Aquila's Tears

    Life has been a struggle for me ever since leaving the orphanage at 18. I can’t remember my family. I was about 3 when they died in an accident. The orphanage never told me what kind of accident, but it didn’t make much of a difference anyways they were gone, and I had no other family that wanted me. I will be forever grateful to the staff of the Orphanage for allowing me to get a job at 16 in order to save up for college. I worked really hard at school and I always dreamed of completing college. Now here I was, 21 years old, and in my final semester of my senior year about to graduate as the valedictorian. All of that hard work, blood, sweat, and tears is about to pay off. I begin to daydream about what is in store for me next as I lay awake in bed. I have a paid internship in the works for this summer with a nearby psychiatric ward which could turn into me becoming a full-time employee.     The alarm clock on my bedside suddenly begins blaring its horrible tune disrupting my thoughts. I smack it to shut it up, groan, and roll myself out of bed. I rub my eyes as I peep my reflection in the standing mirror hanging from my door. My long red hair is matted and frizzy from tossing and turning all night. There are visible puffy bags under my hazel eyes, the white of my skin making the bags appear darker than usual, Even the freckles that dance across the bridge of my nose and cheeks appear tired today.     “Don’t worry'' I say to myself “Pretty soon you won’t have to stay up so late studying!” I smile at myself in the mirror as I reach for a comb and begin to combat the rat’s nest atop my head, and slap on some makeup to make myself appear less tired.     Today is Thursday, so I don’t have class today, but I do have work at our local coffee shop The Brewed Bean. I pull the all black uniform over my form, hang the tan apron from my neck, and tie its strings around my waist. The apron seems to accentuate my hour-glass figure more than usual today. I throw my now tamed hair up into two space buns, slap on my black visor, slip on my socks and shoes, and open my bedroom door.           “Morning, Aurora'' Cal calls from the couch. His long lanky form is slouched down in such a way that I can only see one of his arms flopped over the top of the couch. Cal waves it at me and the sunbeams coming in from the window warm his beautiful chocolate skin.     “Good to see you up so early, Cal” I say to him as I walk across our apartment and into the kitchen.     “Yeah we have an early practice today for our African Dance performance. I’m really pumped for it!” Cal sits up and flashes me the largest grin. His brown eyes glisten, and his brown and blonde dreads bounce as he gets up to follow me into the kitchen. I can smell that Mari is busy cooking up something delicious.     “Good morning, Mari! What’s for breakfast?” I ask as I reach into the fridge to grab the orange juice carton, pour a glass, and put the carton back into the fridge. Mari has her back to me. Her curvy figure and dark olive skin are in full force today in the beautiful teal sundress she is wearing. Mari’s black to blonde Ombre hair has been smoothed down and pushed back by an orange headband to complement her dress.     “Spinach omelets! Do you have time to eat today?” Mari replies as she turns to me to smile. She is so beautiful!     “Unfortunately, not today. I didn’t wake up early enough” I pout as I pop a piece of bread in the toaster.     “Got caught up daydreaming in bed again I see. I should have known after hearing your alarm go off for the 3rd time this morning” Mari teased me, but I knew she meant well. Mari was like a sister to me, and I appreciated her for teaching me how to cook.     “Next time,” Cal begins “If I hear your alarm go off two times, I’m gonna bang on your door until you get up. That alarm is hella annoying!” he makes a sour patch face at me.     “I know, I know” I say as the toaster pops and I wrap the toast in a paper towel “but it’s the only thing that remotely wakes me up in the morning. I have to go. I hope you all have a great day and enjoy Mari’s omelet for me, Cal!” I walk towards the front door as I hear them both say their goodbyes to me.     I hop on my bike and head down to The Brewed Bean coffee shop where I work. Luckily, it’s only a few blocks away from our apartment, but I always have to be diligent not to get run over by crazy Atlanta drivers. I swear no one knows how to drive in our city’s narrow streets. Once I reach the parking lot, I remove my front tire, chain the bike to the bike rack, and with front tire in hand I head inside. The shop is small yet cozy. There’s a free reading area with overstuffed reading chairs lined up in a circle. One of the baristas, Mary, is wiping down one of the small reading tables in the circle, while another barista, Judy, is nearby chatting with one of our regulars, Tom. I see that Justin is manning the bar while Cindy mans the register. Currently she was fishing out one of the blueberry pastries out of the many assortment of pastries from the display case.     “There you are!” my boss Brody marched out from the back “Aurora, why can’t you ever be here early?!” I looked at the clock on the wall. It was currently 8:50am and I wasn’t supposed to be clocked in until 9:00am. “It doesn’t matter,” Brody continued “I need you to complete the inventory count in the back. They sent us too many pastries so now we’re going to have to do a special and I am so stressed out! Now chop, chop! Get to it!” he clapped his hands at me and stared at me in amazement as I walked into the back room to prepare for the inventory count.     “Ah s**t” I muttered to myself as soon as I opened the door. There were twice as many boxes than there should have been. Brody was the only one allowed to do the ordering which means I had to pay for his mess up. I heard the door open and watched as Justin walked in with a drink in hand.     “One iced matcha latte for the tired and underappreciated lady” he said with his hand outstretched towards me. I grabbed the drink and thanked him thirstily sucking at the straw. One thing is for sure, Justin was a great barista and knew how to make a mean latte! Justin always knew just how to lift my spirits when I was down and being berated by our boss. Justin was one of the few men that worked at The Brewed Bean. Probably because most other men wouldn't put up with Brody's constant harassment. Justin was a laid back kind of guy that would roll with the punches, and laugh it off. It was as if nothing could ever bother him, and sometimes I envied that. I was grateful to have a good friend like Justin at work we would often pick up each other's shifts when we were in a pinch and it was great to have some one to rely on like that at work.      “You know you shouldn’t put up with his s**t. You’re the only one he walks all over.” Justin leaned against the frame of the door watching me shift through the boxes with a clipboard balanced on one knee. His blonde hair was slicked back behind his work visor, and his blue eyes watched me carefully as I shifted my position. Justin was a year younger than me, but a good five inches taller than me. He had a lean muscular build from all of the soccer he played at his college.      “Yeah, and what good will it do me if I get fired right before graduation? I can’t afford to get fired. I’ll lose my apartment.” I barely look up from the clipboard that I was tracking the inventory count on. There has to be at least 30 boxes stacked in front of me, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I take another long sip of the drink and sigh “Ah, that’s really good, Justin! Thank you” I smile at him taking a second to glance up at him only to catch his disapproving look.      “Yeah, yeah, just don’t overwork yourself too much. I better go before Brody gets his shorts in a knot.” With that he turned around and went to the front leaving me alone to my count. About 10 minutes later I am three-fourths of the way done with the count.     “Are you still not done?” Brody shrieks as he busts the door to the back room startling me knocking me off balance causing my ass to hit the floor hard. “I should have had Justin do it. That’s what I get for leaving it to a woman to count. We all know women are no good at math.”     “I’m almost done with the count, and I’m actually really great at math. The problem is there are twice as many pastries than there should be. You ordered too much.” I state matter-of-factly while picking myself up off of the floor. “So far I’m seeing that you ordered double of everything.”     “Well that's not my fault! I double checked it before I submitted it to the system. The computer must have malfunctioned; you know the one we have is trash!” Brody quickly shifts the blame from himself, “That just means I don’t have to order anything for today. Now hurry up with the count and get out here we are getting busy and I need you to support Justin on the bar.” Brody then proceeds to go to the computer, plop himself down in the chair, and begin messing around on his phone while watching me continue my count.     After I was finished, I put the count clipboard on the computer desk in front of Brody so he could enter the numbers in since he never allowed anyone else to do so. Without a word I go to the front and start making drinks. I truly did enjoy making the various drinks and interacting with our customers. They were usually nice and always had a lot to say. I loved hearing all of their stories and being able to make drinks allowed me to have more time to listen. It always makes the day go by so much faster.     Around 5:00pm (30 minutes before I was supposed to leave) Brody calls me into the back room. He’s got his nose in his phone and doesn’t look up when I approach him. “Meghan has gone into labor and can’t work her shift tonight, so I’m going to need you to work until close tonight.”     “I can’t! I have a really important test I have to study for. Can’t you get someone else to cover Meghan’s shift?” I beg him but he just scoffs, rolls his eyes, puts down his phone and then locks eyes with me.     “Well, you should have planned better with your studying. It’s not my fault you aren’t responsible and so ill prepared for you oh so important test.” Brody smacked his lips and then smirked “If you won’t work tonight, then you give me no other choice than to fire you.”     “You can’t fire me! It’s not my shift to work” I exclaim.     “Well this is the final straw you have been slacking in your duties, arriving late, and cleaning half-ass. Your performance has been under review for a while now, so if you don’t work Meghan’s shift you are fired.” Brody had this eat s**t grin on his face. He knew everything he was saying was a lie, but it would only be his word against mine if brought to the attention of his superiors, and they would believe him over me. They never believed a word any of the employees said against him. Brody was their golden child, and in their eyes he could never do any wrong. We have lost some really good employees because of the upper management's blindness to Brody's wicked ways.      “Fine.” I sigh and turn to go back out front.     “Oh Aurora, darling” Brody called out in a sickening sweet voice “Can you please clean both the men’s and women’s restrooms? They haven’t been serviced today. Thanks!”     “Not a problem” I say through gritted teeth. I feel his eyes piercing into me as I ready the mop bucket and bathroom cleaning supplies. The mop bucket is disgusting looking, and appears as if it has never been cleaned. The caddy that holds the cleaning supplies isn't in much better shape than the mop bucket. Nonetheless, I grab a pair of gloves, pull them over my hands, grab the bucket and the caddy, and head towards the bathrooms. I enter the men's room first as I know it will be the dirtiest.      "Is anyone in here?" I yell before roping off the entrance to the restroom. No one responds, so I close the door behind me for some privacy. I curse his name as I scrub the toilets, sinks, and bathroom floors. Not only is Brody a degrading sexist man he is a control freak and gets off on belittling others. He makes me sick! Suddenly one of the lights above the sink blows, making me jump “Great!” I groan as I go get a replacement bulb.     After my shift is done at 11:00pm I bike home. I can barely keep my eyes open, so I decide to stop by the convenience store on my way to pick up an energy drink to help keep me awake. My stomach begins to growl so I also grab a slice of pizza from the hot counter, pay, and exit the store. I quickly chug the energy drink and then head the rest of the way home with pizza in one hand and my other hand on the handlebar. It’s a miracle I didn’t crash.     When I get home, I put away my bike, and head towards my room. I kick off my shoes, strip my clothes and visor, and ready a shower. I hop in once the water is hot enough and I sigh in relief as it washes away the stress of the day. I won’t have to work in that shithole of a job for much longer as long as I graduate on time and secure this paid internship, I will be done with The Brewing Bean and Brody’s incessant harassment. I quickly wash my hair and body once I remember I still have to study tonight for tomorrow’s test. I reluctantly shut off the water, towel off, and step out of the shower as I wrap my hair up in a towel.     I slip on some comfy clothes and turn my desk lamp on. I fish out my head phones and phone from my backpack and put on a lofi playlist so I can fully focus on studying. Finally, once I feel at peace I bust open my notebook and textbook. I begin reviewing notes and reading chapters for hours. I know I need to do my best on this test in order to maintain my valedictorian status at graduation. It was so much pressure, but I am confident I can do it. I have been studying for this test for the past month, and tonight was my final night to cram, and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I try my best to do my due diligence, and I begin going through my flash cards trying to memorize terms and phrases and important figures. I knew I would do well, but I had to make sure that I would do perfect. I can't afford any mistakes this late in the game.     It's so hard to focus when you're actively trying not to fall asleep at the same time. I grow so tired I can feel my eyelids growing heavy as my head slowly drifts down to my desk resting softly on my textbook. Before I know it, I am out cold, and not a single thing in this world could wake me up at this moment.