When Stars Collide

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

I woke the next morning with a start. My eyes shot over to my alarm clock and I groaned. "Shit!" I screamed. I bolted out of bed and ran over to Amber's room and banged as loud as I could. "Amber wake up! We over slept! If we don't start getting ready now we're gonna be late for work!" I listened for her, expecting her to get up just as quickly as I had but she didn't. "Hello? Are you hearing me!? We're gonna be late so get up!"

I could hear Amber groan as she stomped over to the door and practically ripped it off its hinges. Her eyes were squinted, still not adjusted to the light. "What do you want woman?" She snapped.

"I don't know if you noticed, but it's already eight forty and we haven't even started to get ready yet." I replied. "We have one of those things called jobs that you have to show up to if you want to pay your bills. You know, the things you could get fired from if you show up late again?"

Amber sighed heavily. "Fine. I call shower first."

xxx

We made it to work just in time. Luckily the boss wasn't around to yell at us about rushing over when we should be prepared to get to work early and blah blah blah no less than seven minutes to spare blah.

Just when we thought we were in the clear and could start our normal routine, the boss called out to us. "Girls, can I speak to the two of you for a moment?"

We turned around to him slowly. "Yes Mr. Copeland?" I replied with a smile. He motioned for us to come closer. Hesitantly we did as we were asked to. The tall man wasn't red or scowling as hard as he usually does so I took that as a good sign.

He spoke lowly, "I know you girls like to work together and all but today I need to shift some people around since one of our people that usually works the back called out sick." He explained. "So who's up for it?"

Amber seemed to come alive at the mention of it. "I call the back!" She said cheerfully.

Both Mr. Copeland and I looked at her as if she had grown two extra heads. "Amber what are you doing?" I questioned. "You hate working in the back."

She shrugged. "I don't know, I think it's time I got over it." She replied. "So, what's my assignment?"

The big bellied man watched her carefully, studying Amber as if she might yell april fools at any second, even if it wasn't April but Amber could be like that. "There are some books coming in in a couple of hours. I want you to make some room for them in the back and take inventory. Once you're done with that come find me and I'll tell you what else to do. Brittany, you have the floor as usual."

"Cool." Amber said almost cheerfully. "Have fun!" she called out as she took off to the door marked employees only. Mr. Copeland and I shared a confused glance before breaking and starting today's work.

Around noon, twenty minutes to my lunch break, Amber brought out a box of books to be shelved in the young adult section. I was hunched over, sorting through the books in the box when a male figure came up to me. "How can I help you today sir?" I asked cheerfully as I continued to sort thought the box. "Sorry if I'm not much of a helper seeing that I'm kind of locked into something now. But I'll be happy to take any small questions you have."

"Don't worry, you're excused." He said in a deep, accented voice.

Wait.

I shot up, standing bolt right and almost growled at the sight of Tom. I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, "What could you possibly want with my life? Don't you have other people to pester?"

"Now is that any way to talk to a customer?" Tom mused as he braced himself up on the shelf, towering over me as I tried to continuing working.

I looked around feigning confusion. "There's a customer seeking my attention? Oh my, I must not be able to see them because my attention is being deviated by a pompous idiot." I snapped, beginning to handle books with less care.