ARE WE LOST FOREVER?

TRUCE

Selena walked inside the store and greeted Susan, who was behind the counter looking way too tired, still she greeted Selena back with a warm smile. Selena smiled back at her and went into the back— which was both, an employee locker room and a*****e room— to keep her umbrella.

“You look tired,” Selena commented after she came back wearing the pink vest and the white tag with her name on it.

“Because I am tired, I can barely open my eyes.” She responded, putting her head down on the counter and yawning. “I feel like sleeping for the whole week. My head hurts and it feels like someone has put bricks on my eyelids. The shipment this month was again too much work”

“I told you to change the shipment company. They are not as good as they used to be” Selena tried to explain.

“I know, it's just they are working for me since I opened the store.” Susan closed her eyes and clenched her jaws in frustration.

“Well, I'm here, so you can go home. I'll take care of the store.” Selena stood next to her reading the situation. Susan turned her head and smiled, her tired eyes relaxing a bit. “And I'll teach your nephew everything there's to know about the store; from filling the shelves to code blond.”

She nodded her head, followed by a chuckle. “Alright, but teach him the code blond before anything else. The number of Karens is increasing in the neighborhood. Before the zombie apocalypse, we'll have the Karen apocalypse, and it will be much more deadly.”

Selena couldn't hold back her laughter because a Karen apocalypse didn't sound far-fetched to her. The virus of entitlement was corrupting both women and men at a much faster rate than she had seen before. She wouldn't be surprised if Karens' apocalypse does happen in near future.

“Let me text my nephew and let him know that I'm leaving, and so there will be only two people including him in the store. I don't think the store will be very busy for two hours, so that's your teaching time.” Susan pulled back from the counter and looked at the wall clock behind her.

“Okay, I'll teach him everything I know about the store. Don't worry.” Selena assured her as she went to the back to take her umbrella. It was raining lightly like always. “By the time you'll see him again, he'll be a master in the management of the store.” She joked.

Susan chuckled lightly before saying in a serious tone, “Elena, he may not look like it but he's a nice kid, I've known him my entire life, so be patient with him even when he’s a total jerk because… things have changed recently and I guess it's his way of coping. Even my sister is a little worried about his wrong direction and influences, you know the teens nowadays. He gets into trouble now and then for no reason.” She yawned, “You have no idea how much I admire you and Elias for not turning up like other high schoolers.”

That was one of the things about Susan, she was lovely and one of the sweetest people in the whole town, but for her, gossiping was more important than any food or water. She has the same name as Selen's mother but a completely different personality. Mrs. Knight never enjoyed gossiping, and had the aura of professionalism around her, while Susan felt very welcoming and sweet.

Due to Susan's oversharing, Selena often got the impression that she shouldn't hear any of those things Susan talked about, but saying no to her wasn't an option either. Even though she was an awesome boss, Selena had seen what happens when someone disagrees with her.

Because of Susan, Selena knew a lot more than she probably should about what was going on in the town; who was fighting with who, who filed for divorce, who was getting married, who had a kid, who is about to have a kid, who was cheating on their wife, who was in love with their friend, who was a horrible parent, and who was having multiple affairs. Talking with Susan was never boring, she always had so many stories.

“He is about your age and I guess he might even go to your school. You know, they just moved into town. Things were really messy back home between his parents for more than a year. Poor boy.” She shook her head in sorrow as if a glimpse of what happened came right in front of her eyes. “Please be kind to him and try to be friends with him, he could really use some good company and a good friend who won't peer pressure him into smoking or partying late at night.”

“Okay,” Selena nodded her head, not knowing what else to do, but she promised Susan that she will try her best. She didn't know how, but she hoped to be able to help the boy one day.

“Thank you, darling,” Susan nodded her head before walking outside of the store in the soft rain and grey sky.

Knowing that she was going to be alone till the boy arrives, Selena pulled out the checklist from the drawer under the counter and went towards the shelves at the back to check the stocks. Susan had already gone through almost half of it, so there wasn't much other than food items on the list she needed to check.

She was going through breakfast cereals when the small bell above the main door chimed, bringing with them the whooshing sound of the wind and rain. Elena stepped around the shelves and looked toward the entrance. Her eyes fell on the boy who'd just walked through the door, his face plastered with his long black hair that he was trying to push away from his face and his white T-shirt was sticking to his torso like it had been glued there.

“Um… can I help you?” She asked, coming in front of him. He raised his head and their eyes met for the first time, and Selena froze in her place.

Victor Gomez was in front of her and he was looking at her the same way she was looking at him— mouth open and eyes wide. She looked away and fixed her eyes on the rainwater dripping down his black hair, sliding down his high cheekbone, and then running on his caramel skin till it reaches the white fabric that was almost see-through due to being wet… and Selena was staring.

“What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?” Victor questioned, pushing the last few strands of hair away from his face.

Selena rolled her eyes and once again looked at him. “I work here… can't you see the vest and the name tag? Or do you use your eyes only to see football?”

Victor chuckled, “Oo… you're the very hard-working and nice girl Susan was talking about.”

“Susan… you're her nephew?” Selena closed her eyes and screamed in her head. Victor Gomez, a certified asshole, and her brother's arch nemesis was going to work with her in the store. Not just that, she was also supposed to be a good influence on him. It seemed harder than she thought because to her Victor didn't seem to be the type of guy who would stop being an asshole.

“Bingo,” He walked further into the store, carrying the mud in his shoes. “You know, I thought your brother was the only hot-headed asshole in the family, but now I think it runs in the blood.”

“At least, we are not sore losers who can't handle defeat and walk around shoving people on the ground because our fragile ego got served in front of the whole town.” Selena scoffed and went in the back leaving him alone in the store. For a second Victor felt like she left, but in a minute she came back with a mop.

Victor stepped aside to give her space to clean, but instead of cleaning she looked at him with a bored expression and gave him the mop.

“What is this?” He asked, looking at the mop and then at Selena.

“It's a mop, have you not seen one before? Humans use to clean the floors.”

“I've seen a mop,” He sounded frustrated, making Selena smile proudly. “I don't understand why are you giving me this?”

“So that you can clean the floor. You're not a customer here, you're a worker in the store, just like me so you have to clean after your shits. That's the first rule of the store.” Selena explained going behind the counter to text Susan that her nephew had arrived.

“I didn't know I'll be clean—”

“That's where I and everyone else started from when we joined, just because you're her nephew doesn't mean you'll be sent directly behind the counters.” Selena fixed her gaze on him and motioned towards the mud prints. “Hurry up, clean them. And after that, if you want you can change in the back room. There's a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. You will catch a cold if you stay in wet clothes for a long time.”

Victor kicked out his shoes and placed them against the wall next to the door. He then picked up the mop and started cleaning the floor. Selena herself started upgrading the stock in the computer. It was raining heavily, so there was no chance that someone would visit the store unless it was an emergency.

Victor went in the back with the mop after cleaning the floor and came out wearing the yellow T-shirt and jeans that were a little too loose on him. He looked unimpressed when he saw Selena clicking a picture of him on her phone and laughing as he looked like a joker.

“You're the one who gave me these clothes, don't laugh. It's your fault.” Victor came behind the counter and sat on the stool.

“They are the only extra we have in the store. You are free to wear your wet clothes.”

“Wow… and just when I started to think you're the better Knight.” He commented, leaning against the back wall. “But I guess both of you are just the same.”

“Well, being anything is better than being a man-w***e… and a junkie like you.” She turned back, and the small smile he had on his lips slipped away. He turned his head away and Selena saw him clenching his fists tightly by his side.

‘Is he really an addict?’ Selena questioned herself.

She had heard from Elias several times that the Lake High football team was smoking pot at some party he attended and someone called the cops, and when the police came several of them including Victor, got arrested. She never thought much about it because most teens smoke pot for fun, even in her high school, but she never believed the story of cops arresting him.

“Do you know how to bill?” She asked after minutes of silence, trying to reduce the tension between her mom and dad.

“Scan the code on the item, product and price will appear on the screen…” He trailed off and turned to look at the screen.

“Yeah, but that's not exactly how it happens, let me show you.” She took a protein bar from the small self on the counter and ran it through the scanner and showed him how to complete the bill. Victor was standing behind her, trying to understand. She then took a Hershey's bar and showed him what to do if the scanner doesn't read the code.

“Okay, that's easy. I can do that.” Victor said when the bill was generated. Selena turned on her stool to face Victor and offered him both of the bars. Victor smirked, “What is this for?”

“Well, I've made the bill… and I've to pay for them now.” She said, but Victor still looked confused so she explained. “We're going to work together from today and our past meetings were not friendly, even today wasn't friendly at all… so this is a gift for a truce agreement. Do you accept the truce”

Victor took the bars from her and before she could pull her hand he grabbed them. She raised her eyebrow, as he winked and kissed the back of her hand. “Truce, milady.”

Selena blushed, her cheeks turned red and her heart skipped a few beats. She could feel butterflies in her stomach and goosebumps all over her body. She could hear both her breath and heartbeats, even the sound of the rain outside became much clearer. It felt weird and nice, and alien.

She pulled her hand and tried to look unaffected, but the teasing look in his eyes announced that he knew what he had done.

She cleared her throat before speaking, “I taught you this so that you can bill when I'm busy with something else. You need to learn about stocking and checking the stocks because that's what you'll do, along with cleaning of course.”

Victor rolled his eyes and walked behind her as she started explaining in what order the shelves are stocked and which things will be where and on which shelf. She also showed him how to check the stocks and enter them into the computer. The rain was still heavy so they didn't get the usual crowd, just a few people looking for groceries. She asked Victor to help them find the things and even allowed him to bill a few of them.

She taught him most of the regular things required to know about store management. There were a few things that she wanted to wait for because they were mostly required once in 2-3 months and she highly doubted there would be a situation in which he would be required to do all the things himself.

Apart from that she also didn't explain to him anything about code blond, not because she had forgotten about that, she just wanted a first-row seat for the Karen drama. He was yet to apologize for shoving her, so she assumed it was only fair if she had some fun of her own.