A Seasonal Perpetuity

Meetings

A/N: this is probably littered with errors that I haven't spotted. If you find one, don't hesitate to let me know! Enjoy!

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The jingle of the bells as the shop door opened snapped Joel out of his reverie, as he steeled himself to face the chaos surrounding him once more.  

He watched a tall male enter the shop, his tired eyes scanning the emptying shelves as customers snatched their contents swiftly. There was no doubt in Joel's mind that the man was looking for the sale items. Luckily for him, nearly everything except for the odd shelf here and there was adorned with some sale tag or the other. Joel would know; he'd spent at least half of the previous day restocking half of the bookshelves.

As expected, the man with the mysterious trench coat immediately took long, confident strides over to the nearest item that grabbed his attention, joining the rest of the customers in their last-minute mad dash for presents.

Joel sighed, studying the crazed shop around him. Bits of tinsel were lying everywhere, hanging precariously off the frames of the wooden bookshelves, cardboard boxes full of merchandise were pushed into every available space for continuous restocking, and Joel felt a headache growing from all the different Christmas lights which dazzled in the small store.

It was always the same.

Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered working at Glindon's Surprises. Being Christmas Eve, he'd had to deal with hyperactive customers all day, only getting a twenty-minute break at lunchtime to eat before his shift started again. As if that wasn't torturous enough, Joel had to wear a stupid, foul Santa hat that kept slipping down over his eyes throughout his entire shift. It was beginning to grate at his nerves.

As if reading his mind, the hat slipped over his eyes once more. Swiftly, Joel yanked it upwards for what felt like the millionth time that day, cursing under his breath as he did so.

"I swear to god, I'm never doing this again," Joel spat, glaring around the overcrowded shop.

"That was exactly what you said last year," a voice said with mirth. He turned to see Maria, his co-worker, standing next to him with a knowing look on her face.

Joel turned away, choosing to ignore her comment as he lay on the counter once more.

Nearly every customer was the same: flustered from the impending deadline, they would all rush in and buy the same items, with the same excuses. He watched Maria serve another customer, who was babbling excitedly about Christmas.

"I've been searching for a present for days, but I just couldn't find the perfect one!" she said, chuckling as she took the bag from Maria.

Joel would have found the excuse believable if the woman hadn't been buying a snow globe.

It was beginning to get quite dull.

Nevertheless, his job was his job. No matter how much Joel resented it at times, it provided him with the money to fund his future university bills and that was all that mattered to him.

Of course, like anybody, he'd still be swimming with debt, but at least he'd have some cash to fall back on when he would need it to live leisurely. With that thought in mind, he slowly leaned himself off of his sprawled position on the counter and stretched his limbs as customers rushed about the shop, bumping into each other and throwing hasty apologies behind their shoulder as they frantically grabbed items off the sale shelves.

Maria nudged him as he stretched, her rose-scented perfume irritating his nose.

"This one looks very happy," she mocked, nodding towards the entrance door.