The days following Kris' accident were chaos.
Our finances were a dark cloud looming over our heads. No one wanted to talk about it, but we all were feeling the pressure. Anytime Matt wasn't at the hospital with Kris, he was at work, bouncing between projects with his team to try and earn as much as he could.
Dylan had thrown himself into his studies as well as applying for jobs. Against my better judgement, I let him use my laptop to peruse job sites and apply. I knew Kris and Matt would be cross with me for encouraging him, but I also knew we needed money sooner rather then later.
I had spoken to Tracy at BurgerByte and she had eagerly agreed to give me extra hours when anybody called out, but she was limited on how much overtime she could pay me, lest she anger the owner. Even with the extra time, I knew my measly paycheck wouldn't keep up with the upcoming bills.
On a whim, I called the grocery store that Kris worked at and asked them if they would consider hiring me while Kris was out. They thanked me for my consideration, but declined my offer.
Which led me to my current predicament; standing outside of Galaxy Coffee, hoping I could get a second job. I didn't want to be here, knowing that Kayce worked here and would not be happy to see me, but I was running out of options online and the coffee shop had been listed as 'hiring urgently.'
As I made my way inside the building, I cringed. Memories of countless meetings with Taylor in what I now considered to be 'our' corner mocked me. I walked up to the counter to see an annoyed Kayce standing with her arms crossed, sneering at me as I approached.
"Hey, Kayce. " I tentatively passed my resume over the counter to her, which she regarded with a look of mild distain. "I applied online, but I was hoping to see if maybe there was a manager that I could speak to about getting a second job. I really need it."
She gave me a hard look up and down. "Yeah, I heard Kris was in a wreck. I'm guessing you're having to pick up the slack?"
Anxiety crawled up my throat and I stared down at my feet. "Uh, Yeah... She'll be getting out of the hospital today or tomorrow...She won't be able to work for weeks until the cast comes off. She might even have to go the physical therapy for her ankle to be able to walk properly." I was rambling, unnerved by the dark haired woman across from me.
Kayce Richards was beautiful, no doubt. I could see why Taylor had been attracted to her. Large, expressive grey eyes framed with delicate lashes, a petite nose and small, pouty lips. She rolled her eyes and turned away from me to yell at someone in the back. "Celeste! Go see if Marty is busy, he's got someone here about a job."
A wide smile split my lips. "Thank you, Kayce, Thank you!"
Gesturing to the menu above, she gave me a look that could shatter glass. "You wanna, I don't know, order something? Give me something to do besides stand here?"
I grimaced, making a show of pulling a wadded five out of my back pocket. "I'd love to, but this is all I have. Money's tight right now."
Her gaze didn't waver, but she snatched the money from my hands and threw it in the tip jar, storming over to a machine and disappearing behind a counter. When she emerged, she handed me a small coffee cup, steam billowing from the top.
I opened my mouth to politely inform her that I didn't like coffee, but instead of the acrid scent of the dirty bean water, I smelt the seductive aroma of velvety hot chocolate with whipped cream. I took a sip and nearly moaned in delight. "You are an expert in your craft."
Kayce's mouth turned up in a small smirk and she snickered under her breath. "You bet your ass I am." She paused for a moment. "So, Taylor find a new girl to chat up? I haven't seen you in here in a while."
The question caught me off guard and I didn't know how to respond. I didn't want her to be right about me, but I also wondered if maybe Kayce knew why Taylor had left so abruptly that night. "Not exactly.. We were really close for a while, she helped me apply for college and get a job. We started hanging out and I thought things were fine, but then I started realizing that I might have feelings for her."
Kayce scoffed. "Let me guess, she ghosted you the second you were interested?"
The look of surprise on my face must have been obvious. My lips parted to speak, but no sound came out, so I nodded numbly, glancing down at my feet.
"That sounds like Taylor. She loves the thrill of the chase, but once she thinks she's caught you, or that you might be invested, she's gone." The bitterness was steeped into every word. Kayce's eyes were downcast, angst and regret swirling through them.
I regained my composure enough to ask the question that had been plaguing my thoughts since I'd first met Kayce. "What happened between you two? Taylor seems to think you ended things amicably."
Kayce snorted. "Amicable for her, maybe. It could just be that I'm bitter, though. I hold grudges." She reached behind her and undid her apron. "Marty! I'm taking my break."
Throwing her Galaxy Coffee branded cap on the counter, she swung the half-door separating the kitchen and the lobby wide and stepped out from behind the front cash register. "Come on, I need nicotine to have this conversation. Marty will be out in a bit, he's probably running truck."
I followed her around to the back of the building while she pulled a vape pen out of her back pocket, she leaned against the wall, taking a long drag. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a cloud of pineapple-scented bad decisions. "So you want to know what happened, huh? Well, it was a couple years ago now."
Her gaze turned skyward, her delicate features twisted in a mix of sadness, regret and disgust. "It was senior year. We'd been friends since middle school, but as I got older, the more I started realizing I liked more then just guys. Taylor already knew she was gay, but she didn't mind me experimenting with her. We went out on a couple dates and I started catching feelings for her. She liked me too, so we decided to date in secret because her parents are really homophobic."
She took another long drag off her vape, shaping the cloud into delicate rings of vapor as they left her mouth. "So after a while, I started wanting to be more public. We talked about it a bunch of times, but she always promised me that when she moved out of her parent's house she would stop pretending to be straight for her family's benefit."
I toyed with some gravel underneath my worn shoe as she spoke, the missing pieces of Taylor's backstory were becoming more apparent. I could see where this was going, but hoped I'd be wrong.
"At the start of the school year, I was optimistic that she'd come around. I was so infatuated with her, I though she'd go to the ends of the earth for me. By the time graduation rolled around, I got the feeling she was never going to come out. When she started talking about going to college here in town instead of going with me to Sebring Coast University like we planned, I realized she never had any intent of coming with me."
Tears had welled in the corner of her eyes and she blinked rapidly to clear them. "So I gave her an ultimatum. We could either run off together and start our own life, free of her asshole parents, or she could stay here, lose me and live with them. Clearly, she chose to stay. She hemmed and hawed up until the very end. I left for college and flunked out, so I wound up back here. I hoped that she'd eventually come back to me, but since I left she's had a new girlfriend or fuck buddy every couple weeks. When they get serious, she bolts."
I wished I could brush off her story as false, but it made a lot of sense. Why Taylor had ghosted me as soon as I tried to deepen our relationship, dodging my texts. Maybe it was she saw herself making the same mistake as she had with Kayce.
"At least she didn't lead you on." Kayce's awkward attempt to comfort me only make me feel worse. The feeling of worthlessness crashed into me light a freight train. I played with the frayed ends of my hair and tried to reign in the feelings of self-loathing. My eyes stung, I felt used and discarded.
Another barista chose that moment to burst out of the back door, hollering for Kayce. I was thankful for the interruption before my sadness became unbearable. I wandered back into the front of the store, sitting at a obnoxiously tall barstool and waiting for Marty to come talk to me.
After what seemed like an eternity, a short, balding man approached me with a warm smile. He was positively covered in powdered sugar from the chest down, presumably for one of the pre-frozen pastries they decorated to make it seem fresh-baked. "Sorry to make you wait so long, I had a bag of powdered sugar explode on me from the truck. Celeste told me you wanted to see me about a second job?"
My heart leapt with a little spark of hope, maybe getting a second job wouldn't be nearly as difficult as I'd imagined. "Ah, yes! I usually work mornings for BurgerByte, but I'd be free afternoons and evenings."
The warmth faded from Marty's face, twisting into a grimace. I didn't like that look, it shook my confidence and I could feel tendrils of dread wrapping around my heart. "Sorry, Kid. I need someone on mornings, we're a coffee shop, our peak time is when people are on their way to work and school. I have plenty of people to work the afternoon shift. I'll keep your resume if anything opens up, though.'
I tried to hide the disappointment in my face, but it dripped from my words as I spoke carefully. "Uh, well, thank you for your time... I hope you find someone that fits your needs."
Slipping out of the barstool, I looked back at the counter to see Kayce leaned up against the counter, pretending not to listen. When she met my gaze she gave me a shrug and busied herself by wiping down a pristine counter beside her, trying to look busy.
I sighed, making my way back to Matt's truck and hoisting myself up into the faded blue interior. Shutting the door, I gently let my head slam into the steering wheel in frustration. My efforts were rewarded with a loud 'HONK' that made me jump all over. Feeling heat crawling up the back of my neck, I simply buckled my seatbelt, started the truck and began the drive to Matt's work to wait for him to get off.
---
I arrived with only moment's to spare, the clock on the dash reading 3:59PM. Usually Matt got off around sunset, but today was the last day of his current project, so all the construction workers got off early. I could see Matt off in the distance, loading excess materials onto a trailer to haul off to the next job.
Once the trailer was full, he walked towards the makeshift dirt parking lot, waving to me from afar. He was hard to miss in his highlighter yellow safety vest and matching hard hat. He looked like something straight out of a cartoon. I'd seen him in his uniform many times, but something about him standing out in a sea of construction debris made me giggle to myself.
As he neared the truck, I slid across the bench seat to the passenger side so he could drive us home. I didn't care for driving at the best of times and with the events of the last week, any excuse for Matt to drive for me was welcomed.
The elder Wooding brother swung the door wide, the elderly hinges on the door creaking in protest. Climbing in to sit beside me, Matt looked completely exhausted, tossing his safety hat and sunglasses onto the dash and groaning with relief as the cool air hit his sweat-soaked hair. He was completely coated in sweat, dirt and other debris, the only part of him not caked in dirt was a stark patch of clean skin where he usually wore his sunglasses.
"You'd think I'd sweat less in the winter." He grumbled, cranking the truck and listening to it roar to life. Throwing an arm over the back of the bench seat, He looked over his shoulder as we reversed. The acrid scent of sweat mixed with earthy undertones of dust rolled through the cab and I subtly cracked a window to let it out. Matt tended to sweat through his deodorant by the end of the day, making riding with him after work somewhat unpleasant.
As we settled into the drive, Matt's brow was furrowed, worry swirling in his blue eyes. He let out a longsuffering sigh which caused me to glance at him with worry. "What's wrong, Matt?"
"Worried about money, as usual. How'd the interview at Galaxy Coffee go?"
I winced, remembering my earlier mishap with the truck horn. "Uh, it didn't go well. They're only hiring for mornings."
Matt groaned. "Fuck. I don't know what to do anymore, Luna. We were just starting to be able to keep our heads above water, start living beyond paycheck to paycheck. Now we're worse off then when we started."
I brushed off the pang of guilt. Rationally, I knew it wasn't really my fault Kris got hurt, but it didn't convince my irrational, self loathing thoughts. I tried to focus on my words, carefully mulling over what I wanted to say before making my next suggestion.
"Uh, Matt.. It might be time to let Dylan find a job." I saw his grip on the wheel tighten as we went over a hill, his jaw clenching in irritation. His eyes didn't move from the road, but I knew if he wasn't driving, I would currently be on the receiving end of a death glare.
I expected him to erupt on me, but instead his voice was barely over a whisper. "I know.. I just hate it. I worked so hard for so long to give my little siblings a better life then I had. I hated it when Kris dropped out, but I couldn't argue with her anymore. I hoped Dylan would be the one of us to finally make something out of himself, not get dragged down into this cycle of scraping by."
His eyes never left the road, but I could see they were glassy and he was blinking away tears, his lips set in a hard line.
"He's 16, he should be breaking hearts and studying for the SAT, sneaking out and getting into trouble. He shouldn't be having to grow up like I did... " He trailed off as we came to a stop at a 4 way intersection. He stared up at the blinking yellow light, waiting for another car to turn. I patted his shoulder awkwardly.
"Matt, he's not growing up like you did." I looked at my hands for a moment, fidgeting with my nails. "You grew up in a very harmful environment and worked your ass off to get your siblings out of there. Dylan has grown into a great guy, he doesn't have to worry about your mom screaming at him and treating him like shit. Will he have to take on more responsibility because Kris got hurt, yes, but he has wanted to start working for a while now. Maybe this is what he needs."
Matt fell silent, the only thing penetrating the silence was the steady rumble of the truck as we turned onto our road. As the truck came to a stop in our yard, we could see the soft glow of the tv behind the living room curtains, signaling Dylan was home from school.
I glanced at Matt. "You should go talk to him. I'll stay out here for a little bit so y'all can have some privacy."
To my surprise, Matt shook his head. "No, you're part of this family too, you should help me. I get all fucked up when I try to talk feeling anyways."
I swallowed the lump of emotion in my throat. I continuously felt like an outsider within our little band of misfit. The term family had always been a bit of a loaded gun for me, as the family I'd been born into wanted nothing to do with me anymore. Hearing Matt consider me one of his siblings, while not explicitly stating it, filled me with a joy.
The whirlwind of feeling threatened to spill from my eyes, so as we exited the truck, I threw my arms around Matt and hugged him tightly. He tensed initially, but returned my hug after a few moments of trepidation.
We parted and made our way through the chain link, up onto the porch and into the house. A strange smell permeated the air and looking to the kitchen I could see a rather nervous Dylan anxiously stirring a pot. Upon closer inspection, the pot contained slightly overcooked Beef Assistant. It was meant to be some kind of stroganoff flavor, but it currently resembled sickly white sludge.
It was decidedly not gourmet dining, but Dylan going out of his comfort zone to make dinner for us warmed my heart and made me smile. "Hey, Dylan, me and Matt wanna talk with you, why don't we come sit in the living room and let this cool down before we eat?"
Dylan, understandably, was apprehensive. "Is Kris okay?"
Matt chuckled, patting his shoulder. "Kris is fine, she get out tomorrow and is cleared to come home. She'll need some physical therapy at the hospital twice a week, but she'll be ok. We wanted to talk to you about the whole... job thing."
Matt's explanation only made the gangly teen more wary, Dylan shifted, crossing his arms in a defensive move. "I told you, I want to go get a job. With Kris not working, we need the money!"
Matt put his hands up in the universal sign of submission, trying to tame the stress radiating from his younger brother. "I hear you, and I'm willing to let you try, for now, with some ground rules."
You could have knocked Dylan over with a feather, disbelief dripping from his features. His expression changed from defensive to shocked and then landed on skeptical. "Okay... what's your stipulations?"
Matt crossed his arms, uncomfortable. He tried to sound stern, but what came out sounded more like a question. "Uh... well, I want you to prioritize your studies over working. No staying out late on school nights and no more then 20 hours a week!"
Dylan looked floored. "Okay. I think I can live with that. Anything else?"
Matt nodded. "You need to save a little out of each check for getting your driver's license. Once Kris is back to work, we'll see about getting a car for you and Luna to share. After we get Kris back on the road, of course. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of playing Musical Drivers getting everyone to work."
It was my turn to look shocked. I wasn't expecting Matt to go that far, but I was thankful for his kindness. I had to swallow that lump of emotion again, the damn thing threatened to make my eyes water.
Dylan snatched Matt up into a bear hug, The tears brimming in my eyes was my cue to leave.
I turned and walked to my bedroom, flopping on the bed. I would have to leave my sanctuary to eat soon, but in the quiet moments to myself, I dared to reflect on the day's happenings.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
