Night Shift

[Grim Wolf]

Tara hummed quietly to herself, drumming her pen against the countertop as she stared down at the blank page in front of her.  She stopped all at once in an annoyed sigh and lounged back on her stool, staring at the flickering halogen light near the men's bathroom in the back.  12:30 a.m. and not a soul in sight, not by the coolers stacked with beers and sodas and not in the aisles crammed full of eight hundred kinds of junk food.  A typical Tuesday night for Kingman, particularly at her little Gas'n'Go.

Technically she wasn't supposed to be writing on the job, but Nate wasn't going to fire her about it and go through the hassle of hiring another night-shift clerk he could actually rely on.  Anyways it didn't count if she couldn't think of anything to write.

She grimaced and started spinning the pen like a baton between her fingers.  It abruptly clattered to the ground, and she stared at it with her lips pursed.  Metaphor for the whole night, really..

It was such a good concept!  A short story anthology set in a yoga studio as a framing device, with every person in attendance having their own short story dedicated to them.  The problem was, she couldn't think of any stories she liked!  She could make it ridiculous--one protagonist with a Lovecraftian backstory, another living as Lucy after Narnia--but every time she tried it didn't feel real.

She grimaced and hopped off her stool so she could grab her pen.

[RC†]

((Conrad Harrod, Start))

The moon was shining upon the city and while many people from the city were tired or asleep, perhaps a student who had been very tired, but also annoyed for this - Conrad Timothy Harrod, was lost in thought has he fiddled with the cellphone in his hand.

This was no unusual time for returning from a party, but Conrad did not visit a party that night. He had come from home to this gas station, going inside.

He had school the next day, but that did not matter. He would be woken up by the alarm clock in a bothering way either way. And well, if he oversleeps it'd be his mother's fault, so she'd wake him up.

After he looked up from his phone, there was a person in there, of course, and that person was from his school. Tara...was her name. Yes, that was it. She had a noticeable look.

With a flat, not very enthusiastic "Good evening", he greeted himself while trying to look not like the most unfriendly person in the world by smiling with a very small smile.

Well, it wasn't evening that much now, but whatever.

[Grim Wolf]

Tara jerked her head up as the door swung open.  She'd been working here a long time and had almost never had trouble, but little paranoid thoughts always floated through her head on night shift, sure that this one would be the robber, this one would point a gun at her and-

She blinked as she recognized the kid standing in the doorway.  Someone from school.  Herod?  No, that couldn't be right.  No one would name themselves after a Biblical child-killer, would they?  

We did have a president called Abraham.

"Uh," she started.  "Hey."

[RC†]

No 'What do you want to buy', just a 'Uh, Hey'. Tara was probably sleepy as well or she did not really care.

"I'd love to have a sandwich to go."

He looked down on his phone again. Fuck, he wrote alot. He's going to look like a dumb idiot.

[Grim Wolf]

Tara blinked at him.  She looked around the empty convenience store, then back to Herod.  She pointed to the little cooler of sandwiches a little ways in front of her counter.  "Okay," she said.  "Did you...did you want to pick a particular one, or..."

[RC†]

Or what? Pick one at random? Roll a dice, maybe. Awful idea.

While trying to decide for the selection, Conrad stared at the cooler.

Ah, he found what he searched for.

He smiled, "a tuna sandwich, please". He then prepared for paying by taking out his purse, while putting his phone into his pocket.

[Grim Wolf]

Tara stared at Herod.  Was he high?  He seemed high.  Not that she could blame him if he was.  What the hell else were you supposed to do in Kingman.

"Uh, sure," she said, extending a hand for the sandwich so she could ring it up.  "What's keeping you out this late?"

[RC†]

That was a good question.

"My mom ate nothing at dinner as she was busy, so I had to go here to buy her a sandwich."

And tuna was the one she liked.

"And you?", he returned, "What are you doing here this late?"

[Grim Wolf]

Tara stared at him.  "What am I..." she repeated.  "I work here, man.  Jobs like you to show up for your shifts.  It's sorta the core concept of capitalism.  Or, y'know.  Life."

[Yugikun]

"Hey, it was a fair question. It was at least good enough not to merit that response."

((Benjamin Fields: Pregame Begin))

This wasn't exactly a normal situation for Ben. He didn't normally enter gas stations at 12:30 in the morning. Shit, he wasn't supposed to be awake at 12:30 in the morning. Normally, he'd be in bed right now, getting himself refreshed for another day of school. Being the student that he was, he had to make sure he was in top mental health for the coming days. But he wasn't right now, because he had forgotten to get apple juice when he had gone shopping earlier today and Lana would be sad if she wasn't able to get apple juice every morning. Being the man of the house, and the one with shopping duty, Ben felt that he had to be the one to fix this problem, which was why he was here at 12:30 in the morning to get apple juice. He figured that he probably could have come at a time that wasn't midnight, but he wasn't the best person at forward thinking, which is why he supposed that he decided that doing this was a smart and a good idea.

Brilliant.

He had walked through the doors to see two people talking to one another, both he knew from school. Well, "knew" was overemphasised in that instance there, as they were more people that he kinda only talked to in classes or saying "hi" to in the hallways. Conrad was in the student council, and was nice enough to him to put him in his good books. Tara was a little weird, though. Wasn't she always reading disaster stories? Kinda grim. Still though, that didn't discredit her as a person, and this wasn't a school situation, so he didn't have to white knight every case of bullying or insults that he saw. Maybe Conrad was fine with this. He decided to apologize to her. Hey, maybe she was a nice person inside.

"Oh, sorry. Got too far ahead of myself there. You sell apple juice?"

[RC†]

Tara made a witty joke and Conrad reacted to it by smirking, although it wasn't funny to him. Why the heck was she working here anyway? Conrad couldn't believe that one can gain much at working at a gas station at this late hour. She wouldn't become a millionair by working here and he assumed that it wouldn't be good for her grades, because sleep is necessary to concentrate during class.

He wasn't even going to ask. Ben Fields came in and he too was here at a late hour. Huh, what a coincidence. Three people from school meet each other past midnight, randomly. Just because that happened.

At first Conrad thought Ben helped Tara or also worked there. But the question whether there was apple juice here, gave Conrad the answer that this wasn't the case.

Conrad yawned, while covering his mouth with his fist.

"Good evening, Benjamin."

Hah, that kind of rhymed.

[Grim Wolf]

Someone intrude in the conversation.  Tara turned to stare at him, but she barely heard what he was saying.  She was baffled.  How had he managed to sneak up on them?  The counter was by the glass doors.  Yet somehow he'd managed to walk in and hear her talking to Herod during their...transaction?  Conversation?  What was she supposed to call this exchange?  How had she failed to notice him?  Was she really that spaced out?  

Well, it was her third night on the clock.

Tara grimaced and said, "I'm workin' here.  Better question is, what are all of you, doing here?"  She gestured towards the back of the store.  "We got all kinds of juice.  Only like the 20 ounce ones, though.  You're not lookin' for something bigger, are you?"

[Yugikun]

"Hey, Conrad."

So far so good, it seemed. Tara's comment towards Conrad mostly seemed to be in jest, considering that Conrad didn't take offence to it. Tara didn't take his white knight attitude that badly, looking more concerned at his entrance in the gas station. She acted up a bit about it, asking why all of them were here.

"I really don't think that's the important question here, but I don't really know. Maybe its something ~spooky~" He made a slightly mocking gesture, putting his hand up to his mouth in faux shock. "I just came here to get something I forgot earlier today."

Ben noted the fact that this wasn't a situation that happened every day, though. He didn't quite know how this situation would happen. Maybe it was something spooky. It didn't matter, though. What did matter was that he knew that this place had apple juice. It wasn't the size that he wanted, but Lana never looked inside the fridge anyway so he didn't think she'd notice.

"It'll manage." He said as he walked down into the store, looking for the apple juice.

[RC†]

Okay, it was getting weirder. Ben was looking for apple juice this late, because he forgot to earlier and Conrad still waiting for his sandwich. It'd be a good idea to go home soon: he wasn't in the mood for an extension of this small talk.

"Uh, yeah. The sandwich, please?"

He waved with his bill, though smiling and with a small laugh to not appear too unfriendly. But if he seemed unfriendly, who cared? It was past midnight and he needed to sleep to not get grumpy and unfriendly the next day.

[Grim Wolf]

Tara rolled her eyes and grabbed the sandwich out of Herod's hand, running it over the scanner.  "$5.67," she said.  Her eyes followed the bill and narrowed slightly; there was something arrogant in that gesture, an easy confidence like he came by his money easily.  She didn't like it.  It seemed to be a subtly way of spitting on what she was doing.

It clicked for her then; her slight and constant discomfort from the moment he'd come in.  He didn't seem to understand why she would work.  It was why she felt angry with him; this blunt lack of understanding and empathy.  He couldn't understand why someone would want a job like this, that paid a little better and gave them the time they needed and kept them away from her mother.

She plucked the bill out of his hand, forcing herself to be the consummate professional--cold, remote, efficient.  She wanted him to feel dismissed.  She wanted him to feel like she had no regard for him as a person.

"$14.33," she said, pushing the change across the counter towards him and giving him a wolf's smile.