Preacher Man // ross lynch + driver era

31

This morning I woke up with a bad bitch attitude. Only because I knew I was seeing Jamie and I couldn't wait to see if she'd say something to me.

Ross called me on his drive to his parent's house and warned me several times not to start something unnecessary. I never would because my job would be on that line, but if she says something to me first – of course I'll say something back.

I walk into work and quickly clock in then make my way toward the front. Since I'm opening, I have some extra time to get it ready for customers.

I place down my coffee on a table and sweep quickly. "Haven't seen you in a while," Mike, my manager, says as he walks in.

"Hey! Yeah. I've been put in charge more often lately," I laugh.

He brings over a new till for the day. "If I didn't think you could handle it, I wouldn't be doing it. I can hardly trust anyone around here," he replies as he messes around with the register.

"Yeah, tell me about it," I mumble in response as I put the broom back into the closet. "Anything specific you need me to do for my shift besides the usual?"

Just as I finish my sentence, someone comes through the back door. "Hi!" Jamie's high pitched voice breaks out. "Mike, I brought you some coffee." She smiles and walks over to him. "Oh, hi Hayley. I didn't know you were working. Sorry."

I roll my eyes. She's going to act like a child today. Okay, got it.

"Thanks Jamie." He smiles at her and takes the coffee from her hand. "Hayley, I was going to see if you'd want to sort everything in the back storage then help put the new shipment away."

Perfect. Get me away from her.

I nod and begin to speak when Jamie cuts me off. "I wanna do that! Please, Mike!" She begs. "I'm so good at organizing."

I meet eye to eye with Mike and raise my eyebrows in a 'bitch, try me' kind of face.

"Sorry Jamie, Hayley knows how to do it down pat. Maybe when it's coming to the end of your shift, Hayley can teach you how to do it so you can do it next time!"

I sigh and pick my coffee up from the table. "Thanks Mike!" I say as I walk toward the back to go into the storage area.

I walk inside and begin sorting through all of the books. Mike is usually the only one back here and he'll organize the books that I put away every shift. I've been doing it more often since Mike's been making me run the store so I've gotten the hang of it thankfully. If he starts letting Jamie do it, I'm going to surprised. And a bit mad.

I was about three hours in of my five hour shift when the back door flings open making me jump. I turn off my music and glance at Mike. "Is there something I should be worried about, Atkins?" He snaps.

Atkins? Going straight to the last name.

I shake my head. "No. What are you referring to?"

"Are you intimidating Jamie?" He asks.

I laugh. I laughed so hard in my managers face which only fueled the fire.

I shake my head. "Excuse me? Intimidate her how? I haven't done anything. You saw the only conversation we had today and I wouldn't even deem that as a conversation."

"She told me how you called her over the weekend and gave her shit. She showed me the call log," Mike responds.

I put the book down out of my hand. "What the fuck? I didn't give her shit!" I defend myself.

"How did you get her number? If you're abusing your management powers by looking through her private information on our data base, I'm going to have to demote you."

I stare at him with the most confused look. He's threatening to demote me?

I shake my head. "Where is she?" I spit with attitude laced through my words.

It's one thing for her to simply piss me off, but now she's getting my manager and job involved.

"How about you just take the rest of the day off, Hayley? We will have a meeting soon to discuss this further when there aren't customers here."

I roll my eyes and grab my empty coffee cup and phone before walking toward the exit. I quickly clock out and walk to my car. If cartoons were real, you would see smoke coming from my ears and my head as red as a tomato.

"Hayley, your keys!" I hear from the door.

I turn around and see the girl standing fifteen feet away from me. The audacity she has to come outside after pulling that stunt.

I walk closer to the door and snatch the keys from her hand. "Do not attempt to interfere with my job or my relationship ever again, Morgan. I will have Ross come in here and talk to Mike himself about the history everyone has. You're crossing a dangerous line."

I begin walking back to my car and don't bother to turn around. I hear the employee door shut just as I unlock my car and sit inside of it.

I know Ross is visiting his mom so I head right back to my apartment. I walk inside to see Kayla, Liv and Chance watching a movie on the couch. I'm happy the three of them are getting along. I'm not even sure what's been going on with Rocky.

Kayla raises her eyebrows at me. "Are you okay?" She asks once I slam the door and start the beeline to the room.

"No, I'm not okay," I huff. "Some bitch at work is starting shit with me. My manager is threatening to demote me. But what else is new!" I yell the last sentence as I throw my bag onto my bed in frustration.

I haven't seen Liv much since the whole ordeal with her and Rocky. She walks over to me in my room and places her hand on my back. "Want to talk more about it?" She asks sweetly.

I shake my head. "I think I'll be okay. Thank you though. You guys can continue your movie, I think I need to take a bath to relax."

Liv looks at me with questioning eyes before retreating back to the living room. I smile at them then close my bedroom door and heading into the bathroom. I start running the bath and grabbing a bath bomb.

Five minutes later, I'm in the bathtub with a candle on and the lights off. I have soft music on in the background to help my nerves.

But I'm not relaxed.

I want to punch everything in sight, but that's not 'healthy' or something.

I reach over to grab my phone off the closed toilet lid and open my messages. I got sent home early. I text Ross to inform him that I'm not at work.

I laid in the bathtub for thirty minutes until the water felt too cold for comfort and my fingers felt like prunes. As I'm getting dressed again, my phone rings.

Mike.

"Hey," I answer the phone after the second ring.

I hear him clear his throat. "Hi Hayley. Any chance you can come in tonight at closing? Around 8?"

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I can."

"Great," Mike replies then hangs up the phone quickly after.