3 That Job Is Awful

Jonah Kelly was exhausted by the end of his one-time run as Freddie Funnington. He had no idea how his cousin could actually handle doing this for a living.

He wasn't supposed to be there wasting his weekend at all but Troy had been throwing up all night after eating some bad sushi and was in no condition to go to work. He had already used several consecutive sick days this month and would get fired if he didn't go in so he begged Jonah for help.

"No one will ever know! I put on the costume before going inside and our voices sound almost exactly the same on the phone so being muffled by the mascot head, no one should be able to tell you aren't me. Please? I can't lose this job."

Troy was a struggling musician. Right now, he had a somewhat decent following on YouTube but the ad revenue didn't make nearly enough to live off of.

Jonah, on the other hand, was a software designer that worked from home because he didn't exactly fit the company image. He was undeniably talented, which was why he had been hired, but his face wasn't welcome there.

He couldn't really blame them. When he was a child, the right side of his body had been severely burned in the house fire that had killed his parents and younger siblings. It was why he had gone to live with Troy's family.

They were as close as brothers; he knew better than anyone how important Troy's music dreams were and how he needed to be able to pay the bills to make them happen. That was how he ended up committing fraud for the day.

Moving around in that bulky, stuffy dog suit was much harder than he expected. He followed his cousin's instructions as best he could on how to play the part but there had been nothing about walking in the stupid suit when he couldn't even see anything that wasn't directly in front of his eyeholes.

Jonah felt terrible about falling on top of that girl, which was why he tried to help her clean up the mess while she was getting new sodas for the people waiting at that table. She gave him a helpful tip about not getting the suit dirtier, which was unexpectedly nice of her. She didn't seem mad at him at all.

Then she went and lied to her boss on his behalf so he wouldn't get in trouble. She was astute enough to be able to tell he was new at this and cut him a ridiculous amount of slack.

Troy might have actually been fired or at least put on probation if not for her. Giving away that gift card was the least he could do. He really wasn't a fan of smoothies so he had been planning to regift it anyway.

He felt terrible about lying to her about who he was though. He couldn't refute when she called him by Troy's name because nobody could know about what he had done today or both he and Troy would be in huge trouble.

When he went on his break, he shoved the gift card through one of the slots in Eden's locker and was determined to put this whole thing behind him. Sneaking away without anyone seeing his face at the end of the shift would be the really hard part since he had been told to leave the costume here this time.

Jonah was sure to wait until the coast was clear before making a break for it. He didn't feel safe until he was in his car and out of the Freddie Funnington's Fun-a-palooza parking lot.

"You owe me BIG TIME," he moaned when he flopped down on the recliner at home.

He owned a three-bedroom house that he was currently letting his cousin stay in for $500 a month, which was less than half of what he would have to pay for a one bedroom apartment in their hometown of San Jose, California. It was a great deal that Troy had blubbered his gratitude over more than once.

"What happened?" his cousin asked tiredly as he sprawled across the larger couch.

"I couldn't walk in the stupid costume and ended up falling on top of this poor girl who just had soda knocked all over her by some kid. I tried helping her clean it and got even more soda all over me," Jonah complained.

"You would have been in big trouble if Eden didn't lie to your boss for me. She took the blame and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. If Marty had asked me to take the mascot head off while chastising us, it would have been all over for you. She helped diffuse the situation before that could happen."

Troy craned his neck to look at him blankly. "Eden? Who's that?"

"You don't know her? She's got kind of longish blonde hair, blue eyes, and a really nice smile."

Jonah thought back to the way she had smiled and laughed with him in those few stolen moments of conversation. No female ever looked at him like that. His face had been messed up since he was seven years old and every girl he met had been scared of him since.

He knew that she wouldn't have smiled at him like that if he hadn't been wearing the mascot head to hide his face. But that didn't change the fact that it had been quite pleasant to see.

"Yeah, I think I've seen her. She's usually in charge of delivering food and helping kids unjam token machines, right?" Troy asked.

"I think so."

"Interesting. I'll have to thank her later."

"Don't do that, you idiot! I already did; it would be weird if you supposedly did it twice. I gave her a Smoothie Shack gift card so if she mentions anything about that to you, be sure to respond appropriately," Jonah said seriously.

Troy held up his hands to placate him. "Alright! Chill, man. Nobody figured it out today so they're never going to. I really appreciate you doing this for me."

"You better. That job is awful. How do you even stand it?"

"Gotta eat to live, gotta work to eat. Nobody at Freddie's is there by choice. We've all hit rock bottom one way or another."

Jonah frowned. If that was true, why was Eden working there? He couldn't say he really knew her after only a few minutes of interaction but she seemed like a pretty level-headed individual. So what was a girl like her doing at Freddie Funnington's Fun-a-palooza?

The thought continued bothering him even when he got back to work in his home office for his real job. He was never going to see her again and even if he did, she wouldn't recognize him; he had been masquerading as Troy.

Besides, people tended to avert their eyes the second they saw his scars. He would never talk to her again so there was no point thinking about her. He knew this yet he couldn't quite get the memory of her smile out of his head.