Terry was now used to getting up at the crack of dawn every day. In fact, he’d started getting up even earlier than necessary so he could be out of the house before Britt even woke up. He loved the kid but if she caught sight of him in the morning she’d always throw a tantrum or something whenever he tried to leave. Getting to the bakery super early wasn’t fun, because he’d have to interact with Brown, but at least it earned him Brownie points. Brownie points were Brown’s new system of favouritism. No matter what his employees did, Brown would rank their performance and whoever had the most points at the end of the week earned the privilege of not being vilely berated.
Saturdays were good though, because Brown took them off, only calling in periodically to yell at everyone. Terry had a bit of a hangover from the night before, but nothing crazy. The headache got worse though when Karine walked into the bakery wearing her neon Bonne Glace uniform.
“So what the fuck, Terry?” she demanded as soon as she saw him.
“What?” he asked with a sigh.
“What was up with the tongue massage you gave Janice last night?”
“What? It was nothing.”
“Didn’t look like nothing.”
Terry looked at Karine quizzically. “It’s whatever. I considered it for a second and then decided against it. What’s the big deal?”
“Hello! Cerise was watching the whole thing!”
“Yeah well, we’re not together anymore, so…” Terry trailed off. He did feel bad about it, and certainly didn’t want to hurt Cerise but fuck, he had to move on so she’d just have to get used to seeing him with other chicks.
“It’s just like, what was the point of it?” asked Karine, leaning on the counter as though exhausted.
“I dunno,” Terry shrugged. “I was drunk, I was bored. I’m an asshole. It was a mistake. But nothing happened. I told her I’m not interested.”
“Ok, well, you’d better not be!”
“God, what do you care?”
“I’m just like, worried about you is all. I’m pretty sure Janice has herpes. I mean for sure she has the oral kind so like, it’s probably a safe bet than she has cootch herpes too.”
“Ok, well thanks for the warning.”
Karine shrugged in annoyance and walked out again.
“You fucked a chick with herpes?” asked Vani, popping his head out of the kitchen.
“We didn’t fuck, just kissed. It was Janice.”
“Eww. I thought you were better than that, man.”
“Fuck! I didn’t even do anything! Lay off!” Terry yelled, perhaps a bit too loudly. Vani seemed stricken and slunk back to the kitchen without a word.
Oh god. What the fuck?! Of all the bad decisions Shauna had ever made, this was among the worst. Not only had she fucked a girl… holy fucking hell, she’d fucked a girl!!!! But on top of that she’d also fallen asleep at Kim’s and missed her curfew. Dear fucking god, how was she going to fix this?!
She was still naked, lying crouched up on the little couch with Kim, also naked and apparently asleep. But as Shauna stirred, Kim awoke and turned to her.
“Oh hey,” she said groggily.
Shauna said nothing but quickly jumped up and grabbed her clothes. She ran to the bathroom because she was about to die if she didn’t pee immediately and when she was done she got dressed, except for her underwear, which she no longer seemed to have. Whatever, screw her boxers, she had to go!
Without even saying a word, she rushed out of the bathroom and towards the front door.
“Hey, where’s the fire? Relax,” said Kim, standing in her tiny kitchen, stark naked.
“I have to go to work!” Shauna announced, fumbling with the locks on the door. Finally she got them all open and ran outside.
Oh god, what the fuck was she gonna do? There was a bus coming and without even checking which one it was, Shauna jumped on it. Was she going home? How could she? She’d stayed out all night, she was going to catch so much shit! She checked her phone and sure enough, there were several missed calls from her mom. Oh fuck.
And what about what had happened with Kim? Had they really done all that or was it some sort of dream… or nightmare? Shauna pushed it out of her mind. The last thing she wanted to do was think about that. It was way too gross and horrible. She hoped god hadn’t been watching.
The bus was wheeling into Beaurepaire village and Shauna suddenly rememberd that she was supposed to work today. Cerise was going to take the day off and Shauna was supposed to take her shift. She was already several hours late! She jumped off the bus and rushed into the bookstore.
“I’m sorry I’m late!” she announced immediately.
Angela blinked and looked at her. “Well, there you are.”
“Hey,” said Cerise.
“Oh Cerise, god, I’m so sorry. I was supposed to take your shift today, wasn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it’s ok. When you didn’t show up my mom called me in but it’s cool, I still got to sleep in.”
Shauna straightened, realizing she was breathing heavily. She ran her fingers through her hair, hoping she didn’t look too horrible. “I’m so sorry, it’ll never happen again,” she said weakly.
“Hmm, well,” said Angela with a shrug.
“Ok well, now that you’re here, I guess I’ll go hang out with the girls,” said Cerise, walking out of the store.
“Hey Cerise, want some ice-cream?” asked Sarah as Cerise walked into the Bonne Glace.
“Nah, I’m good,” replied Cerise, knowing she’d have a ton of ice-cream later that night, and not wanting to waste the calories now when she wasn’t particularly hungry. “So what’s the dealio tonight? Usual?”
“Pretty much,” replied Sarah.
“Hey, I thought I heard your voice,” said Karine, coming in from the back. “You know I wasn’t even supposed to be working today but Janice totally called in sick, which we all know is total bullshit.” She stopped talking when an older couple came in. They ordered sundaes, which Sarah prepared and when they’d gone, Karine went on. “I bet Terry rejecting her made her go like, totally insane so she like, went on a bender or something and is like, even more hungover than usual.”
“Totally,” agreed Sarah.
“It’s all good though, I don’t mind the extra shifts,” shrugged Karine.
Just as she said that, Janice walked in wearing dark sunglasses. “Hey bitches,” she said groggily.
“Hey yourself, loser. You know, you could have stayed home. I’m covering your shift,” replied Karine snottily.
“Whatever fuck, I’m here, ok!”
“Yeah, whatever,” snorted Karine.
“Hey Cerise,” said Janice, taking off her sunglasses and leaning on the counter. “Just so you know, I’m like, not hooking up with Terry or anything. I mean, I could have but I decided not to, ‘cause like, I know you’re still into him.”
“Oh my god!” laughed Karine. “Yeah right! It’s totally not ‘cause he rejected your ass!”
Sarah and Cerise looked at each other with tight grins, not daring to interfere with whatever was happening here.
“Oh fuck off, Karine, you fucking princess!” screeched Janice, wincing at her own voice. “Stay the fuck out of my business!”
A mother and child walked in and they all hushed as Sarah served the boy a giant sugar cone with two scoops of weird, random flavours that didn’t belong together.
When they were gone, Karine unbuttoned her uniform shirt, under which she was wearing a tank top, and threw it down on the counter. “You know what, fuck? Fuck this shit. I’m not even on today. So fucking like, get your shit together and take your fucking shift.” And with that, she twirled around and went to the back of the store.
“God, she’s such a fucking drama queen!” wailed Janice, walking into the back as well.
They yelled at each other some more and Karine emerged wearing jean cut-offs. “Come on, Cerise, let’s go hang!”
They got outside and walked around a bit, window shopping in the two pathetic shops on the tiny little strip in Bearepaire village.
“It’d be way cooler to work in Pointe-Claire village, or in Ste-Anne’s,” mused Karine.
“Or downtown,” said Cerise.
“Oh god, totally. Fuck, should we just go to the bakery now?”
“We spend so much time there, can’t we think of anything else to do?” asked Cerise, not wanting to see Terry right at this moment.
“Well I guess we could go to my place and watch TV. Or go to the mall.”
“Yeah, let’s go to Fairview,” nodded Cerise. “Let me just go get my bag, it’s still in the bookstore.”
“Hey, Miss Simon,” said Karine as they walked in.
“Hi Karine. Call me Angela.”
There were two customers in the store, both of them sitting in the large bean bags provided for the purpose of reading and not buying books. Cerise had suggested they get rid of the chairs but her mom wouldn’t hear of it.
“Oh god, I forgot your stalker works here,” whispered Karine as she spied Shauna, who was shelving books, and looking a bit worse for wear. “Shit, she looks like hell. She always come to work dressed like that?”
“No actually,” Cerise whispered back. “She usually makes more effort.”
“Well fuck, total stank.”
“Don’t be mean.”
“Whatever,” Karine sighed, walking over to a display of art books. “I like this dude, Mucha.”
“Me too.”
“Are you going to be home for dinner tonight, Cerise?” asked Angela.
“No, bakery, right?” said Cerise, looking at Karine.
“Yeah, the uzhe,” nodded Karine.
“They say teenaged girls are hard to deal with but I never even see my girls,” said Angela passive-aggressively, as she flipped the pages of her stupid inventory book.
Cerise went to the back and got her bag, then joined Karine and spoke quietly. “So do you find it weird how everything is now?”
“What do you mean? Not being in school anymore?”
“No, I mean like, with I dunno, the absence of Willy.”
“It hasn’t even been that long. Fuck, I barely even registered his non-existence,” snorted Karine.
“Yeah, I guess,” nodded Cerise.
The bell above the door rang and they all instinctively turned towards the door. A thin, boyish hipster girl walked in, wearing skinny jeans and suspenders over a baggy white t-shirt. She carried a canvas bag and flipped her retro sunglasses open to reveal tired eyes. “Hey Shauna,” she said with sort of a smirk.
“Kim!” said Shauna, seemingly in shock, standing frozen like a deer in headlights.
“You left my place in such a hurry you forget your boxers,” said the tomboy.
Karine straightened up, looking rather intrigued by this scenario and Cerise had to admit she was pretty curious as well.
The Kim girl took a pair of men’s underwear out of her bag and tried to hand them over to Shauna. “Cool that you wear boxers. I tried doing it for a while but they get all bunchy so now I just go commando most of the time. Girl undies are like, so constricting, don’t you think?”
Shauna simply stared at Kim, refusing to touch the offered underwear.
“Oh, are these like, a present?” asked Kim pointedly.
“Uh…” Shauna stammered, her eyes wide and unblinking.
“Ok, whatevs I guess,” shrugged Kim, stuffing the underwear back in her bag.
Shauna finally moved her body slightly and looked over to Cerise. “They’re not mine!” she suddenly announced.
“What?” asked Kim, surprised by the anger in Shauna’s voice.
“Those aren’t mine!”
“Uh, excuse me? You think I’m such a whore I don’t even know who they belong to? They’re yours, Shauna. I saw you take them off, remember?”
“Go away!” said Shauna in a panic.
“What the fuck is your problem?!”
“Just leave me alone,” said Shauna, on the verge of tears.
Cerise wanted to look away, she wanted all of them to disappear so Shauna could have this obviously agonizing moment in privacy. Everyone in the store was watching this interaction intently, not even trying to be discreet about it. Her mom was sort of cringing, while Karine was actually leaning forward, her jaw open and eyes wide. Even the two readers had put down their books so they could pay attention. Cerise wanted to know what would happen next but she felt horrible for Shauna, who clearly wanted to crawl into the ground and die.
“God, whatever Shauna. If you don’t wanna be with me, that’s fine. It’s not like I thought our fucking night together was like, transcendent or anything. I didn’t ask you to like, move in, I’m just trying to give you your fucking clothes. I mean, I know it was your first time with a girl but like, chill, bitch.”
“Just go away,” Shauna choked out, her voice trembling.
“God, what is wrong with you? If I’d known you were gonna freak out so much I never would have slept with you!”
“Shut up!” said Shauna, the tears beginning to flow.
“Why should I? God, I was trying to help you, Shauna! I was trying to give you like, a good experience. Fuck, I should have listened to Leanne when she said you weren’t ready to confront your sexual orientation.”
“Just shut up!” screeched Shauna so loudly the girl finally did. But then, as though her voice wasn’t enough, Shauna reached up and slapped her. The stupid, ‘80s sunglasses flew off her face and she looked down at them as they landed on the floor. Then Shauna pushed past her and ran out the door.
Kim slowly bent over and picked up the sunglasses, inspecting them and then throwing them into her bag. She walked to the front of the store and looked at Cerise, then at Angela. “Nice store,” she said, casually opening the door and leaving.
“Well fuck,” exhaled Karine. “Does this mean you have to take her shift?”
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