Orange Peel

Orange Peel Volume 1 Takano Masamune Chapter 1: Hello? How Are You? (1) *** As I pressed my chest against his and wrapped my arms around his muscular back, I could feel my entire body shaking, it was as if I was holding onto him out of fear not to fall. The sensation in my lower abdomen was unlike anything I’ve felt before, it was hot and steamy, and my entire face was probably a shade of red that I would never want to see my reflection in that moment… It was embarrassing but it felt so good, his dark brown hair and glimmering brown eyes that looked almost black under the shadow he casted upon me… I felt… “Hey? Are you working?” A client came to my register and quickly snapped me out of my hot daydream. I wanted to curse at him for it but I stopped myself, I was in the middle of work… “Yes, I will be right with you.” I said as I turned around with my usual customer service smile plastered on my face. I might have been having dirty daydreams up until a few seconds ago, but as I scanned his items I felt the embarrassment creep in. The truth is, I’m a virgin and all these fantasies are just that, in reality I’ve never been with a man before… “Your total is 10$ and 45 cents, cash or card?” I asked, still looking as stupid as ever, I glanced at the cash register and then at the monitor where I could just barely see my reflection. Thank God, I wasn’t blushing, I still had a normal expression on my face. As the client paid and left I was again left with my own thoughts. It was my turn to close the store again. I work in this rundown gas station’s convenience store because all other places of employment don’t work with my schedule. I can only work at night, since I have to go to school in the daytime. Why I work so hard? Of course because I need money… A day hasn’t gone by where I haven’t had the desire to quit but I can’t… I simply can’t, because how else will I feed myself? My cat? How else will I live and pay rent, heating? It’s a cruel world… and if I had the choice I wouldn’t work another day in this dump… “Hello.” I greeted the next customer as I heard the ring of the door, the man looked somewhat suspicious however. I just hoped he wasn’t going to steal anything at my shift, it later comes out of my paycheck and it’s happened five times for the last month. Of course the stolen stuff were small, like kids taking sweets, there were these teenagers that took a bottle of wine that wasn’t too pricey… for most people that steal I do think they feel remorse for it. Or at least understand they are doing something wrong… I don’t know what kind of circumstances lead them to this but I just hoped they wouldn’t bother me and instead go take from another gas station… “……………” The suspicious looking man didn’t respond to me and simply crept around the store for a while. It looked like he was searching for something. I began feeling up the underside of the register where we have our panic button hidden. I was ready to press it at any moment and maybe I should have hit it the moment I saw him entering the store, but I didn’t… It was only a few moments later that another man entered the store. Unlike the first person that had his face and head covered by his black long sleeved hoodie. This man was well dressed, in a suit even, with a tie and everything. It was rare to see such a person here, especially in 3 in the morning. It didn’t seem like an appropriate time for business dealings, did it? Then yet maybe he’d had a late night at work or something, I couldn’t really tell. “Give me everything in the register.” The hooded man spoke to me and my stupid self who was too busy looking at the sexy man that entered the store, I couldn’t even understand what he’d said to me. “Excuse me?” I asked but then as I turned to look at the man who was clearly unwell, his eyes were a shade of red as if he’d used some sort of drug before coming here. And then there was the gun in his hand that made me freeze in place. I should have hit the panic button but I had already lost sight of it, and my vision felt like it was blurring. “I said give me everything in the register, all the money inside, put it in this bag and keep quiet.” Those were his demands, and I saw his shaky hands that were barely holding onto the gun and the trigger. So I didn’t hesitate to get moving and put away the money, I wasn’t going to risk my life for this job. At that moment I had already resolved myself to quit. And judging by the amount that was in the register, I probably would have to leave my last paycheck with the company… but maybe I’d get severance pay? No that would likely never happen… As I had began putting the bills in the bag he gave me, I only looked down but I heard a commotion. I raised my eyes to see the well dressed man holding down the hooded guy and pressing his face against the floor. I quickly grabbed my phone to call the police but the well dressed man called out to me. “Don’t call the police. I’ll deal with him.” He said in a stern voice, although he wasn’t yelling, I could tell he was serious, so I reluctantly put my phone away. I turned to look at the video cameras who weren’t even working. They’d been broken for over a month already which was why people were more willing to steal from here. I watched the man say something quietly to the person that was struggling on the ground which then made him stop moving completely. Next thing I knew the hooded man had pissed himself. Out of fear clearly, whatever the well dressed person had told him must have terrified him enough… And although anyone else would be scared in my position. I just watched him… I didn’t particularly feel fear towards the well dressed man, maybe because he was handsome, or because it looked like he wanted to help me… I didn’t feel like he was scary at all. He called someone on the phone and it wasn’t even three minutes later that other men in suits came and collected the hooded man. They even cleaned the floor without me needing to do anything. As they left the well dressed man approached me. “Are you alright?” He asked, his rough voice fell onto my ears and left a shiver down my spine, I think I will be having my naughty fantasies with this man for a while… “Yes, I’m alright, that… happened.” I just said, I blurted out whatever came to my mind although it probably didn’t make sense to the man. “You didn’t seem scared at all though.” The man smirked, somehow I found that far too sexy for comfort. If I had ever had s*x I’d say that I wanted to do it with this man, but the truth was I was far more scared of physical intimacy than I’d like to admit. So I only had my fantasies for now. “I wasn’t scared… since you seemed to know what you were doing.” I replied, it was stupid of me to word it that way, it made it seem like I trust this complete stranger. But for all I know he could pull out a gun and ask me for the money out of the register himself. So I didn’t want to sound too overly comfortable. “You’re interesting, too interesting to be working in a place like this.” The man said as he grabbed a pack of gum off the register and handed it to me to scan it. “That will be 1$” I said then hesitated. “Actually, you don’t need to pay, you already… did a lot for me.” I then continued while looking away. “Haha, is that my reward? A dollar worth of gum?” He asked with a hearty laughter, at first glance he didn’t look like a man that smiled at all but when he showed such a childish side of himself, maybe I felt a bit… better looking at him. “Well… I…” I looked around and then grabbed the same type of gum he had bought and gave him about five more packets. “Is that enough?” I asked, I wasn’t trying to be funny, clearly I’m just stupid and I acted out because I was nervous around him. “Hah… well, it seems like plenty…” The man chuckled again and took all the gum packets I offered him. He then left the store and suddenly I recalled I now had to pay out 6$ for all the gum I randomly gave this guy. I turned to grab my wallet and the moment I opened it, I heard my wallet sigh in despair... What a crazy night that was… If only I’d known back then… that was just the beginning of the craziness I would endure…