It didn’t take Felix long to discover room 219. It was exactly where the receptionist had said it would be – on the first floor. After the short ride in the hospital’s elevator, all that he had done was walk down the hallway, staring at the silver plates above all the doors until he came across room 219.He paused in front of Rose’s room and listened hard. There seemed to be no sound coming from the other side of the door. As he stood in front of the door, he found himself wishing that he had brought a gift along with him. A ‘Get Well Soon’ card, a salad bowl, a fluffy silk pillow, or even a large bouquet of roses. A gift in the form of a large bouquet of roses would have been very poetic for someone named Rose. He gave the door three quick raps hoping that the sound wouldn’t wake any of the two people inside if they were to have been asleep.“Come in.” A soft, tired feminine voice that definitely wasn’t Rose’s answer.Felix pushed the handle down and stepped inside. Immediately he wa
Amy balked. “Okay, first of all, I’m sixteen and a half.” Felix scoffed at her words but she continued. “But you’re right I guess. It was traumatizing seeing her like that and knowing that I couldn’t do anything to help her until the ambulance arrived. I’ll be fine though.” She said with a shrug. Just then, her stomach rumbled. “And hungry, I will apparently also be hungry.” She declared with a humorless laugh. The fact that she hadn’t had breakfast yet was starting to show.Felix's mind was immediately filled with memories of Rose popping her head through his door to ask if he had eaten that day and how her brows would always furrow in a frown whenever he confessed that he hadn’t. Then she would force him to eat something even if it was just a stale bagel and lukewarm coffee. “Not on my watch.” He declared as he pulled up himself from the chair. “Come on. I’ll buy you something to eat.”“But what if she wakes up?” Amy asked, stealing a glance at the sleeping figure of her mum.“Then
Cassie POVAs I walked through the front door of The Bean House, the tiny bell attached to the door rang out. I was immediately hit by the smell of fresh coffee and newly baked pastries. The café was decorated with varying hues of brown, white, and yellow. The seats in the middle parts of the café were arranged in groups of twos and threes around circular tables. The seats closer to the walls and corners of the café were arranged in booths with the chairs having bright yellow cushioning. Various handing and potted plants littered the café giving it the feeling of a cutesy cottage. The floorboards shone as they had probably been freshly mopped and polished. A chalkboard situated directly opposite the front door boasted of the Bean House menu and special for the week. Apple cinnamon waffles with oat milk latte, the chalkboard read in colorful fancy cursive letters. Secretly, I hoped that they wouldn’t sell all of the apple cinnamon waffles by the end of the day as the café staff usually
All throughout the ride back to Tech Town, Felix was unable to get rid of the warm feelings that were stirring at the pit of his stomach. At first, he had no idea why something as simple as a crudely drawn smiley face on a mediocre stack of pancakes had made both him and Amy smile. It had taken him a couple of minutes to remember that Rose liked to draw smiley faces on sticky notes and leave them for him to find when she sensed that he was in a bad mood. Considering the kind of person he was and the kind of life he lived, he had gotten a ton of sticky notes with smiley faces over the years. At Amy’s insistence – not that she had to as he was going to do so anyways – he had left a huge tip for the waitress.The elevator doors pinged open on the top floor. Felix spared a glance at his watch. It was already past afternoon. As per his mother’s early instructions, that would mean that he would have to spend almost four extra hours at work. His sleep schedule would probably be messed up for
It had been exactly two weeks since Cassie had quit her job at Club Indigo and things were not looking as bright as she thought they would. When she had given Big Daddy the middle finger after she had gone to his office to make payment for the mugs shattered and the drink spilled during the shoot-out, she had been thinking that she would survive just fine on two jobs. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like she had made a big mistake by quitting her job as a waitress at Club Indigo.For a very brief moment a few days ago, she had considered going back to Club Indigo to beg Big Daddy for her old job back. She had banished the thought from her mind as quickly as she had conjured it up. That was a bad idea. Asking Big Daddy for a favor of any sort was akin to signing a contract with the devil. He would hold it over her head forever.Yes, the clubs and its patrons were shady, and more than half of the activities that went on there were illegal. Yes, most of the patrons were absolute a
Isabel was nothing but a filthy liar. Sulking to herself in one of the chairs at Hair Glam, that was the only thing Cassie could think about. Isabel had said that she would help her look through job ads in the privacy of her house. That was what Cassie had agreed to. She certainly hadn’t agreed to have her professional life dissected in front of the patrons and staff of Hair Glam. And the worst part was that although the ladies there had honest-to-good intentions and genuinely seemed interested in job searching on her behalf more than half of them were absolute strangers and most of their comments came out as backhanded compliments.“Despite that absolute rubbish on your head, you’re kind of pretty.” A client with a Southern accent admitted. Her huge blonde hair was being put into delicate curls by Robin. “I mean if I squint and tilt my head to the left, you sort of look like a brunette Marilyn Monroe.” She attempted to tilt her head to the side but Robin smacked her lightly.“Stop mo
The moment Cassie stepped through the automatic doors, she was greeted by a blast of cool air from the air conditioner and the smell of new furniture. The cool air was being circulated around the reception area by a powerful air conditioner she couldn’t see and the smell of new furniture was coming from a large new desk being assembled by a trio of hefty-looking men with shirts too small to contain their hulking muscle masses. It had been a long time since Cassie assembled a table or any other piece of furniture for that matter but she doubted that many people were needed for that kind of job. A lanky man who wasn’t dressed like the other three men held up an instruction manual in confusion. Unlike the other three who were dressed in rust-colored polo shirts and khakis, the lanky man was dressed professionally in a freshly pressed black suit. He was probably the company’s receptionist who had so kindly offered to help the three men with the job of assembling the new desk. To Cassie,
While everyone had been hoping that Cassie would get the job, no one, herself included, was actually expecting her to get a job after her first interview. Once she walked out through the front door of Tech Town, she stood outside in a daze, clutching her manila folder close to her chest. She had gotten a job! She spun around in a circle and let out a little squeal, stopping only when nearby people started to give her odd looks. For a brief second while her body was flooded with serotonin, she considered skipping all the way to The Bean House or Hair Glam to share the good news with someone but decided against it. She was in no way fit enough to skip that distance. She settled with semi-power walking all the way to the train station.Once she got on the already crowded train, she tried not to let the scent of the body odor or the f