"Alrighty that'll be eleven dollars and sixty-four cents!" Dirt said to the cringey customer from behind the plexiglass. They weren't wearing a mask, and they were kind of a bitch...
As they bitchingly inserted their chip into the card reader, they surveyed Dirt. "Dirt? Is that really your name?" they asked, pushing their index finger against the plexiglass.
"Yep."
"Huh. That's weird. What kind of parents name their kid Dirt?" the bitch snooted. What kind of parents raise their kid to ask rude-ass questions to a total stranger? Dirt simply shrugged with a teeth-gritted smile.
"Would you like a bag?" The Bitch had purchased a pack of cigarettes, a monster energy, and one of those instant snack pack things that Dirt was pretty sure were expired. It had tuna and crackers in it. Bitch was probably going to get sick. But you're not really encouraged to tell customers they shouldn't be buying something. So Dirt held his tongue.
It was 6:30AM. Amber was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago to relieve Dirt of his shift. bing bong chimed the door as another customer shambled in. Ah. Costumers. Plural. "Hi, welcome," Dirt greeted, but was outright ignored by the teen couple. He checked his phone to see if Amber had responded to any of his texts yet.
me: where r u
me: r u still coming in?
me: amber :(
me: another bitch without a mask just walked in
me: should i text brian?
Dirt figured he'd better text Brian.
me: ambers not responding can u come in and cover for her
brian: shiiiiit
brian: :/
brian: aight
me: thank you ♥♥♥ ur the love of my life *nuzzles n kisses u*
After Dirt had wrung up the teens' candy, coffee, and condoms—the big three C's—Brian walked through the door. Brian was a couple of inches taller than Dirt. He had a low fade—that could probably use a touch-up—with twists. His round face wore a dreary expression that his thick eyebrows made more severe.
"Oh thank god," Dirt sighed, "You're my hero, dude. I thought I was gonna have to do another 12 hour shift again..."
"Sure bro. I'm not supposed to be workin' today so you owe me."
"Bro, Amber owes you."
"True true... Aright go get some rest bro. Your bags have bags," Brian said, and nearly poked Dirt in the eyes pointing at his dark circles.
The sun was just rising as Dirt finally left the 7-11. It might feel nice if it wasn't the same sight he's seen every time he's left work for the past eight months. Dirt got on his bike with his bitter 7-11 coffee in hand, carefully holding it against the handlebar so it would not spill. Of course, on the ride home, there were a couple of dribbles. A bit of burns on the hand. Not too big of a deal.
Sarah was still asleep when Dirt got home. She was his roommate, a girl he'd found, funnily enough, through instagram. Dirt hardly ever even uses instagram, but he had been desperate in his roommate search, so he decided to dust off that shitty little app and post his plea there.
When Sarah messaged him, the first thing Dirt did was totally stalk her whole profile.
𝓢𝓐𝓡𝓐𝓗|23|𝓢𝓗𝓔/𝓗𝓔𝓡|𝓦𝓗𝓘𝓣𝓔🌞🌻✌ 𝓛𝓞𝓥𝓔 𝓘𝓢 𝓐𝓛𝓛 𝓦𝓔 𝓗𝓐𝓥𝓔
She had loads of water color paintings, that seemed to be mostly abstract, but some were impressionist. They were soft and pretty and felt gendery. She'd also had a couple of pictures of herself, always at golden hour, usually looking wistfully off into the distance. She had shoulder-length mousy brown hair that she parted in the middle, pale skin, and wore circular glasses that framed her pale blue eyes. Some of her pictures weren't even of her face. They were her paint-covered hands holding a mug of coffee, her dirty boots in dying grass, her painting station after she'd just finished a piece. She'd had about 500 followers. Dirt had about 12. One of them was his brother, and one of them was his mom. The rest were a mix of high school friends that probably forgot he existed and randos who seemed to have completely different interests than him and he wasn't sure why they were following him.
Anyways, once Dirt was home, he got himself a healthy snack of a jar of peanut butter and a box of ritz crackers, before heading to his room. It was a small room. Just enough room for a bed, a desk, and a small bookshelf. And the wide and shallow closet, which housed his dresser and all of his clothes. On the wall hung a full-body mirror that Dirt had had since he was a teenager, its corners decorated with stickers, DIRT scratched into the top of it. When he sat on his bed, he could see himself in it.
Shaggy, brown hair with faded blue tips that now looked like a pale green. He needed a haircut. Brian wasn't kidding about the bags under his eyes, Dirt was kind of an insomniac. That tends to happen when you work the graveyard shift. Dirt's limbs were too long for his body, his arms and legs were skinny, but his stomach stuck out. It always had. His mom always told him to "suck it in" when he was a kid.
He threw his work hat onto his desk beside his old laptop, then pulled his shirt over his head before digging in to his healthy snack. (Don't wanna get the work shirt dirty.)
This was basically the routine for them. Going to work at 11, coming home at 6am, eating a snack, and then tossing and turning in bed for five hours before falling sleep, if he did at all. He'd wake up in the late afternoon and have breakfast, and then lay around in bed all day. Usually he'd smoke a joint or a bowl at some point, and just rewatch his favorite anime from his childhood until it was time for work.
It almost felt like a joke, sometimes. Dirt dreamed of bigger things, of doing something with his life, but he had no idea what that could possibly be. He had no real skills, and nothing seemed interesting enough to him to actually go out and learn about it. But one thing was for sure, he was damn tired of laying around all day.
The only friends he had were his coworkers, and Sarah, all people who only really hung out with him out of necessity, so he never wanted to bother them with hanging out, or anything. Brian was really the only person he really considered an actual friend. He'd invite Dirt over to hang out sometimes, and they'd smoke weed together and just talk about whatever, and that was always nice.... but Dirt wished for much more than just that.
