national nobody

“I’d rather be covered in dust than disgusting oil any day. Yeah, a job is a job. And that job was a particularly shitty one. I get to spend all day staring at a computer now, which is so much better.”

“Dude, you’re gonna need glasses real quick.”

Jakob hadn’t quite expected to make friends with the guy at the gas station. Although people often mistake his long-winded rambling and questions for other things like haggling or over-friendliness. But here he was, turning up to his friend’s place on the path to get high. Which is something his ex-girlfriend was extremely against and therefore Jakob had never even considered trying it, but he knocked on the door nonetheless, “Daniel - you home?”

@shutupstavros

Daniel pulled himself off the couch at the sound of a knock on the door. Honestly, it took long than it probably should have for him to pinpoint the sound. He rubbed his palm over his eye, slowly starting to make his way to the door. “I’m comin’,” he grumbled, fumbling with the lock for a moment before wrenching the door open to reveal Jakob. “Hey, dude. Sorry, I musta passed out as soon as I got home from work. I don’t have the shit out yet or anything. Come on in.” Daniel walked back towards the living room, leaving the door open for Jakob to come inside. He veered to the right en route to the refrigerator. “Wanna beer or somethin’?” He called back to Jakob.

“It’s not my wish, I don’t really give a fuck what you do or don’t do. I was just letting you know how I would handle the situation.”

“Yeow! Testy.”

“Even if the bear and balloons aren’t embarrassing alone, the attention they bring with them is. That’s what I meant” she explained, glancing across the street to see another person looking over at her. Of course, the looks she had been getting were mainly innocent, she just felt uncomfortable about the situation in general. “What? No. No. I’m just tired.. I guess. Sorry.”

“Ahh...” He nodded as though he understood where the blonde was coming from, though he was not prone to embarrassment as much as this girl seemed to be. “Well...who gave ya the bear? Maybe you should tell ‘em next time to go more lowkey. Get you a keychain or something.”

“Apparently that lady can. They must be some hell of flavor of mints to get that angry about. You also must be very patient of a person to not have said anything.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna stop you from thinkin’ that. It probably helped that I was planning to hit it as soon as my shift ended, too. Ya know, something to look forward to.”

“Because I hate girl talk, I really don’t think I could have made that any plainer.”

“Geez, Zo, lighten up. I mean, sometimes the bitch chick vibe is hot and all, but you gotta mix it up a little.”

she’s got a rather large basket on her arm, filled with individually wrapped cookies. ‘ i was trying out a new recipe for the cafe and i think i got a little too excited… do you happen to like chocolate ? ’ sylvia holds out one of the cookies she’d packaged - a shy offering.

“Are you kidding?!” Daniel let out a laugh. “Dude, I love chocolate. I’m practically the chocolate king.”

“I know. So was there a point to telling me the story before or did I look like I wanted to talk? Because I don’t.”

“Aww, c’mon, why not? You know I’m a sucker for some good girl talk.”

“That’s when you just bitch back. If they think they can rant worse than I can, they have another thing coming.”

“Hey, I believe ya. I’ve seen you in action.”

“Thanks” Lucy smiled, shifting the bear so that it was resting a little easier on her hip. “Oh.. no, well, someone gave me these. I didn’t choose them. It’s a bit embarrassing really, isn’t it?” she attempted to smile, actually feeling embarrassed over the attention the large presents were giving her. Thinking she heard something, Lucy glanced quickly behind her only to breath a sigh of relief when no one was there. “Huh? Oh.. yes. Everything’s fine. I’m just.. you know, I feel a bit foolish standing here like this.”

Daniel shrugged at the blonde’s words, offering her a small smile. “Not if you don’t make it embarrassing.” He paused, rubbing the back of his neck as he realized how his words might have sounded. “Well, I mean, I guess I can see how it would be weird, yeah.” He opened his mouth to speak again, but the girl was looking behind her again. “Are ya scared of someone certain seeing you?”

“Oh, whoa. I personally don’t think anyone should be using that word. She sounds like she was very serious about her berry flavored mints or perhaps she just has some very serious anger issues.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised with either. Although, can someone really get that angry about berry mints?”

“Then, you probably would have been fine. Even if she would have complained about you, he wouldn’t know who she was talking about or wouldn’t care enough to find out. If you see her again, yell at her.”

“Your wish is my command. But if I do get fired, I’m comin’ after you.”

“Ugh, no. I wouldn’t go near that damn machine. I stocked product and got dust all over myself instead of, you know, butter and popcorn oil.”

“I’m not sure which sounds less clean. Either way, I’m glad you got yourself out of that one. But hey, a job’s a job.”

The last thing Lucy wanted to be doing was waiting around outside a store in the middle of town while holding an obnoxiously large teddy bear and birthday balloon but, when she was told to do something, she wasn’t often one to argue. Bumping into someone was exactly what she had been worried about and, as she saw someone approach her, panic set in. “It’s.. my birthday” she explained, gesturing by lifting up the bear slightly before the other even spoke. “Well.. it’s not.. it’s on Sunday but..” Her voice trailed off as she gave a quick nervous glance over her shoulder. “I’m sorry but, do you mind just carrying on walking? I don’t really.. I can’t really.. talk.. right now.” It wasn’t often Lucy turned down an opportunity to talk to someone but, she was clearly stressed, continuously checking back behind her between almost every word. 

Daniel nearly ran straight into the blonde girl in front of her, but when he finally looked up, he was surprised he almost missed her. He had to let out a chuckle at the sight of her; juggling a giant teddy bear and balloons that spelled out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”, which were in danger of being blown away by the windy day. “I see that.” Daniel commented, a smile tugging at his lips. “Well...happy early birthday. If this is what you chose to do for your birthday, then more power to ya.” He furrowed his brow a bit as the girl began to talk more, and he followed her gaze as she looked around with a nervous expression. “Umh...is everything alright?” Daniel asked, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.

“You wouldn’t necessarily lose your job for that. Depends how much your boss likes you ‘cause it’s your word against hers at the end of the day.”

“That’s fair. Not really sure if the boss even knows my name, though. I’m not very memorable.”

“Seven percent being shit at sales and three percent taking way too much advantage of employee discounts. I worked a hardware store in high school and I bought five hammers. No one needs five hammers.”

“You? A hardware store? Can’t see it. What did you do there, scoop popcorn?”

“Honestly? I was fucking tired. If you don’t react sometimes  they’ll just leave you the hell alone.”

“Sometimes. Or sometimes they just bitch louder.”