Chapter 15 Bob Makes it Better

"BRATTY, GET OUT OF BED!"

Jackie groaned. It was Saturday; couldn't she sleep in? Couldn't there be one day of the week when she could rest and recuperate? It was bad enough that her aunt and uncle had taken away all of her money. She didn't need them to ruin her days off too.

"BRATTY, I"M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN!"

Jackie's heart rate picked up. With a speed that was impressive for someone in the process of waking up, she got out of bed. She briefly stopped by the mirror to straighten out her hair, remembering the one time when Aunt Minty had berated her for looking like a slob. Once she was satisfied with the way she looked (but still worried that her aunt wouldn't agree) she ran down to the dining room. Aunt Minty sat at the dining room table, with her forest green hair done up in a french braid. Her emerald green eyes bored into Jackie's soul, making her feel like a mouse that her aunt wished to exterminate.

"Good morning, Aunt Minty." Jackie turned toward the kitchen door. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Eggs," Aunt Minty said. She didn't say how she wanted the eggs to be done, which made Jackie's heart pump. If her aunt didn't specify, that meant that Jackie was forced to guess, and eight times out of ten her guess was incorrect. She swallowed a lump, telling herself to just play it safe and make the eggs over hard. Aunt Minty typically enjoyed them that way.

So, Jackie got right to work. As she stood over the stove making the (admittedly delicious-smelling) eggs, she thought of Bob. She still hadn't told her aunt and uncle about him, and the fact that she hadn't caused a knot to form in her stomach. She could already see the look on Aunt Minty and Uncle Bryce's faces. She could already feel the disappointment and sadness emanating off of Bob when she told him that she couldn't see him anymore. Oh man…

"Bratty, what's taking you so long? You're making breakfast, not remodeling the kitchen!"

"Coming!" Jackie put the eggs onto a plate, hoping beyond any semblance of hope that they weren't undercooked. She scurried over to her aunt, who gave her one of the most impatient looks in the world. Jackie was used to this, however. She laid the plate down, and Aunt Minty looked at it with a raised bushy green eyebrow.

"How were these prepared?"

"Over hard," Jackie responded, trying her best to not shake too much.

Aunt Minty's eyebrow didn't go down. Looking at the eggs with a wrinkled snout, she picked up her fork and knife and cut into one of them. Both she and her niece were mightily disappointed to see runny egg yolk.

"You're a fucking liar," Aunt Minty grumbled. She turned toward Jackie. "Do you need to spend time locked in the basement again?"

Jackie's breath caught in her throat when that was asked. "No! No, of course not!" She tried to get her breathing back under control. "I… I'll try my best to do better next time."

All Aunt Minty did in response to this statement was sniff. To Jackie's relief, she ate the eggs quietly. She didn't give Jackie the evil eye, she didn't make anymore comments about the quality of the food. She just ate, which Jackie counted as one of the biggest blessings all week.

As her aunt ate, Jackie considered things. On her days off, Aunt Minty and Uncle Bryce usually made her work around the house. On the bright side, this meant the place was all clean all of time. On the downside, it had a really bad effect on Jackie's psyche. Not one speck of dust should be present at all; her aunt and uncle expected complete and total perfection. And sure, the fact that they didn't clean alongside their niece was… questionable, to say the least. But even still, whenever Jackie cleaned, she would always experience a round of the worst kind of paranoia.

Thinking about this, Jackie realized that this wasn't how she wanted to spend her day. She wanted to spend time with Bob, be around him and appreciate the little things in life. He was a much more pleasant individual than her guardians could ever hope to be; spending a Saturday with him would be a dream come true. The only problem was she couldn't.

Or could she? Jackie thought about this for a little bit before a tiny smile formed on her face. Trying her best to hide her joy, she spoke to her aunt.

"Um… I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you this yesterday." She sweat, all at once feeling mightily worried that this lie wouldn't be convincing. "One of my coworkers is sick with the flu, so they'll be out for a week." Aunt Minty stared at Jackie with her fork in her mouth. "Which… that means that I need to go into work today and tomorrow. You know, to help make up for lost time."

Aunt Minty looked mad. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" she practically screamed.

Despite wanting to cower at the tone of her voice, Jackie still continued on with the lie. "Like I said. I forgot."

Aunt Minty shook her head. "Unbelievable. You are just unbelievable, Bratty. You know, I question why I decided to take you in in the first place. With behavior like this, it's clear that no sane person would want you."

Jackie felt a pang, the words stinging like a stab in the heart. However, she was too far along to back out now. "I really am sorry." She forced on a smile. "But hey! On the bright side, you'll make more money!"

Aunt Minty paused when that was said. Her anger didn't disappear completely, but there was another emotion that accompanied it. A greed of some sort, a desire for cold hard cash. Jackie knew… just knew that her aunt couldn't and wouldn't say no to this. She valued money way more than Jackie's well being. She told her that all the time.

Eventually, Aunt Minty sighed. "Fine. You can go to work." She took another bite of her "Over hard" eggs, the yolk running down her chin. "Just make sure you get home at an actually decent hour, okay Bratty?"

Jackie somehow managed to smile. "I most certainly will." With that, she walked over to the door. Sure, did she feel bad about tricking her aunt in this fashion? Ehh, maybe a little bit? It kind of proved Aunt Minty's statement (that Jackie was a liar) correct, which didn't make Jackie feel good at all. And even aside from that, she knew her aunt would get suspicious when she got a paycheck that wasn't any bigger than the paychecks that Jackie usually brought home. By all means, this wasn't a perfect plan in the slightest.

But Jackie didn't care. She could deal with any of this potential issues in the future, after she spent two awesome days with her boyfriend. She needed the time. She needed the relaxation. But above all else, she needed the love. And she wasn't going to let anything get in the way of her getting it.

…

Standing in front of the General Store of Generalness, Jackie took a deep breath. She entered with the timidity level of a deer and the volume level of a mouse, all at once wondering how this day was going to go if Bob was at work. She shook her head though, telling herself that this wasn't worth worrying about. If needed, she wouldn't spend a lot of time distracting Bob. She didn't need to; just being in his presence was pretty much guaranteed to keep her mood up.

So, she walked into the store. She smiled when she saw her boyfriend manning the register. He looked so happy and professional, two emotions that Jackie never would've imagined could exist in the same person at the exact same time. Bob must love his job. Man, did Jackie envy him.

"Hi Bob," she said when she walked up to him.

Bob's eyes lit up like a fireworks display. "Hey Jackie. How are you?"

Jackie smiled. "I'm doing good." She looked into his eyes. While Jackie had received countless compliments from Bob for her purple eyes, she didn't think his bluish gray ones looked too bad either. Especially since they often looked at her with the most sincere and purest forms of joy and love. "I wanted to see you." She curled a strand of her hair back. "I thought that could help bring my mood up."

Bob's face turned crimson. "You are just the sweetest thing ever." His smile grew bigger. "And if you have the time, I would love to be around you too."

Man. Those comments were extremely different from the ones she got from her family. So much so, in fact, that they were in hostile competition with each other. They pointed two very different realities of who exactly Jackie Sidestep was. Jackie didn't know which one was exactly true, but she would be damned of she didn't say that Bob's words made her day every single time he spoke them.

Jackie smiled. "Sounds good." She looked around. "I'll window shop for a little bit. You know, so you can get more work done."

Bob nodded, and Jackie started making her way around the store. Bags of cookies. Beautiful scarves. Video games that had just come out and were practically begging her to play them. If Jackie even had so much as a penny to call her own, these would be the things she would buy. She would indulge in the beautiful flavor of the sweets. She would spend hours within a game, getting emersed in a world that wasn't hers, could never be hers, but one that welcomed her with open arms regardless.

She stopped, looking at the games. She put her fingers on the glass door, wondering how amazing it would be to play them. They had to be amazing, they just had to be. The realities they presented, as dangerous as they were with all the monsters and villains, had to be amazing too. At least, more amazing than the reality that Jackie had been forced to endure for the past fourteen years.

"You okay?"

Jackie did a double take and looked over to see Bob by her side. "Yeah," she said with a nod. "I'm okay." She pulled her hand away from the door. "Just fantasizing."

Bob chuckled. "You know, maybe I could get you one of those games as a birthday gift." His eyes sparkled, as they so often did when he was around her. "How does that sound?"

Jackie's heart welled with warmth. "That would be really nice. Thank you, Bob."

"Of course." There was a pause, and Bob looked like he was about to kiss her. However, before he did, he went back to the register. While Jackie logically knew that kissing (or any other public displays of affection) were probably not permitted due to Bob being on the clock, it still hurt a little bit.

Oh well. She followed Bob back to the register, figuring that she had done more than enough window shopping. For what was more or less the rest of the day, she sat in a chair near the register and watched Bob as he worked. When he needed to stock the shelves, he did so with lightning-fast speed. When he talked to the customers, he did it with the type of bright smile that only the most pure-hearted could possibly wear. Man, he was just… wow. While Jackie wasn't bad at her own job, she did see her boyfriend as a type of role model; a template that any employee could and really should follow.

As such, watching him do all this stuff was really a joy for Jackie. While she definitely would've preferred to do something more intimate and fun on her day out of the house, she didn't mind watching him in the least. What made it even better was that, when it got close to closing time and Bob had to close up, he looked at her in a way she had never been looked at before. A way that ignited some sort of innocence in her heart that she had believed for the longest time had simply been destroyed.

Bob continued smiling when he walked up to her. "Well. Now that my work day is over…" he held out his hand. "I'd say that now is a good time to do something fun."

Jackie smiled back at him. "And to that I say…" she took his hand and stood up. "Lead the way."

With a laugh, the couple exited the shop. Jackie immediately noticed the sunset, a collection of colors and textures so beautiful and awe inspiring that no mortal being even deserved the opportunity to look upon them. They played with her eyes, making her feel as though she was looking at the most special kind of spectacle. She was thinking this right at the moment that Bob leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

"What was that for?" she asked with a smile.

"Nothing," Bob said. "I just wanted to kiss you now that I'm off the clock."

Jackie's heart melted again. She gave him a kiss too, appreciating everything in a way that she never had before. The couple walked together in silence for a little bit, soaking up each other's presence like two lovestruck sponges.

"You know, I hear that there is this ice cream place on the edge of the town," Bob said. "Would you like to go there?"

"Sure!" Jackie responded. She thought about this before giggling. "I think it'd be more fun to fly there though."

"Well," said Bob, "that can certainly be arranged." He swept Jackie off her feet and rose into the air. Jackie actually giggled as they flew. The town looked so small. The place that she lived in, the place that she always thought was so big and overwhelming, now looked miniscule. Maybe her problems were miniscule too.

It was almost disappointing when she and Bob landed. But, on the bright side, they managed to get their ice cream pretty quickly. Once Bob had his Rocky Road cone, and Jackie had her pistachio cup, they walked over to a table situated right next to the building.

"Oh man," Bob said after his first bite. "This is so good…" he took another bite… "that it's a crime."

Jackie laughed and ate her own ice cream. As she did, she kept her eyes on the sunset. Oranges and pinks looked like they had been spilled on and then smoothed over the most amazing, dynamic canvas she had ever seen. Coupled with the taste of the ice cream, as well as the presence of such an amazing guy like Bob, the whole scene just felt perfect. Jackie could almost forget about the fight with her aunt earlier that day.

"Hey Jackie," Bob said as he wiped melted rocky road off of his chin. "Have you seen Aria recently?"

Jackie paused. "Uh, not really." She took another bite. "Have you?"

"I have. I saw her yesterday. She seems to be making good progress with reaching her goal, which is nice." Bob frowned. "Although, she seemed a little… down when I saw her. Like something was bothering her. I didn't ask what, because I didn't know if it was my business, but… well, it's still concerning."

"Yeah." Jackie sat still for a minute, all while thinking about this, As she did, a desire that she had previously repressed popped up in her mind. It was the same desire she had tried to ask Aria about before, when Bob had bought the peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. Before, she had brushed it off, telling herself that it wasn't the time or the place to ask. But now… now she actually wanted to.

"Hey Bob?" She took another bite as Bob looked at her. "Feel like paying Aria a visit?"

Bob smiled. "Sure!" He licked at his cone. "Wouldn't hurt."

Jackie nodded. Hopefully today she could actually muster up the courage to ask Aria about what she wanted.