Surviving Him

Chapter 2 - Jammed

After the argument the previous day, my mind was clouded while driving to work. Ray had bought me a 2007 Honda Civic so that I could go to work on my own and do the things I needed to do alone. Sure, we were in the year 2021, but I liked my car. Named her Harley.

“Harley, sometimes I want to drive off a bridge because of him.” I sighed, staring at the red light.

Like it was in response, the car shook slightly. The transmission was bad, which caused it to shake. The light turned green and I made my turn. Pulling into the sss parking lot.

“Time for 4 hours of nothing but screaming people and beeping machines.” I hugged, stepping out into the cool summer morning.

It was 12:45am. I started at 1:45 but I always came an hour early to hang out with Kate, my co-worker and best friend. Today was a day we got new hires, and I was training them.

“Hey Kali. You look like s**t. Ray being a d**k again?” Kate asked, handing me a cigarette.

“We got in a fight with his friends there.” I replied, lighting the cigarette and taking a drag.

“Tell me what happened.” She urged, lighting one herself.

I sighed and looked at the end of my cigarette as I unveiled the events of the fight. Her expressions changed from annoyed, to irritated, to upset, and finally pissed. Her face got red when I got to the part where he slapped me. She was about to interrupt until I raised a finger, signaling that wasn’t the end. She gave me a look that looked to say “please don’t be serious”. I took another drag and continued the events. Retelling the end part made me tear slightly.

“Jesus Kali. What is his f*****g problem?” She spat out, then took a drag.

I shrugged as I flicked my cigarette, causing ashes to fall to the ground. I sat there, quietly, as I thought about her question.

What is his problem? Believe me, I wish I knew. I thought.

“Beats me Kate. I am 21 years old, and stuck in this damn relationship. I want out, but last time did not go so well.” I responded.

I have known Kate for about 3 years now. We are 4 years apart. I moved in next to her after my parents kicked me out. Our apartments were set up so we shared a bedroom wall. We started talking through the wall, then it took off. We became best friends.

“Oh look, it’s the new hires. Come on, Wayne needs you to be there to greet them and I have to go move pallets before Joe kicks my ass.” Kate chuckled as she pulled me into the building.

“Oh fun. Just what I want to do. Greet complete strangers who have no meaning or effect on my life what so ever.” I huffed, rolling my eyes.

I swiped my badge and clocked in. I had barely noticed it took me about an hour to tell Kate what had happened.

“Time to start putting on a fake smile and pretend like I love my job.” I said, giving Kate an exhausted look.

She gave me a thumbs up as she walked away, leaving me in the break room. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a headset from the wall. We used them so the new hires could hear us better over the loud noises. Checking to make sure the mic was not on yet, I opened the side door for the group to walk in.

“Good morning guys. My name is Kali and I will be leading your orientation today. Please feel free to grab anything from our store. Presentation starts in 15 minutes, so find a seat soon or you will be stuck in the back. I was my orientation, and it was bad. I could barely see.” I said, chuckling at my own joke.

I stepped away from the door as people rushed in. Still laughing, I start walking to the front.

“You say that everytime. Is that like your set speech for new hires?” Wayne, my manager asked with a chuckle.

I snorted and shook my head, sitting in my chair. The stack of papers in front of me read “Welcome to sss! Trainer Manual.” with a big package on the front. Opening the top one, I started reading the list of topics I was to go over.

“Hey Wayne, can you grab me a tablet. I did not see any on the headset cart.” I asked over my shoulder.

He grunted his response and brought me a tablet, dropping it in front of me.

“Thank you grumpy.” I sang as he walked back to his chair.

He huffed in reply, and I laughed. Wayne acts all mean, but he is a sweetheart. He helped me out a few times with rides to and from work before I got the car. I had barely noticed the time before a young, taller guy walked up to the table.

“Excuse me, Kali?” He quietly spoke.

I looked up to see a guy with dark brown eyes slightly hidden by his box bleached hair.

“That’s me. How can I help you?” I chirped, looking back at my papers.

He seemed nervous. Like he was afraid to speak to me. Messing with his hair, he sighed and got closer.

“My names Chase, and I was told to come see you directly by Wayne.” He stated, placing a piece of paper on the table in front of me.

I looked up at Chase, who was still avoiding eye contact, and smiled.

“You must be my shadow. You applied for the trainer position, yes?” I asked, reading what he put down.

I knew I was right, but I wanted to see if I could get him to make eye contact.

“Yes, ma’am.” He replied, nodding and looking past me at the wall.

What is up with this kid? Why is he avoiding my look? I thought to myself.

“Well Chase, if you want to be a trainer, you need to be able to make eye contact with your trainees.” I chuckled.

He smiled slightly and leaned forward, as if he didn’t want others to hear what he had to say. He got right at my level and looked me directly in the eyes.

“I was avoiding eye contact because I can see the black eye you have, even under the makeup.” He whispered.

I sighed and touched my eye. I thought it wasn’t noticeable to everyone. Kate did not seem to say anything. s**t,I said to myself.

“Yeah, I uh…. Walked into a door.” I replied, looking back at the paper. “Everything seems good on here, if you could please sit here beside me, I will walk you through what a typical start looks like.”

He nodded and sat beside me. I couldn’t help but grin and laugh to myself. He’s pretty cute. I wonder if- Kali stop it, I scolded myself. I wasn’t wrong though. His dark brown eyes reflected the light giving it a milk chocolate look. His hair was combed in front of his eye. His smile strangely put me at ease.

“I know you didn’t run into a door.” He whispered.

I snapped out of my thoughts and gave him a shocked look. He was about to say something but I stopped him.

“Attention new hires. The presentation is about to begin. Please find your seats and I will pass around a booklet for you to keep. It has all the information you need about the job, pay, and hours.” I yelled, standing up.

I gave Chase an apologetic look and he nodded. I could tell he understood why I stopped him. He gave me a look full of care and worry. Who was this guy? Why does he care so much?

I pushed the thoughts back and began with the presentation. Going over cell phone usage, food rules, s****l harassment stuff, the usual boring work things.

“Now if I could have you, by row, stand a walk over to your group trainer. Row 1 your with me and my shadow Chase. Row 2 your with Kairu, and row 3 your with Tyson. Now if you will please follow your trainer to your designated areas, the training will begin shortly.” My voice was loud and official.

People started moving as I walked over to my row, Chase following right behind. I got him set up with a tablet and a headset before we began our tour around the warehouse.

“Here is where you guys will be trained. In jam clear. Your jobs are simple. Keep the belts moving smoothly. You see a box that’s stuck, pull it off the belt and place it to the side until you can safely put it back onto the belt. This red cord will stop all belts in the building so you may clear bigger jams. Always listen for the really annoying beeping, that means there’s a jam somewhere. Always keep your radios on channel 4 for jams. Channel 3 is for get in contact with cleaning services. And channel 2 is where you can talked to a manger if I am not available. Easy enough? Let’s begin.” I cheered, turning the belts on.

The day was going so well I did not notice it was already break time. I turned the belts off and walked everyone outside, explaining when break ends and where to meet after.

“Hey Kali. Who’s the new guy?” Kate asked, sitting down beside me and handing me a cigarette.

“Kate this is Chase. He’s my shadow for the week. He’s learning to do my job.” I replied, lighting the cigarette and taking a drag.

Chase nodded his greeting to Kate and looked back towards me, sitting beside me. I smiled at him and took another drag.

Keep it professional Kali. Ray would kick your ass if you did anything. I gave myself a disgusted snort. Like I give a s**t about Ray. So what if I think another dude is cute.

“Here’s my number in case you ever need an escape.” Chase whispered, slipping me a small folded paper.

I opened it to find his number written down next to the words ‘I know about the abuse.’ I shot him a confused look and he just nodded.

Well s**t, I thought, I am in one hell of a jam.