Work Text
It had been a long day. Most of the morning you spent working your job at the local theme park frying food. It wasn’t particularly busy today, but your boss found ways to fill the time anyway. To your annoyance. Secretly you hope there is a place in hell for those who make up tasks for the sake of having them. Despite the irritation you opted to say nothing, you ned the money and can't afford to mess this up. On a positive note, most of the customers were pleasant during this shift, which was a welcome surprise. Though they do tend to get nicer as it gets closer to the off-season. At least Jeff was there too. You both were hired around the same time as each other and probably the only coworker that you have a real connection with. Jeff is tall and decently toned and is very passionate about engineering. Even though you don't understand much of what he talks about you still like to listen anyway. He also knows how to make things fun. Whenever business got slow you two would race to see who could finish their tables the fastest, or see who could organize the stockroom the best. It’s always a nice boost to have a little friendly competition. Most of the time he wins but you don't mind much, it just makes your victories all the more sweet. Today’s challenge was to clean the most gum off the tables. At the strike of the hour, you both rushed from table to table to scrape off as much as you can. Some still felt sticky. Your boss doesn't particularly like how rowdy the two of you can get when you're both on duty, but work gets done so it’s tolerated. By the time the tables were all cleared you came up with more gum pieces than Jeff. Victory! You jokingly tease each other for the rest of the time about how you each plan to win the next round. After your shift was done you drove to your art appreciation class in the afternoon, making sure to quickly stop by a drive through to eat lunch during class. Which turned out to be kind of boring. Not too many people were interested in the series of paintings shown on the projector, you could tell by the way the other students slouch and stare blankly at the professor. Most of the paintings were of fruit or naked women slapped with symbolism you find irrelevant. You can still appreciate the hard work and beauty in them though. The students that were interested in this era of art, however, were a couple of Monsters in your class who avidly took notes. Your college was the first to accept Monster students when they came out of Mt. Ebbot the year before. It’s still mind blowing that there was a whole civilization trapped underground for so long. At first you hadn’t known what to make of Monsters, but they turned out to be friendly enough. They didn’t really do anything to get so much hate at them. Determined to be a better person you mentally cheer on your Monster classmates, hoping that they go far in their career choices. Towards the end of the lecture the teacher told the class the details of a three-page paper that was due the next time they came in. It’s a good thing its Friday, cause there was no way you were going to have time to work on it tonight. You have a charcoal piece due Monday that needs to be finished, thumbnails for your upcoming assignment for Tuesday, and two readings with a short answer for your Human Rights class. On top of that you have another shift at work tomorrow. All you can do is despair at how expensive and time consuming college is. As you leave the university you put on your favorite playlist for your drive home. It was starting to get colder out, but tonight was pleasantly cool so you roll down the windows to let the wind play with your hair as you sing. The orange streetlights passing by create a delightful contrast against the dark purple sky and neon pink clouds. After a couple of turns here and there you eventually park at your apartment complex and snag your bag from the back seat. Up a couple flights of stairs and several doors down you unlock your apartment. “Hey Rock, I’m home,” you call. A mrrrrp greets from the dark, flicking the light switch you catch your grey and white tabby, Rock, stretching from her usual spot on the couch. She leaps down to meet you, the door clinking closed. Rock rubs against your legs while you take off your shoes despite the inconvenience. Still bent over you hold out your hand to let Rock to head-butt your palm, fur still soft from her recent bath. After petting her a couple of times you finally set your backpack down. It’s not a big apartment by far, but it isn’t too small either. The living room is sparsely decorated: you have a radio against the wall, a medium TV and a PS4 set on a small table, a coffee table, a little owl lamp, and a couch with blankets draped over it. You have a small dining table and a small kitchen to match. Down the hall there is a bathroom and a door leading to your room. Originally you wanted to bring up all that you had at your parent’s house, but you could only bring so much onto the plane. You are still planning to get your stuff here eventually; there just hasn't been enough time. For now the essentials are enough. You look down and Rock is still purring and rubbing against your legs. “You hungry?” you ask her. Rock immediately perks up and meows in response, you’ve accidentally trained her to associate the word ‘hungry’ with ‘food’ over the years spent with her. She sits up on her haunches and pleads with all her might and adorableness, meowing aggressively for you to get her meal. “Aww someone is hungry today! C’mon you big baby” you say as you walk over to the kitchen to fill Rock’s food bowl. She trails behind and continues to meow impatiently until kibble finally clatters into her dish. In a blink of an eye she’s already at her bowl greedily munching. “Why do you always act like you’re starving?” Rock doesn't answer you; she’s too busy stuffing her face. Following in Rock’s footsteps you take some leftovers out of the fridge and heat it up in the microwave. There was a time when you were younger that you hated having leftovers because you didn’t like having the same dinner twice in a row. Now they are a blessing during a busy week.
Once the food was done heating you bring it over to the couch and turned on the TV, nothing was interesting tonight so you settle on some random channel. Rock jumps onto the couch to join you, abandoning her cat food to see if she could steal your dinner. At first you refused to give in to her manipulative cuteness, but eventually you cave and give her a couple small pieces. Fatigue slowly creeps up on you, causing you to slump further into the couch while you mindlessly watch TV and shove food in your mouth. Most people would spend their Friday nights partying or going out with friends. Not you. Friends were easy to make in class, but harder to keep in contact with once the course was done. You could blame it on the way that your parents forced you into a job during high school; it never left much time to practice social skills. Or that you were too exhausted by the time the week was over to do anything other than exist. Maybe cause the last group of people you had thought were your ‘friends’ were actually manipulative nightmares. You suppress a shiver. All you know is that deep down you feel it’s always been your fault. It always has. You shake your head to disperse your negative thoughts. Looking over at Rock you feel grateful that this little kitty loves you unconditionally. By the time you are done eating you look down at the container and come to the conclusion that putting it in the sink required too much energy at the moment and set it on the coffee table for now. Rock leaps onto the table to greedily lap up any remains. She’s so adorable that you record her eating so you could put on your Instagram, already filled with various pictures of Rock. Not like you do much else. After a few moments you look over to your backpack that's still by the door. There’s homework to do. Groaning, you muster the energy to stand up and bring the bag over to the couch. Might as well start that short answer. Unzipping the bag you slip out a laptop and start working. __________________________________________________________ The clock read 10:48 p.m. when you finally submit your short answer to the school’s online assignment portal. The reading took longer than expected and you feel cheated. You had the intention to get more assignments done today, but you also have to be up early to open at work. Over on the next cushion Rock sleeps curled up on herself. You let out a tired sigh. Closing the laptop you set it aside to grab the empty container to place it in the sink. Probably should have done it earlier. Returning to the living room you switch off the TV and swipe up the laptop to carry to the bedroom. Opening your bedroom door you enter the familiar organized chaos of clothes, papers, and food wrappers scattered across various surfaces. The floor was clear of most of the clutter though. You had standards. Placing down the laptop on your desk you quickly locate the charger and plug it in; then turned to gather your pajamas and head to the shower. It didn't take too long to wash off and brush your teeth. When you leave the bathroom and enter your room, Rock is there waiting for you by the bed. You turn off the light and in the darkness little green stick-on stars speckle the ceiling with a soft glow. Smiling you ease under the blankets and Rock settles down on your legs. You fall asleep listening to her gentle purring.