The Regularʳᵒᵇⁱⁿ ᵇᵘᶜᵏˡᵉʸ

3| Everybody Hates Mondays

Chapter 3

Everybody Hate Mondays

Monday 1st of July 1985

Jaya doesn't work on Mondays. Whenever people complained about Mondays and how horrible they were it was Jaya's favourite thing to tell them she didn't have to work and could spend the day relaxing by the town pool or just hanging out with friends. That was what she was expecting for this Monday, unfortunately, that was not the case. Her youngest brother, Kamal, is only thirteen and so does not work all day like the rest of the family, this usually wouldn't be a problem with him being at school but it was the summer holidays which meant someone had to look after him, and every Monday and Thursday since school broke up, that person was Jaya.

This Monday in particular Kamal had convinced her to take him to the mall but Jaya still only had her provisional license, so the two had to get the bus. Jaya had quickly come to discover she hated the bus. Tuns of rowdy kids jammed in a hot, confined space were not fun. It was a relief when they arrived and Jaya could breathe a breath of fresh air and not someone else's farts.

Kamal's first stop was RadioShack, he had broken a couple of things whilst out on what he calls his 'adventures'. Really he wanders around the woods when he's not supposed to, climbs trees, and breaks things. Jaya allowed him to sort that out whilst she went to browse The Gap, she was thinking about this movie with Robin, they hadn't even talked about what they were gonna see and honestly, Jaya was concerned Robin wasn't as excited about it as Jaya was, or worse yet: she didn't actually want to go at all. She had decided, however, to ignore that possibility and shop for an outfit for the day. She needed some new clothes anyway.

Jaya would often go shopping with Meena for an outfit whenever the oldest sister had a date coming up and the anticipation Jaya felt looking through the shirts was strangely familiar to how Meena would describe her nerves preparing for a first date. Jaya supposed it was a kind of date- between friends, so maybe 'date' wasn't the right word. Either way, Jaya was more nervous than she probably should be for friends meeting up for a movie. She couldn't tell anyone this, of course, they'd think it was weird. Except for Robin, Jaya thought Robin might understand but it would make things awkward to tell her that, surely.

Eventually, Jaya made her purchase, quite happy with her choice, and started to make her way to the food court where she had decided Kamal and her would meet when they were done. When she got there Kamal was chatting with some friends he must have found and when he caught sight of her attempted to subtly, shoo her away. Smiling to herself Jaya looked around for something to do, spotting Scoops Ahoy she made the decision quite easily. Her smile widened as she spotted that Robin was still at the counter working. 

"I thought you didn't work on Monday? You usually rub it in my face every Tuesday." 

Jaya raised an eyebrow at her friend, "I mean I can go if you don't want me here."

"No no no." Jaya laughed at Robin, watching the girl shaking her hands in a stop motion.

"I have to look after my brother, he convinced me to bring him here, then he ditched me for his friends."

Robin smiles, "To be fair you have now ditched him for yours." The strange bubbly joy at hearing Robin call them friends confused Jaya but she tried her best to focus on the conversation at hand. "So, what will it be today?"

"I think I'll treat myself today, I deserve it having to deal with the monster that is my brother on one of my only days off."

Robin gets to work before Jaya can even actually tell the girl what she wanted, it almost confused her when she knew exactly which icecream to scoop but quickly caught up and smiles as she realized Robin remembers her favourite order, by heart, Jaya watches her sprinkle just the right amount of hundreds and thousands on top of the scoop. "Is that it? or do you want that drink you like as well?"