The following snippet is a continuation from last week.
On that Halloween, Michael was a senior at the local university and majoring in business. His parents owned a small chain of pizza and sub shops spanning the North West corner of the state. He had split his senior year, taking only half the classes he would have normally taken that semester, and taking the other classes the next semester, so that he could help with his parents’ newest restaurant. Because he spent so much time at the restaurant, he had gotten his own apartment close to the new restaurant, so that he could walk home from the restaurant after they closed to clean up and crash or study.
“All of them may not, but I promised Kevin and Travis I would be there, so I have to show. Come on, Erica, it won’t be that bad.” They both knew it would be…for her at least. She loathed such situations and gatherings, and he knew it and only asked her to attend a few a year. He loved them as much as she hated them, so she went to make him happy.
Kevin and Travis were his childhood best friends. Erica had grown up with the boys as well, but they were his friends not hers. They were second in line under Erica on Michael’s “most important people in his life beside his parents and younger sister” list. Erica was first, of course. She had known him as long as Kevin and Travis, but when they started dating in the tenth grade, she surpassed them in importance.
“Yes, it will, but fine, we’ll go, but can we please leave before midnight? I have to open the drive-thru window in the morning,” She begged, arranging and rearranging her outfit, and procrastinating about leaving the bathroom.
The bank she worked at was a decent place to work, and she wanted to stay in their good graces. She wasn’t one of those people who knew what they wanted to do when they grew up. She’d thought about a number of different occupations, even tried a few of them, but nothing seemed right for her. When her mom saw that she was excelling in all of her math classes at the university and had a healthy understanding of computers, she called her best friend, Stacy, the bank manager at First Union, and asked if she had a position open.
Stacy said she did, but it was only part time and the shifts were the ones that no one wanted. The bank was trying out some new things. One of which was staying open later on weekdays. This meant that Erica worked the four to eight shift four days a week and the eight to noon shift on Saturdays, giving her nineteen hours a week at minim wage with a possible raise in six months and full time employment the next time a position became available. She’d been there for three months, at that time, and Stacy seemed happy with her work, though no one appeared to be leaving anytime soon, to Erica’s dismay.
Erica was still taking classes, but only until Stacy hired her on full time and a bigger raise went into effect. College wasn’t for her, and her parents knew it. The only reason they were continuing to pay her tuition was because they wanted her to have as much of an education as possible, and they knew she would put forth as much effort as she could into the math, English, and art classes she was taking. If she actually graduated before a full-time position became available, then so be it.
Michael growled at her request to leave early, but didn’t argue—he didn’t agree either. Erica knew exactly what would happen. He would bring her home at midnight, stay with her for about a half an hour until she grew sleepy, then he would use his charms to convince her to let him go back to the party, which she would do because she thought he was that cute. Also, if she didn’t relent, he would sulk all night, and she wouldn’t get much sleep anyway.
“Fine,” he eventually said when she didn’t say another word or come out of the bathroom. “Now, will you please come on?” She could hear him pacing anxiously back and forth across the short room.
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