Chapter Text
Light entered from the small window, shining onto Susie’s face as she filled yet another cup of coffee from the old, rusty machine by the staff kitchen. She grunted and squinted them before getting back to the counter with the paper cup in hand.
She sighed, slumping back down on her chair. What was there to even do in this place? As much as her piece of shit manager tried to deny it, her weird project of an “organic” grocery store was a major failure. Nobody wanted to work their asses off making money in this economy just to spend it all in a small overpriced market placed in a flat that used to be some college student’s apartment. She didn’t even know if these stuff were PDA approved, or if this woman just made them and hoped for the best. All she knew was that she’d never step foot into this store if it wasn’t for it paying great money. Everything in here seemed like a bio-hazard, and she could swear that the pickles (that definitely weren’t sealed properly,) had brown goo coming out of them.
But well, what wouldn’t someone do for money? What wouldn’t a college student do for a job that made them fifteen dollars per hour? Whatever the answer was, it was certainly not ‘don’t feel bad for a middle aged, probably gone in the head lady that’s about to go bankrupt from a failed project’. As sweet as that woman could appear to the almond moms that occasionally checked the place out, Susie could not give a single shit about her sorry ass. Maybe she had it coming for making her work extra hours in a store that didn’t have customers to need a teenage worker, let alone one that put in 5 more hours.
She huffed, resting her head on the counter as yet another pen she was playing with snapped in half. Did she have to be so goddamn heavy handed with stuff? This was like the 6th one this month. She was going to have her already minimum wage paycheck reduced to afford the loss of these stuff someday. Would the dickhead even notice? She was barely here, except for when she came in with a big box in her hand to “restock” stuff that didn’t even need restocking. Susie wondered when her bank account would start to be affected by her manager’s loss. She seriously didn’t understand why she didn’t just give up hope on this place. Oh, well. Those were matters she could attend to after her much-needed nap. Trying to learn all those pencil tricks on the internet and spinning in the green office chair she had were quite the tiring activities, after all.
She hopped up from the comfy restaurant chairs, cheerfully making her way towards the piano the place had to offer. It was.. massive with old, fancy decors that looked straight out of the 90s. There, one of the butlers wearing a suit and tie sat, playing a boring melody. Who in the room wanted to listen to this, anyway? That’s what Susie was here for. She’d save this old restaurant from weird classical melodies, show them what actual music was like. Show them what they were missing out on with their fancy adult stuff.
“Hey, now, little one. Where do ya’ think yer going?” It was the grumpy adult that interrupted her from taking more cookies on her plate earlier. He had white hair and a shaved beard. He crossed his arms, staring down at Susie.
“Eh..” Susie mumbled, retouching the purple bow in her hair. If she wanted to get in hold of that piano, she had to look at least a little good. “I’m going to play the piano over there!”
Laughter erupted from behind the man, a woman in a red silk dress walking up to her with a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Oh? Will you, Susie?”
“You.. know my name?” Her face lit up, as she tried to ignore the burning sensation in her guts telling her to back off. Whoever these people were, they were in a much higher social and economic status than her parents. “And, yup! I’m gonna show you all real music.”
“‘Course we do, dear.” The woman said, swaying her hand in the air. “We did our business with your parents all those years back then. How do you think you’re invited here? On that topic, though..” She took a break to take a deep breath and put on a sympathetic mask before speaking again. “They haven’t told us the best about you, y’know.”
“My parents..?” Looks like looking cute didn’t help in how adults treated you, once again.
“Yeah. We don’t need any trouble with this thing.” The man walked up to the piano, putting a hand on it and looking at it proud. “It is an old piece. Kids like ya wouldn’t get art.”
Whatever. It didn’t matter. Susie wasn’t a crybaby, and she didn’t care. She didn’t care about being humiliated in front of everyone, and she surely didn’t care about the blonde human girl with blue eyes walking up to the piano. She didn’t care that the girl was cherished, and welcomed to play it.
She didn’t care about the screams ringing out in the place as the keys mashed, or the yell of a woman that was all too familiar to her.
“Susie! What do you think you’re doing?!” That didn’t sound like her mom. Huh. Weird. She didn’t know her manager was annoying enough to communicate with her through her dreams as well. She was fucking everywhere! Who even let her in here? “Susie, do you hear me?!”
She groaned, lifting her head. Her hair fell in front of her face, blocking her vision on the woman wearing a flowery dress.
“That was your last strike, Susie..” She lifted a hand to her face, rubbing the bridge of her nose in disappointment. “Last strike. I told you that last week, as well. Do my words even have any meaning to you anymore?”
“Um. Yes. Totally do.” She said, awkwardly giggling as she tried to get her hair to not be such a mess. “Sorry, coach.”
“No, no. No apologies needed.” Despite her ‘reassuring’ words, the woman’s face grew even angrier as she slammed her hand on the counter, making Susie flinch. “You’re fired, young lady!”
“What?” Susie was sure that her facial expression was in some way that has never been displayed by any human or monster before. This job was her only opportunity with affording college! “Miss, you know my situation! I just snoozed off because there were no customers, I was tired! You know me!”
“I don’t need any more of your bullshit excuses, Suzy. Get out of my flat.”
It’s Susie, she corrected in her mind. “Whatever. You know this place won’t get anywhere anyways.” Susie stood up, collecting her bag before storming off. “Eat shit, asshole..” God, she wished nothing more than someone saying that to that demon a little louder.
What was she supposed to do now? What could she do now? Every other grocery store at this town turned her down. She didn’t own a motorbike to ride up to the city center and try her chance with one of the malls there, and she sure as hell couldn’t wake up early every morning to leave for a workplace two hours away from her.
She watched as the rock she kicked fell to the lake beside her, splashing oh-so-small. Maybe her parents were right. She’d get nowhere with college without their support, but she’d rather kiss her now ex manager than be next to those assholes for any more. They probably wouldn’t shut up about how she ‘came crawling back to them’ ever again, mentioning ‘her loyalty to them’ on every chance they got.
Well, there was nothing else left for her to do in this place. She sat down on the side of a road. She could go to the college management tomorrow and pull herself off the records, and buy herself a tiny apartment with the little money she managed to save up before getting fired. Maybe she could apply for a women’s shelter: that way, she wouldn’t have to pay for her own meals. She was bound to run out of savings eventually, anyways.
She didn’t even realise she was crying until a tear fell on her hand, jerking her conscious of her surroundings. She did walk quite far without even realising it. In front of her stood a tall brick apartment, a pup staring at her with it’s tongue out from the window. Purple, bright light shined upon her from the back, semi-blinding. Who even had their neon signs this bright..? She turned around, facing the building behind her. Well, that was if you could even call it that. It was a small cabin, decorated with flowers on the outside. The purple sign wrote out ‘OPEN’, and colored the white paper with ‘NOW HIRING’ right below it. Seemed like a coffee store, judging by the person with the green and yellow sweater holding a coffee cup as they walked out.
Wait. She re-read the paper, and threw herself inside the store. Who cared if her eyes were a little swollen? It wasn’t out of character for a college student to cry, and the blonde deer monster on the counter didn’t look any younger than her.
“You’re hiring?” She spew out, excitement bleeding onto her voice.
“That’s.. what the sign says, yeah!” The girl’s voice was laced with frustration. Susie almost felt bad for asking her extremely stupid question, but oh well. She could suck it up if she worked at a coffee store in the town center. “We aren’t accepting applications until tomorrow morning when our manager comes back to town, though. Come back then if you want to apply. Also, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t play around with the doorbell, the cat gets hungry.” Her words felt scripted.
“Yeah. Um, alright. That’s fine.” Susie gave the worker a smile, letting go of the door. The cat gets hungry..? What the hell kind of reasoning was that? “I’ll see you. Heh.”
Maybe things weren’t over yet.