the door’s caught just before it slams shut with victor’s footsteps following after. fallon doesn’t look back. it’s what she’d expected anyway. she’s a woman of very few words and the little she can spare errs on the side of unkind, but even she can acknowledge that he isn’t the worst person to share a shift with. he’s still pretty goddamn annoying though. “wow, that’s good,” she pans with a roll of her eyes before crouching down to start gathering the stock. “make sure to keep that for your stand-up routine.” fallon remembers something then, a note left for her on the coffee pot that morning with lots of smiley faces and hearts: snow this weekend. tell victor please!!! who juno associates herself with is none of fallon’s business, but it’d be less of a nuisance if she didn’t have to constantly play messenger for her or if victor didn’t insist on amish living. unfortunately, her aunt’s not one to turn free labor down. “you really need to get a phone,” she says bluntly, breaking the silence. “juno wants you to come by, before it snows this weekend.”

victor responds to fallon’s deadpanning with silence. he takes a few strides in front of her and stops short of the scattered vintage vinyls at his feet. rolling his neck, he bends to take hold of one of the sleeves. he turns it over in his hand, inspecting it for damage before nestling it into the crook of his left arm and reaching for the next. while the comment on needing a phone doesn’t phase him, it’s the mention of juno that makes his head lift slightly. the only conversations between them that hold any weight involve her aunt. even then, it’s purely informational and only necessary when the weather or an extra shift he plans on picking up threatens their regular schedule. “i’ll be there,” he nods once in affirmation, his focus remaining on skimming over the vinyls. “tell her i’ll stop by after, too.” gathering the last of the stock, victor braces himself on the solid display shelf as he comes to a stand. “i left a note last time. for the food. she get it?”

mariner’s is becoming too crowded for his liking. every so often there’s a brush against his shoulder, followed by a fellow patron stumbling to the front of the bar, whistling and gesturing to gain a bartender’s attention. he’s nursing a club soda, pushing the lemon around with the stirrer straw, when a nudge causes his shoulders to tense. out of his peripheral vision, victor watches zeke steadying himself on the stool. “easy, van gogh.” he shakes his head once to conceal the small quirk of his lips, his body relaxing. victor sets the glass down, patting at his jacket pockets until he pulls out a carton of marlboros and a lighter. with a quick flick of his thumb, he flips the lid open and pulls one for himself. “take one,” he offers with a shrug, tilting the carton towards zeke. he places the cigarette between his lips, his voice muffled as he continues, “payday. feeling generous.”

after dealing with the richies all year and everyone doing their best to keep the landing from turning into something unrecognizable, it’s a reasonable suggestion. “we could, sure.” despite agreeing with bunny, the words feel odd leaving him, almost as if he never meant to say them. the thought of acknowledging the work they’d all put in by deliberately putting himself in close proximity with people was a few too many steps outside of his comfort zone. “someone’ll probably throw something for new years. that’ll be something.”  “uh–” he hesitates. victor narrows his eyes, shifting his weight onto the other leg and rolling his shoulders back to straighten his posture. “foggy, maybe. a job was generous. but the store needed hands, i needed money.” gestures without strings or expectations were a foreign concept to him. anything anyone had done for him or he’d done for others was often an exchange. he lets his gaze drift briefly around the quiet store. “i don’t know. is anyone that decent?”

in hindsight, victor knows he should be doing something remotely productive. there are boxes of new arrivals to stock, an entire display of band tees to refold for the fourth time today, and shelves that could stand to be dusted off. still, he remains behind the register with the daily newspaper unfolded across the counter, open to the crossword section. it’s mostly filled out save for one row. he stares, tapping a pen on the counter as he racks his brain for an answer to seventy-eight across.  his attempts to tune out his surroundings have fallen short, especially with the rattling step-stool. just as he’s about to make his way upstairs to see if he can pawn the bottom level register off to someone else, merritt speaks and her voice breaks his concentration entirely. victor blinks once, twice as he looks over to finally acknowledge her presence. “honestly, i was wondering how long it'd take you to ask.” he approaches, coming to a halt in front of the shelving. with ease, he reaches to grab two screen-printed trucker hats. he turns, offering them to merritt. “anything else?”

there’s mutual indifference between fallon and victor. juno’s gripes with him are stale but fallon honors them anyway by ignoring him whenever they’re scheduled for the same shift. neither are known for being companionable so it’s easy enough to stay out of each other’s way. even today, fallon’s got a book cracked open at the register while victor’s off taking a smoke break. the shift had been going well, uneventful— slow even, until a group of richie assholes swarm the store. she hears them before she sees them, impressive with the heavy metal she’s playing on the speakers.  they’re never there to actually buy anything, of course. they’ve got a few objectives on their list, all primitive, with the main one being to piss off as many people as possible. she’s supposed to ignore them, to withhold any type of reaction that they might take pleasure in, but they’re messing with the specialty items display and her patience is already running especially thin. “hey,” fallon barks, and the pack of them laugh, knocking everything over. mission accomplished!  when they finally empty the store, she sighs, closing her eyes. fallon goes out to the alleyway, holding the door open. “come do your job,” she snaps and turns to go back inside without waiting for a response.

he's down to the final drag of his cigarette when the quiet is broken up by the sound of quick footsteps and obnoxious laughter. as the suspicious group disappears from view and the door opens, victor closes his eyes and tilts his head against the brick wall. without glancing in fallon's direction, he shrugs at her demand. while he's grateful for juno giving him a second chance, his pressing need to break bread doesn't extend to fallon. his tone is flat as the last of the smoke fills the air. "sure." dropping the cigarette butt, he puts it out by dragging the sole of shoe along the cement. "sure," he mutters once more to himself. with one last tap against the ground for good measure, he follows behind. immediately his eyes squint at the heavy metal playing over the speakers, though he doesn't care enough to comment. instead, he scans the mess that was surely left behind by the richies who cut his break short. "for me?" he places a hand over his heart as he continues walking toward the knocked over display. "i'm touched. you shouldn't have."

work is almost decent when victor and bunny are working together. most of the time, victor is on his own, mindlessly reorganizing the bottom level of the store. there's less foot traffic on days bands aren't scheduled to play and less of a possibility he has to fight with himself to be friendly, though he doesn't mind when bunny happens to be on the same level. tasks at hand are finished quickly and efficiently, and conversation is optional, or at the very least, low stakes. shuffling from the vhs tapes to the dvd's, victor gives a curt nod to the lone costumer as they retreat before turning his head towards bunny. "altruistic..." he glances at the twenty before turning back to the cases with a low chuckle. "don't think i've ever put this much work into anything. let alone anything for other people." then, returning one last dvd to it's rightful spot, he meanders over to the counter, leaning against it. victor eyes the bill on the counter, reaching out to grab it. "i could get a week's worth of food with that." his brows furrow as he continues to observe, considering pocketing it. as quickly as the thought comes it goes. he scratches the back of his neck with his free hand and drops the bill into the donations jar.

♡ EMILIO SAKRAYA wie? music video

Syd & Carmy sharing a cigarette The Bear— "Goodbye" (4.10)

BEFORE SUNRISE 1995 — dir. Richard Linklater

Kaveh Akbar, from “Personal Inventory: Fearless (Temporis Fila)”, Calling a Wolf a Wolf 

"Beautiful Losers", Leonard Cohen

KRISTEN BELL as ELEANOR SHELLSTROP THE GOOD PLACE — 3.13 • Pandemonium