Chapter Text
“Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the deal. I can’t just give you a higher discount because a completely different store down the road has a better deal; we’re running a business here. So you can buy the book here for 75 off, or you can get the hell out and buy it at the other store. Either way, you are not going to be treating my employees like that, are we clear?”
Josh used to love the holidays. Everyone does until they work retail. He counted down to the dreaded Black Friday from the moment each year’s was through. The carousel of dread never stopped turning.
The benefit this year, compared to years past, was that Josh had been promoted to manager. He was in charge. He got to tell customers off. And that was so liberating.
The woman had turned on her heel, huffing after not getting what she wanted, and stormed out of the store. Josh rolled his eyes and ran his hands down his face, groaning.
“Heaven forbid she has to spend five and a quarter on The Wizard of Oz instead of four dollars,” he quipped to his employee, who had called him over earlier to diffuse the situation.
“What a world, what a world!” She threw the back of her hand over her forehead and did her best impression of the Wicked Witch of the West, the two of them falling into a fit of laughter.
“Bitch.” Josh didn’t curse often, but he allowed himself the privilege on days such as this. It was his personal opinion that every customer service worker should be allowed to cuss their customers out if deserved. The owners of the bookstore did not share that sentiment, but they let him toe the line on occasion.
The employee thanked him and bumped his fist before he left to check on his other managerial duties. He had barely made it to the door of the back room when his walkie went off. He heard the shaking voice of an employee he recognized as one of their newer hires, a 16-year-old named Jay, asking for a manager’s assistance in the music section. Josh was the only manager on duty. He walkie-talkied back that he was on his way.
He heard the screaming of the customer before he had even entered the department. Great. Another pricing complaint. He took a deep breath and centered himself, plastering a smile on his face before approaching the scene.
“No, you don’t get to tell me what’s wrong and right. I am the customer. You answer to me.”
“Sir, my manager is on his way. He’s going to help you.” God, Josh just wanted to give the kid a big hug and send him home. He should be at home playing video games, not dealing with assholes who don’t know how to read but are shopping at a bookstore anyway. He considered it. He would deal with the situation at hand first.
He approached the situation with a smile still on his face and held his hand out to shake with the customers. “Hey, I’m Josh, I’m the manager.” The customer did not shake his hand.
“That’s your manager?” The man looked Josh up and down, gaze stuck between his hair and his arms. He looked down at his own arms, tattooed from his shoulders to his wrists, and fought every urge to roll his eyes.
“What can I help you with?” Josh asked, ignoring the comment made about his appearance.
“This kid clearly doesn’t know how to keep business. Keep his customers happy,” the man, old enough to be Josh’s father, his mouth caved into a permanent frown due to decades of scowling, waved his hand in Jay’s direction. “He’s telling me he can’t sell me this record for the sale price. It’s Black Friday, for Pete’s sake!”
Josh had explained this to probably a billion customers today. He bit his tongue, took in a deep breath, and said the same words he had memorized like they were his favorite song. Although realistically, they were his least favorite.
“Jay is correct, the Black Friday sale does not apply to that record because it’s on clearance. If I’m not mistaken, may I see…” Josh held his hand out and the customer placed the record in his grip, where he pointed out the clearance sticker, “Yes, okay. So, this is already 99 cents.”
“Yeah, and you’re going to sell it to me for 25.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“Like fucking hell you can’t!” the customer burst, and Josh saw Jay flinch out of the corner of his eye.
“No, I really can’t. There’s not even an option for me to do that in the system. I apologize.”
“Well then, you'd better be taking the sales tax off instead.”
Jesus Christ.
Josh allowed this to be his breaking point. If the customer said one more idiotic and rude thing to him or his employee, he would stop being polite.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that either. It’s the law.” Josh explained, eager for this guy to just give up and leave, or give in, spend his money, and leave. Josh didn’t even understand how this was worth it for 99 cents.
The man’s face was bright red, almost glowing with rage. Josh wanted to shake him up and lock him in a dark room like a night light. “Oh, then you best believe I am leaving you folks a scathing review on Yelp. Useless service, useless employees, useless discounts. Fucking capitalists.”
“Oh no! What ever will I do about this bad review! How will we survive without the service of one rude old man who doesn’t want to buy a pocket-change record and just wants to waste everybody’s time arguing over things that don’t matter? How will the economy survive? I guess we should just close down forever.” Josh said in the whiniest voice he could muster, smacking his hands to his cheeks in feigned despair. The man looked like he was about to explode, and that just about brought a smile to Josh’s face.
“I am reporting you!” the man threatened, shoving the record into Jay’s hands and storming away.
“Good luck, it’s a family business!” Josh called after him, the smile on his face having gone from fake for the customer, to real from the satisfaction of the man leaving angry. The smile instantly fell, however, when his eyes landed on Jay, who was frozen in fear, record clasped tightly to his chest, and eyes glued to the floor. “Jay?”
Jay looked up at him, still completely frozen, and Josh noticed the tears that were running down his face. He pulled the record from the kid's arms and put it back in its spot, returning to Jay and putting a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re okay, bud,” he assured him, gently rubbing circles around his shoulder blade, “Let’s go sit in the back, okay?”
Jay nodded and followed Josh into the back room and into the manager’s office, where Josh closed the door behind them. Jay sat down in one of the spinning chairs, swiveling with his feet on the ground.
“I just have to put the read in and give the hourlies, so just give me like three minutes, okay?” Josh said, sliding down into his own chair and logging into the computer. Jay nodded.
Josh opened up their goalsheets and started punching in their numbers for the last hour. Despite the two customers that he sent packing, they were doing excellent on sales. He got on his walkie and relayed the information to his team, congratulating them on their hard work. He saved the file and set the computer to sleep before turning back to Jay. Jay was still swiveling, hands shaking in his lap, and eyes fixed on a pad of sticky notes on the table.
“You can cry, Jay. It’s okay.”
Jay took that permission immediately to heart, letting his head drop into his hands and sobbing loudly into them. Josh wheeled his chair a little closer and placed his hand on his shoulder, rubbing it in a way he hoped was comforting. Jay reminded him a lot of his younger siblings. That being said, he knew his younger siblings. He didn’t know how to comfort a new hire.
“You’re doing a great job, Jay, I promise. This time of the year is hard, but it’s almost over. It’s not forever. You’ll get practice. This place is usually dead between January and February.”
“I’m soh-sorry…” Jay choked out, his hands moving from his face to his hair.
“Breathe, buddy. Deep breaths. You’re okay. You’re okay.” Josh knew exactly how he felt. He had been him before. Hell, he had been like this on his last shift when nearly everyone who walked through the door was begging him for an early Black Friday discount. He wished he could take it away, make it easier.
Well, actually.
Once Jay had calmed down enough to speak, Josh offered for him to go home. Jay immediately shook his head, telling him he would be okay to finish out his shift, but Josh insisted. He assured him that he was not in trouble; he just deserved a break. Besides, it was 5 pm, and business was starting to slow down for the night. Jay’s shift was only another two hours anyway.
“Is there anyone who can drive you?” Josh asked. He would drive Jay home if need be, he just would need to wait for the other manager to come back from her break.
Jay opened his phone and scrolled through his contacts, shaking his head.
“My parents can’t see me like this. They won’t understand. And Zach’s got his license suspended, Maddy’s probably busy…” he trailed off, landing on one contact and sighing, “My oldest brother is probably free. He’ll be so annoyed…”]
Josh shrugged, “He’s your brother. Do you get along?”
Jay nodded, “He’s great. I love him. He loves me. He’s just… going through a patch.”
“Well, maybe he could use some one-on-one time with his little bro. Talk about Thanksgiving, make fun of whatever weird thing your uncle said, or something.” Josh suggested, and Jay laughed, “Doesn’t hurt to call.”
Jay looked between Josh and his phone once, twice, and finally clicked the button to call his brother. When he brought the phone up to his ear, it only rang a couple of times before someone on the other line answered. Josh tried not to eavesdrop, but he could hear a very muffled, very quiet voice on the other end.
“Hey, are you um… What are you doing right now? So you’re not busy?”
Josh could barely make out a ‘talk to me, bud, are you okay?’ through Jay’s phone. He smiled at the usage of ‘bud’ from Jay’s brother. Josh thought he was the only person under 35 who still called people that.
“I’m fine. Today was just kind of… rough,” Jay’s voice cracked on the last word, “I need a ride home and, well, you know mom and dad. Really? Are you sure? Okay. Thank you, T. I love you. See you. Bye.” Jay hung up his phone and let out a huge sigh of relief.
“He’s coming?” Josh asked, Jay nodding in response. “Cool. Awesome. Why don’t you sit in the break room until he gets here? You can clock out now, when you leave, doesn’t matter to me. Just let me know when you’re going, alright?”
“Yes, thank you, Josh.”
“Good work today,” Josh said with a smile, patting Jay on the back. As Jay walked out of the office, Josh was going to follow suit, heading back out onto the floor. Of course, his phone started to ring. Which was odd, because he had it on silent.
When he pulled it out, he saw that he had two missed calls from his best friend James, and the call he was receiving now was from him, too. That was why he heard it. Three consecutive calls bypass his silent mode. And James never called. He was a texter. Which was why three calls from James were just slightly worrying to Josh. He closed the door to the office and accepted the call.
“Yo, James, what’s up? I haven’t heard from you in, like, a week, I almost thought you up and died, man. Where you been?”
The voice on the other line did not belong to James. It belonged to a woman. She breathed shakily into the receiver, and when she spoke, her voice seemed almost hoarse.
“Joshua?”
He recognized the voice. It was James’ fiancée. There was a certain tension on the line that made his throat feel dry. He swallowed, returning to his seat at the desk. He didn’t know why James’ fiancée had his phone. He didn’t know why she sounded so… he didn’t even know. Scared? Sad? All he knew was that this couldn’t be anything good.
“Sarah,” he replied, just the same as she had.
She took in another shaking breath and let it go, the sound crackling as it hit the speaker. “I’m sorry, I know you’re probably at work. I don’t even know what time it is there, I don’t, I just…”
“Breathe, Sarah. Talk to me. What’s going on?” He found himself saying that quite a lot today.
Except this time was different. He didn’t know what she was going to say, not really. But he felt it. He felt it like a pool in his stomach, waves crashing against the walls and splashing bile up his throat. He felt like he was drowning in it, thrashing through the water to reach James in the distance. He couldn’t make it to him. He watched James be pulled under the surface.
And then she said it.
“James is dead.”