Rupture and Repair (gmw/Lucaya)

Chapter six

"Hey, are you staying tonight?"
"Uh- no I have w-" she remembered not to mention her job at the convenience store that would help her mom pay for the heat as winter crept up. It was now Friday. They weight loss was just beginning to show. Cory had noticed it during his class but knew better than to comment on a girls weight. Now, as Riley led Maya in, Topanga saw it too.
"Maya, have you lost any weight?" She asked.
"Maybe a pound or two." She lied. "I guess I just didn't have much of an appetite earlier in the week."
"So you are losing weight."
"Not deliberately. I have my appetite back so I will probably gain it back."
"Why don't you stay for dinner, tonight?"
"Thank you, Ms. Matthews but I don't want to be a bother. Besides, I've really got to get home."
"You wouldn't be a bother." Maya was already out of the room, just like always. She ran to the connivence store and began to work. She made minimum wage but she also worked 6 days a week and more hours than a girl her age was actually aloud to work because only three people worked there. It was a small, crappy little store on the corner of a building. The kind that you would not trust the milk from. The kind with the dull blue tinted strips of lights, occasionally flickering and the loud vents and sound being heard easily. When you entered, you could smell the traces left from people smoking inside and a bit of alcohol.
She sat behind the counter on a stool. After a while, less and less people started to come. It was 4 am when she finished up. She had worked for twelve hours. The man working next finally showed up. He was actually a pretty nice man.
"Sorry kid. I'm a little late."
"Don't care, as long as I get paid for it."
"Don't worry. I'll try to be on time on weekdays so you can get to school."
"I only work till nine. Abbey's after me, then you."
"Where's Abbey tonight?"
"She didn't show up."
"You should have closed up." They were not an organized place and closed whenever someone wasn't working anymore. Maya got on the subway and went home. The seats were not taken but considering, she hadn't walked because it was four Am, she owed it to herself to stand.
Never let anyone know that you know much about your own weight loss.
It was a tactic that had exceptions. Exceptions for dramatic changes but not for the five pounds she had lost in her first week.