4 Tired, Bored, Work

THEA

BM's alarm started going off, I honestly thought I would sleep through it but apparently not.

"Dude, turn it off," I groaned rolling over to face him.

"Sorry," he yawned stretching, sliding his feet out of bed sitting up, all while his alarm was still going off.

"If you don't turn it off you're going to suffer a lot of pain," I warned.

"Yeah okay grumpy," he turned his alarm off getting out of bed. He stretched again and left the room patting my head on the way.

"Go back to sleep you scary little midget," he patronised.

"The correct term is little person," I kicked my leg out, I missed.

"If your legs were longer maybe you would have hit me,"

"Don't make me get out of bed to hit you," I stated as Shire stretched getting out of his bed that's situated on the end of mine.

"Now you've gone and woken Shire up," he stated leaving the room.

Shire waltzed up the bed to my face were he stared at me for a moment then rubbed his head against my arm when I didn't do anything. After patting Shire until he was happy and no longer wanted attention, I tried to get back to sleep, the issue there being that once I was awake I was pretty much awake so there was no use trying too long to get back to sleep. I sighed violently kicking the blanket off and getting out of bed. I was going to kill BM later.

I made my way down the hallway to the kitchen to make a coffee. Sam was sitting at the table one leg up on his chair, his hair was tied up on top of his head, and he was eating cereal while reading the news paper.

"Why are you awake?" I asked yawning.

"Volk needed to go to the toilet,"

"Why didn't you just go back to sleep after you took him out?"

"He wanted to play too," he shrugged.

"Do you want a tea?"

"Yeah if you still have early grey," he nodded.

"We always have early grey, you're the only one that drinks it,"

"Make sure you don't milk in it," he nodded.

"Obviously, I know how to make you tea," I rolled my eyes.

"Don't those two have work today?" he asked.

"Yeah, Charlie has an alarm," I nodded.

"Her phone is out here," he picked up a white marble patterned phone case that generally held her phone.

"I'll wake her up soon, she doesn't need to be up yet," I shrugged stirring the water.

"You should have heard them this morning," he shook his head.

"Where they sleep conversing again?" I asked picking up the cups and walking over to the table where I placed his cup in front of him and sat down.

"Thanks, and yeah, I let Polo out when I let Volk out and I thought they were awake for a second because of how clearly they were talking but they were both sound asleep,"

"Half the time I'm convinced that they're fake sleeping just to screw with us, it freaks me out that they can have a conversation in their sleep," I shook my head.

"So what's the plan for today?" Sam asked sipping his tea.

"I'm going to look for a new job, I'm bored with nothing to do,"

"You could study,"

"I'm already ahead two units, I'm waiting for them to unlock ones,"

"Why don't they just give you them all at once?"

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure there's about 40 units so I guess it would get confusing," I shrugged.

"Yeah I guess,"

"Do you have work today?"

"Yeah, afternoon shift," he nodded.

Sam worked in this retro little record store that was one of the few that were still in business.

"Speaking of work, shouldn't you wake them up?" Sam asked.

"Why, Charlie doesn't start until 9, and it only take about 40 minutes to get there and it's what, just after 5:30?" I shrugged.

"It's just after 7," he corrected.

"Seriously?" I frowned.

Maybe it did get back to sleep, sometimes I did that, thinking I'm awake but I'm actually going in and out of rem sleep, it's stupid because you're getting the sleep but feel exhausted like you haven't had any sleep at all.

"That's weird, I could have sworn BM only just left," I got up to go wake Charlie up, I was pretty sure Jae didn't have work until this afternoon.

The two work in the cat cafe up near Perth city, as baristas, well Jae was a barista, he had this hidden talent for making an amazing cup of coffee, not that I'd ever tell him that. Charlie works all through the cafe, she sometimes works the front of the house making coffee and other times she works in the room with the cats or out the back cleaning up after them. Which kind of sucked for her because she has this allergy to cat dander, but she didn't seem fazed by it, then again if she was she still wouldn't care that much, she loves animals too much to let some blocked sinuses and itchy eyes get in the way of working with them.

CHARLIE

"Cha Cha, wake up Dude, you've got to get ready for work it's almost 7:30," Charlie was standing in my doorway.

"What?" I frowned reaching out for my phone, that wasn't there.

"Your phones on the kitchen table," she added. I would have shoved Jae out of bed if he wasn't currently spooning Polo, who was laying down the middle of the bed in between us.

"If you want a ride, wake up," I nudged him, he didn't move. I got up and got dressed.

"I'm leaving in ten minutes," I nudge him again. Polo started licking his face.

"Ugh, okay I'm up," he rolled over reaching for his glasses.

"Why is your dog in my face?" he groaned as Polo continued to lick him.

"You don't get to complain, you were spooning him," I stayed leaving he room. Sam and Thea were sitting at the table talking.

"Breakfast?" Sam asked raising his cup.

"Dude it's too early," I frowned picking up my phone.

"I knew that,"

"He's been awake too long," Thea stated.

"Why are you awake?"

"Volk needed to go to the toilet and then he wanted to play," Sam shrugged.

"Don't leave yet," Jae shuffled past the kitchen towards the bathroom.

"Are you two on the same shift?" Thea frowned.

"No, he doesn't start until 11, he wants to go busking and just wanted a lift so he didn't have to carry his amp and whatever," I shrugged.

"You don't finish until 12," Sam frowned.

"Thank you, I had no idea," I stated sarcastically.

"They've got yo both working at the same time?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Only for an hour,"

"Do you remember what happened last time?" Thea asked.

"Yeah, I was actually there," I said.

"It will be fine, I'm in the room he's in the cafe," I added.

"Smart," Sam nodded.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes.

The last time Jae and I were put on the same shift, we bickered and argued the whole time. Mainly because Jae is an idiot, it's not my fault he's an idiot that makes great coffee. Jae walked back through frowning.

"What time do you need to leave?" he asked.

"Why?"

"My stuff is in BM's car,"

"No it's not, it's in the back room. BM moved it before he left in case he wasn't home before you left," Sam stated.

"Love that guy,"

"Go put it in my car before you do anything else, I don't want to have to wait around when I want to leave because you have to put shit in my car," I stated, he sort of rolled his eyes like a child but turned around anyway.

"Speak of the devil," he stated as BM wandered in the house.

"Your stuff is in the back room," BM stated continuing into the kitchen.

"Don't make a coffee," Thea stated seriously.

"Dude, I'm tired I need coffee, I'm sorry my alarm woke you up," he sighed.

"I don't care about that anymore, my point is go back to bed,"

"I can't I have phone calls to make,"

"Shut up, I have a list, I'll make the calls, you go sleep," she stated all mother like.

"You know you're not actually my mother,"

"You know you're going to do what I said anyway,"

"You have to call the plumber," he stated.

"I know, and the carpenter and the tile guys, and the contractor. I told you I have a list," she ushered him away.

"I forgot about the contractor," he frowned.

"Go to bed"

"Wake me up before lunch," he grumbled wandering down to Thea's room. She got up to follow him and closed the door after removing Shire who was bound to wake BM up in half an hour because he wanted out.

"You're a total mum," I stated laughing.

"Someone has to raise your biases," she shrugged.

JACKSON

"She hasn't messaged you back huh?" Mark asked as I was getting ready for work.

"How would you know?" I frowned.

"You're grumpy, it generally happened a when you're rejected by a girl. Or in this case ignored, unless she did message you back?" He smirked.

"You say that like I get rejected often, but no she messaged hasn't yet, but it's only 8, she's probably not awake,"

"You get rejected more than I do," he shrugged

"And that would be a great reason if you hadn't of messaged her at like 7 last night, that's a nice big 13 hours of ignoring you," he added.

"Would you shut up? Go to work already,"

"Do you miss getting up at 5?" he smirked.

"I don't think you slept enough,"

"I slept fine,"

"Are you sure? You're being more of an ass than usual and you think it's funny. Those are classic overtired Mark signs,"

"I think you pay too much attention to me," he frowned.

"It's not hard to notice, ask JB and Junior,"

"It would make sense for them to pay too much attention to me," he smirked.

"Just because they're gay doesn't mean you're their type,"

"Aren't I though?"

"JB's Maybe, he likes skinny assholes, I don't think you're Junior's type though, he's more into, well JB,"

"I think I could get Junior if I wanted," he shrugged fixing his tie.

"Whatever,"

"Why don't you just go to the same place at lunch time? She might be there," he stated walking towards the door.

"That's not actually a bad idea," I nodded.

"Imagine that, the smart one having a smart idea,"

"It happens," I shrugged.

"Hey, who said your the smart one?" I frowned as he walked out the door.

BM

I rolled over reaching for my phone, I'd told Thea to wake me up before lunch but I knew that probably wasn't likely, I sighed when I read 14:37. I stretched again before getting out of bed. The hallway was incredibly bright compared to Thea's bedroom.

Sam was gone so I assumed he'd gone to work, Charlie wasn't home yet but I was pretty sure she went to her campus to study in between work and he dance class, she'll probably get home about 5 maybe 6 depending on traffic. Thea was sitting on the lounge room floor surrounded by piles of stuff.

"What are you doing?" I frowned.

"The cupboards were cluttered with crap, so I'm organizing them and throwing out the stuff we don't need," she shrugged.

She got like this when she was bored, she has probably gone through every storage space in the house.

"Why don't we go out somewhere? Your house couldn't get any cleaner but if you continue with this boredom I'm sure you'll try,"

"And where are we going to go?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, we need bathroom stuff for when that's finished," I shrugged instantly regretting my suggestion.

"We got it the other day when we were at IKEA,"

"Did we?"

"Yeah, Bianca pointed out pink and orange towels but we picked up the grey and black ones instead, then she got all huffy about it and you let her pick out some stupid little statue thing so she would shut up,"

"Oh right,"

"Then Charlie threw it out," she added.

"It was ugly,"

"Oh I made your calls by the way, the plumber is going to come tomorrow to work out what needs to be done and give you a quote, the contractor will meet you there, and everyone else has your materials put aside and are waiting for your call to come by and do whatever it is they need to do, at no extra cost," she smiled.

"You're awesome,"

"Obviously," she smirked.

"So did you find out what Wild and Sexy's actual name was?"

"Shit!" she frowned.

"What?"

"He text me before my phone died yesterday, I haven't text him back yet,"

"What'd he say?"

"I don't know my phone died as I clicked on it," she pulled a face.

"Do you want me to get your phone?"

"No I'll message him back later," she shrugged putting the piles of stuff back in the cupboards.

"What kind of crazy person puts their name in a strangers phone like that?" I shook my head. Thea had a habit of attracting crazy people, probably because she was one.

"An attractive one," she shrugged again.

"What do you think his actual name is?"

"I have no idea, hopefully not something boring like Gary or John," she frowned.

"Aren't you even a little curious about his name? Or if he's crazy?" I asked.

"I attacked the guy with his own lunch, he can't possibly be crazier than me," she shrugged.

CHARLIE

"Hey, that Whitney girl is here asking if you can make her coffee," Janet, our manager, came into the back room where I was cleaning the cat litter trays.

"Jae is out there," I frowned.

"She specifically asked for you,"

"Yeah okay, I'll wash my hands and be right out," I nodded.

Whitney was standing beside the counter texting away at her phone. Jae was frowning at her clearly insulted that she didn't want him to make her coffee. Except it wasn't for her, it was for her what seems to be, very particular and fussy boss. She is the personal assistant to some corporate CEO. She won't say what one but she and I talked a lot, she was a regular, in every morning, and most lunch times, if her boss hadn't gone home and left her with a pile of paperwork.

"Hey," I nodded.

"Hey, sorry to pull you away from what you were doing, my boss just complains the coffee is different when you don't make it and we have back to back meetings today, I don't want to hear him complain or be moody," she explained.

"I make good coffee," Jae defended.

"She said he found it different, not that your coffee is bad," I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah well clearly your boss has horrible taste," he muttered.

"Sometimes I don't think he even has taste buds, I swear he could drink lava and not feel a thing," she joked.

"I guarantee he is as picky with his women as he is with his coffee," Jae stated.

"Are you looking to date him?" Whitney raised an eyebrow.

"I don't date ugly guys sorry," he pretended to flick his hair back.

"How do you know he's ugly?"

"I have a sense about people, what's his name? I can tell you all about him,"

"No you can't, shut up," I rolled my eyes.

"No?" Whitney frowned.

"He said the same thing last night except it was you can tell if someone is a psycho by their name, he's just mad someone doesn't like his coffee," I finished making her order and placed the lid on it.

"If it's any consolation, I like your coffee," she state, Jae shrugged but he was secretly thrilled at the comment.

"Jae will put it threw for you, I have to finished the back room before I leave," I waved.

"Thank you," she called after me.

THEA

I finally checked my phone to read the message from Wild&Sexy. BM had gone over to the bar to to assess the damage and make sure it was all how he left it. Charlie had come home to get clothes for her dance class tonight and then gone to the campus to study.

Wild&Sexy: Hey, sorry about the contact name I thought it would be funny and I was trying to be cool. My name is Jackson by the way. Yeah, so sorry again and text me sometime if I didn't freak you out too much. Oh, I'm the guy with the soup from today, just in case you didn't know. Bye.

I sat there for a good ten minutes trying to figure out what to write back. I wrote it out a few times but it didn't look right. Which is weird, it's just a text message.

Thea: Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to lie it was a little weird when Wild&Sexy showed up on my screen. Sorry it took so long to reply, my phone died and I slept in this morning and forgot I had a message, I've only just gotten it. And nice to meet you Jackson, I'm Thea.

I slid my phone into my back pocket and made my way into the kitchen to figure out what to feed everyone for dinner, it was only about 2:30 but the boys would be hungry when they got home no matter what time it was. And they ate a lot. I looked through the fridge and pantry, then let out a sigh.

Normally, shopping day was Saturday, but compared to what we normally had left with just myself and Charlie, there was next to nothing, and the boys had only been here one night, so it looked like I was going shopping today. Fat shits. I text Charlie asking her if she wanted anything while I made a list of what we needed, and then basically doubled it. I closed all the windows and grabbed my keys and the shopping list sliding it into my wallet.

BM pulled into the driveway as I got to my car.

"Where you going?" he called parking it next to mine.

"I have to go shopping because three fat shits ate all the food,"

"I'll come with," he locked his car jumping into the passenger seat.

"I thought you hated shopping?"

"I hate furniture shopping, shopping for food is totally different,"

"Of course it is," I rolled my eyes reversing out of the driveway.

"Do you want me to drive?" he asked.

"Do you think I want you to drive?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I was just offering," he shrugged.

"I'm not a bad driver," I defended myself.

"I didn't say you were,"

"Do you think I'm a bad driver?" I frowned.

"So did you open Mr. Wild&Sexy's message?" he changed the subject.

"Yes," I answered after a paused.

"What did he say?"

"He apologised for the weird contact name and asked me to text him if he didn't freak me out too much,"

"He didn't even tell you his name?"

"His name is Jackson,"

"And did you text him back?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because he sounds like a weirdo," he shrugged.

"He tried to be cool and failed, if that makes someone a weirdo then sorry to say you qualify," I defended.

"I don't fail at being cool," he frowned.

"Yeah you do,"

"When?"

"Like all the time,"

"I am cool," he huffed.

"Sure you are," I rolled my eyes as my phone message tone went off. I thought maybe it would be the Jackson guy and so did BM judging by the way he picked it up. I realised it wasn't when he appeared to be disappointed.

"Lame, it's just Charlie,"

"I'll check it when we stop," I shrugged.

MARK

Jackson got home, mumbling and swearing under his breath. He looked irritated which rarely happened with him. He didn't even linger for me to ask what was wrong, he just dumped his bag at the front door, kicked his shoes off and went off to his room, I frowned waiting for him to tell me the food was out side the door but I hear the shower start a few second seconds later and his bathroom door slam.

I checked my messages to see if I had actually text him about dinner, I had. I got up from the lounge and opened the front door thinking he may have just forgot it and left it there when he opened the door, he hadn't.

JACKSON

I threw on a pair of shorts and dried my hair enough to not drip. Mark was sitting on the lounge when I got out.

"Dude, where's the food?" he frowned at me.

"What food?"

"I text you saying I put an order in for pizza and you just had to pick it up on your way home,"

"I'm not getting texts at the moment,"

"What do you mean?"

"I killed my phone today,"

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? I didn't do it on purpose,"

"Why didn't you just take it to get fixed on your way home?"

"It's not fixable," I sighed.

"Why not?"

"It fell in cement,"

"How did it fall in cement?" he frowned.

"It was sitting on the tool box and I got a message, the damn thing vibrates off the tool box into freshly poured cement," I sighed.

"Who text you?"

"I figured it was you asking if I was coming home for lunch," I shrugged.

"Is that why you were mad when you got home? You thought it was my fault?" he raised an eyebrow.

"No, I was just mad that my phone has been fossilized and I now have to buy a new one. Again," I lied, I did think it was his fault so I was kind of mad at him when I got home.

"Well, I didn't text you until an hour ago when I tolled you I ordered pizza and that you just had to pick it up on the way home," he stated clearly not believing my lie.

"I'll go back out and get it," I shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, I rung them, they're going to deliver it," he waved it off.

MARK

He sighed making his way over to sit down next to me.

"Did you hear back from that soup girl?" I asked.

"Nope," he sighed again, sinking further int the lounge.

"Maybe she was who texted you, or maybe it was your mum,"

"Well I won't find out until Saturday,"

"Take a sick day," I shrugged.

"I can't,"

"Why? What are they going to do? Fire you?"

"No, if I don't go then I won't be able to go to the food hall to see if she shows up,"

"You actually went to the food hall?" I frowned.

"Yeah,"

"That's a little stalker ish,"

"You told me too,"

"I was joking,"

"You're such a cock," he rolled my eyes at me.

"Isn't you're phone backed up on iCloud?"

"Yeah, so," he shrugged.

"Can't you check your messages on iCloud,"

"Maybe you are the smart one," he got up to get his computer.

CHARLIE

"Ew, you smell," Jae nudged me away from him.

"I just had a shower," I frowned.

"Yeah but now you smell like a girl, it's gross," he pulled a face.

"Would you rather he smell like sweat?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of," he nodded.

"Anyone feel like going to the beach?" Thea asked.

"Dude, it's almost 10:30, at night," BM frowned at her.

"I meant tomorrow idiot, none of you are doing anything right?"

"Nope," Jae and BM shrugged.

"Tomorrow is Friday, I have work and volunteer work," I frowned at her.

"Really? I thought today was Friday," she raised an eyebrow.

"No, today is definitely Thursday,"

"Oh, well, Saturday then?"

"I'm supposed to got see Bianca," Sam mumbled.

"So invite her to come," Jae shrugged, I glare at him.

"She's not really a beach person," he shook his head.

"So go see her then," I shrugged, but my tone came out a little snappier than I would have liked.

"Of come on it will be way more fun if we all go," Jae stated.

"Stop stirring the pot," BM frowned.

"You like drama more than Thea I swear," I shook my head.

"I don't like drama," Thea frowned defensively.

"You kind of do," BM stated.

"Oh, what did that Wild&Sexy guy say?" Jae asked.

"Is he a psycho?" he smirked.

"His name is Jackson," she frowned.

"So, what'd he say?"

"He just told me his name and apologised for trying to be cool," she shrugged.

"Did you message him back?" I asked.

"Yeah,"

"But he hasn't replied yet," BM stated. She frowned at him.

"What? He hasn't,"

"Shut up," she rolled her eyes as if she wasn't bothered by it, but we all knew she was.