Search the Community

[Light swearing and insults.] [1] Upon the witch’s hour, twenty-five year old William Carver sat alone in his room; waiting. Waiting for what? He had always asked himself as he stared out of his window at the lit streets below, the small Albertan town glistening in fresh frost. Sighing, William sat back in his chair, his medium length chestnut brown hair falling off of his shoulders. His steel grey eyes glanced over at his standing mirror, admiring the carpentry in the hand-carved horses that made up its frame. Mona never did like mirrors, she always told me they were portals to hell. I find them fascinating. His thoughts drifted back to when William was a child and he was living with his cousin Mona Archfield. “Come on Mona! It’s pretty!” William, ten years old, handing Mona a silver hand mirror. Mona shook her head and looked at the mirror in fear like there was something inside of it. “Will, get that away from me!” She screamed before running into the house, crying. William, to this day never knew what she saw in that mirror to this day, because she never told him. Her reasoning was; I don’t want it to come back. A loud thud caught William’s attention and he looked over to where he heard the sound. His eyes scanned the area of his pile of dirty clothes, a large box of random electronic cords and broken consoles. His eyes fell on a large stereo that had tipped over from having items piled behind it. Willam shook his head before looking at the time on his iphone. 2:45 am. He knew that he needed to get to bed, he had work in the morning. He was not looking forward to it at all. He hated seeing his boss and his co-workers. They kept on poking at him because he was the only overweight worker over at the pizza shop. Everyone else was either toned or a twig, and William could not understand it because he sees all of them stuffing their faces more in one day than he does in a week. With a groan, William stood up and walked over to his bed. When he passed his mirror, he looked at himself. His arms had thinned down since he had started his diet, however they still show some signs of slight chub. His stomach still protrudes over pants, however he can finally see his feet when he looks down. He was still rather large, and just barely out of the obese category, but his effort with his new diet is starting to pay off it seemed. He took off his thick framed nerd-style glasses and set them beside the mirror on a small table before he climbed into bed, pulling the covers up over his head. He closed his eyes to try and sleep before his alarm went off at 7:30 am.He knew tomorrow was not going to be anything special, so he did not hurry himself into dreamland. The ovens were beeping like crazy when William stepped through the rear loading door of the pizza place. His uniform was clean and ironed as always, not like the manager even notices, and William was carrying a large folder into the office. He set his laptop bag down beside the office chair and set the folder in front of the company’s computer before clocking in and getting to work on calculating all of the sales from the last three weeks. I wish they would get their heads out of their asses and hire a professional accountant. William thought to himself as he started typing the numbers in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. He had gotten through ten of the twenty one days on the sheet before he heard the ever familiar screech of his General Manager. “Mister Carver!” William looked behind him to see Gladys Hawthis, General Manager of his workplace. She stood five foot zero and looked like a dried up prune that had miraculously grew bones strong enough to hobble. Her beadie brown eyes stared right into William’s soul as the grey-haired goblin like creature hobbled forward and placed a blue folder on the desk on top of the accounting folder William was just working on. “Oh miss Hawthis, I do hope your weekend was--” “Shove it sweet talker! Explain to me why there is three thousand dollars missing from the safe!” Gladys sneered, looking over her horn-rimmed glasses at the taller male. William blinked and thought for a moment before checking the documents. “Alex took the money into the bank last night it seems. The documentation is right here as well as the bank receipt for three thousand dollars.” He said, showing her both the handwritten form and the bank receipt. Gladys snatched the papers with her willow branch fingers and stared at the papers, holding them so close to her face William was hoping she would get a paper cut on her eyeball. “You’re off the hook this time Carver.” She growled, tossing the papers over her shoulder as she walked out. “Thank-you ma’am.” William replied, picking up the papers before putting them back where he found them. “Don’t push your luck, now get those numbers done before the big boss gets here. And I want them perfect!” She screeched the last word before slamming the door to the office, knocking a lot of the books and binders off the shelves. William sighed and got to work, ignoring the fact Gladys was talking very loudly about him to another co-worker. One of these days I am going to tell that hag where to shove her crooked ass bird beak of a nose. Four-thirty pm rolled around quite fast, and William was helping customers in the front. He had his back turned to the counter grabbing a box of freshly made pepperoni pizza for a customer when he heard the door open with the familiar ding. “I will be with you in a minute.” He said in a very welcoming voice. He turned, handing the customer their pizza and giving them their receipt before turning to the one who had just walked in. William stood there, his eyes unblinking, he was in shock. Standing before him on the other side of the till, was a 6-foot tall, red haired male with emerald green eyes and fair skin. The other’s hair was short and slightly messy with very neat side swept bangs. He was toned and looked like he could be a movie star. The man was wearing a pair of half-framed silver glasses, a thin pleather jacket, tight jeans and a dark shirt. William did not think to look at the male’s feet, his eyes were fixated on the other’s kind and strong face… “Gladys Hawthis.” His voice was smooth, there were no harsh undertones or hidden malicious words, it was music to William’s ears… “MISTER CARVER!” Then the screech killed the moment. Gladys walked over, her face twisted in a furious ball of whiskers, wrinkles and warts. William jumped and looked over at her, a little bit frightened. “I am so sorry sir, William here is a bit slow in the head.” Gladys said, looking to the redhead across from the counter. The other chuckled, looking at the small woman. “That is alright, now I do need to have this meeting with you if that’s alright Gladys.” He replied, walking to the open employees only entrance to the back. Gladys followed him after shooting William another glare. William stood there confused as he watched the two disappear into the back. “So, you got the hots for the head honcho huh fatty?” William sighed and turned around, looking at his blue-haired punk co-worker. “He is too amazing to be the owner of this shit hole Jake.” William replied, taking a cloth and starting to wipe down the till area. Jake laughed and pulled out a small pizza from the warmers. “Maybe, but he is the owner. And there’s rumors going around about him.” Jake said, taking a piece of pizza out of the box, letting the cheese and pineapple slide off like a guilty pleasure. “Oh?” William was curious about this rumor. He had just seen the guy and already, there are rumors popping up. Jake leaned over and whispered into William’s ear. “He don’t like fat idiots.” Jake then took a bite of the pizza right beside William’s ear before walking to the back laughing. William rubbed his ear, disgusted before going back to work, a definitive scowl on the young man’s face. Gladys and the boss have been talking for about an hour now, I wonder if he-- William shuddered at the thought of those two--ew. William had logged out of the cash register, letting Brice take over. The dark skinned youth was the only person in that place half decent toward William, but William knew that it was only because the kid barely knew english. With a relieved sigh, William clocked out in the office before grabbing his bag and walking toward the loading door he has familiarized himself with. He had been entering and exiting through this door for five years now, still wondering why he hadn’t quit three years ago. William had just opened the door when a hand was placed on his shoulder. William froze, his heart jumped into his ears as he stiffened. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. “Let me give you a ride home” That voice--. William turned around to see it was the boss. The man’s touch was as gentle as his voice, maybe more gentle. His expression was soft and kind; genuine even. William could only muster a nod as a response. The other smiled before opening the door for William. William walked out, everything seeming to become a blur as his heart started to beat abnormally. He was soon sitting in the other man’s car. He was still in shock at the kind gesture. “Where do you live?” His boss’s question snapped him out of his thoughts. “Uh. 53 2nd Avenue.” He replied. The car was soon in motion, driving out of the back alley and onto the well lit roads. “I’m Ripley.” William blushed. He was not too sure how to reply to that sudden introduction. “Rilliam--I mean William. William Carver.” He stuttered, blushing from embarrassment. Way to go dipshit. Mess up your next response and you’ll find yourself being laughed at by the first hottie that works at that damn sleeze joint. Riley chuckled, turning the corner onto the main road of the city. “It is very nice to meet you. Gladys has told me very interesting stories about you. How you always show up late, never get any work done and always steal from the register.” William was enraged hearing what that troll had been saying about him. “That lying little pint-sized devil! I have been working my ass off for that weasel for five damn years, doing the accounting work and payroll work that she should be doing. I’ve been arriving early to do prep every morning and leaving late every night so I can close up, and she turns around and lies about the best employee she has ever had!” William blinked, realizing he just said all of that in front of Riley. Smirking, Riley patted William on the arm. “I know, I have watched the footage.” William blinked and looked over at Riley. “Then, why did you…” Riley pulled up to William’s house. “To see if you would rat her out.” Riley said, laughing a bit. In disbelief, William grabbed his bag and opened the car door. “Thank you for the ride, Riley.” William said, before getting out of the car. “You free on saturday?” Riley asked. William blinked. Did my boss just ask me out? I haven’t had a date for three years. What if I screw this up? Damnit. “Uh, no...I mean yes, I’m free, Nothing planned.” He said, blushing and looking at the other that was still in the car. “Great, I will come pick you up around six?” Riley said smiling. William nodded, his cheeks flushing bright red. “See you then.” William whispered, closing the door. Riley drove off, leaving William outside of his house. William turned and walked toward his house, his head swimming. He was in disbelief at what had just happened. His heart started to flutter and skip as he opened his front door. He entered his house, closing and locking the door behind him. He put his bag on the couch before going up to his room, undressing so he could take a shower. He had the next three days off, including saturday, so he did not have to worry about dealing with Gladys and Jake before his big date. So was it actually a date? It could just be a friendly drink with the boss. Maybe he was trying to get to know William? “That would be a date.” William whispered to himself. He passed by the mirror in his room to try and find some comfortable pajamas to wear to bed after the shower, it had already struck nine at night, and William was feeling very tired. On his way back toward his bathroom, he did not look behind him at the mirror. If he did, he would have seen a silhouette in the glass staring at him with bright white eyes.