Mixtape For The End of the World

39. Pete becomes Employee of the Month at Fall Out Bros. Pizza.

"I missed you too, and you could have called sooner," Patrick said.

"I wanted to spend time with Mikey," I said. "I hadn't seen him in seven years." I left out that I might never see him again if the apocalypse really did come.

"That makes sense," Patrick said.

"You know, maybe we should get out of here," I said. "There are too many people around."

"I have to keep working until the store closes," Patrick said.

"You can take a break if you want, Patrick," Elisa said. "I'll cover for you."

"Okay," Patrick said to Elisa. "I'll be back soon."

Patrick followed me outside, and we found the Fall Out Bros. car sitting in front of the restaurant. Nobody was in the car, and nobody would use it for the rest of the night since Fall Out Bros. Pizza had already closed for the night. The two of us climbed into the backseat, and we kissed passionately.

Surely, if Billie knew what we were doing, he wouldn't make me Employee of the Month.

Some nights, I didn't go to see Brendon or Patrick. I was leaving for college soon, so my parents were making me start packing. I had to clean out my closet, deciding which jet black jeans were worth bringing to DePaul with me, and which ones could stay at home. It was a mind-numbing process, and before long, I started wishing that I wasn't going to college at all.

The Friday after I got back from New Jersey, Billie Joe was dressed far more nicely than he usually was when I got to work. He adjusted his red tie when he saw me, and then he said, "Pete, you're working in the kitchen today."

"But I usually do deliveries," I said.

"I know," Billie said. "Joe's handling deliveries on his own today. You're in the kitchen."

"Billie, this doesn't make any sense," I said. Normally, I wouldn't have argued with Billie Joe, but I was leaving for college in less than a week. I had nothing left to lose.

Billie stepped closer to me and whispered, "Y'know, there's an inspection today. The owner of the restaurant is coming to evaluate us, and she'll fire me if she sees anything wrong here. Since we're understaffed today, I'm supposed to have only one person deliver pizzas to ensure that the pizzas themselves are still getting made quickly. I don't normally do that even when we are understaffed, but I'm doing it today because my boss is here. I can't lose my job, Pete."

I grudgingly went into the kitchen, and one of the other employees told me to help out with sprinkling cheese onto the pizzas. I did as I was asked, and after I had spent what seemed like forever doing this mind-numbing work, a stern-looking woman walked into Fall Out Bros. Pizza. Billie rushed to greet her, and he nervously showed her around the restaurant. The Clash were still playing, but the volume was lower than I had ever heard it before. As Billie and his boss, who I soon learned was named Winona, talked about the state of the restaurant, I came up with an idea.

One of my coworkers handed me a deep-dish pizza, and I carefully arranged the cheese so that it was in the shape of a radio that was on fire. It took me a little while, but I was satisfied with my handiwork when I was done, so I stuffed it into the oven. I did the same thing to the next pizza, but I created a hand holding onto a heart-shaped hand grenade instead. I had time to sprinkle cheese on one more pizza, so I wrote, "Billie Joe Armstrong is an American idiot" on it in cheese.

All of a sudden, Winona and Billie walked into the kitchen. "Billie Joe, you're doing an excellent job running this restaurant," Winona said. "There's just one thing that I think you can improve on."