It was mornings such as these that made Chloe approach the ugly white concrete grocery store slowly, filled with a sense of dread that could only mean that it was, in fact, that single, tortorous day of the month during which the Employee of the Month would be announced.
To Niel, Chloe was sure it meant possibilities - finally a chance for her tall, scrawny coworker to climb another rung of the ladder of success. To Tessa, Chloe figured it didn't matter much; Tessa never seemed to be interested in anything, really. To Nathan and Mitchell, the two "class clown" type figures of the Godric's Groceries staff, Chloe was fairly sure it meant a new target to humiliate: it seemed to be a tradition for the two to surround the Employee of the Month with embarassing guffaws that were not only obnoxious but also fairly long-lasting (when Nathan and Mitchell started laughing, it took a lot to get them settled down).
To Chloe herself, however, Employee of the Month day meant that she would wake up with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. It meant that she would skip breakfast, feeling nauseous, but even more dread would accumulate in her aching belly anyway, like small grains of dust adding to a dust monster. Employee of the Month day meant Chloe could never win: on one hand, if she didn't win the award, that was just another unwelcome reminder of Chloe's own worthlessness (Chloe had never won a proper award, even as a young child in primary school, and especially not as a teenager in secondary school); on the other hand, however, if Chloe won the Employee of the Month award, Nathan and Mitchell (who Chloe secretly admired for their harmless pranks and hilarious commentary on just about anything their stuffy, no-nonsense manager said) would undoubtedly make fun of her shamelessly, and then...well, then she'd never become their friend.
Either way, Chloe felt that she was trapped: worthlessness or lack of friendship. It was a vicious cycle, and Chloe wished more than anything that she didn't have to go through it.
"Just for the summer, Chloe," said the brunette to herself as she pedaled towards the automatic glass doors of Godric's Groceries as slowly as she possibly could without falling off of her bike. When she finally arrived, she chained her bike (slowly) and headed to the automatic doors (even more slowly).
The glass doors flew open as soon as Chloe stepped on the entrance mat outside. Welcoming me to my doom, thought Chloe miserably to herself. She took a moment to breathe more rhythmically and started the journey to the staff room.
When she arrived, most of the staff was already assembled and sitting in the hard, plastic chairs that fill the staff room. Only Nathan and Mitchell were missing. Tessa was clipping her nails in the back corner and popping her gum loudly, obnoxiously.
"-like to thank you all for your hard work," Dustin the Manager was saying as Chloe entered the room. Dustin shot her a glare as she took her seat by the door, and continued: "So you all should give yourselves a nice pat on the back..."
Nathan and Mitchell entered just in time for that, and went around the room, patting everybody on the back. "Fabulous work this past month, really!" they exclaimed to each passing person.
"Chloe, my dear!" exclaimed Mitchell upon reaching the small brunette.
She sighed. "Hey, Mitchell."
"It's impoossible to tell you how fabulously perfect you've been this past month," he replied, puffing his chest up. At the front of the room, Dustin was trying in vain to restore order to the now unattentive room.
Nathan joined Mitchell. "You're positively the best cashier we've ever had in all our twenty thousand million years of business!" he said, his voice rising with each syllable. He winked. "You keep bringing back that group of randy teenagers, doesn't she, Mitch?"
"Right she does, Nathaniel," said Mitch with a nod. He pretended to stroke his chin. "And...that black-haired bloke..."
"Which one, Mitch? Be specific; Chloe's got loads of black-haired admirers."
"And blonde ones."
"And red-haired ones."
"Even a blue-haired bloke I think."
Chloe's face was, by that point, undeniably loud in its shade of red (none of what they'd said was true, except for the part about the randy group of teenage boys and a single black-haired admirer named James), and she was on the verge of berating the two mischief-makers when Niel stood up at the opposite end of the room, stomped his foot aggressively and shouted one word: "QUIET!"
The room went dead silent. Even Dustin, standing at the front of the room, was looking at Neil in fright.
Neil blinked and went red in the face. "Sorry," he muttered, and not ten seconds after the word was out of his mouth, everyone sprung back to reality. Dustin cleared his throat at the front of the room as Nathan and Mitch sat down in the seats next to Chloe.
"As I was saying before the, um, interruption" - here, Dustin's gaze flickered to the dynamic duo next to Chloe - "I'd like to thank all of you for your hard work this month...and congratulate you all...so...congratulations, I guess."
Nathan and Mitchell applauded loudly.
Dustin plowed on: "And even though you all performed terrifically in your duties, there is one person in particular who went above and beyond..."
Chloe's throat dropped into her stomach: 'above and beyond'? She certainly hadn't done that. 'Above and beyond' what? Chloe didn't understand.
"...I'd like to present our Employee of the Month, Niel Karis!"
Niel smiled widely as he shuffled up to the front of the room and Chloe, feeling neither worthless nor completely relieved, clapped her small, pale hands together loudly again and again.
James still hadn't heard from Chloe.
It had been three days since she had accepted his offer for the date, and he was beginning to feel like a needy girlfriend. This couldn't be healthy. He descended the beautifully crafted wooden staircase and entered his mother's emmaculate kitchen, which was empty. James was grateful for the emptiness of the kitchen. It seemed suitable for the room to be empty when he himself was feeling that way.
"Mommy," he groaned after sitting himself down on one of the dark green bar stools in front of the counter. He recieved no reply. His stomach growled. "Mommy," he called again, but again there was no answer, and James felt it would be foolish to call for her again. He stood and headed out without any specific destination in mind.
Though he hadn't known in on the way there, his feet (curse those damn feet of his) had brought him to the one place he didn't want to be (or so he thought). The light shone through the neon red of the lit up Godric's Groceries sign. James wondered briefly why they would keep it lit up during the daytime.
Alright, thought James to himself with a huff. His feet had brought him to the store, but he wasn't going to be betrayed by them again. He didn't want to enter the bloody store and he certainly didn't want to see anyone in it - especially Chloe, thought James angrily. If she wasn't interested, fine - but she didn't have to go lead him on for weeks at a time, with her stupid laugh and her stupid sliver of skin and her stupid face and her stupid eyes and her stupid...everything, really.
James ran a tan hand through his shiny black hair and puffed his cheeks out, upset with himself. She was probably just busy, and here he was, criticising her very being. Merlin, she was messing him up.
And Merlin's baggy jeans, she was beautiful, he had to notice, as she exited the store, her chestnut hair flowing gracefully behind her perfectly framed face as an abrupt gust of wind hit her. Her shirt flew up a bit, once again revealing to James that wonderful sliver of her slightly bronzed stomach, and her jeans fit her snugly, low on her hips as she swung her legs past each other to take each step forward. He could stare at her all day...
She stopped suddenly, just a few paces in front of the tree against which James leaned casually as he gazed longingly at her. He didn't realise until it was too late that she was approaching him.
"James?" she asked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Hi," breathed James.
"What are you doing here?"
What was he doing there? That was a damn good question. "I'm not so sure, actually," said James with a sheepish grin. He ran a hand through his raven hair.
An awkward silence filled the distance between the two. Chloe looked down at the ground. James tried to think of something to say.
"So what did you..." James started to speak just as Chloe did as well, and they both clamped their mouths shut and laughed awkwardly.
"This is quite awkward," said Chloe conversationally.
"Yeah," agreed James. "Sorry."
"I should go."
"Why?"
Chloe hesitated. "I dunno. Do you want me to go?"
"I don't think I do." James gestured behind him. "Would you like to take a walk, Chloe?" he asked.
"Sure."
The two walked in mellow silence for a few minutes before James cleared his throat and asked, "so how are you today?"
"I'm alright, thanks. And yourself?"
"Perfectly wonderful, as a matter of fact."
"I wasn't Employee of the Month," said Chloe randomly.
James snorted. "Were you expecting to be?"
Chloe frowned. "It could happen!"
"Doubtful," said James. He didn't mean to get her upset, but she looked so good when she was angry...it was hard to resist.
Chloe huffed. "You never got back to me on that expiration date."
"My love for you will never expire," James repeated cheekily, grinning widely.
"Well mine expired when you decided it'd be fun to piss me off, James," she said angrily. She stepped toward him until they were a mere couple of inches away from each other and poked her finger into his chest like she'd seen done in movies countless times. "Why are you being so...so...why are you being so..."
When she was mad, James noticed, perfect creases appeared on Chloe's flawless forehead and her lower lip, pink and perfectly plump, stuck out a bit. When she was mad, she tensed up a bit, and her ordinarily brown eyes developed a greenish tinge, so slight but so beautiful...why hadn't he thought to make her mad before? When she was mad, Chloe was just so...she was just so...
He stepped even closer and Chloe's struggle for a word to describe James (and James' own internal struggle for a word to accurately describe Chloe) ended when his lips came crashing down to hers and Chloe's thin arms wrapped around his tanned neck instinctively. His muscular arms fell around her waist naturally, pulling her closer to him until the lock of the lips was broken and Chloe stared at James and James at Chloe, both of them speechless.
"Sorry," said James awkwardly. "You're irresistible when you're angry."
Chloe laughed breathlessly. "You haven't even taken me out on a date."
"It was sort of impulsive. Sorry," he repeated.
"No need to apologise," said Chloe lightly. "Just saying, you owe me a date."
"And I'm perfectly willing to follow through on that."
"Alright."
"Cool," said James.
Chloe blushed. "I have to go," she said adorably, tucking a strand of silky brown hair behind her perfect little ear.
James wanted to kiss her again, but stopped himself. "Bye then," he said.
"Er...bye, James." Chloe kissed him softly on the cheek and was off. She felt good. She wasn't Employee of the Month, and Nathan and Mitch hadn't paid any more attention to her than they normally did, but she felt good.
"Fucking hell," said James to himself when Chloe had gone. He ran a hand through his hair yet again. He had said it because he didn't know what else to say, but it felt good saying it, so he said it again. "That girl..." James trailed off with a sigh. "Fucking hell."
Hey! I know you probably all want to roast my head over a fire, but please try to restrain yourselves. Haha. I'm terribly sorry for how long this update took, but I've been so busy; school started up agian two weeks ago, and I've moved to a brand new school, so it's a lot different, and I've got homework and social issues and stuff...haha anyway. Thanks everyone who alerted/favourited/reviewed/any combo of those previously mentioned ! You all are motivating me to keep this story going. :) Oh also, I made this chapter longer than the others because I felt bad for how long the update took. Even though I don't think this was my best chapter, I hope you guys liked it!;D
HUGE thanks to my reviewers for chapter two: AshleyM15 (I hope you liked this chapter!), Rani Jashalithie (Your comments absolutely make my day!), lepetiterose (I'm so glad you liked it! I hope you keep reading!) and Megii of Mysteri OusStranger (I hope this was a bit better than the last chapter, haha)!
Reviews are better than Employees of the Month! :)
Love,
Clash.