𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐬 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐧 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡

𝖋𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

He counted through it silently to himself, then handed me a couple of articles of the cash.

"what's this?" I asked, looking down at the cash in his hand.

"for a cab." He explained.

"Oh no it's fi—"

"Khalil don't piss me off, just take the fuckin' money and call the cab, not everything has to be a debate." He said sternly.

Without an argument, I tucked my lips and grabbed the money from his hand, mattering a low "thank you."

"you straight," he waved off, "that should be enough to get you there, I'll pick you up when you get off."

"—I have to go to the store anyways, there's barely anything to eat in here, and I gotta start bulking again." He added in explanation.

" thanks." I repeated.

"what time is your shift over?" He then asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry, 3 o'clock." I nodded.

He nodded before again taking a seat on the couch, and shifting back over so he was laying on his back. I took that as his way of ending the conversation, so I then went ahead and called up the cab like he'd instructed.

It arrived not even ten minutes later, allowing me to get to work without the threat to my life.

By the time I arrived, I was able to get it, get my task assigned—and start my work day.

So far, since living in this city, I noticed that the first Monday after a purge weekend was the slowest, people were usually still apprehensive about leaving their houses.

That meant that grocery stores and businesses like it didn't make much money. Honestly, I think in the entirety of the workday, I counted about only five customers.

I'm pretty sure even one of my managers no-showed.

When it was around thirty minutes left in my shift, I began wrapping everything up, though there wasn't much to do because again, there was barely any business.

At Around 2:50 I spotted Saint walk in, and clearly, I wasn't the only one. It seemed like all of my coworkers, as well as other customers immediately scattered, making themselves as scarce as possible.

Upon spotting me he walked over and spoke, "Yo,"

"Hey, just give me like five minutes, I'm gonna head to the back to clock out and everything," I explained.

"you aight—just figured I should get your input on what to buy since you livin' 'nere now too." He mumbled.

I smiled and nodded before quickly making my way to the employee's only area so I could clock out and place my apron in the locker.

When I returned back outside, I searched until I spotted Saint standing leaning against the wall, gazing off into the distance.

"Ready?" I smiled.

He only nodded, as usual, so I went ahead and took charge of everything, grabbing a small cart as we began to walk.

"You know, funny story, I actually can't cook...like I suck at it." I stated randomly, laughing as we walked down a meat aisle.

"me too." He replied simply.

"Wait really, god that can't be good, if we're gonna be roomies—one of us has to learn how to cook." I snickered.