2 A Familiar Face

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The sound of an alarm pierced through the silence of a quiet morning. The LED screen read 7 am, and the room slowly revealed itself through the sunlit curtains to introduce a new day. A disheveled boy wakes up, groggy and not at all ready to face the dawn. Muffled groans come from his pillow stuffed face and he rolls over back and forth, eventually off the bed and onto his feet. Aiden stretched his arms while yawning before heading to the restroom to do his normal routine.

Brush teeth. Wash face. Comb hair. Put on work uniform and leave. There was nothing more irritating to him than the rays of sun that hit his face everyday and that's why he always preferred night shifts. Not to mention, a leisurely stroll from home to work was only two blocks away. It gave him just enough time to allow him time to contemplate his existence, something Aiden always had a hard time figuring out. As he finally reached his destination, what seemed to feel like hours were actually a few minutes. Already, his mood was destroyed by the time he entered the door. A bell jingled.

"Finally you're here!" A man yelped before he quickly ran over to Aiden, proceeding to pat his back a little too hard.

"I'm off now. Really busy today, but I left a list of things to do on the sticky pad!" he hollered as he swiftly made his way out the door.

Aiden stood blankly for a moment before dragging his legs behind the counter and looking over the list of things that had to be done that morning, left by the night shift staff.

"..resock ramen shelves... clean windows... restock.." he stopped.

Aiden thought to himself. Wow. This dude really just left all this shit for me. Seriously man, did he just fuck around all of last night? He glanced to his left, a leftover cigarette butt on the counter. Seemed like all that guy did was leave more messes than clean them.

"Busy my ass." he whispered begrudgingly to himself.

A few hours swept by as he cleaned and serviced the few customers coming in and out, before someone curious walked in. Almost by instinct, he glanced up at the corner of the store and into the fisheye mirror. He couldn't help but stare at her figure in the reflection as he restocked the ramen. There was something about her that seemed all too familiar. Then, as if on purpose and before he could fully collect his thoughts, the woman turned to look at the mirror herself forcing him to look away. He could tell in the corner of his eyes that she was still staring at him through the reflection, almost as if she had the same revelation as he did. Aiden didn't know why, but he felt nervous and a need to hold his breath. Just before his face was about to turn blue she turned away and walked to the back of store, grabbing some chips and a soda before heading to the counter. Aiden caught his breath again and headed towards the register to scan her items. Now that he could stare at her face to face, she looked even more familiar. Her sleek black hair was raised in a high ponytail and she was wearing blue jeans, black boots, a white tank, and what looked like a black biker jacket. Her eyeliner could only be described as fierce because that was the expression she held on her face.

"So a bag of chips and a bottle of soda, your total is 3.75, will that be all for today?" he chirped in his fakest customer service voice.

As Aiden finished his sentence, she paused for a moment, and stared behind him.

"Give me a pack of the Marlboro's too." she demanded, as she pointed at the cigarettes.

As he grabbed the box, Aiden was firing all the processors in his brain.. He could've sworn that he'd seen her somewhere before. Family? Friend? Classmate? No, none of those were possibilities. So where? Where had he seen her? And why did her face spark memories of someone who only brought anguish?

"Thank you for shopping with us. Have a nice day!"

The sound of the bell. Without a word, the woman grabbed her goods and left straight out the door.