𝙰𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚡𝚒𝚊 (𝙶𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙾 & 𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁)

•𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘖𝘯𝘦•

(A/N) -  honestly ngl i think i really want to write this because i just want some healthy parental relationships i—

i dunno
—

You woke uncomfortably when the morning sun burned your eyelids and your phone alarm went off irritatingly, ringing over and over again until you finally got up.

You felt like throwing the stupid, loud rectangular device across the room, but you remembered it was expensive, so you held off on that.

The house was eerily quiet as you got dressed and made your way downstairs, where you found your father passed out on the couch, and your mother nowhere to be seen.

You shrugged, assuming she went to bed in her actual bedroom, and made some toast for the journey to school.

You lived relatively close to your school, so you walked to and from it everyday, enjoying the peacefulness of the morning. Peacefulness that you didn't get anywhere else; not yet, at least.

Your days had become dull, a blur of patterns and schedules and predictable happenings.  It had become rinse repeat, except every day that went by felt more painful than the last as the unchanging went on.

You saw the familiar shape of your school building and approached tiredly, still feeling remnants of the little sleep you got.

You glanced upwards, and saw that the sky even looked sad as the clouds blocked the sunshine from the gloomy atmosphere.  Talk about dramatic effects.

You made your way inside and went through the same old same old, as you did everyday,  feeling as if it were never going to change.  The rest of your day felt as uneventful as the last.

— TIMESKIP —

Once you were finally freed of education,  you made your way to work, a little corner grocery store that had.. actually, it had a lot of things, and you weren't sure if there was any other place in this town that had this much variety in it.

Anyways, you made your way there, walking, as per usual, and stopped in front of it, smiling a little.

Sure, work is never really fun, and it was a bit exhausting sometimes, but it was really the only place you had variety, a change.  It was the one place your home life, school life, and every other aspect of your life wasn't a part of.  You were just you, the quiet employee who neatly restocked all the supplies and cleaned and bid customers a good day on their way out.

Maybe it was strange, maybe it was unusual, (maybeitsmaybelline) but for you, this work was comforting, so things were alright here.

You had to deal with a few rude customers every once and a while, ones who demanded products you didn't have or didn't have in stock, but most of the time people were pleasant, regulars who had shopping patterns, just as everything else in this town had.

For example, the sweet, little, old lady who came by every day buying treats for her grandchildren or ingredients for some kind of baked good.  You helped her pick up groceries every then and there, since you had grown to like her.  She was very generous, always giving you little tips for helping her, ranging from actual money to her bringing in a few homemade cookies the next day.

Some days, she would just stop by to see you and make sure you were doing well.  You were pretty sure you had become her illegitimate grandchild at this point— you didn't really mind, though.

Now then, about the store.  It was located in a not-so visible area next to some sketchy part of the town, the part you had never felt the courage to wander.  Whenever you took the trash out, you could gaze into it, but you never spent more time than you needed back there.

The store had a strange design, like it hadn't been renovated or redecorated since the 70s, maybe even earlier than that.  It was still in decent condition, but it definitely didn't look brand new. 
The place had a weird vibe to it, but it wasn't a bad kind.  It felt like time didn't exist here, which, if you were to be completely honestly,  it probably didn't.

You were just finishing up a little cleaning job for a mysterious stain on the wall when you heard the old clock chime and signal your shift had ended.  You wiped your forehead and put your stuff away,  going through your usual end-of-shift tasks.  All you had to do now was take the trash out, the only problem being, there was a lot of it.

You didn't even know when the bins had accumulated so much, but you knew that you were going to have to make several trips,  three at most if you really pushed your arm muscles.

You were pulling the first one out and kicked the back door open with a small bang, almost dragging the heavy bag through it and stuffing it into the bin.  Then you got the second round of trash bags and grabbed two that were a bit smaller.  You pulled them out and struggled a bit to get them in. 
You looked out to the creepy, looming buildings in the small distance and shuddered, wondering why you had ever thought you could brave it alone.

You brought the fourth trash bag out and pushed it in, shoving it harshly as you tried to make it fit.

As you struggled to get the bag inside, something caught your eye,  something unusual.  Your head perked up as you ceased your actions so you could look at what caught your attention.  There was a small string of green looking smoke billowing from behind an alleyway,  and it slowly grew until it formed a mini cloud.

You gave the bag one last shove, pushing it inside, and creeped towards the corner,  curiosity getting the best of you.

You peeked around the corner, and the colored smoke stung your eyes, making you shut them harshly with little tears pricking at them.  The smoke was sure strong around here.

Once you could finally see through the smoke, you saw it.  Him, to be exact.  There was a man standing there idly,  smoking quietly with his head down.  Then he spoke, startling you,

"Hey, kid."

-1054 words-

-(A/N)  heyyyy theres the first chapter for you!  and I'm definitely not going to probably be coming out with a garcello oneshot book that i currently only have one (1) idea for—

anyways, i hope you enjoyed this so far, and i hope you stick around for the rest of the story.

also, im thinking about making a similar version of this story, but actually romantic and where the age gap is smaller so,  ig let me know if you'd be interested in that??  i have some stuff planned for later in this book >:]

so uh

have a nice day!!