Before You Go

Chapter 1.

Sophia's POV:

"Please take a seat. What's your name again?" The interviewer, Mr. Kenley asks as I take a seat at the other end of the desk in an empty room at the McQuick-Pick restaurant.

"I am Miss Perfect."

"That's a confident statement, but that alone isn't going to fetch you a job."

"No, Mr. Kenley. I'm actually Ms. Perfect, Sophia Perfect."

"That's a funny name."

"By that I mean unusual, but a good one." He changes his statement as he sees me glaring at him. Am I intimidating?

"Why should I hire you at McQuick-Pick?" He asks as he continues with the interview.

"I am highly responsible and I am very much involved in serving people."

"Why do you want the job?"

"I am in my last year of college and my mother works two shifts just so that she can afford a menial lifestyle for both of us. I'm almost 23 and I think it's high time and I need to pay my own bills to take some amount of burden off of her shoulders." I reply as I see him writing down certain things on the notepad he's holding in his hands.

"How did the interview go?" The girl slightly opening and peeking through the door of the room where my interview is going on asks, before coming into the room. That's Olivia Miller, my best friend with voice as sweet as sugar, a soul as soft as a feather, dark brown eyes that sparkle with concern, perfect porcelain skin that lights up everytime she smiles and long brown hair which are always flowing down her shoulders like a river.

"It's still going on, O!" I exclaim as I get distracted from my interview just to get her out of that very room.

"How's it going?"

"It was going pretty good till you came in."

"You kiss your mother with that mouth."

"That's not how the phrase is used, O! I've told you that like a thousand times, literally. I don't have time for this, I'll meet you outside in a few."

"Few, what? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Day? We-"

"I will kill you without hesitation." I say. Don't get me wrong, this is not how we usually talk. I am a very warm person in general.

"In a few minutes. Gotcha!" She says as she closes the door while trying to make as less sound as possible. Then again, she trips on the doormat on her way out and bumps her head into the wall making as much noise as possible.

Olivia's a supportive friend and has good intentions but what she does is the total opposite. I am thankful to her since she's the one who got me an interview for this job. Her mother orders food from here very often, so Mr. Kenley knows her mother and Olivia very well since she was 5.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kenley! If you don't want to hire me, I totally get that and I respect your decision." I say as I turn back to the interview.

"You're hired."

"What?"

"You're the only person who has at least the qualification of a 5th grader. You're good to go."

"When do I start?"

"Right about-" He pauses for 3 minutes.

"Now!" He continues as the clock strikes 10 am.

"The uniform is at the counter. The lady with a badge that says Ernie will tell you exactly what to do." He says as he points towards a counter through the window at the back of the same room.

"Thank you, Mr. Kenley! I promise I won't disappoint you!"

"Promises are for suckers! You just do what she tells you to do."

I leave the room closing the door behind me, ensuring that there's no one around the corridor, I dance like I got extra fries with my burger.

"There you are!" Olivia exclaims with nervousness and excitement.

"How did it go?" She asks as she steps back a little away from me, thinking about my reaction to the last time she asked the same question.

"I got selected!" I yell as I rush towards her after saying this to hug her.

"How're you feeling?"

"I was having this strange feeling in my chest. At first, I thought it was a heart attack, turns out it's pride. I'm a freaking grownup, O!" I exclaim with excitement as I start jumping. Then, Olivia starts jumping with me too. It's amazing how she finds bliss in my happiness.

"You are my best friend, you know that right?" I ask her.

"I do!" She says as she hugs me tightly.

"Are you girls done?" A lady shouts from the counter. I can guess that the woman is Ernie.

"I gotta go. Meet you here at 8 pm when my shift's over?" I ask Olivia to which she replies with a nod as I walk towards the counter to get my uniform which was placed on a burger apparently, while Olivia takes her purse to walk back to her home.

"You guys are really cute!" Ernie says as I get back with my uniform on me.

"We are, aren't we?" I say with a smile.

"Moment's over. Nobody cares. Get back to work before the evening rush hour starts." She replies in a commanding tone.

Is she always this rude? That reply was real moody, but also sassy so, I'm going to save it for later. Well, I do exactly as she says because I really don't want any problem on my first day at work because really, nobody does!

Just as Ernie mentioned, the evening rush hour started in a couple of minutes and the room which felt like a loner's birthday party a few moments ago was now filled with kids at birthday parties in different corners, couples occupying tables in large numbers and joint families snatching chairs from other people.

"Kind ma'am, could you please return this seat to the old lady?" A waitress says while serving at one of the tables to a woman snatching a chair from an old lady.

"For God's sake! She's in a wheelchair, she wouldn't be needing it!" The woman replies.

Woah! People can be so mean. She could've said that in a calm manner, or was it necessary to spill ketchup all over the floor to explain her side of the story.

Also, most importantly, as I was the new one, Ernie gave the task of cleaning up that mess to me. After doing all that, all I had to do was fetch takeouts for vehicles on the other side of the restaurant.

"Get this one for Mr. Davis!" Ernie yelled from the other corner of the kitchen.

"That's a huge one, and it's a takeout?" I say as I take a look at a plate in front of me with food completely loaded on it. I hope that person has company or at least a gym near his home.

"This happens during rush hour! I warned you about this earlier, kid."

"But-"

"He's been waiting a long time. Go get the order!"

I took the order and walked towards the Takeout Window through the hustle and bustle. I should've learned juggling when I had the chance because if I get hit and it gets tossed in the air, I am not responsible for ketchup on your Gucci.

"Window's jammed!" Harry says. He is the one who actually manages takeouts.

"From where should I give this, then?"

"Open the door."

Damn! If I had known it was going to be this hard, I would have just gone for tutoring sessions. Teaching maths to kids who smoke weed and half of the time aren't aware if the Earth's moving or the textbook's moving, is still better than cleaning gross and sticky things on a daily basis. I open the door with my elbow as my hands are already full.

*Bump*

"Ouch!" I cry with pain as I fell with a thud onto a motor bike due to imbalance.

"What the hell?!" A woman shouts making me snap out of my train of thoughts.

Shit! What have I done? The bike I fell upon crashed into the door of another car. Calm down, Soph! It's just a car that looks more expensive than you. No need to feel inferior or scared! It's my first day at my first job and I haven't even received my first pay check yet and here I am.

"Where's your manager?" The woman whose car's door I just broke, yelled.

"What happened, ma'am?" Mr. Kenley asks as soon as he hears that woman.

"This girl right here, I believe is an employee of yours?"

"Sure is."

"She just broke my boss's car's door. It's my first day as his assistant and she just ruined it!"

"Ma'am, why don't you calm down a little and we can sort it out?"

"I didn't do it intentionally." I whisper into his ears.

"I know, I'll handle it." He replies as he takes that lady inside to talk it out with her.

Mom would be so mad. What if I get fired for this? Olivia will never help me get another job, I know that I'll just ruin everything again. This wouldn't look good on my resume either. The main disaster is that I'd have to pay for the damage that I unintentionally caused. I can hear some disagreement in their conversation, but I can't hear it clearly. I sit down at the pavement just beside the very door that led me into all of this.

*10 minutes later*

"It's all sorted." Mr. Kenley says as he walks out along with that woman through the door.

"What is it?" I ask with nervousness.

"It's all forgive-"

"Oh, Jesus! Thank-"

"YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY HER $10,000."

____________________________________

Yay! I'm so glad I finally started writing this story!

This was just an idea I came up with 2 years ago and I can still feel chills running down my spine every time I think about this one!

It's my own little darling! The one thing, I am deeply proud of!

I hope you guys liked this chapter!

If you did, give it a big, fat like and comment what you thought about it!!!