The one where Glimmer is an exhausted gay

"Uuuuugh!"

If Glimmer slouched any farther, she'd have to fuse herself with the empty table she draped herself over, burying her face in her arms. She was tired and stressed, which had caused today to be one of those days where her fuse was at its shortest. Everything was terrible, plain and simple. From the moment she arrived at work today, everything had been nothing short of an absolute disaster.

They'd run out of banana nut muffins, and the newbie, some blonde, hardcore 'save the environment' guy who spoke like a surfer (apparently he knew her friend Perfuma?) make them in the kitchen, and boy did he make a mess of everything. There had been batter on the ceiling! Then she had to deal with customers who couldn't seem to do basic math and kept demanding why their total came up to nineteen dollars and refused to listen no matter how many times she explained it (thank God for Bow stepping in before she ended up throwing a cupcake at the woman's face). To top it off, the register didn't have any more ones in it and she didn't find out until there was a line of customers because all her customers before that moment had been using credit and debit cards, and no one else was available to watch the line while she ran back to the office to get some from the safe, which resulted in more cranky customers, which only made her mood worsen with each order.

She hated her job. Plain and simple. Who in their right mind would ever want to work customer service and enjoy it? Customers were terrible!

It only got worse, though, because of course it had to get worse. Of course Catra had to stop by with Scorpia during the lull Bright Moon's Bakery had finally gotten, when Glimmer didn't have either Adora or Bow to act as a buffer between her and the magicat, because they had to run over to another store to pick up more flour since the new guy somehow lost their last jumbo bag. How do you loose a bag of flour? How!?

But, ugh, just dealing with Catra is the worse. Glimmer absolutely hated that cocky grin she always got and the way she teased and flirted like it wasn't a big deal. She hated how self-centered and confident the woman was, like she was some kind of queen. And worst of all, as soon as she and Scorpia showed up, the first thing Catra asked? "Hey, Sparkles, Adora hiding out in the kitchen or something?"

It really shouldn't bother her nearly as much as it does. Catra and Adora have history, basically grew up together. Of course Catra would only come over to the mall's bakery to see Adora, she had no other reason to want to stop by. But it wasn't like Glimmer could actually be mad at Adora for it, either. Her best friend was oblivious to Catra's blatant flirting, or maybe she was just so used to it she didn't notice anymore, and she clearly didn't seem to realize that Catra only stopped by of her own volition to see her. And why wouldn't Catra do that? Adora was amazing. Adora was tall, strong and beautiful, she had a heart of gold and was a completely clueless dork.

Catra and Adora were probably going to get together at some point. They were both very attractive people, their personalities clashed, but complemented each other wonderfully, they had history and knew each other better than anyone else, and by the way they acted they clearly had a crush on each other but were too stubborn or clueless to make the first move—knowing them it was probably both. And the thought just bothered Glimmer so much more than it should.

It was completely reasonable to have a crush on Adora—it was impossible for anyone who liked women not to have a crush on her at some point. But Catra? For the love of God, Glimmer, you were supposed to have standards and good taste! Not that it even matters because you won't end up with either of the two girls you're crushing on. Go figure.

"Glimmer!" she tried not to show how excited she was to look up as Adora approached, dusted in flour and dough sticking to her uniform shirt. Bow was in tow, smiling just as much and not nearly as batter-covered as Adora. They slid into the seats across from her, smiles faltering to concern. "You okay? You look like you're trying to be one with the table."

"Because I am, my life goal has always been to become a table," Glimmer responded dryly and then shook her head. "I'm tired, stressed and if one more person starts giving me an unsolicited lecture on why our non-vegan products shouldn't be allowed, I'm going to punch someone."

Bow grimaced, "If you do that, you're going to get fired," he pointed out.

To which Glimmer could only give an empty laugh. "Yeah, like my mom's going to fire me," she rolled her eyes and sunk back against the pastel-pink table. "She fires me and Shadow Weaver will take my position as assistant manager. You know she doesn't want that."

"I'm sure it hasn't been that bad," Adora had no right to be so genuine and have such an amazing smile as she tried to cheer Glimmer up, no right at all. "Look, we just have two more hours of our shift, then we can go do something else. We can watch some movies and relax."

Glimmer finally found herself smiling a little. "That sounds fun, actually."

"Oooh, we can invite Catra, Scorpia and Entrapta to join us! The Best Friend Squad and the Super Pal Trio joint movie night!" Bow declared excitedly.

That… sounded less fun. But Glimmer forced herself to keep smiling. "I mean, if they're free, why not?" she relented. She didn't mind Scorpia, Entrapta might be a bit much at times, and Catra was… Catra. But, anything would be better than being stuck here any longer.

As much as she wanted to stay sitting and chatting with her friends, especially since they just got back, she knew she couldn't, or rather, shouldn't. Her break was going to be over soon, anyway. So Glimmer pushed herself from her seat and forced herself to put on her "Hello, Valued Customer!" smile as she made her way back to the counter before Shadow Weaver could slither out from nowhere and ask her in that annoying 'I'm being civil and at the same time demeaning you' voice if Glimmer was done with work because why else would she be sitting with her friends and chatting rather than working? Seriously, how had Adora put up with the woman for so long? How had her dad put up with her when he was a kid?

Customers were already pouring back into the bakery, as if somehow knowing Glimmer was now off break and available to torment. She forced her smile to stay even as the smell of burned cookies filled the air.