Geoff got fired again.
His boss was a nice guy. Not concerned with the possibility of a tattooed punk with unkempt hair scaring off customers from his gas station. He could even tolerate Geoff casually stealing snacks off the shelves. But he stopped being so forgiving after catching him high on the job.
Nothing new for Geoff, this was already his seventh job since finishing high school a little over a year ago. All his friends left their small town to go to college but he stayed behind, stuck here.
His parents kicked him out of their house as soon as they could, forcing him to get a job so that he could rent an apartment. No time to think about college, not that he had the grades to get anywhere.
Working low effort jobs for minimum wage allowed him to pay for his shitty apartment and still have enough cash to spend on drugs and alcohol. That is, as long as he only ate instant ramen or fast food.
While he wasn't expecting to keep his gas station job for long, getting fired today was quite inconvenient for Geoff. Rent was due in two days and Geoff was three hundred dollars short. He planned to ask his boss for an advance but that plan was bust now.
His landlady made it absolutely clear last time, if he didn't pay exactly on time he would get evicted immediately.
The brief period of sleeping on the street still haunted him. No, he still had enough time to make enough money to placate his landlady or at least pay for a motel before he could find a new place to rent.
Geoff nonchalantly stuffed his denim vest pockets with aspirin and left the local drugstore, on his way to a rave he heard about taking place tonight. He hoped to find some clueless high school kids that he could sell anything, claiming it's drugs.
If he gets lucky, he could maybe score with some girl and get some use out of his apartment while he still can.
As night fell he managed to sneak into the club without having to pay the entrance fee.
Loud noise that passed as music these days blared from the speakers.
Working his natural charm for about two hours managed to make him about seventy dollars selling 'ecstasy'. He even got a nice buzz for free by drinking leftover beer from abandoned tables.
Leaning against a railing while clutching warm lager, Geoff looked for his next potential customer.
Someone bumped into his back.
"Oops, sorry!" Geoff turned around toward the familiar voice.
A girl with light brown hair in a bun, wearing a white blouse and jeans. She was only a few inches shorter than him.
He recognized her, Kate Rivers, his ex-classmate. 'Ms. Perfect' with As in all her subjects. Textbook teacher's pet. He used to make fun of her behind her back, even though she used to let him cheat off of her during biology.
"Oh, Geoff? Hi, how are you doing?" Geoff remembered her bubbly personality and how annoyed it made him.
"Hey, doing-uh, fine. What are you doing here? I wouldn't expect to see you in a place like this." Even though her good looks and academic success made her quite popular in high school, she was always a little detached and kept mostly to herself.
She laughed as if he said something funny. "I'm trying to broaden my horizons. Listen-" She leaned in closer to his ear so she wouldn't have to shout over the music. He could smell her fruity perfume. "-my friend bailed on me. But now that you are here, maybe we could catch up. What do you think?"
Why was she showing interest in him? They haven't been even remotely friendly since elementary school. "Well, I don't know, I'm kind of, uh, working right now."
She laughed for no reason again. "What do you mean? Are you a drug dealer or something?" More laughing.
"Sort of, yeah," he admitted with an awkward smile. For some reason he was having trouble keeping up his rebel-tough guy persona in front of her.
She was no longer laughing. "Oh, I didn't mean to embarrass you." He scratched his head looking for an exit. "Could I maybe buy some from y-"
"What?" he asked with genuine surprise.
"Well, if I buy some from you then we can, talk for a bit, right?"
"Uh, yeah, sure I guess." He pulled out one of the pills and reached out his hand to her.
"What is it exactly? Nothing too strong I hope."
"You'll just get a light buzz, don't worry-"
"Okay." She quickly took the pill and used his beer to gulp it down.
When did she become so carefree? This girl was the class nerd and now she is taking-what she thinks-are illegal drugs and drinking his beer. She didn't seem drunk. Was she just that desperate? Maybe she always had a crush on him?
He realized that he was just staring at her and not saying anything.
"So uh, let's sit down so we can talk," he motioned to a nearby table in a quieter part of the club. "Would you like some water or something?"
She sat down. "Yeah, I'd love a vodka tonic, thank you."
Drinks were not really in his budget but the price of one cocktail probably won't make much of a difference.
"How much was the pill by the way?" she asked.
He charged only ten dollars for the others. How much would she be willing to give him for it? It's not like she could refuse now that she took it.
"Well usually I charge twenty-five, but you get a friend discount so only twenty."
She could definitely afford it, her parents were filthy rich and always took good care of their princess.
"Thanks," she exclaimed and handed him twenty dollars with a smile.
The bartender was surprised to see him ordering a drink after seeing him take abandoned beers all night.
The vodka tonic only cost four dollars. If he wanted to have a chance to pay rent he would still have to sell a lot of pills tonight. He could just ditch Kate and get on with it, but if there was even just a little chance that he could hook up with her, he had to take it.
She was intensely staring into her phone as he handed her the drink. "Here you go. What are you doing here anyway? I mean in town, I thought you went off to college."
He sat down across the table from her and nearly fell. The chair was missing one of its legs.
"Careful, we wouldn't want you getting hurt now would we? Just sit down here," she said as she patted on the chair next to her. He obliged and sat down next to her.
"I did go to college, but I dropped out-" How could she have any troubles at school with her grades? "I decided to have a gap year and figure out what I wanna do with my life, you know? Not just follow the path that everyone else set out for me, I don't want to wake up one day and realize that I haven't been living my own life."
Geoff stared back at her, reevaluating what he thought of her. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I also decided to have a gap year before college. See how things turn out," he lied, trying to impress her.
"With your grades maybe something more like a gap decade or two." She gave him a cheeky smile and took a sip of her drink.
He was taken aback by her comment but decided to let it slide and smiled back.
"And what's your day job? Or do you do 'distribution' full time?" she asked.
He took a big gulp of his stale beer, stalling to come up with something more impressive than the truth. He looked into her emerald eyes, clutching his glass.
Fuck it.
"Actually I used to work at the gas station on Somerset road, but I got fired today. That's why I'm here, selling."
"Oh, I'm so sorry! It's their loss." She put her hand on his arm. "They just lost me as a customer." Not that he ever saw here shopping there. "Do you know what you are gonna do next?"
"Not really," Geoff was relieved that she didn't mock him and continued his honesty streak. "I already got fired from most places around town." She sipped her drink. "And before I get to finding a new job I have to get money for rent somewhere fast, or I'll have to sleep on the street again."
He finished his beer with one big gulp. She looked at him inquisitively with her big doe eyes. After a moment of awkwardness he decided to break the silence. "I'm sorry, guess I over-shared a bit. Don't know what got into me."
"Not at all." She slid her hand onto his hand. They looked at each other and smiled.
"Listen if you need a place to stay, you could stay at my house for a couple of weeks." He could hear the pity in her voice and hated it. "My parents are away in Europe so I have the whole place to myself. You wouldn't have to pay me anything-"
"Thanks for the offer, but no." He was sure she just wanted to keep him around because he was more of a failure than her. "I couldn't impose on you like that. I like my independence and-"
"Nonsense. Come on, It'll be fun," she insisted.
She was clearly used to getting her way. Not this time. "Really, thank you, but no. It's better if I manage to keep my current place than having to find a new job and a new place."
"All right." She withdrew her hand from his. "Sorry if I got a little pushy there," she said with an apologetic smile.
"It's cool." He went to take another drink, forgetting his glass was already empty. She didn't seem to notice it though, blankly staring off into the distance. "Could I ask you for a different favor maybe?"
She looked at him. Intrigued. "Shoot."
"Could you maybe lend me some money? I'm only missing a couple hundred for my rent this month. I can get the money, but I need to pay in two days or I get kicked out. I'd pay you back as soon as-"
"Sure, I can do that. How much exactly do you need?" She said with uncharacteristic coldness in her voice.
"About four hundred." She took out her wallet and started counting her money. "Thank you so much! I'll get you the money back in a week, I promise." And just like that his money troubles were about to be over.
"Hmm, I only have two hundred on me. Could you come over to my place tomorrow? I can give you the money then."
"Of course, you still live up on the hill right?" He could remember attending her birthday party way back when.
"Yeah, stop by at like six pm." She put her wallet back in her purse. "I think I'm going to head out, I'm starting to feel the 'buzz'."
"Oh. Okay. You want me to take you home?" Maybe he could still get even luckier.
"No, I can manage." They both stood up. "I'm really glad that I ran into you tonight. See you tomorrow." She went to hug him and he reciprocated. She felt so soft. He resisted the urge to try and kiss her.
"Yeah, me too. Bye. Tomorrow." He stood there and watched her disappear into the crowd, heading for the exit.
He took out the nearly hundred dollars he made today and headed towards the bar. Now that his money troubles were solved he could have some fun.
