Scarlett has a difficult life to say the least, possibly the toughest of any of her friends. But with the help of the Matthews' and the Hunters, she manages to work her way through. Not to mention, the reminders that come in the mail that a better l...
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Letty's at the poetry place, and she turns around to help some customers, but quickly stops when she almost crashes right into Eric, who's walking up behind her. He smiles when he sees his best friend looking at him.
"So this is where you work now, huh?"
"This is my second job, yes." She tells him as she walks around him. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to get away from Cory. He thinks that he put Feeny in the hospital." He tells her as she pours a customer some more coffee.
"He what?" She questions.
"He wished that Feeny would get sick so he didn't have to take a geography test. Coincidentally, Feeny's appendix blew up." He says, and she looks at him.
"Yeah, that's the scientific terminology for what happened to Feeny." The brunette says sarcastically. "You know, Shawn told me that Feeny wasn't at school today, but I don't remember him saying that he was in the hospital."
He shrugs. "So, this is the place that Joey told you about?" Eric asks, changing the subject from their old sixth-grade teacher. "How'd he know that they were hiring anyway?"
"I don't know, and I don't really care. I like it here." She tells him. "It's a nice change from restocking shelves and pointing people in a direction to things that they've bought a thousand times before."
"Are they still hiring?"
"No." She says. "Not that you actually want a second job. That'd cut into your date time."
"Why do you want a second job?" He asks, confused.
"I don't want it, Eric. I need it. Not all of us have two parents at home who provide for us." She tells him. "Now order something or go away. I'd like to keep my job, and not get fired for talking to you while I'm supposed to be working."
"Hey, just because my parents both have jobs doesn't mean that I don't know what it's like to struggle for money." He argues.
"I didn't say that you didn't. But have you ever been afraid that you'd come home to no power or no water?" She asks, and he hesitates for a moment.
"Well, no."
"I have, many times... Because it's happened, many times." She explains.
"Wait... How do you have time for two jobs and school?" He asks suddenly.
"I don't sleep." She tells him, only half joking. "Now do you want something or not?"
He shrugs. "I don't know. What do you recommend?"
"Well, I like the coffee." She says, and he nods.
"Okay, I'll have some coffee then." He says, and she goes to get him a cup.
He pays for it and then goes to sit down on a couch to wait for her to have a free minute or two to spend with him. Letty does some more refills and gets a few other customers their orders. Half an hour later, she finally gets to go on break and opts for sitting with Eric on one of the many couches that they have in the poetry place.
"So, what do you think?" She asks, motioning to his half-empty coffee cup.
"It's not bad." He says, and she sinks further into the couch beside him. "You seem tired."
"Is it that obvious?" She takes a deep breath as she rests her head on his shoulder.
"How much sleep have you actually been getting lately?"
"Enough." She lies.
"So this is your life now, huh? Two jobs and going to school?" He questions. "How can you possibly do it all?"
"Because I have to." She tells him.
"What about your dad? What does he do? And what about Miller?"
"Miller works too. And so does my dad — odd jobs here and there. Whatever he can find, whenever he can find it."
"And you're okay with all of this?" He asks in disbelief.
"It's nothing new to me, Eric. I'm used to it."
"But you just turned fifteen a few months ago. You're lucky that my dad was even able to convince his boss to let him hire you when he did." He says.
"Your dad may have given me my first legitimate job, but I've been working off and on since I was seven." She tells him, and he raises his eyebrows as he looks at her.
"How is that even possible?" He questions.
"Some of the other people in the trailer park took pity on me and paid me to help them with different things." She explains. "It's not a big deal, really. Hey, what are you doing here anyway?"
"I finished my shift at the market and wanted to come and see you." He tells her, and she smiles as she looks up at him. "We hardly saw each other at work today."
"That's actually really sweet." Letty says before closing her eyes and moving closer to him; she wraps her arms around his bicep. The teenage girl's cold, and he can feel it seeping through the thin material of his t-shirt.
"Why didn't you ever tell me about any of this before?" Eric asks as he grabs the sweater that he took off before he sat down earlier.
The brunette boy then drapes his sweater over his best friend's legs; she has them both pulled up onto the couch as she leans into his side. She pulls the hood up and places it over her exposed arm, then her hand rests on his arm. All she has on is jeans and her work shirt, but it's cold in the poetry place. Eric's warm, like he always is, and she likes being close to him.
"I don't know. I guess I just don't really like talking about my family or my life at home." Letty yawns. "It's not exactly light or pleasant conversation."
"Hey, if you're working all the time, then how are we gonna hang out?" He asks, looking down at her face again. "When am I gonna get to see you now?"
"During lunch at school. At the store sometimes. You can hang out here on my breaks, just like today." She suggests. "We'll figure something out."
"I'm sorry that things are like this for you, and I didn't even know." He says quietly, more to himself than to her. But Letty never wanted him to know, she intentionally hid it all from him.
"Wake me up in ten minutes." The brunette barely manages to say as she starts to drift off.
Letty then feels his head rest against the top of hers as he places his hand on her leg. He leans against her, and she can feel the warmth of his body radiating off of him.
Eric can't even imagine what her life has been like all this time. How much she's been through, and all while he's been completely oblivious to all of it. He hates it, and he wishes that there was some way that he could help her. But he doesn't know where to start.
⌜ author's note ⌟
i've loved this show for as long as i can remember. i hope you all like my addition to cory's little world.
