The first light of the sun precariously aimed itself to hit Sarah’s closed eyes, causing her to stir in her covers. She grumbled as the screen door outside her storage closet slammed shut. She had finally gotten used to the smell of the "Sloggin' Toes" her brother affectionately called the rubber boots next to her impromptu bed.

"Eugh." She moaned, remembering where she was and her new lease on life. She sat up, glaring angrily at the window, "I swear to fuckin' Christ, the next thing I'm buying is some curtains."

The room around her was certainly not in her top 100 places she wished she could wake up, but she was grateful for it regardless. The storage room was full, but thankfully had enough room for the cot she currently claimed as one of her few possessions. Light filtered in from the dirty window, causing the dust to dance in the rays of sunshine. Boxes, old furniture, and semi-rusted farm equipment took up all the space from the wooden walls, leaving a narrow path from the door to the single cot with a single blanket and pillow.

"Becky said this should only last a month…" Sarah sighed as she looked over bags of feed and tried not to look too close to her foul smelling rubber roommates. “She would know, she had it way worse than me…”

A sudden knock caused Sarah to jump, “Hey worst sister, you can’t just sleep in on a work day!”

“Not today...” She fake sobbed. “I can take it any day but today…” She sat thinking at how those fake sobs could turn real with just a little bit of reflection.

The door opened to reveal a burly man in a thin button up and worn blue jeans. His beard surprised her everytime she saw it, one of those new additions she still had not gotten used to in the four years since he left. His hair was full and blonde, like his sisters, but almost bleached from his time in the sun, “Ooh poor baby…” He cooed, “Sawah has tew bee a working aduwt nowe.” He pushed past the old boxing bag and sat hard onto the cot. Sarah reflexively tucked in her legs, saving them from a lifetime of paralysis. “How’d you sleep, kid?”

“Fuckin’ awful. Your air conditioner never came on.”

“Air conditioner?” He put a giant hand on her head, ruffling her loose blonde curls, “Sorry, ain’t had one of those in years.” He smiled his goofy grin, trying his best to cheer her up. His blue eyes sparkled with a life she almost forgot he had.

“Of course a hick like you wouldn’t have AC.” She gave him a light hit on the shoulder, hurting her hand in the process, “You probably went back to using leaves as toilet paper.”

“I honestly probably would if Aubrey wasn’t here. She’s now a country girl, but we haven’t turned her into a full ranch hand just yet.” Albert stood, nearly tripping over something. “Anyways, it’s already seven. You got work at nine, remember?”

The pillow was thinner than Sarah expected as she slammed the back of her head on the bed and groaned for mostly dramatic effect, “I don’t wanna.”

Albert picked his way across the room, making sure to push past the punching bag, “I don’t want to hear it, dum-dum. Get dressed and I’ll drive you to the coffee shop.” Before closing the door behind him, he peeked back in once more, “This time for free, but the next few times…”

One of the “Sloggin’ Toes” found its way to the door, hitting it with a large thud. Sarah had the second one at the ready in case he felt bold enough to come back, but after a few seconds, it became clear she had to get up and bite the bullet.

The old truck shuttered and jumped at every bump in the country road. Albert turned the radio up, but it was no match for the cacophony of rattling metal that danced around them.

Sarah sat in the passenger seat, her hair in her signature blonde ringlets bouncing along with the ramshackle shotgun truck screaming past fields of corn and sorghum. The sun was blinding as she looked out the window. As she adjusted her company issued green visor on her head, Albert laughed, “I honestly never thought I’d ever see you actually working a job.”

“Shut up!” She said jumping in her worn faux leather seat, “I‘ve only been there for two days! I could just not show up and replace me with another cog in the machine!”

“Hey, Aubrey had to call in a favor to get you that job last minute, and you would have to live in a box if I had to deal with another week of you haunting my living room!” He laughed, but Sarah knew she was being a burden.

“Thank you…” Even Sarah could not hear herself over the shaking, rattling, and rolling of the zombie truck.

“What was that?” Albert leaned his ear over with a large smile on his face.

Sarah shoved him back, almost ineffectually, “I said, ‘Fuck you!’”

The coffee shop had a nice comfy feel to it. The hardwood floor worked well with the black spray painted exposed ceiling above. Weathered brick lined the walls the first few feet up while being the entirety of the few pillars spaced throughout the open floor plan. A small flatscreen was secured to a wall, showing a windowpane being lightly spotted with drops of rain as amateur lofi barely took any presence within the air space.

Numerous pastries and other baked goods lined the lightened case, showing multi-colored doughnuts, freshly glazed bear claws, and muffins still letting off light steam. Wiping her mouth with her arm, Sarah stepped behind the counter and into the tiny back room made smaller with stacks of loose leaf papers.

“Hey Marty. I’m here.”

With a paper stuck to her face, the woman lifted her head to look at Sarah clock in with a thumb print. Scratching her head of long black hair, she nodded before picking up the scattered papers on the desk before her in a stupor, attempting to clear up some space.

“Did you stay late again?” Sarah leaned forward, hands on her waist, trying to catch her boss’s hazy gaze. “You’ve done this every day since I’ve started here on Monday!”

Reaching beneath the desk, Marty produced a handle of liquor. As she leaned with one arm onto the desk, the hand gripping the bottle unscrewed the top before Marty threw her head back, trying to catch every last drop. “It’s been a busy month…” she gasped.

The woman wore the same outfit as Sarah, but with a black tee instead of her white. The green cuff around their sleeve matched the tacky semi-transparent green visor Sarah was forced to wear. Coupled with the grey chinos, they looked like a pair of golfers fresh from the clearance rack of a second-hand store.

Sarah leaned on the door frame, arms crossed, “Dude, you can’t just sell your soul to a job that won’t give you any time off.” Looking around the room, it was a far cry from the industrial-chic just a few feet away. Behind the piles of forms, the white walls look manufactured from the finest asbestos. From being built in the Great Depression to harboring the great depression before her, it appeared some things never change.

“I can take time off anytime.” Marty already started a new bottle, making it a quarter of the way in a single swig, “I’ve got, like, a year of P.T.O. ... I just have a lot to do right now.”

With a shrug, Sarah grabbed the keys from the wall hook to unlock the front door. Even with just three days of experience under her belt, she knew there was no arguing with Marty. Much like the yellow stains around her, she was not going anywhere.

As the best seats with wall plug access were claimed first, the cafe eventually filled with students. Over the past week, the cafe never dropped to below ninety percent capacity as it swam with excitement. Despite having their finals just around the corner, the students just seemed to be glad to be away from campus, even if the cafe was just a few blocks down the main road.

Sarah watched as the majority of people studying appeared to be her age.

"Heya! Didn't see ya walk in!" A young man in a similar outfit pulled up a stool next to hers. "How're ya likin' the job, newbie?"

Kyle hardly knew the definition of 'personal space'. There was nothing wrong with the guy, but he certainly showed his excitement loudly and often. He also kept the shop afloat by being the only person who actually liked baking the pastries.

“It’s… fine.” Sarah pretended to organize the cash in the register, something they never used, but the owner insisted they keep it around.

“You know, fine is rarely a good way to describe your day! Usually, you can point at least one good thing or even one bad thing that can make your day swing heavily to one side or the other!” Kyle never seemed to take a breath. “By the way, how long does it take you to do your hair? It must take hours! It’s very pretty, but surely must take a considerable amount of time, especially when you have to be up for work early and come down here from wherever you come in from! Where are you from by the way? I live just up the road in the apartments by the school! I know you might be asking, ‘Which apartments? There’s thousands!’. Well, I live in some of the best apartments that’s both a walking distance from here and, like, two miles from the school! I’m fine with walking that distance, by the way, I was the manager for my high school cross country team, so I did a lot of running! Speaking of running, it was cool running with you to the card store yesterday. By the way, there aren't many physical card games left, since most games are played through Links or phones.”

After twenty minutes, Sarah had readjusted the register more times than she could count.

“Yo Weatherford…” Marty peeked her head out from the office, “Can you clean the bathrooms? I forgot to do that last night.”

Jumping down from her stool and already at the supply closet in the blink of an eye, Sarah had only mopped twice in her life, but was oddly excited for this third time.

People moved in and out of the dying light creeping in from the windows. The air smelled of warm brew as Sarah moved to turn on the few fixtures around the lobby. A low roar of students excitedly talking about nothing in particular nearly drowned out the now quieted jazz-swing ebbing out of the speakers dotted throughout the establishment. Walking back behind the counter, Sarah resumed her lean on the register, both arms cradling her head as she looked outward.

“Alright! I summon Palabra de la Montana!” A nasally voice rang out above the generally accepted volume, “By the way, did you know that this is Spanish for ‘Word of the Mountain’?”

Turning her head, she saw two boys sitting before with cards in their hands. One seemed to be well-adjusted, leaning back in his chair with a confident look on his face. The other… Well, he made good pastries.

“By the way, when I summon him, I get to draw 1 card from my deck!” With a flourish, Kyle scooped up the card and grinned widely, “You’ll never guess what I just drew!” With a slam of the table loud enough to catch the attention of everyone in the coffee shop, Kyle continued to shout, “WITH THAT, I WILL ATTACK WITH-!”

“HEY!” An even louder shout rang from the back room, causing Sarah to suddenly straighten up, “SHOULDN’T YOU BE WORKING, KYLE?” Echoing through the small shop, even the radio sat in silence.

Shooting up instantly, Kyle picked up his deck, “Welp, good game Mike! I gotta get back on the clock!” In a flash, he disappeared into the back room behind Sarah, finally signalling the students to resume their studying. Processing what all happened, Kyle’s opponent sat stunned before picking up his cards as well.

Squeak squeak?

Sarah grew tired of looking for the source of squeaking she started hearing yesterday. After checking every chair she sat on, she breathed the biggest sigh of relief once her weight was most likely not the answer. She slumped back down onto the counter. Welp, I guess this is what having tinnitus is like. It just can’t get any worse, huh?

“Hey. It’s Kyle’s friend!”

Sitting up sighing, Sarah rubbed her temples, “Looks like I’ve finally hit rock bottom…”

The kid across the counter sported short dreadlocks coupled with cornrows horizontally lining the sides and the back. His white shirt contrasted his dark skin and matched his thin framed glasses. Smelling like a high school locker room, Mike could easily be one of the first people you would imagine in that setting. He seemed like he’d be quite tall if he stood up straight. “What was that?”

“Nothing! Did Kyle beat you again?”

“Yeah. Kid’s pretty good…” He kept looking down past the counter, before shooting his eyes back up.

With a flick of her wrist, Mike pulled away from the counter having been slapped twice. “That’s for not taking my side during my last game yesterday!”

“Bruh! You’re the one who started acting all full of yourself!” Sarah made sure not to hit him hard at all, but just enough to get the point across. “Also the crowd got me all riled up! I’m a man of the people, bruh!”

Sarah finally climbed her way back utop the stool, “Well ‘bruh’, excuse me for having a little bit of fun!”

Squeak squeak!

“And shut up you!” Sarah looked down from the ceiling, her hand still pointing reflexively at nothing in particular before shakingly bringing down to the boy in front of her. “Y-yeah! So, shut up!”

Mike looked visibly shaken for the second time in the same five minute interval, “Fair enough... “ Straightening his shirt, he reached in his pocket, pulling out a deck box. “Care to have a game?”

Sitting back as far as she could before her poor sense of balance took her off the stool, she tried to look into the room her co-worker was probably being flayed alive, “Sorry man, but I-”

“SARAH! GO HOME! YOU’VE MADE YOUR HOURS FOR THE WEEK! DON’T FORGET YOUR TIPS!” The booming voice carried less threats than the previous announcement, but still caused Sarah to clutch her heart the same.

“Uhh… Sure.”