Chapter 3 - Handful of Twizzlers

                                        

                                              
Mr. Zunt hadn't thought to add a mirror to his shitbag motel, but I didn't need it the next morning to know I looked like ass warmed over. I could barely breathe through my nose. It throbbed with every pulse, and when I blinked, my eyes told me to shut the fuck up.
You know what else I didn't have? Fucking paid sick days. Mugged trying to be a good god-damned person, and here I was, about to stock shelves at Foodsave like the good little corporate cog I was.
Alas, and yes, this moment did warrant an 'alas,' I was ten minutes late. I tried to sneak through the side door and work out a 온라인카지노게임 where I 'forgot to punch in,' but no sooner had I slipped on my 'Foodsave – Every Smile is Free!' apron than Mikey appeared at the staffroom doorway. Fucking Mikey.
"You're late, Mackenzie." He'd swapped his short-sleeved baby blue snugger for a super sexy lime-green short-sleeved snugger. Was it the same one? How did he already have pit stains? What had he been up to since the store opened ten minutes ago? "You do know that you're late, right?"
No shit.
"Sorry, Mr. Mikey." Mr. Mikey? Should I put a 'Fire Me Now' hat directly on my head? "Sorry. Mr. Vance. I meant Mr. Vance. Not Mr. Mikey."
"You're only burying yourself deeper, Mackenzie. Why were you late?" 
I could only imagine what my face looked like. "I had a weird night."
"A weird night?" Mikey reached into his back pocket and pulled out a crisply folded piece of paper. "You think a 'weird night' is going to make you Foodsave-worthy?"
No clue, but if painfully tight shirts that show off my nipples from every angle make me Foodsave-worthy, I'm good.
"Sorry, Mr. Vance, but it was a really weird night. On my way home, I heard this guy screaming, so I went to see what was happening, and I tried to help, but –"
Mikey held up a hand, and I trailed off. Leaping in, keys at the ready, to help someone else without thinking twice was something I had no problem with. Standing up for myself, even in the face of someone as fundamentally ridiculous as Mikey Vance – I had nothing. I might as well have been telling him I'd somehow done tequila shooters out of my own belly button last night for how much he was listening to me.
"It's no excuse, Mackenzie. Your first priority is work. Your last priority is work. Anything you do in between is your business, as long as you never forget it's about work. That's it. If anything comes between you and work again, we're going to have a problem."
He handed me the piece of paper. I didn't even need to look at it to know what it was – a Foodsave 'shitty employee' write-up. Mikey had given me one a month ago for 'uniform violation.'
If I had anywhere else to go, Foodsave could kiss my ass. I had no skills, no family, and ate more ramen than medical professionals recommended. Foodsave was my only option, so I had to keep putting up with Mikey's bullshit. I took his piece of paper, I nodded, and I apologized. Again.
"Be here on time, every time, from now on. That's your second Foodsave Grocery Reminder in less than a month, Mackenzie. One more of those, and I won't have a choice."
He gave me one more bullshit little nod and finally fucked off. If there's one thing I hate more than anything else, it's euphemisms for shitty things. 'Gentle reminder' for a bill? Fuck off. I know I'm late. How could I not know? It's one step from gentle reminder to threatening to get the mob involved. 'Grocery Reminder?' Who came up with this shit? I get it. I'm a shitty employee. I don't wear that badge with pride, but I'm certainly aware that I own one and might as well have it tattooed on my face.
Were the looks of concern over my shift worth it? Did anybody stop to ask what the fuck happened to my otherwise perfect face? Nobody. Not even a mum looking for arrowroot cookies. Did I need their sympathy? No. Did it boost my faith in humanity? HARD no.