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The alarm clock blares and wakes her up at 4:30 AM for her first day at her new job after the most stressful, chaotic, and most challenging week of her life.
She slowly gets up from her air inflated mattress and picks up her phone like she always does. She stares at the clock on the wall for a couple of minutes before finally deciding to get up and head to the bathroom to shower and brush her teeth.
“I should’ve slept earlier then I did” she sighs softly as she slowly walks into the bathroom as she reaches the sink and grabs her toothbrush and started pushing out the toothpaste she started thinking about all the crazy and unbelievable stuff that had happened to her throughout this whole week. She dismissed the thought and washed her body along with her hair with the only 3 in one shampoo she could afford. She keeps washing her hair even after having no shampoo in it for a good 6 minutes realizing she was wasting time instead of trying to hurry up and get ready to go to work in the town she just moved to, Grants Pass, Oregon.
She finally gets dressed after being indecisive about which shirt she should wear. She decided to wear a black skirt with a white shirt after 10 minutes of thinking and trying out different shirt she brought with her in her luggage. It didn’t really matter what shirt she wore because she was wearing an apron anyway. She decides that she should do her hair since it looked awful after she got out the shower. She takes a long look in the mirror as she brushes her hair practicing what she would say to her boss and co workers. The empty and sad look in her eyes weren’t going to help her look presentable on her first day, she decides to put on some makeup she thought she wouldn’t need. “Maddie really did think about everything huh?” She decided to put on the basic stuff like concealer, lipstick, eyeliner, and some blush as a final touch. She got her bag and put everything she thought she needed for the day “I should have water some extra make up, gum, a charger, my laptop and my wallet to buy food and groceries after work!”
After she gets everything in her bag she leaves her apartment at 5:23 AM. She remembers the email she got sent said she should get to work at 6:30 or earlier so she thought it would go smoothly even if she didn’t know how to get around this town easily. She decides to go to work by bus instead of getting a taxi because her friend told her that you could get an app to buy the ticket and you’d be good to go. She forgot to get the app the night prior but she decided to get it immediately after walking out of her apartment to see how it’d work. She waited around 2 minutes for it to download and use it before the bus gets to the bus stop before she does. She rushed to the bus stop to sit and buy the ticket.
After she bought the ticket she thought the day would go smoothly from there because even though she didn’t really want to do anything she had no choice but to go to work. Even though she had such a productive and easy morning she still felt empty and exhausted from the stuff that has happened the week before. Right there at that moment she lost all motivation she had to have a good first impression at work thinking that nobody would like to work alongside her anyway.
The bus arrived shortly after she started feeling like shit, she didn’t feel anything but apathy. She stepped onto the bus and scanned her ticket with no emotion but just thoughts of the week that had just passed, a week she barely got by herself. She just kept thinking about those days that just passed and wondering why she didn’t do it that night. As she kept reminding herself of what happened she almost forgets she has to go to work and almost misses her stop but somebody else is also stopping at the same location she is. She sees a stranger walk by her who also looks like he’s going to the same place. She takes a second to analyze this person who she couldn’t make out if it was a coincidence that they also had the same stop or not.
After that second that felt like forever she also sprinted up and started walking towards the bus door to get off. The stranger was also walking the way she was supposed to go, so she just followed them assuming that yes, they were going the same way. As she quietly walks behind them she almost slips and lets out a little yelp. “Wooaha” the stranger then turns around after hearing her almost fall onto the concrete side walk.
They look at each other for a moment she jumps up after it clicks to her that some random person who couldn’t or could possibly be her co worker or worse her boss just see her fall in some heels she didn’t even know she put on. “Are you okay?” Said the stranger “yeah, yeah no I’m fine. Totally fine..” she replied. She knew she couldn’t lie well and thought maybe the person thought she was following them so she tried to clear herself. “I wasn’t following you by the way it’s just my first day in this town and I don’t know which way I was supposed to go since the maps don’t really work well sometimes” she exclaimed in a nervous tone in her voice what’s even worse is that she didn’t have her phone in her hand. “Well if you need help with finding your work I could help with that” the stranger who now has an eerie but subtle smirk on their face. “Are you looking for wheel house cafe?” She realized that this person was her co worker and that maybe even though she didn’t care about presentation anymore that maybe she should try to make friends. “Uhh yes that is where I’m looking for” she exclaimed. The stranger had a realization that they were both going to the same place “oh yeah I work there” he said with a smile on his face. It creeped her out a little bit but she knew he was just being friendly. “What’s your name?” He asked her. “Oh my name is Floralis” “Cool, my name is Lucas!”