The cold metal of the garbage bin sucked the heat from the back of Squidward's bald scalp. He peeled his eyes open and saw it was dark out. A single street light shone in the supermarket's parking lot with as much enthusiasm to match Squidward's. He shifted and stretched his legs a bit as he felt his knees beginning to ache.
"MISSSSTERRRR SQUIDWAAARD!" the booming voice amplified as it reverberated off the metal walls.
Squidward stiffly lifted himself a bit to peer in the bin, careful to not raise himself past the bridge of his nose. He scanned the interior but the only living thing he could spot among the refuse was a single nematode inching along an apple with a few bites taken from it.
"SpongeBob tells me you haven't lifted a finger to help find the pink one!"
Two sausage like appendages burst forth from an unopened box of tomatoes marked 'FRESH!' painting the interior in juicy red guts. Squidward was no blood spatter analyst, but he was sure he could have been fooled by the scene if he was.
The sausages opened to reveal opal like pupils. Their exaggerated dilation was unmistakably his penny-pinching boss, Mr. Krabs.
"Well..." Squidward muttered as he wiped the viscous juice off his face. "He's not wrong".
Krab's eye's narrowed. He was quite accustomed to the cephalopod's lifeless, blasé quips, but this also wasn't the reason he maintained his composure as he usually did at such comments. No. Krabs knew there was only one thing that motivated Squidward in times like these.
"I'll give you a raise"
"No you won't"
Squidward responded before Krabs could even finish the proposition. He knew Krab's go-to 'raise' scam all too well.
"You're right" Krabs relented
"Then..." he continued in a whisper "I'll give the boyo here time off. What'd you say to that?"
Squidward pretended to think about it for a while; he reveled in stringing his boss along on a hook. It gave him a false sense of power in a life where he had none.
"Three weeks" the squid shot back. The number wasn't something he had given much thought, in fact, he had just said the first number to pop in his head and three sounded like a nice round number.
"Two weeks" the crab responded weakly
Despite all but his eyes being concealed in the garbage, Squidward could tell his boss was just squirming like a little boy that'd been told he had to share his chocolate bar.
"Two weeks" Squidward agreed.
"Good! Now, help me find the sponge! I'm afraid I've lost the boy on my up here!"