Pick Me Up

It had been a week since Percy lost her job and her wallet was beginning to feel the strain of being without. But as Zayn promised, he had a job interview lined up for her. He had texted her the evening before letting her know to meet him at his house at 3 PM dressed to impress. She decided on a coral pink top with a frilly collar, a black blazer, her old pair of black straight leg dress pants (which she had to search through the back of her closet to find) and finished it off with the nicest pair of heels she owned. She chose to tie her blonde hair up into a tight high ponytail, and even took the extra time to make sure her make up was done perfectly - light and golden, making here blue eyes like two pools of water you wanted to dive into.

She walked up the steps of Zayn and Niall's giant bachelor pad and took in the detailed work that was done all around the house, the last time she had been there it had been too dark and filled with too many people to actually enjoy it. It was gorgeous, at least over 100 years old. She felt like there should have been a horse drawn carriage in the driveway with an English gentleman wearing a single eyeglass and a top hat sitting inside.

Reaching the front porch, she stood awkwardly for a few moments. She didn't know if she should knock or if it would be okay for her to just walk in. She and Zayn had become so close in such a short period of time, and he was like the lost best friend that should have been there all along, and luckily there was no weird “we’ve had sex” vibe. She chose to knock, not knowing if she was able to barge through the door. She waited for Niall or Zayn to open the door, but when the door flew open, someone else greeted her, a new face she had never had the chance to meet before. He had shaggy brown hair going in all directions and blue eyes, like hers. He had a giant smile on his face, one big enough to almost be considered cheeky.

"Hello there, I don't remember ordering an escort this early in the day." The blue-eyed boy said cheerily.

"Um... Is Niall or Zayn here?" Asked Percy, not knowing if he was joking or being serious.

"Those two lucky bastards, always getting the best looking girls to show up at their house." He shook his head in disappointment. "Leaving all the slags for us. How rude." Now Percy was beginning to feel even more awkward. She had no idea who this kid was or what his intentions were. "You look like your eyes balls are about to pop out of your head..." He was still smiling when he turned his head and yelled, "Zayn! Niall! Your date is here!" She could see Zayn walking down the stairs to the door.

"Shut up." said Zayn, pushing him aside, grabbing Percy's hand, and pulling her inside. "Don't mind him, that's just Louis, doesn't know when to stop making jokes.

"Oh. Okay. Does he live here too?" Asked Percy.

"Might as well, he is here most of the time anyway." Said Zayn, shrugging his shoulders and closing the door behind him.

"You still haven't properly introduced us Zayn, how rude..." Percy said, trying to keep the mood light.

"Sorry. Percy, this is Louis. Louis, this is Percy."

"You're the one!" Said Louis in excitement, like he just saw the Easter bunny.

"I'm the one, what?" She asked in confusion, scrunching up her face in curiosity.

"Louis, I've already told you to shut up once today, don't make me do it again." Louis just scoffed, as if Zayn's threat was empty.

"The one he pulled, the night of the party." Zayn's eyes darting to her, As if saying for her to deny anything ever happened.

"What are to talking about?" Luckily she caught on fast. Pulling the wool over Louis' eyes. "Zayn and I have never hooked up."

"Yeah dude, like I told you. We're just friends."

"Just friends my giddy aunt. We all know you pulled that night." Louis began following them into the den, where there was a billiards table, a giant couch with a huge TV, and a wet bar with stools for sitting. Niall was on the couch, game controller in hand playing Call of Duty with another guy she didn't recognize. "Plus, Niall heard you guys running around in the morning, rushing to get out of the house."

"Yeah, she spent the night in the bed while I slept on the floor. She was too drunk to make it home, I was being a proper gentleman and such." Zayn snuck a wink at Percy who was holding back a fit of laughter.

“Right, and I’m the pope.” Said Louis, taking a seat on the couch with Niall and the other guy. Niall paused the game and turned to see who had come in. He got a giant smile on his face when he saw Percy.

“Well… look at you, you clean up real nice don’t ya?” said Niall, eyes wide and grin on his face.

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Percy.

“Just saying it’s nice to see what you look like on a regular basis, not the morning after debauchery.”

“Why does everyone think we hooked up?” she asked, yet another question.

“Because they can’t pull any girls on their own and want to live vicariously through me, even though NOTHING HAPPENED.” Zayn said defending his honor as well as Percy’s.

“Keep telling yourself that Zayn, maybe one day it will be true.”

“Don’t listen to them love, all talk no action.” Said the guy sitting next to Niall. His hair was slicked back and had some scruff around his face. He kind of reminded Percy of young David Beckham. “It’s constantly like this, swear to god.” He smiled at her in a way that light up his and kind brown eyes and got up from his seat, extending his hand towards her for a shake. “I’m Liam… “

“Hiya. I’m Percy.” She said, taking his hand.

“Percy? Is it short for something?”

“Nope, just Percy.”

“Boys name for a girl, hot.” He said, sitting back down.

“Right boys, we’re off. Be back later…” said Zayn, grabbing his leather jacket and keys, heading out of the house, Percy following closely behind.

“You’re welcome back anytime love.” Said Niall, his voice trailing off as she walked away. “Especially if you’re going to be dressed like that.” The last part was a whisper and she was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to hear it, but the compliment made her blush.

They reached Zayn’s car at the end of the driveway, it was an older Range Rover SUV, maybe like 5 or 6 years old. But even still, she was pretty impressed. She had ridden in his car before, but didn’t really have time to admire it, since she was more worried about making it to work.

“Nice car.” She said, opening the passenger door and climbing in. It was all tricked out with a nice stereo, GSP touch screen, and an adapter for your iPod or phone, “Very fancy…”

“Ha. Thanks. It’s not really mine. It’s Niall’s old car, he doesn’t really use this one anymore. He lets me drive it as long as I pay for the insurance, registration and all that stuff. Couldn’t afford it on my own, that’s for sure.” He has started the car and drove down the long path way to the gate, where he entered the exit code. They drove out of the suburbs and made their way towards town.

“So, if Niall doesn’t drive this anymore… what does he drive?” she asked, he curiosity peaked.

“Ha, I’ll let him show you. If I told you and he didn’t have a chance to brag about it, he would kill me.” Zayn took his eyes off the road for a minute and smiled at Percy. The smile that once made her go all girly and gaga, now just made her comfortable.

“It’s too quiet in here.” Said Percy, reaching for the car radio, turning it on. Sublime’s “Caress Me Down” came blaring through the entire vehicle, halfway through the song. She looked at Zayn, who was staring a head, singing. It came to the Spanish part in the song, and Zayn didn’t even break. He just kept on singing. Percy became mildly impressed. “So you’re thaaaaat kind of person?” she asked, eyeing him.

“What kind of person?” He asked, childishly.

“That kind… ya know… I bet you listen to Bob Marley too, right? What a typical pot head.”

“Hey, watch it missy. You were smoking yourself the other day, high as a kite as I recall.”

“Every once in a while.”

“It’s a lifestyle.”

“You sound ridiculous.”

Zayn laughed as the car slowed down and stopped in a car park. Percy knew where she was immediately, Coffee Goblin. She spent more time here than she did in her dorm. This place was her life’s blood, the thing that kept her going after pulling all nighters studying for exams, and picked her up during mid day lulls and hang overs. She hopped out of the car and followed close behind Zayn as they walked up to the doors, stopping before making their way inside. There were only a handful of people inside the typical coffee shop, except it always had cool original art inside from students who went the university. She looked through the windows and took it all in, getting more excited by the second.

“No way!” Percy almost screamed, not being able to contain herself anymore. “How did you even pull this off?!”

“One of my best mates works here. He told me that they are always looking for help, plus they let me put up some of my art. Even led to me selling a few of my pieces.” Zayn said as he opened the door, letting Percy in before him.

They walked to the counter where the young man who always got her name wrong was standing, counting the register. He looked like usual, a stupid scarf on his head and a shirt that had too deep a V-neck, tight jeans with holes, and boots that looked like had been through the ringer. But, she also saw Chase, kind, loving, great guy Chase, who had been her friend from the first day of her life and university when she got lost trying to find the right bus back to campus.

Zayn’s friend initially seemed very happy at the sight of his mate entering the shop, but the moment he laid eyes on Percy, his mood went from great to sour. When Harry had told Zayn about the job opening, he thought it would be someone else showing up, like a mutual friend, but no, it was her.

Harry’s first impression of Percy was a spoiled princess who always got her way, that’s why he kept messing up her name when she would order something, he wasn’t going to give in the way everyone else had to her, like Chase, his boss, always did. Then he saw her at the party last week, Zayn doting on her whenever she wanted a drink, fucking princess. It just made his opinion even stronger than it was before.

“Hey man.” Said Zayn, grabbing Harry’s hand and the leaned into a quick hug, the fist bumped. “This is who I was talking about… Percy, this is Harry.”

“Yeah, we’ve met…” said Harry, unimpressed by her and her ‘interview outfit’.

“We have?” she asked, knowing very well she hadn’t spoken more the a few words at him.

“Yeah, at the party last week. You were having Zayn make you drinks all night long.” He sounded very accusing, pretty much offending her in every which way. Like she was forcing Zayn to do something he didn’t want, but it’s really just Harry’s harsh judgments.

“Oh, sorry… I uh, I don’t really remember much of that night.” She sounded very guarded. He was judging her on a snap impression. Before Harry could say anything else, Chase made his way to the small group and she perked up immediately. “Hey Chase!” said Percy, very cheerfully, trying to shake off Harry’s bad vibe.

“Hello love.” He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “If Harry would have told me it was you applying, I wouldn’t have needed to set up this interview.

“Didn’t know it was her.” Harry grumbled, turning away and pretending to clean something. He was trying to distract himself from the annoying presence that was going to be his future co-worker.

“I’m just as surprised as you are.” Said Percy to Chase, trying her hardest to ignore Harry.

“There is no need for an interview, if you want the job, you’ve got it.” Said Chase.

“Really?” she asked, taken a back. If she knew finding a job would be this easy, she would have come in way sooner. “Are you sure?”

“Yes dear, of course.” Chase was a really sweet guy, he felt like her grand father or great uncle, or something a long those lines. “Can you start tomorrow?”

“Yes! That would be great.” She was dumbfounded. She turned to Zayn who wasn’t really paying too much attention to them, getting absorbed into looking at some of the new art pieces up on the wall, his competition. But as he turned his head his eyes caught her beaming at him, and he walked back over and swung his arm around her shoulders.

“Thanks for bringing her in Zayn, she’ll be a total asset.” Said Chase, shaking his free hand. “You’ve got a good girl there.” Both Zayn and Percy laughed at Chase’s assumption.

“She’s not my girl, but I’ll still take the compliment.” Said Zayn before changing the topic. “Hey Chase, I was wondering if you had any room for some new paintings I’ve been doing. It’s kind of a warped super hero type of thing going on.”

“Yeah, sure. Do you have some pictures on your phone of them?” Chase has always been genuinely interested in Zayn’s art.

“Yeah! Hang on.” Zayn spoke as he took out his phone. He and Chase started talking business so Percy turned her attention to Harry who was looking bored and absentmindedly cleaning the espresso machine.

“Soooo” said Percy, breaking the ice. “We’re going to be working together. That sounds pretty cool.” She was hoping Harry was as laid back as Zayn and Niall were.

“Yeah, sure it does.” Answered Harry, sarcastically. “Technically, I’ll be your boss.”

“It could be worse… Niall could be my boss.” Harry snorted at the comment. Niall had never worked a day in his life, but he still imagined that it would be more pleasant than working with Percy. All she felt at that moment was that she at least could make Harry laugh a tiny bit, breaking the scowl on his face. Zayn and Chase came back to where she and Harry were standing in awkward silence.

“Thanks man, I’ll bring the stuff by tomorrow.” Said Zayn, finalizing their agreement, shaking hands.

“Looking forward to it.” Said Chase, no turning his attention back to Percy. “Can you come in at 5:30 tomorrow so we can get you trained on opening and the morning rush?”

“5:30… In the morning…?” asked Percy, having a mini panic attack.

“Yeah Perce, they have a 5:30 in the morning as well as the night.” Joked Zayn.

“This is brand new information to me.” She said back, trying to be funny. It worked on Chase and Zayn, but Harry just scowled and turned his lip and eyebrow up at her. “Yeah, I’ll be here. Good thing I don’t have to stop and get coffee first.”

She said good-bye to everyone and let Zayn drive her home. She gave him a quick hug and then ran up to her dorm where Donna was primping for a night out. She still had no idea why Donna was in the dorms and not living in her own place when she could afford it. Percy, however, was kind of doomed to dorm life, her scholarship paid for the room. But that was one less check she had to write every month.

“Going out tonight?” asked Percy, trying to make casual conversation. It was never pleasant talking to Donna, but she couldn’t just ignore the brat, there was too much silence in the room.

“Yeah, Dale is taking me out to dinner.” Donna answered, not taking her eyes off her reflection in the mirror. “I’ll be home late, so leave the door open.”

“Just.” Percy hesitated, she hated when she had to ask something roomatey of Donna. “Please don’t be too loud, I have to be at work at 5:30.”

“In the morning?”

“Yeah.”

“Like that is going to happen.” She laughed, causing her to smudge her eyeliner a bit. Percy silently laughed at her. Perfect Donna and her perfect make up job ruined. She fixed it quickly, got up from her small vanity, and grabbed her jacket. “Don’t wait up.” She said, slamming the door behind her.

“Wasn’t planning on it.” She whispered silently to herself. Now she was alone, leaving her mind to wander. She thought about her new job and how nervous she was to impress everyone. She thought about Zayn who she felt a closeness to, something that didn’t really happen very often, the only person she ever felt truly close to was Jo, but Zayn was coming in a close second. She let her mind wander further and thought about her reading list for her American Literature class, and she thought about how happy she was that she had already read most of the books.

Night nearly claimed her entire room before she turned on the light. She looked at her phone, and saw it was just about 9 PM. She decided should probably go to bed soon, being up early wasn’t something she was used to, and she knew she would be needing the rest if she was going to make a good impression on her first day. She got dressed for bed, just in an oversized t-shirt with her legs bare. She turned on her bedside light, got a book in hand, and cozily got into bed and began skimming through the pages of Naked Lunch. When her phone buzzed, she had half a mind to ignore it, but curiosity got the best of her and grabbed the phone seeing a text from Jo, along with a picture.

From Jo @
9:07pm

We are here! Where are you?


Percy smiled. It was a picture of Jo, Kyle, Zayn with a splif in his mouth, Niall with a drink in hand, Louis making a funny face, and Liam who looked like a disapproving Dad. They were clearly outside of Cockpit, their choice in clubs when they wanted live music.

From Percy @
9:09pm

Some of us have to go to bed early because we have work in the morning.


She waited with a heavy heart for that ping, meaning she has a new message, a few seconds later, it happened.

From Niall @ 9:12

Since when do you turn down a night out?


She smiled, shook her head and texted back.

From Percy @ 9:14pm

Since I have a new job and need to impress my new boss.


Another ping, this time there was another picture attached. It was a picture of Harry, taking back a shot. She looked at the picture for a few seconds then looked at the text below.

From Niall @ 9:20

You mean this boss?


Holy hell, Harry is out with all her friends throwing back drinks as if he didn’t have a care in the world. If he could go out, she could surely go out. She hesitated for a few minutes, her thumbs hovering over her keypad on her phone. Should she stay and be a good girl or go and risk the chance of being late on her first day. She didn’t have the money to buy drinks, but that didn’t matter, she knew Niall would never let her hand become empty. She was fighting an inner battle.

From Percy @ 9:27pm

I’ll be there in 20.



“No. No. No.” Percy groaned as her alarm went off. It sounded like a siren and felt like a train running over her brain. She grabbed her phone and glanced at the time. 4:55am, she only had been asleep for 2 hours. She reluctantly sat up in her bed, running her hands though her messy night out hair, and rubbing her sleep ridden eyes. She tried shaking her head and slapping her cheeks to wake herself up, but it wasn’t working. She reluctantly slid her legs over her bed, still covered in stockings that she had worn out, and attempted to get up.

“Turn it off Percy! For fucks sake” screamed Donna, throwing her pillow over her head to try and block out the sound.

“Sorry” she whispered, turning off the invading noise. Shit, she had to get ready. She turned on the tiny bedside light, it was still dark out and she was pretty sure she was still drunk. She made a grab for some jeans and a loose black V-neck, threw on her toms, ran to the bathroom to try and clean herself up the best she could.

Looking at herself in the mirror only made her more exhausted. She had left over eyeliner and mascara smeared everywhere, her hair was a ratchet mess, and her eyes were horrendously bloodshot. She quickly scrubbed her face and brushed her teeth, taking her blonde hair back and putting up in the messiest bun you could ever imagine. She went back to the dorm to grab her phone and purse. Shit. It was nearly 5:25; did it really take her that long to just get up? Damn. Now she was going to have to run to work, which probably wasn’t a good idea because she was hung over and running only increased the chances of her puking that day.

She got to Coffee Goblin at 5:40 and found that the door was locked. She tried peeking inside for some form of life and she saw Harry, putting pastries in the cold case. She knocked on the door lightly, his head turning immediately with a not so happy look on his face. He sauntered over to the door and reluctantly opened it for her.

“You’re late.” He said, not even looking at her, returning to the task of turning on lights and machines. If this was how she was going to act on her first day, Harry had a total military plan in mind. He was going to train her hard and fast, which sounded dirty, but that was the farthest thing from his mind.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” She said apologetically. “Kind of had a late night last night. Well, you know, you were there.”

“I also left at 12, what time did you leave?” He finished with the cold case and walked over to the other side of the counter and started taking out all the flavor pumps. He was working as if he was she was just a fly on the wall. Not paying her much attention. Percy followed like a puppy, not sure on what to do yet.

“Er… nearly 3.”

“Figures.” He was shaking his head in disappointment. “Right, well, might as well get started.”

“Awesome. Where can I put my bag?”

“Here” He left the front counter and walked towards a back door that said ‘Employee’s Only’ Percy trailed behind him and followed him into the room. It was a spacious room with a large desk, several stocking shelves that were filled with cups and lids, different types of coffee, syrups and a whole lot more. She looked around the room and found Harry standing in front of a row of lockers, she walked up to them and threw her purse and phone in one and turned back to Harry for more instructions. “Everyone here is pretty trust worthy, so don’t worry about a lock. Plus. We have cameras everywhere. If an employee steals something, we’ll know.”

Harry didn’t miss a beat, barely giving her enough time to stow her stuff as he walked back out onto the floor.

“Have you ever worked in a coffee shop before?” He asked

“No. First time.” Great, no experience and she’ll probably make him do all the work. He wanted to roll his eyes, but couldn’t. He was the boss and this was a professional environment.

“Okay, just watch and learn. I’ll tell you what I am doing while I am doing it. It’s the easiest way to get this down.” They walked out to the front and over to the espresso machine. “This is our espresso machine. You grind up the beans there.” He said, pointing to a rather large grinder with coffee beans on the top. “You press this button and put this thing under where all the coffee comes out. Then, you grab this press thing and press it like you would a mud pie.”

“Okay, got it.” She said, thinking hopefully that she would retain all this information.

“Then you hook it in the machine, press the button, put a shot glass under it, and espresso comes out. Easy. Right?” He asked hurriedly. Maybe if she could get this down fast by the time morning rush hit she would be semi-useful. “This thing…”He pointed at a long metal stick that had a hole in the bottom. “This is the steamer. We use it for milk. You press the button above, pull the metal handle, and it steams milk. This…” He grabbed a metal measuring cup, “Is what we put the milk in before we steam it. After you finish steaming, wipe it down and make sure there’s no milk left behind. Clear?”

Shit. Fuck. Okay… Percy was going through it over and over again in her head. Press this button then that happens, and so on. He turned to the back counter where there were clear pitched with different colored lids and liquids in them.

“These are our different iced teas. Each one is labeled and color-coded, so there is no room for mix ups or mistakes. Hot tea bags are right next to the iced tea. The actual ice is in the backroom. We constantly are taking bins of ice from the back to the front, it needs to be done on a constant basis, especially when we busy.”

Teas. Hot teas. Iced teas, ice. Right. She got it all down, tea’s seemed simple enough, hopefully. Harry walked a little farther down towards all the syrup pumps. Great, more stuff to make this job complicated.

“Syrup pumps are easy, if they ask for a pump of something and we have it, it’s here clearly labeled, if not, tough luck for them. Also, the first syrup pump is free. We charge $1.00 after that. If they don’t like it, tough luck again.”

He strutted a few more feet towards the pastry counter. There we all sorts of different kinds of breakfast goodies. Muffins, bagels, cakes, cookies, and brownies just to name a few.

“Pastry counter is easy enough. If you’re in the back stocking or making drinks and the cashier yells for a pastry, you get it here, obviously.” God, he sounded pretentious. She got it, he knew it all and she knew nothing. “There are extra under the counter and even more on the shelves in the back. We get the delivered fresh every morning, another reason why were are here you are here at 5:30, some of us even get here at 4.”

He moved back to the espresso machine, but this time he ducked down. What looked like regular wooden cabinets turned out to be a fridge filled with all their dairy products. Whole milk, soymilk, almond milk, whip cream, half and half, pretty much everything you could think of. It was nicely organized and clean.

“Here’s all the milk stuff. I like keeping it clean, no spills. Got it?”

“Got it.” Her voice was shaky and unsure. She looked thoroughly confused and overwhelmed. How was she ever going to keep her cool with all the pressure building on top of her?

“Here, you’ll just be practicing register. Ashton will be at the second reg, he has been here for just about as long as I have, so, if you have any questions he can help you there.” His green eyes were intensely staring down at her. He wanted to put her through a test because the sooner she failed, the sooner she would be out of here and then they could hire someone really worthwhile. “I know you’ll want to try and spell everyone’s names right on their cup at first, but don’t bother. You just need to get through the rush as quick as possible with very few mistakes. The register is self explanatory.” He walked over to the front counter and turned it on, a touch screen computer came to life. “Each drink has it’s own button.” Percy looked at the screen, and in fact, there was an entire page of drinks. “And every add or substitution has it’s own button. If you do get it wrong, just highlight the mistake and hit void.” Harry’s fingers were working way too fast, but she followed as closely as she could.

“Once you punch in their drink you are going to hit the print button in the bottom right corner and a little sticker will come out, after it does you’re going to place it on the size cup they wanted then pass it down who the people who are making the drinks.” Harry pointed to the very large stack of hot and cold cups in an array of sizes. He already sounded exhausted, like his time wasn’t worth training her. “We used to write them freehand, but everyone’s writing kind of sucks when we are busy. So, you feel comfortable yet?”

“I guess I will have to be, won’t I?” she asked hesitantly.

“You caught on to that faster than I thought you would…” His voice still clearly didn’t have any confidence in it. To be honest, she was expecting a different Harry. Like he was the night before, taking shots, drinking his whiskey from a glass. She expected him to be like Zayn or Niall, all party with some work thrown in here and there. But, he was always so serious. It made his face go from soft and youthful to hard and tired. Harry took a break from looking at her as if she was a problem and turned his head to the clock across the room and saw that it was nearly 6am. “Right. Time to put all I said to the test.”

She was shaky, she had only retained the new information he gave her about the register, but that would hopefully be a good thing since it was where she would be at for the rest of the morning. She was distracted and drowned in her own thoughts when the door chiming startled her, half expecting to see a customer, she saw a tall, hazel eyed, shaggy, dirty blonde haired boy who was a bit muscly. He had on a shirt with the sleeves cut off that hand some band she never heard of on it. He had an apron in hand and his backpack in the other. He walked directly behind the counter, setting his bag down and hopped on the counter, taking a seat, eyeing her up and down.

“Who are you?” He asked, but his accent was clearly not English, Australian or Kiwi, maybe. He grabbed an apple from the fruit basket set between the registers and took a big bit, chewing with his mouth wide open. She looked around for Harry to make some sort of introduction, but he was counting the money in the registers.

“Er…” said Percy, unsure of this kid, “Percy.”

“Are you sure? You didn’t sound sure.” He said taking another bite of his apple, smiling as he continued to chew with his opened mouth.

“Yes, I’m sure.” She kind of had half a mind to laugh, but she was scared that Harry would yell at her if she showed any signs of joy or happiness.

“So, Percy huh…? Short for anything?”

“Nope, just Percy.”

“That’s usually a boys name, but I guess it works.” He smiled and winked, hopping down from the counter. He walked away and disappeared behind the door but quickly came back, taking his seat on the counter again. His entire presence was strange, like he only thought of his actions as he was doing them, not anytime before. He stared at her, like he was reading something, not how a person who you just met would normally look at you. It was very silent for a few seconds, just staring. When he spoke again, Percy was almost startled. “I’m Ashton.”

“I figured.” She replied.

“How?”

“Harry said you were going to be on the register next to me and if I needed any help to ask you.” She was really uncomfortable, and for no real reason other than the fact that she couldn’t get a read on this guy at all.

“I suppose I could help you.”

“It’s half your job to help train Ash.” Said Harry, clearly done with all his other duties.

“Damn.” He hopped down again, put on his apron and visor, “Should have never taken that raise.”

“Too late now.” Harry laughed. Wow, he is a real boy. A few more people walked in. Percy met a Mary, Kristin, and Wade, all here for work bright and early. They all seemed to get along, keeping easy conversation flowing between them, but Percy kept quiet and just focused on the quick run though that Harry had gone over. And just as she thought about running away from nervousness their first customer of the morning came in and walked right up to Percy, giving her their order.

One word to describe her first day was a disaster. She fucked up so many drink orders she thought Harry was going to have a brain aneurism from dealing with the amount of people that came back and complained about their order being wrong. And she could not stop asking questions, Harry either frowned at her or ignored her questions completely, she wanted to make sure everything was right. It got so bad that by the end of the day she locked herself in the bathroom on the verge of tears, but she was determined to cry alone in her dorm room, and definitely not here. She knew if she showed any more signs of weakness, Harry was going to kill her for the being the lame calf in a strong herd.

It also got so horrible that Harry had to take her off register to start bussing tables, making them short one person on the line. They would rather be down one person than have her work, that was a hard hit to take. She was so relieved when she was told to go home. She didn’t know if she could last another day that, she had to remind herself that it was her first day and that as time went by she would get better.

She felt so ashamed, she drank enough coffee to know how to take coffee orders, but some people were so complicated and they were all talking to fast and there was a line out the door, she panicked. It was all she could think about on her walk back to the dorms, she knew that Harry would tell Chase about her performance and she was worried about that because she really needed this job more than anything, if she got let go after her first day, she knew she would have a mental break down soon after. She was so consumed by her own thoughts that she almost didn’t feel her phone ring. She looked down at the screen saw it was Jo.

“Hiya babe.” Answered Percy, her voice cracking from being so upset.

“Oh no, darling… What’s wrong?” Asked Jo immediately, she knew her best friend and she knew when she sounded in distress.

“Nothing.” Percy lied.

“Nothing my giddy aunt! What happened?”

Notes