When Ash moved out from his family home four years ago, at the age of twenty, he had no idea how difficult adult life really was: having to keep track of finances and paying all the bills on time. However, the most difficult part of his life was heaving himself up in the mornings like this Friday morning.
“God.” Ash sighed out, rolling on his bed and, eventually, getting into a seated position. He rubbed the sleep out of his brown eyes and stretching his arms above his head. “Not a wink of sleep. Again.” He huffed out at himself as he stood up and half-heartedly made his bed. He stretched once more with a loud groan and briefly glanced at the digital clock on his bedside table.
Noticing the time, Ash’s eyes widened and he, almost, gasped aloud as he frantically ran around his apartment, gathering his clothes and his black satchel where he kept his wallet, a black apron and a change of clothes, just in case. He usually didn’t take his phone anywhere with him, knowing how distracting it was for him. He cursed under his breath loudly as he pulled on his shoes and rushed out the front door, running down the stairs and into the reception area where Ms Vento sat in her usual seat in front of the computer, typing away.
“Good morning, Ms Vento.” Ash panted out loudly, glancing over at the shelves behind the elder woman before flashing her a soft smile as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Any mail?” He asked quickly. Ms Vento hummed and handed the young man an envelope addressed to him from his family home – his mother. His eyes softened at the thought of his only parent, temporarily forgetting that he was late for work.
The woman behind the desk gave a small smile before glancing at the time. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, Ash?” She teased. Ash’s eyes flicked up instantly and he nodded, stuffing the letter into his pocket before dashing out of the large double doors.
Apparently, Ash wasn’t looking where he was going and crashed into someone. He plummeted to the ground, eyes closing as he hissed in pain. He rubbed his lower back and cursed at himself before finally looking over at the person he hit. It was a young woman with a suitcase, attempting to pick up her scattered papers and stuffing them back into the suitcase. There were tears rolling down her face as she bit her lip to stop any noise from escaping her mouth.
Ash stood up, quickly offering a hand over to the female on the floor for her to get up. She scoffed lightly at the gesture and stood up by herself, dusting her jeans off and pushing the young man’s shoulder as she pushed past him and walked into Ash’s apartment complex. The man watched her walk into the building before rolling his eyes to himself.
“Rude.” He frowned. “I wanted to apologize, but fine.” He ranted to himself as he gripped his bag closer to his chest and began to run down the street until he got down to Bernard Street after twenty-odd minutes of sprinting and getting weird looks from passersby’s.
He doubled over and panted loudly in the middle of the street before walking over to the all too familiar café – Brew For You. With a low, nervous, breath he walked into the café, wiping his face lightly and smiling at the customers who were already sitting in the café. He walked into the Staff Only changing rooms and hung his bag up on his peg, unzipping it and rummaging through the contents.
“No, no, no, no, no, no!” He shouted, tipping all the contents of his bag onto the floor and pulling at his hair in frustration, realizing he had left his only black apron back in his apartment. He slumped down to one of the chairs and hung his head. He sat there for what seemed like eternity – but was only a mere five minutes – until one of his co-workers walked in and sighed at the sight of Ash, doubled over in one of the chairs with his leg moving up and down in anxiety.
“Hey, Mr Carreiro wants to talk to you. He’s in his office.” The man in the doorway spoke loudly before leaving, letting the door swing behind him. Ash looked up at the swinging door and groaned again. He didn’t really believe that his boss would fire him, despite him being late for work the whole week, as he was one of the best employees he had on staff, but he couldn’t help being nervous. After all, another employee who can make coffee using a machine wasn’t that hard to find. He quickly discarded his thoughts and jumped up from his seat. With another quick breath, he left the changing rooms and walked over to his boss’ office door.
Mr Carreiro was sitting in his seat, behind his desk and writing notes into his weekly planner. His usual round glasses sat on his nose as he read over his plans, clearly looking distressed as he ran his hand over his bald head. Ash cleared his throat as he knocked on the slightly ajar office door and stood in front of it, waiting for a reply and permission for him to walk in.
“Come in.” The loud voice of his boss boomed in the café, making the young man on the other side of the door jump slightly even though he was expecting to hear his voice quite quickly. He hung his head as he drew in a nervous breath, staring at his feet, pushing the door open and walking in. He closed the door behind him and walked over to the desk, seating himself down on the spare seat in front of the older man. “So? Why are you late?” Mr Carreiro questioned, taking his glasses off and placing them down on his papers. Ash closed his eyes in embarrassment.
“I’m sorry, boss.” The younger of the two replied quietly. “I wasn’t able to sleep the whole night again.” He explained, staring at his shoes as he tapped his feet on the wooden floors. Mr Carreiro sighed loudly and nodded.
“Do you know why you’re unable to sleep at night? Do you need a doctor referral?” The older man continued, preparing to write a quick slip for the doctor in case the younger requested it, but was forced to put his pen and glasses down anyway as Ash quickly shook his head.
“That won’t help.” Ash looked up and shot a small smile in order to distract the man from his heavy, dark eyebags bellow his eyes. “Thank you for worrying, sir, but I’ll be okay.” He reassured emptily, knowing that he was lying and that he’ll simply end up passing out from exhaustion after work and wake up in the middle of the night.
“If that’s the case, get to work.” Ash’s boss playfully scolded him and pointed to the door. “Tell me if you feel unwell.” He said finally before Ash nodded and walked out of the office and to the front of the counter to get orders from the customers that come in.
“This will be a long day.”
As time passed and Ash continued to work at the front of the counter, exhausting his cheeks in an attempt to smile at every new customer that came in, the cafe became less and less busy. By the time that four in the afternoon rolled around, there were a mere number of three customers, which resulted in Ash daydreaming for another twenty minutes - until closing time. As he stood there, behind the cash register and glaring holes into the wall in front of him with his piercing gaze and chin perched on his hand, his mind drifted to the events of the morning: Him running down and into the reception, where he was greeted by - an always hardworking - Ms Vento, who handed him a letter from his mother. His mother. Ash's mother was a wonderful woman to be around. A pleasure to chat away the hours to. Her brown eyes always shimmered brightly once a topic that interested her was brought up and her shy gesture of tucking her shoulder-len
Ms Vento paused for a while, halting her sipping and placing the half-full mug down onto the coffee table in front of them with a soft clang. She cleared her throat before humming in thought at the question. She needed to be honest despite knowing that the truth will hurt the young man. If she chose her words correctly, she hoped she could ease the pain at least a little. "Well," The older of the two began slowly, getting more nervous by the second and now beginning to sway from side to side in her chair. "I think Jen needs more time." She softly finished. "Her situation isn't the best right now." She quickly added, watching as Ash's face fell and he hung his head, staring at his feet as he sniffled but nodded in understanding. He missed the woman his mother used to be, but he couldn't be greedy. If she needed more time to forget about all the crap that had happened in the last decade, she deserved it more than anyone. &nb
Ash groaned as he shifted in his bed angrily. That night was the only night that entire week where he felt calm and was able to fall asleep instantly after lying down on his bed but the people above his apartment just had to ruin it for him. He cracked open an eye and turned to look over at the clock, groaning loudly after he noticed it was four in the morning. He placed his arm over his eyes before grumbling some curse words under his breath and, eventually, sitting up and pushing the covers off him. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and stretched with a silent yawn and stood up. He quickly pulled on a pair of sweatpants and left his bedroom, slipping his shoes on and heading over to the stairwell. He might not be good with people as a whole but once it came to someone ruining his, carefully outlined, sleeping schedule, he would give them a piece of his mind. He stomped up the stairs and made his way over to
Ash buried his head in his hands as he slouched forwards on the couch in thought. The woman he had bumped into the other day was now in his apartment, having a mental breakdown in the front hall. To say that he didn't know what to do, would be an understatement. He groaned loudly as he leaned his head back and slumped against the couch pillows, shielding his eyes from the harsh living room lights and humming to himself as he continued to think of what he should be doing in this situation. If he simply let her be - crying and sitting on the cold wooden floor - he would feel like a terrible person. However, on the other hand, if he tried to talk to her and question what had happened, he would feel as though he was pushing her to talk about something that might have traumatized her. He sighed sharply, in an attempt to discard his thoughts, and jumped up from the couch. He opened the living room door which led to the front hal
The woman glanced up at the question and fixed her eyes into the young man's as if questioning his intentions before he flashed a toothed smile and tilted his head to the side. The woman cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks, where a few stray tears fell. "I'm Amaya." She quietly answered. Ash nodded at the name as he held out his hand for a handshake. "I'm Ash." He grinned. Amaya took his hand slowly and shook it gently before quickly letting go and looking back down to her lap. Ash looked at the woman, his smile faltering until it fell completely and he groaned under his breath, looking down at the mattress before speaking up again. "What do you wanna do?" He asked. The woman in question raised her head and quirked an eyebrow up in amusement. She brought her eyebrows back into a frown quickly, hoping the man next to her didn't notice her slip-up. "I have a few movies we could watch. Come on!" Ash suddenly exclaimed as he jumped off the foot
As the pair watched the movie, Ash couldn't help but think of the woman's unfortunate situation of being in an abusive relationship. Before Ash had continued to play the movie, Amaya had told him about her situation in detail and eventually, Ash had put the offer of staying at his place for a few days and inform the police of her boyfriend's behaviour. However, the young woman had quickly rejected the idea and simply flashed a small smile at the latter, reassuring him that she would just go home and hope for the best. Ash, coming to the conclusion that any further discussion on the subject won't get him anywhere, dropped the topic and pressed play on the remote control. Despite the noise coming from the TV in front of him, he wasn't focused on the movie at all. His mind kept racing, reminding him of the memories he had pushed to the deepest parts of his brain; memories he no longer wanted to ever think about. With a loud groan, he leaned forwa
The next day, Ash woke up at around five in the morning to the sound of a loud knocking at his front door. At first, he decided to ignore it after he checked the time and simply shifted to the other side of his bed before closing his eyes and attempting to sleep for at least five minutes more. However, luck was never on his side as he was forced to get up at the crack of dawn due to the persistent knocking. With a loud groan, he rolled out of bed, ruffling his hair and walking into the front hall. Not bothering to glance through the peephole, he swung the door open angrily. His eyes softened ever so slightly once his eyes landed on Ms Vento. She had a sheepish smile on her face paired with a set of apologetic eyes. "I'm so sorry to wake you up this early, but..." She trailed off quietly, looking around before pointing behind Ash, questioning whether she could come in. Ash nodded with a low shrug of his shoulders before opening the door wider an
After Ms Vento left his apartment, Ash couldn't focus on anything he had to do around the house. He sat on the couch in his living room, the TV playing loudly in the background, with wide eyes - spaced-out. He had planned to clean the house a little later in the day and cook dinners that would last him for three days time. Now, however, all his plans went out of the window as his mind was too occupied still trying to process the new information he received from Ms Vento. With a loud sigh, Ash finally heaved himself up from the comfort of his couch and looked at the time, cursing at himself for sitting without doing anything productive for over three hours. He groaned and ran one of his hands through his hair before yawning and walking into his bedroom. He picked up his covers from the floor and began to fold them slowly as he continued to let his thoughts race around his mind. Of course, he knew it was absurd for anyone to plot absolutely anyth