All similarities between real life institutions, businesses, entities, and people are unintended.
All characters are 18 or older.
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After all of the fucked up shit that had ever happened to me, I never considered myself lucky. That is, until I met Alexis. She was stunning. She was the type of girl who when you saw her in a supermarket you would keep going back to that specific one hoping to see her again; the type of girl who would make you want to be better. The type of girl that made other people envious that you were able to breathe the same air as her.
I first met her while working at a convenience store. I was working the counter late, counting down the minutes on the clock before I could go home. The store was on the outskirts of the city near the factories, so most of the customers were men working blue collar jobs. but as the clock ran, the customers would become more and more depressing to look at. Instead of men buying coffee and pre-made sandwiches, they bought single slices of day old pizza and a six-pack. I hadn't seen a customer in at least an hour, so when a girl my age walked into the store at 1:30am I thought I might be hallucinating. She had long black hair and brown eyes, contrasted by her pale skin which sort of glowed in the fluorescent light. She wore baggy jeans and a tired band hoodie. She stopped at the entrance of the store and looked around, taking in the worn floors and malfunctioning slushie machine. She finally gazed over at me, and I saw her eyes light up when we made eye contact. She turned on her heel and leaned onto the counter.
"Soo~" She paused and I could tell she was reading my name tag, "Chris." She scanned the counter again before asking, "Are you guys still hiring?"
She was overly forward which surprised me, especially this late, "Uh, yeah, people are always quitting."
"Hm," She murmured.
I was sort of taken aback that someone like her would even want to be in a place like this, but I minded my own business and started to get the application sheet.
"There. Make sure to write clearly here so Mikey can call you back," I said while pointing at a spot on the paper.
She gave me a weird look and stared at me for a couple seconds before questioning, "Do you have a pen?" When she said it there was a hint of a giggle in her voice, easing the tension.
"Oh, yeah," I laughed, "My bad, I forgot to ask you."
She looked up at me smiling, saying, "No, you're fine."
I smiled back. I watched her as she scribbled her personal info onto the sheet but I didn't want to seem like I was watching her so I leaned back onto the shelf behind me and opened up my phone. It took her a couple minutes and when she was finally done she glanced up and let out a soft 'ahem' to get my attention. I stepped over to her and grabbed the application, but she didn't let go.
"You're not going to read this and stalk me or anything, right?" She joked.
I smirked at her and pulled the paper harder. "I would never."
She let go of the application and turned towards the door. She opened it a couple inches before she froze and looked back at me.
"Can I use your phone?" She said, before adding on hastily, "I'll be quick I promise, I just need to text someone."
I obliged her, and watched her closer now with no distraction. Her makeup was done pretty minimally, and I could only really identify eyeliner. She had a couple rings on her fingers which scraped against the pen. There were left-over piercing holes on her nose, but the only piercings I could see right now were a pair of small silver earrings when she brushed her hair behind her ear. She had thinned bangs covering part of her forehead which were just shy of being small enough to be considered microbangs. The light from the phone illuminated her eyes, making them have glowing specks of light blue around the bottom of the iris. She turned off the phone and handed it back to me.
"Thank you so much!" She beamed, "Maybe I'll see you again."
"Maybe," I remarked, smiling at her as she disappeared out the door.
I leaned back again, prepared to resume my boredom after that interlude. I opened my phone, and instead of being in the Messages app like I expected, I was staring at a newly created contact named: "Alexis <3"
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I texted her the next day when I woke up.
You >"hey"
Alexis<3 >"hey"
You >"do you want to do smth sometime?"
Alexis<3 >"obviously"
Alexis<3 >"do u smoke"
You >"yea"
You >"when are u free?"
Alexis<3 >"now."
I drove over to the address she sent. While I was driving I thought about my past relationships, specifically my most recent ex, Nicole. We had broken up a couple times and were on bad terms, with her sometimes sending me messages when she was really fucked up. I had tried blocking her, but she just kept creating new accounts. I figured this was my chance to make it clear I had moved on from my ex. If I moved on, I hoped that she would give up. I was hopeful for my date with Alexis, because she seemed nice, and at the very least, her appearance was my ideal.