UPDATED 3/8/23
It's another gray morning and a start to an already wasted day.
Joe gives him as look as he notices the red and blue bruises on his face but neither men say a word. Percy is grateful that Joe doesn't pry. He knows that Joe trusts him to do his work diligently in any circumstance, and that's the only thing that Percy needs.
His face aches as he squints from avoidance of the sun, and his knuckles hurt every time he has to make a turn on corners. He didn't quite remember who had it worse of the two fights. But it didn't matter as it was to each their own damages. He also noticed he had a cut from sliced through his eyebrow from glass and this morning he bid his eyebrow hair goodbye.
He doesn't think his week could get any worse from here. But somehow it seemed like life always found a way to screw things up.
He comes back from his third delivery to see that the doors of the van were wide open and the crates inside have drastically lessened. He spots the culprits move several into a different van a few blocks out to his left. Had nobody, in broad daylight, seen that this was an obvious break-in and thought to stop them? He really had to give them the balls for this one.
"HEY!" Percy calls out. They see him and scurry along and Percy shuts the van back doors and does the same. He guns his engine as he hops in. However, as he pulls out from his spot and places his foot on the accelerator, he hears crashing in the back of his van.
"Shit!" he quickly kills the engine and gets out of the car to inspect what happened, and he curses himself for not checking the handle of the van before he took off. Whoever had stolen the crates they look also had opened every other crate, sabotaged the items, and also broke one of the handles and hinges of the van. A case of wine had spilled and created one huge glass mess on the asphalt. Loaves of bread were spewed everywhere and stomped on. There were jars of product spilled amongst the wine. Joe was not going to like this at all.
Percy just stood there in shock as he tried to contemplate what the hell he should do before tying the back door handles together securely with the rope from under the passenger seat, getting in the car and deciding to complete the deliveries of what he had left, then go back to the warehouse so he could report to Joe about what happened.
Joe wasn't very pleased to say the very least. "You didn't see them coming?"
"No, I was in the store helping them settling their crates in their freezer."
"How long does it take for you to do that? You and I both know that even then you'd be back at the van within five minutes." Joe's brows furrow. "Look, this is too much of a damage for me to look over."
"I'm sorry, Joe, I—"
"Hand over your van keys."
"What? Wait, Joe, c'mon—"
"Sorry, kid. You carried around enough alcohol to supply a store for half a month and others that I need to calculate later out of my own pocket. I need to fix the van too 'cause of you. Should've been more vigilant."
"Joe—"
"Hand it over."
Percy dug into his pockets and handed over the keys to the company van over to Joe. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"It's worth half my income, kid," he shoved the keys into his pocket and gave him a look. "Check your mailbox for an invoice this month. I'm sorry, but it's too much to forgive."
Joe closed the door to the truck, pursed his lips, then turned his back and headed to the warehouse. Great. Now Percy was without a job and the rent was due next week with a couple hundred short that the rest of the job would cover, and now he had to pay for the damage whatever Joe was going to ask of him.
"Shit."
;;;
From deep Queens to midtown Manhattan takes forever. He had to hop the subway because he doesn't even have enough money to pay for the ride. Silas just took him in without a word upon seeing Percy's face and took him to the back of the store where there was Silas' desk and served him up a sandwich and a soda. He sees some avocado, which was courteous. He saw that Silas even put in a little pink straw. Percy couldn't tell if Silas was humoring him or genuinely trying to lift his spirit.
"So you gonna tell me about what happened to your face?"
Percy started on his food. He was surprised that it went in at all with all the shock of being fired and all, but he was hungry from the long ride. "I got fired."
"Did Joe do that to you?" Silas looked incredulous. "What'd you fuck up?"
"No, Joe did not. This is from a different event." Percy waved it off and articulated further, munching on his food. "But I got fired because some punks broke into the van and stole crates of alcohol that I needed to deliver over to a few bars and stores throughout the city. I'm fucked. I think he's going to invoice me for damage and stolen goods, and I really don't have that kind of dough right now." Percy ran his fingers through his hair, obviously stressed.
"Dude, relax," Silas pats him on the back in a brotherly way. "I got an extra shift you can cover that I can pay you for, and I have a buddy that could possibly hook you up with a job. Let me talk to him and I'll let you know."
"Thanks man, what's the shift you want me to cover?"
"The students here keep asking me if I'll keep up shop overnight so I'll let you try it out. It'll be from twelve to six. You game?"
"Yes, thankyou."
"What are you going to do for the rest of the day?"
Percy lightly kicks the leg of the wooden desk and contemplates what he could do for the rest of his day until his food-paid shift. "I mean I can hang out here, but I actually gotta return that book. You got anything you want me to return for you?"
"Nah, usually I won't need to return anything until the semester ends. I'm on a paid loan."
"They have paid loans?" Percy shook his head. "Why the university won't just give you textbooks when they're sitting on shitloads of money, I will never understand."
"Me neither."
;;;
Percy walked over to the university library not far off from the bodega. It took about two minutes which was great because Percy's legs felt like jello from his nerves settling down. The bag on his back felt heavy but he was grateful that the thieves didn't think about breaking into the front seat and stealing his personal belongings. He didn't know what he would've done if they also stole his wallet that had his library card.
"It's overdue." The girl that he vaguely recognizes, but can't quite pinpoint from where, hands him over the book and looks at him grimly. "By six hours. You didn't have the receipt with you? Our textbook overdues charge fifty bucks by the hour."
Fifty by the hour! "That's three hundred bucks!" He could've bought the damn book with that money. "You've got to be kidding me."
She seemed a little startled by his outburst. He figures she's probably getting all the wrong ideas due to his bruises and cuts. "Don't worry, the first offense is free." The blonde said softly and offers him a receipt of return. "Just don't forget the next or you'll have to pay your dues."
"Thanks." Percy deadpanned, clearly very annoyed at the system and at himself for forgetting the proper due time. He's never done this before. But then again, it's been a while since his life had been this shitty. "Do you guys have a reminder system for book dues? I usually don't miss them but I haven't been having the best day today."
"Sure, we have an email system. For students they're automatic but for alien visitors we have a form you can fill out. Let me go get it for you."
"Thanks," he grumbles. This university had to be out of their damn minds if they thought that they were asking fifty an hour from him for an overdue textbook without at least notifying him.
The blonde comes back with a tablet and opens up a PDF file of a document. She kindly explained to him which ones to fill. "You can take a seat over there if you'd like."
"No, it's okay. It shouldn't take me long," Percy squinted as he read the document. He looked up at her observing him and briefly wondered, "Say, weren't you at the bodega yesterday a few blocks out there? Didn't you buy ginger snaps and salsa?"
"Oh," She said sheepishly. "That was me, yes."
Percy nodded and kept on writing his information on the tablet given by gingersnap-salsa girl. "You a student here or something?"
"Yes."
"What do you study?" Percy briefly wondered whether she and Silas were acquainted outside of the bodega, if they were at all. But since it was such a huge school, he doubted it.
"Journalism at CAS." Silas studied something else.
"CAS?"
"College of Arts and Sciences."
"Oh," Percy continued to fill out the form as he nodded his head on the new university information. "How you like it?"
"It's okay," she tucked her hair behind her ear and then continued to pick on her nails. "I'm on my second year so... I guess it's not that bad."
"Second year? Then how old are you supposed to be?" He wondered out loud. He realized he said it out loud and apologized. "Sorry, it's just I never really went to college, so I don't really know the system."
"No worries, I'm twenty-two." She answered. "Although I'm a little older than my peers. The usual age is nineteen-ish."
"Any reason for the setback?"
"Just.." she paused, looking like as if she was contemplating on choosing her words carefully. "Family problems, I guess."
"Oh," Percy signed the bottom of the document with a date. "Sorry I asked."
She took the tablet from him and signed a portion of it herself. "No, it's okay. Your notification system should be up within the hour. It will go via text message as you indicated on the form. You prefer text over email?"
"Yes."
"Alright then you're set. Anything else I can do for you?"
"Actually, yeah," Percy fumbled around for his phone in his pocket and opened the notepad app. He handed it over to her. "I'm looking for this book."
She squinted briefly before she seemed to recognize it. She nodded. "Yeah I can get this for you. It's on the fourth floor, so you could come with if you'd like."
"Sure," Percy accepted his phone back from her and gratefully followed her.
"Hey, Stasie?" The blonde caught the attention of the Asian girl working next to her. "I'm going to guide him to a book on the fourth floor, would you mind?"
"No not at all," the girl did not cease to type on her computer. "Go on ahead."
"Thanks."
The blonde walked around from the front desk over to his side and gestured to the elevators. He caught up with her fast pace. "Sorry for my outburst earlier."
"It's okay. Fifty bucks an hour is absurd, everyone here knows this." She explained as she pressed the button for the elevator. "We've been trying to get it down for a while but the higher-ups won't budge."
"Unfortunate for the financially non-endowed."
She softly laughed. "Surely."
The rest of the trip to the fourth floor and until she found the book was met with silence. She picked up the book from its rightful shelf and handed it to him. "I've got to say though, you're an alien visitor. What brings you to read a book that's one of the famous requirements for a philosophy class?"
"Oh is that what it is?" Percy flipped through the thick paperback book, now curious that Silas had him read a collection of philosophical essays. "My buddy is having me read it so we can discuss it. He's the guy that owns the bodega."
"Oh, Silas," she nodded. So they did know each other. "He was in one of my finance classes last semester."
"Yeah, great guy. He took that so he could learn to manage his business better."
"That's admirable." She smiled. "Well that's the book. Do you need anything else or are you all set? Can I help check this out for you?"
"I'm all set and I think I'll hang out here a while, thank you. I don't think I caught your name?"
"Annabeth."
"Percy. Thanks a lot for your help. Again, sorry for yelling."
"It's really no problem. I'm gonna go now but if you need to find anything we have two student librarians on every floor. I'm sure at least one of them can assist you." she looked at his face and looked down on the floor. "We also have a first aid kit around if you need it."
Percy touched his cut on his eyebrow, now slightly insecure about it. "Thanks Annabeth, I'll see you around."
She hung her head and the curls of her ponytail bounced around as she spun around to head to leave the premise. Percy watched her go for a brief moment before he decided on which seat he wanted to take around here to check out the new book that Silas wanted him to see. He took a random spot and began to read, wondering philosophically why someone needed that much salsa for a bag of gingersnaps, briefly distracted from the harsh realities of his world.