LONE WOLF (On Hold)

Chapter 7 - What a family.

Chapter 7 – What a family.

Beck's POV

A week passes by fairly quickly and, soon enough, Friday evening rolls around once again. I'm halfway through my trial period at the pub and, I can't deny it, I've actually grown quite comfortable here. Over the past few days, outside of my evening shifts at the pub, I've spent my time further exploring the town and its surrounding area and it's honestly not a bad little town... as soon as you get over the fact that most of the shops shut ridiculously early every day. There are woods nearby, not huge but big enough for me to get a good run in whenever I feel like letting off some steam, and now that I don't have to worry about finding a source of water I can appreciate them more. I've got everything I need here and, as nosy as some of the people can be at times, I've managed to meet quite a few interesting characters. When you're constantly trying to dodge people's questions by asking questions of your own, you quickly learn a lot about the townsfolk.

"Ugh!" Alexa complains as I enter the kitchen, and I pause briefly on my way to the sink to watch her take her frustrations out on the coffee machine sat on the back counter. "You stupid piece of-"

"Everything alright, Blondie?" I ask, unable to keep the amusement out of my voice as she straightens her back and pivots to look at me.

"No," she says, her hand moving up to rub her forehead. "Bruce is still late and this stupid crappyass coffee machine has decided to stop working with Jo sat out there."

Jo being a thirty-something year old woman with an extreme addiction to caffeine... and she also just so happens to be Darcy's aunt.

See? I know things now.

Placing the dirty dishes I'm carrying down on the counter, I decide to go and check out the coffee machine myself. It's clear that the extent of Alexa's knowledge on electrical appliances only runs as far as hitting the thing and switching it off and on again... which would be fine if that actually did anything at all.

"What's wrong with it?" I ask.

"It's not working."

"Yeah, I gathered that much," I say sarcastically as I roll my eyes. "Move over."

She quickly does as told, seemingly all too happy to let me deal with the broken machine all by myself.

"You actually know what you're doing?" she asks me, somewhat sceptically, as I start to take the top off the machine. "Can you fix it?"

"Depends on what the problem is," I reply with a small shrug. "I've picked up a few things here and there. You know if there's a tool kit lying around anywhere?"

"Probably in the storeroom... I'll go check," she replies, heading out the door to begin her search as I continue my inspection.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming to be some mechanical expert here. I used to live in a cave for crying out loud. I have, however, become somewhat of a self-taught quick-fixer. Over the years I've read whatever I could get my hands on, most of which being manuals for all kinds of different things. I'd often end up helping Maggie out at the Swing-in whenever something decided to randomly malfunction on her as she often didn't have enough money to buy new machines, it was the least I could do for my favourite barmaid.

"I come bearing tools!" Alexa announces, holding up a black metal box as she walks back into the room. She quickly opens the box and sets it on the side next to me, watching as I locate the source of the problem. It's a simple fix, just as I hoped it would be. One of the screws on the inside panel has come loose, stopping the inner mechanisms of the machine from working properly. I have the machine back up and running within seconds.