Mature Content Warning: a little language maybe.

Author's Notes: Welcome to the beginning of chapter 6. :)

Chapter 6.1: Working Hard

The sound of fluid contacting fluid, the sight of a perfectly white existence drenched in yellow disregard, Scott loudly urinated into the urinal. He was tired, exhausted really. Despite the fact that he had gotten well over eight hours of sleep per night, every night, for the last few days all of the energy he stored up was spent throughout his work day.

How he could be so depleted after working a mere four or six hours was anyone’s guess.

He flushed the urinal by waving his hand across the little sensor thing that only existed to witness people urinating then went to wash his hands. His nightmare would soon be over. He had but a single hour left to go in retail hell.

Scott bent down under the sink and pressed the little bottom that would clear the bathroom sensor then walked over to the door. He signed his name and made little check marks on the bathroom checklist. Every hour on the hour he had to make sure his guest services team member did this, but it was easier to do it himself when his sole staff member was a girl.

She performed the bathroom checks in the women’s restroom, and he did the men’s room. Otherwise there was bound to be someone who popped up at the last minute and needed to take the foulest and lengthiest shit imaginable. People were nasty bastards in public as far as he was concerned. Some people actually flung their poo all over the place and even smeared it on the bathroom walls. He refused to use a restroom, unless it was a urinal, in any retail establishment again after working for Archer’s for only a few months.

“Hey, Scott. How we lookin’ on carts?” called out the store team leader, a woman younger than Scott who spoke with an upward inflection at the end of her sentences.

He glanced over at the cart corral and noted only one row, about forty, out of the two hundred or so carts they stored there were gone. “I need to go get them in, there are probably a lot floating around the store.”

“Can’t you, like, send Eren?” asked the STL. She blinked at him owlishly then tilted her head to the side.

Scott tried to ignore the fact that the store’s team leader had literally just graduated from college and looked more like a slutty sorority girl than someone who should be in charge of a multi-million dollar retail operation.

“Eren’s on break.”

Ashton, the STL, unleashed a petulant pout at him. “You’re the GSA, you shouldn’t have to clean toilets and get in carts. Why aren’t your other people doing that?”

“They’re lazy assholes who don’t know the value of hard work?” replied Scott with a smile.

Ashton snorted then pressed her fashionable glassed back up her nose. She clutched her clipboard a little tighter then shook her head. “You shouldn’t say that! I might have to write you up...”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” said Scott. Was today the day? Would he finally get fired? Would he be free? Oh, please, let today be the day...

Ashton snickered then laughed a little. “You’re so funny. Uhm, but what happened here?” She gestured to the top of her head and pulled her hands up.

“Oh, that? I took them off to check the restroom.” said Scott.

The STL pouted at him again then widened her eyes gently. “They look adorable on you though, the guests are always talking about it.”

Scott was not fooled. That pout, the whiny upwardly inflected tone, those innocent eyes, and her absurdly big tits...

Those were not lucky accessories born from the genetic lottery. They were her weapons. She knew that no one took her seriously. She used those tools to force the rest of the store, surprisingly even the womenfolk, into doing what she wanted.

Scott’s eyes narrowed. “You win this time...”

She grinned at him then nodded. “Excellent! I enjoy winning.”

Ashton immediately dismissed him from her notice and wandered off to her next encounter. After getting her way, she was done with him.

Scott snorted then shook his head. It was an easy win for her, anyway. He walked over to the guest services desk then collected his headgear. He twisted it just right then placed the rabbit ears back atop his head. From then on, he walked around the Front-End the store, the department that he entry-level managed, and asked his fellow employees to hop to it.

The hour passed quickly after he went outside to get carts. The store was too cheap to hire a proper cart attendant outside of the holiday season at the end of the year, and most people hated having to go out and deal with the stray carts. Scott loved it, however. It was mindless work outside the store. He could kill an hour easily by just pushing carts around and the rest of the store could go to hell and kiss him right on the ass before doing so.

By the time he filled the cart corral inside the store, he only had ten minutes left. “Damn, too fast today.”

Eren ran over to him. “Scott! Ashton was looking for you.”

“What did Tits Mc Pouts want this time?” asked the man.

Eren giggled at him, that nickname had made it all over the store. “She was all pouty and whiny.”

“Oh?” That was hardly news. He already knew what she was going to ask. It happened nearly every time he worked a non-closing shift.

“Yeah, she wanted to know if you would work the closing shift since the GSA called out.”

“Dammit, Bigness...” Scott grumbled. How did that woman still have a job? Hell, how did he still have a job for that matter? He did not exactly hide his disdain for the store and he was about as politically incorrect as it got. For that matter, he’d been trying to get fired for months. Well, he did not try that hard as he needed an income, but he truly hated the place.

Eren shook her head. “Hey, I can try it if you want.”

Scott reached out and gripped her hands then unleashed a wide-eyed and hopeful expression upon her. “Do it. Do it!”

She shook her head. “I don’t think they’ll let me. You know what happened last time...”

Scott’s memory of what he had seen when he had come in that night was quite vivid. He had been off that day, but wanted to use his employee discount to pick up a few groceries. He had walked in only to discover Eren bawling while trying to figure out how to change the printer paper for the baby registry kiosk. She’d had a hard shift as far as he could tell, largely due to the training skills of Bigness.

“Maybe they will. The kiosks are offline anyway.” said Scott. Both of the registry kiosks had gone down the day before and the repair technician had not been able to fix them yet, for some reason.

“Hey, that’s right!” said Eren brightly. She hated those stupid things. She did everything right, but they always seemed to go haywire whenever she was near them.

“Let me ninja-sneak my way to the time clock and you can tell Tits that you never saw me come back in. It’s time for me to go anyway.” said Scott.

“Right!” said Eren cheerfully. She would make GSA soon, she could feel it!

“Damn, a lot of people called out today, though.” said Scott. He had been down two cashiers all afternoon. They’d had call someone in and pull another team member off the floor. The ladies working soft lines had been bitchy all day because of it.

“Yeah, the backroom is screwed.” said Eren. They only had the one guy who worked there and he had not come in for his shift. Hard lines had been forced to give up someone and now both the backroom and the hard line section were a cluster fuck. There was no way in hell Scott would work till closing. They would shut down at ten o’clock that night, but he knew they would not be done till midnight at the earliest due to the backup.

Scott started to speak then blinked. “Better go!” He would come up on the five minute after mark soon. If he did not clock out, he’d have to deal with his department manager. She was nice enough, but it would be hard for him to keep his tongue when speaking with her. Half the extra crap he did was her job to do. She mostly sat in her office and played games on her smart phone.

Honestly, the job he was supposed to do was not that hard. If he only did his work, it would be a decent gig.

Unfortunately, he did the work of several people because the main office claimed that it would cost too much money to hire more people. The profit margin for the store alone was millions per year but they could not afford to hire five or ten more people, or just give the rest of the employees more hours to work.

It was ridiculous. If he actually gave a damn about his job, he’d be quite pissed about only working thirty hours a week, on a good week. As it stood, he was glad of that fact as it allowed him to avoid the place as much as possible.