The Accent

Ch 19 - Entitled to Get a Little Crazy

Chapter 19 - Entitled to Get a Little Crazy

In order to finish the fuse box off I had to bury my anger at Rhys.

It was no good letting my hands shake from fury when I was trying to do delicate work, I wouldn't get very far and I'd end off staying back for hours.

Taking more than a few deep breaths seemed to do the job, my anger melted away and my head cleared. What could I even do about it now anyway? So what if the guys at the garage thought I was easy, they'd soon learn that it wasn't true.

Reputation wasn't everything.

I was annoyed with myself for even getting myself so worked up about it in the first place, wasn't this the exact thing I'd been trying to tell my mother for years? To not care so much about what other people thought, and there I was, getting myself annoyed over what other people were going to think about me.

The word hypocrite came to mind.

Half an hour later I had tidied up my station and was ready to leave, a quick look around told me that the majority of my co-workers had already took off. I made my way towards the office to let Mick know I was leaving. 

Popping my head round the side of the door I could see that Mick was busy with paperwork, "Hey, I'm going." I threw a thumb over my shoulder, pointing it to roughly where the exit was. 

"Okay, kid. See you tomorrow." Mick took a drag of a lit cigarette without looking up from the hundred of sheets of paper he was pouring over. 

I hesitated in leaving, now was the best time to ask.

Even though he was busy, there was no one else around; surely he wouldn't mind if I just interrupted for five minutes?

"Spit it out, I'm busy here." Mick's scratchy voice broke me out of my thought's. 

"Umm," I licked my lips and wrung my hands together feeling very shy all of a sudden. 

"Well?" Mick looked up from his paperwork, raised his eyebrows with a pointed stare and tapped his cigarette on an overflowing ashtray. 

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that smoking around all of this paperwork inside a garage that was full of flammable substances was kind of dangerous, but I figured if I was asking for a favour that was probably the wrong way to go about it.

"So I was wondering," I paused to clear my throat, I was stalling. I knew it and from the unwavering look Mick was giving me he knew it too. 

"If you'd give me some real work tomorrow." I blurted. 

My heart was pounding and my hands were becoming sweatier by the second, I stopped wringing them together and rubbed them on the back of my coveralls while I waited for an answer. 

"You don't think you had any real work today?" He asked after a beat. 

"Well, yeah, but you know what I mean. Checking oil and changing spark plugs, a five year old could do that." 

The corner's of Mick's mouth kicked up in amusement, "You think you're being treated unfairly?"

That seemed like a trick question if I'd ever heard one, I hesitated before answering. If I said yes it would look like I was ungrateful, if I said no I'd still be stuck with doing the crappy jobs.

"I don't know." I wasn't sure if that was the right answer or not. Chewing my lip nervously I waited to see if I'd offended my new boss.

Mick took another deep drag of the cigarette and stubbed the butt in the ash tray, he leant back in his chair and looked up to the ceiling. The smoke he'd taken in blew out through his lips, he waited another moment before sitting up and looking at me properly.