Chapter 23: Got The Job

Waking up to the sun shining on my eyes is not something I usually enjoy. Ever.

But now, waking up pressed against Aaron's chest, his arms wrapped around me and his smell filling up my nose, it's not entirely terrible.

I lift my head from where it was resting on Aaron, and blink slowly, trying to wake myself up.

It doesn't completely work, and I yawn, which causes Aaron to wake up and squint sleepily at me. He looks at my clock on my nightstand, and his eyes widen before his head turns back to mine, a sleepy smile gracing his lips. "I guess we're not going to school today, huh?"

"What?" My head snaps to the right to look at my clock and my own eyes widen. The clock says it's eight-twenty-seven, which means that I am an hour and twelve minutes late for school. I'm supposed to be in second period right now, which means that I completely skipped first period.

Which is not good, for obvious reasons.

I groan and drop my forehead back on Aaron, closing my eyes.

I feel his chest rumble underneath me, and the idea to hit him hard enough to leave a bruise crosses my mind, but I quickly forget about it when Aaron flips us over so he's hovering on top of me, supporting his weight on his hands that are resting by my head.

He smirks down at me, a suggestive twinkle in his eyes. "What do you say we don't go at all today and...do some things together instead?"

I nearly choke on air, my eyes wide, his words rendering me speechless because, yes, I totally want to do some things together with him. "You can't just say things like that," I manage to get out, my face still one of shock.

His smirk widens, and he drops from his hands to his forearms, bringing himself closer to me in the process. "You know you want to."

"I don't," I automatically deny. "Not even a little bit."

He winks at me and I internally swoon. Fuck me. "Sure you don't."

I roll my eyes and immediately bury my nose in his neck.

I'm not letting him flick my poor nose.

I swear, one of these days my nose is going to turn red and stay that way from all the abuse it's taking.

Aaron doesn't seem to have a problem with it, coming down even further so his body is against mine without crushing me to death.

I sigh contentedly, comfortable, and close my eyes, wanting to go back to sleep.

My phone starts to ring from where it sits on my nightstand, and Aaron rolls off me to grab it before handing it to me and getting out of bed, grabbing his shirt from the floor.

"Hello?" I say into the phone, not looking at the screen to see who it is.

"Where you at, Cassidy?"

My eyebrows furrow because last time I checked, my name isn't Cassidy.

I pull the phone away from my ear and check the caller ID, and once I see who it is I roll my eyes. "Jakey, why are you calling me?"

"Um, maybe because it's eight-thirty and you're not at school, are you stupid?"

"Yes," I immediately reply, throwing the covers off and moving to my closet to find clothes for the day.

Jake laughs. "Do you plan on coming to school today or are you going to skip with lover boy?"

I pause. "Who?"

He sighs, and I can picture him rolling his eyes. "Aaron. The boy that I'm assuming is still in your bedroom."

I start coughing and Aaron comes to stand in the door of my closet, a worried look on his face. "You okay?"

I give him a nod before turning my back to him. "How did you know that?"

Jake sighs. "Autumn told me. Said Aaron wasn't in his room last night when she went to say goodnight, and he wasn't in there this morning." A muffled voice comes from his side. "Oh, Autumn told me to tell you to tell Aaron that he needs to learn how to lock his fucking door," he says to me as he laughs. "Something about how his dumb ass is going to get in trouble with their parents."

I laugh. "Yeah, okay, I'll tell him."

"Tell who what?" Aaron asks as he walks around to stand in front of me.

I ignore him, again turning so my back is facing him, and listen as Jake talks.

"Listen, I got to go, Ms. Quinn is giving me a look. No wonder she's not married."

"Hey," I laugh. "That wasn't nice."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Have fun with lover boy, Cassidy."

"His name's not--" I cut myself off as I glance up at Aaron, who has once again walked around me so he's looking at me. "Nevermind. Bye, Jakey. And my name isn't--"

The dial tone sounds in my ear, and I pull my phone away from my ear to look at it.

"--Cassidy," I finish, giving a small laugh.

"Who was that?"

I look up at Aaron, who's staring down at me, amusement clear on his face. "Jake."

The amusement is gone. Like, it literally disappeared from his eyes in less than two seconds.

I eye him, more than a little confused. What did I say?

"Jake?" he asks lowly. "Jake from the park and Jake from lunch Jake? That Jake?"

I nod, still eyeing him, still confused. "What's the matter?"

"And he has a nickname?"

"What does that matter?" I scoff.

"Because I don't ha--" He cuts off, closing his eyes before he opens them and looks down at me, his whole demeanor screaming tense. "Nevermind. You're right, it doesn't matter. I'm going to school. I'll see you later." He turns around and walks out of my closet, but this time, I don't try to watch him leave by the balcony.

My phone rings again in my hand, and I look at the caller ID to see it's Dad, who almost never calls me unless--

Shit.

I answer the phone. "Dad, hey, how's work?"

"Good. How's school?"

Okay, he's baiting me. I got this. Stay calm, Cass, don't fall for it. Improvise, adapt, overcome, simple enough.

"Good, good. Lots of, you know, homework and stuff, the usual."

I'm such a fucking idiot.

"Really?" he says innocently, and I close my eyes, knowing I'm busted. "Because the school gave my office an interesting call just now. Something about how you weren't in first period."

Fuck. Me.

I sigh. "Grounded?"

"A week."

"Fine," I say, accepting my fate. "Wait, while we're on the topic of school, did I ever mention how I got detention after school on the first day?"

"What?" I wince, knowing he'll talk to me about this. I just hope he doesn't tell Mom. He sighs before speaking. "I won't tell if you don't."

"Yes, yes, yes, thank you so much."

"If your mother finds out, I knew nothing," he warns me, but I can hear the smile in his voice.

"Alright, Dad," I laugh. "I'll see you when you get home."

"Okay, Cass. Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up and let out a sigh of relief.

Guess this means I don't have to go to school today. Which means it is time for a four hour nap.

---------

I walk down the sidewalk, the sun warming my skin.

I love missing school.

It doesn't happen all the time--Mom would have my head--but when it does happen, I don't stay in the house all day.

After my nap--which, unfortunately, only lasted an hour and a half--I decided to walk to the corner store that's not that far from my house.

I decided to look for a job. Buying the dog food for the dogs really took a chunk of my saved allowance, and I need money.

Stopping in front of the corner store, I think for a quick second before i start walking again, not going in. A lot of shifty people hang out around the corner store, and the idea of working there doesn't seem that appealing.

Or safe.

By this time, I've made it to the cute and quaint little coffee shop. It's small, but I think that makes it cozy, homey, even, and the design screams warmth and comfort. It's adorable.

I walk in and go over to the counter, waiting for someone to come up.

"How may I help you today?" asks a boy with dark brown curly hair and brown eyes and a Spanish accent that I love.

A quick glance at his name tag tells me his name is Ricardo. Ooh, Spanish guys. What is it with me and running into cute guys all of a sudden?

"Hi. I'm looking for a job, and I was wondering if any help was needed here."

He looks me up and down but then he shrugs. "Sure. The manager isn't in yet, but if you don't mind waiting, she should be here in a few minutes."

"Sounds good."

I sit at one of the tables closest to the counter I was just standing at and pull my phone out.

Over fifteen friend requests on Instagram.

I think about it and decide to accept all of them. What's the harm?

I open Snapchat, and when I swipe to the right and see a bunch of Snaps from twenty, maybe thirty, people.

I also see that there's a lot of people that added me. And almost all of them are from search.

Why are people searching me?

I open all of the snaps, and while most of them are streaks, some of them are pictures of faces or the floor or the ceiling sigh text, asking if I'm free to hang out sometime this week.

I don't want to turn them down, mostly because I have a feeling it'll be rude, but then I remember that I'm grounded.

Thank you, Dad.

I respond to the streaks, and I add text saying I'm grounded whenever I come across a person who asked me to hang out, which is a lot.

Why do people want to hang out with me all of a sudden?

A body plops down in the chair across from me and I look up from my phone to see Ricardo leaning back in his chair.

"So, why do you want a job here... what's your name again?"

"Oh!" I exclaim. "Sorry, I'm Cass."

I reach a hand out and he grabs it, his grip firm and strong. Well, then. "I'm Ricardo."

"How old are you?" I ask because I'm curious. Most everybody my age is supposed to be in school right now, and I wonder why he's not.

"Eighteen. I'm actually supposed to be in school right now, but, eh."

I raise my eyebrows. "Eh? You just didn't go."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Mood.

"Nice."

He nods. "So, why do you want a job here?"

"Right, well, I recently became the very proud owner of three Huskies, and I didn't really think through the whole month portion of owning three dogs, and my parents said I have to get a job to pay for them. I do kind of want a job because I've never had one before, and I think I want to gain some experience before, you know, college and moving out on my own and stuff."

He studies me critically and I shift uncomfortably in my seat. He nods slowly. "When can you start?"

"Wait, you mean, I got the job?"

"Maybe. Think of this as a trial run. If you do good, I'll talk to the manager. We do need the help."

I barely stop myself from squealing because I got the job. Well, I kind of got the job. But still, great news.

I stand up and he does too, and I reach over the table to pull him into a hug, which he awkwardly returns. "Thank you so much."

He pulls away and straightens his wrinkled shirt before smiling. "No problem. Come in this Saturday, and we'll talk, I'll show you the ropes, and then we can see how good you are."

I smile and nod. "Thanks again."

"See you Saturday," he says before he moves away from me and goes through some doors behind the counter.

I smile and pull my phone out to text Gracie.

Me: guess who just got a maybe job at the coffee shop

Gracie: who

Gracie: Gabby?

Gracie: Adrian?

Gracie: omg Cole?

Me: no Gracie I did isn't that great

Gracie: yeah!

Gracie: we should celebrate

Gracie: me you Cole Aaron Adrian Jake

Gracie: like we should go out and do something together like idk bowling or something

Me: cool

Me: I'll ask Aaron and Jake, you ask the other two?

Gracie: okie dokie

I walk out the door of the coffee shop and smile as I walk down the sidewalk.

Something out of the corner of my eye catches my attention, and I turn my head to the right to see a boy with black hair making out with a blonde-haired girl he has pressed against the wall.

I give a short laugh, shaking my head, and I go to turn away when something makes me stop to listen. I'm far enough away to hear it, but just barely.

"Maybe we should take this back to my place, babe," the girl says, breathing heavily.

"I don't know, I kind of like it out here, with you like this."

The girl moans as he sucks on her neck and I fight a gag.

"Aaron," she moans.

I freeze.

That's not him, right? I mean it can't be. There's no way.

He was just with me this morning, and while I know we aren't anything, I didn't think he would almost kiss me and sleep over, at my house, in my bed, and then go and actually kiss some other girl.

I shake my head, forcing the thoughts out of my head, refusing to believe it's him, and go to turn away when the guy pulls back from the girl and smiles.

Hello, dimple.

Oh, God, I think I threw up a little.

It's not him; lots of people have dimples. Aaron isn't special.

But looking at the guy walk away, I can't fool myself any longer. His black hair is the same, and he's wearing the same fucking leather jacket he was wearing the first day we met.

I feel my heart clench in my chest, and I don't know why I'm feeling this way; I didn't even like the dude.

He was another annoying high school guy that decided he could play with a girl's feelings, and I don't need that in my life.

Despite my very motivational speech to myself, tears come to my eyes and I wipe them away, still staring, not able to tear my eyes away.

"Cass?" A soft voice coming from my right reaches my ears, and a soft touch lands on my arm. I turn my head to look at Ricardo standing next to me. I can tell he's not one for expressing emotions--I got that from the hug and his overall demeanor inside--but I can still see the worry on his face. "You okay?"

I take a deep breath and hold it, letting it slowly and I force a smile on my face. "Yeah. I'm fine." I'm silent as Aaron and the girl he's with walk away from us, down the alley to another street. "Do you...do you think I could stay in the shop with you? I promise I won't distract you or anything, I just need somewhere to stay." He hesitates. "Please?"

I debate pouting, but that's a little too much, so I decide not to.

He sighs, his shoulders deflating. "Alright. Come on."

I follow him back inside, and he sits me down behind the counter on a stool.

"I'm going to be in the back taking care of some things. If a customer comes up, write down their order on this notepad," he says as he holds out a notepad to me. "Make sure you watch where they sit and write it down as well, and then put it over there." He points to a spot behind me where pieces of paper have been put. "Somebody will take the drink to the person, so you don't have to worry about that."

"Is this what the job will be like?"

He thinks before answering. "Kind of, but not entirely. Think of this as a trial run for the trial run, okay?" I nod my head and he places a hand on my shoulder. "Good. I'll leave you to it. Just go down that hallway and come find me when you want to leave."

"Thanks," I smile.

"You're welcome," he says as he turns away to go down the hallway he pointed out to me.

I watch him leave before I turn around and smile at the woman in front of me.

Let's do this.

---------

Alright, that's chapter 23. Kind of boring so far, I know, but I promise, things start happening in the next two or so chapters. I'm honestly so excited, I can't wait.

But, guess who edited the first twelve chapters? I know, I know, not exactly a huge accomplishment, but it's something, right? I do hope I fixed everything, because if I didn't, talk about embarrassing.

I can't wait for the next chapter to be out. I think we're about halfway, maybe three quarters of the way, through this book, and then it's on to the next one. I think it'll be about a really bad (but not too bad) bad boy (I know Aaron didn't exactly live up to that) and a good girl; I've always loved that cliche. I have some ideas but not a strict plot, and I want my second book to be planned out instead of just being pulled from my mind as I go along, you know?

Happy New Year! As a gift, I will be publishing one or two more chapters, I have decided yet, in addition to this one, which means we'll be up to chapter 25. It's going to take ne a while to write it, but at least two chapters will be out today.

Happy Holidays!

--Rose