An unconventional love story

{22} Redundancy

I was eating my stir fry, relishing in the silence. It was...odd, but nice. No screaming going on in my house. No crackhead fights outside my house. I don't think our street had ever been so peaceful. I let out a content sigh as a twirled the noddles around my fork when the door opened only to slam shut.

I watched with curiosity as Lucas stormed over to the fridge, pulling out a beer with more force than necessary and cracking it opened. "Woah what's going on?" I intervened as he chugged the whole thing in less than two seconds.

He slammed the empty bottle on the counter. "I'll tell you what's going on. I just got fired from my fucking job," he said in a false cheery tone.

My jaw dropped as I processed what he just said. "Your joking right? Please tell me your joking." With another kid in the house the last thing we needed was for Lucas to be jobless.

He let out a bitter chuckle, "Nope. Fucking redundancy. They're making budget cuts as if they don't already give me a shit pay. Broke cunts."

"Maybe this is a good thing," I tried to look on the bright side but he just gave me a flat stare, rightfully so. "Okay," I sighed, running my shaking hands over my jeans. "It's gonna be fine. I'll pick up extra shifts, force Mason to get a job and you need do some job hunting." He gazed off into the distance as I spoke, seeming to be lost in his own head. "Lucas," I said loudly which caught his attention. "Job hunting yeah?"

He sighed giving me a nod. I gave him a pat on the back, leaving him with an encouraging smile as I went to go talk to Mason.

We were screwed.

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Days later Mason had secured a job and Lucas was still wallowing in self pity. "Any jobs?" I sighed.

"No," he grumbled. This wasn't like the old days where you could find job ads in the newspaper, nowadays people had high expectations.

"Lucas you need to find a job."

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Frankly I don't know. These last few days you've just been at home moping about. Your the main provider in our family, without your income we won't be able to pay the bills. And I'm sorry it's that way, I truly am, but it's the way it's always been. I'm saying this for Evelyn's sake. Please look for a job," I practically begged.

Evelyn and Mason sat silently as I said what was needed.

"Whatever," he grumbled but I could see my words got through to him.

I looked up at the ticking clock, letting out a quiet groan. If only I could freeze time. I was going to be so tired tomorrow; the only spare shift I could pick up today was the night shift. "I need to leave for work now or I'll be late. Bye guys."

"Bye, love you," Lucas said, sparking up a cig as I opened the door.

"Love you too."

"Bye Willow," Mason and Evelyn chorused. I shut the door, wrapping my wooly scarf around me as I braced the chilly night.

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I was currently at Julians and watching the new season of Brooklyn 99. Unlike Cole, Julian has a good taste in television. Thinking of Cole, I don't know how he would feel if I told Julian about my crush, due to our circumstances, but it's not like I can exactly ask him and I have been wanting to get this off my chest.