly exploded from my chest from close contact!
Then I heard a giggle that stopped all that.
"Wow, getting a boner from a hug? And right in front of a kid? Nice job, slick." My eyes looked over the monitor and saw Nyx standing there. This time instead of bright blue hair, her hair was purple with pink highlights streaking across. Her rocker attire was still very prominent with her eyepatch on, now it had a rose design on it.
Steve bursted out laughing from behind and my face turn bright red from embarrassment. Celina quickly backed off from me, her face was red as well.
Nyx giggled, covering her mouth as she watched my reaction. Before I could snap at her, she pointed at her items. "I am on a tight schedule today so if you please ring me up?"
Ok, this brat was getting on my last damn nerves.
I took over Celina's register and quickly rang the kid's items up and put them on the bags. I saw the price on the chuck of meat, over two hundred bucks! There was no way this kid could-
She put down two hundred bucks exactly on the counter nonchalantly before getting her items. "Pop's job pays good." She giggled before getting her things. "Thank you, Mr. Shan." she said my last name as a joke before taking off.
"H-hey, wait up!" Steve tosses his chip bag aside and ran after her out the door.
I grumbled a curse underneath my breath. "That kid…"
"She's adorable isn't she?" Celina giggled. "She was just joking."
"I got a feeling she wasn't."
Just as I gotten back to my station, Steve ran back in, face all red and breathing heavily. Alarmed, I ran over to meet up with him at the doors.
"Steve?! Hey, what's wrong?" I asked him, he was trying to catch a breath. This was very, very alarming. I could tell in his left hand he was holding something.
"You...you would not believe what Nyx...what she gave me…" He said, breathing heavily, gasping for air. "Oh shit, that kid can run, gimme a sec." He leaned against the sliding doors.
"What? What did she gave you?" I asked him.
"S-she told me that the reason...her and her old man are here was to see a show but he got called to work and….dude this is…"
"What? What is it?" I asked, my voice risen up a few octaves.
He held out his hand and opened them. "Look familiar?" Steve breathlessly grinned.
Once I looked at his hand, my heart just dropped dead.
Green and black scraps of paper, looking like tickets in his hands…
With the words CIRQUE DU FREAK written across in red lettering.
"Nyx got herself a ticket and she wanted us to go!"
Next thing I knew, everything was spinning and everything went totally black.