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 on the job(2008)

Was it time to clock out yet? Gordy was getting a slight buzz from the energy drink he'd had a few hours ago on his break, but it felt so surreal being here at Walgreens in the wee hours of the morning. He was sure he could hear music in the lighting above. This always worried him that one day he might actually make out words coming from the lights above.

He attacked the boxes of macaroni and cheese with the price gun as he straightened the isle. Why in the hell would anybody buy macaroni and cheese here, he thought. It was double the price here compared to No Frills, the local grocery. And why would this crap bother him anyway? He hated cheese.

He was so alone. There might be one other person in the store, and when he looked up there was Floyd looking somewhat angelic in his very white t-shirt and bleached-out jeans. He was positively glowing.

"What are you doing here?" Gordy wanted so badly to hit Floyd with a price on his forehead, but he didn't.

"Thought I'd get myself a pizza."

"What happened? You get laid or something?" Gordy was a bit familiar with the drill. Floyd would hang around after KFC closed, go home with a new co-worker, get lucky, then come here. He was never into cuddling.

"God, you know me so damn well." Floyd cracked a grin.

"Yeah, cause you're so damn lucky. Just what kind of lines, do you use, dude?" Gordy wacked at some of the boxes with the price gun while they talked.

"I don't know, I'm just myself, what can I say?" He shrugged.

"Yeah, you use that damn rocker bullshit on them, don't you?" Gordy shook his head in disgust.

"If it ain't broke, go for the gold." Floyd chuckled.

"Yeah, after all, you are the man." About that time he noticed there was an old man at the counter wanting to pay for some Tums. Gordy went over and checked him out. It wasn't the worst job in the world, but then they expected him to sweep the parking lot too. Not exactly a thrill at three in the morning.

Finally, Floyd came up with his frozen pizza.

"Seriously, dude, we gotta get together sometime and jam, you know," Floyd was already in his own little shuffle dance.

"Yeah, and you'll want me to find my skateboard too, won't you? It's not gonna happen anytime soon. I don't have precious nights like you do." Gordy rang him up and gave him some change.

"Come on, you gotta have a night off sometime soon," Floyd told him.

"All right, how does Sunday night sound?" Gordy scratched the back of his neck, thinking his luck would be that he'd be needed on a Sunday night here, and he couldn't say no to the money.

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If Not Today (2008)

"Why, why do you do this to me, every-time, B?" Emily was in the middle of painting her nails and her sister would have to call.

"Can't you multi-task?" Bella fumed back.

"What is it this time?" Usually, she wanted her to beg her mother for money. Of course, her mother wasn't going to send Bella anything and Bella certainly wasn't going to ask. "Where are you?"

"Either Austin or Dallas, I'm not sure where I woke up this morning," Bella told her sister.

"I see." Emily seethed with envy. Her sister was off gallivanting around the country with her boyfriend and here she was still in school. "And?"

"And have you see Jane, lately?"

There was a silence. Emily didn't want to talk about that. She really didn't see her niece anymore than her sister saw her own child. A bad taste came to her mouth.

"She's fine. What do you care, anyway?" Emily snapped.

"You can't tell me anything. Nobody sends me pictures anymore." Emily heard her sister's voice ache.

"Why should we? What do you care?" Emily blew on her nails. She then caught a look at her nose in the mirror. God, it had to go, she thought. When could she get a new nose.

"Look, I have to go. I'll send you a picture over the phone when I can. If you're so worried, why don't you come home?" Emily didn't even wait for an answer. She hung up.

She stared at her cell phone then. She thought of Gordy. It made her sad to think he was alone sitting on the couch holding a baby while watching MTV. She pushed in his number.

"Yello." It sounded a bit of a yawn when Gordy answered.

"Are you up for company?" She wondered. His schedule was crazy. She rarely ever got to see him.

"I got a couple of hours to kill before I have to go to work." His voice was sincere, and she closed her eyes for a second thinking how much missed listening to him sing 'Hot Child in the City' with his old guitar while Bella was pregnant with Jane.

"How about if I kill them with you?" She came back to their conversation.

"As long as it doesn't involve money or me moving from this couch," he told her.

"I think I can do that." She smiled then. It was a date. Maybe.

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 Maybe if Bella had gotten fat after she had baby Jane, things would have been different. But then again, Gordy wondered if he would have been the one leaving her if that had happened. He'd like to think he wouldn't, but it could have been a different story if it had happened.

Instead, she just couldn't take it. Maybe that's the way it is when you're just sixteen, but he had a feeling Bella would have been like this if she were twenty-six, or thirty-six, or even forty-six. She just wasn't mother material. Well, it looked that way in the beginning. Everyone was happy. He remembered that smile. Her smile. His smile. It was a thrill to have something so perfect they'd made together. Until the crying started. And soon Bella was crying too. And then he was crying. He felt it was all his fault what had happened to Bella. How could she ever forgive him? How could he ever forgive himself, even? The only way to think about it was to think about Jane when he got up in the morning til he went to bed at night. As it was, he didn't get much sleep, anyway. Working the graveyard shift down at Walgreens. Yeap, it was hell to pay. And he just kept paying. And his body kept dragging. And just when he thought the end was near, there Jane would go and do something for him. She started walking by the time she was eight months old. She called his black lab, Rob, Daddy, first. Yeap, she was a happy little girl when she wasn't teething. Gordy just wished Bella was around to see all those firsts.