"But I want to see you." Jessie's apologetic voice rang through the phone.
"Yeah, you've established that but that needs to be mutual. I don't want to see you tonight." I said tightening my grip on the phone.
I was on my half an hour break that Val insisted that I have. It was somewhat pointless because not too many people showed up at the store and my shift ended at five. It was now 2:36, twenty four minutes until I would need to work again.
"Baby, I wanna fucking see you. I need to make it up to you." Jessie said a little harsher into the phone.
"Stop. Call me when you've drained all your beers and grown up a bit. You're acting like a kid when you're the one who ditched me in the first place." I said hanging up, ending the conversation.
We always did this. We fought and didn't speak because I got pissed off. He'd try and coax me back even though he knew I just needed some space. I'd finally drag my ass back to him when enough tubs of Ben and Jerry's were consumed and when I realized bags of chips couldn't patch up my relationship. It was just how we worked. We couldn't live without each other but at the same time, he was like the biggest stressor in my life.
"Kit, can you come here please?" Val called from old wooden desk which happened to feature the oh so cliche "front desk" plaque.
"Yeah Val?" I asked as I opened the door.
I swear I heard her talking to someone but the seventy one year old sat there all alone accompanied by her cute Starbucks mug that I got her last Christmas.
"I can hear you fighting in there at least twice a month and at my age, I've see so many couples fight, but this is insane. Why do you even need to be with this guy?" Val said putting her mug down.
I know it's usually rude for people to randomly ask about other people's relationship but Val was basically like a grandma to me now and we could talk about anything without question.
"He's my person, Val. We fight all the time but that's what we do. We're still together and the two of us..just work." I said playing with the ends of my hair.
"There's a difference between fighting and World War 3." She laughing sipping her coffee.
The bells chimed and the pale, very tall teenage boy entered again.
He walked over to the counter, a light blush falling on his cheeks as he made his way over.
"I don't get off for another half hour, Michael." I laughed.
"Michael? Aw, do you have a date?" Val interrupted.
"Just a friend." Michael said turning around walking over to a shelf.
I was going to walk over until Val stopped me. "He's a cutie. This could be your chance." I just laughed brushing away her comment. She just wanted me to be happy and being with Jessie was not her vision.
"Read this last year in English. What a pain." Michael held up How to Kill a Mockingbird.
"Too many words." He commented putting it back into the shelf.
"Well, it is a book." I laughed at his words.
"Uh, Kit. You can leave early. I've decided to close up because I have some stuff to do." Val said scratching the back of her neck.
"Val, I've worked here since I was fifteen and you've never closed up early but now when I have plans you want to?" I said making my way over to her.
"Hey! I have a life to you know. My grandson is coming over and I didn't exactly clean up my apartment." She said with a guilty look.
"Okay, Val." I said walking to the back room. I gathered all my stuff and walked back to see the older lady whispering something into Michael's ear.
He laughed as he stood up straight. He was bending because of how short she was.
"Don't talk about me." I said putting my arm through my coat sleeve.
"I wasn't!" Val threw her arms up in self defence.
--
Michael and I sat at a two person table laughing about how one of his friends were at Toys R Us once.
"So like, Ashton's feet are huge but Luke still dared him to jump on the little kid scooter and ride it around the store so he did." Michael was interrupted by his own laughter.
"The scooter actually broke in two." He laughed harder.
"What the hell? Did you pay for it?" I asked shoving a fry into my mouth.
"No way! We ran out of there faster than we've ever ran before." He said laughing. His laugh immediately stopped as his eyes trailed to the door.
"What?" I questioned.
"That's my physco ex girlfriend." Michael whispered.
