Keep Bleeding Love

Chapter 3| AYA

I love working in the garden. It's my happy place because I feel at peace. I get the chance to be around fresh flowers and plants. Arranging flowers in vases and pots is what I love the most. Aside from that, cashier work is not as stressful when I handle the register in a department store or the supermarket. Only a few customers come to the garden too. But it gets swamped on certain life occasions. 

Excitement filled me at seeing the basket of discarded plants and flowers. My hands started arranging the flowers I took from the basket. So indeed, I have something to bring my baby to tomorrow. My heart can't contain the happiness.

While arranging the flowers in one of the plastic pots, I felt like someone was watching me from somewhere in the garden. I tried looking around, but I couldn't see anyone.

"Creepy!" I said aloud. 

I continued arranging the flowers, but it startled me when I heard whistling. I tried listening to where the sound was coming from, but it stopped.

"What the hell! Is somebody trying to scare me right now?"

I yelled intentionally to shoo away whoever was the one scaring me. I don't get scared quickly, but this is the first time in my two years of working here that such a thing has happened.

"This isn't funny. Whoever you are, I'm not scared. You better show your face now or else!!"

I immediately grabbed the scissors I was using to cut the flowers. I walked towards the entrance of the garden, but nobody was there. I tried looking towards the right side of the garden, but still no one.

As I walk back to my station, I hear the whistling again. I stopped in the middle of the garden. Whoever is doing this prank on me is not someone I know. Only one person dares to play tricks on me, Dylan, the store manager, but he is on leave for a week. Usually, he shows himself after the first three minutes because he insists on asking me out for a date. But as always, I decline. This time it's different; it's freaking me out.

I started talking to myself aloud to calm my nerves.

"Angel, my baby, I will arrange the prettiest flowers for you. I am sorry if I haven't come for weeks now. I got so busy with all the extended hours I took. But don't worry, I will visit you tomorrow. I miss you. Baby, I love you!"

Just after I finished the arrangement, the whistling started again. This time it's getting louder and nearer. But before moving away from my station, Jane showed up at the entrance.

"Hey Aya, clock out now. We have 15 minutes to get ready for the dinner meeting."

"Oh! Holy crap! You surprised me! Honest, something is creepy in here! But I am not bothered at all!"

I told Jane aloud, wanting to ensure that whoever was whistling, whether human, heard me. I logged out from my register and smiled at Miles; the cashier replacing me in the garden. Together, Jane and I walked towards the locker room. We put our aprons in our respective lockers and took our bags. We passed by the washroom to freshen up and wash our hands. And we walked together to the meeting room.

When we entered, almost everyone expected from the employees' group is already waiting inside. And like the usual scenario, whenever there is a meeting, the same group of "birdies" started chirping.

"I heard from a reliable source that the management is going to be represented by a high-ranking person," said Lily, the senior in the maintenance department.

"Maybe it's true because the menu for tonight's dinner leveled up from the usual." Dino, the funny guy from the Stocking Department, answered.

Jane and I just looked at each other. Knowing each other for five years, we have already mastered the art of conversing with just our eyes. Though Jane is a supervisor, she was one of the quiet employees in WS. And without her telling me, I learned to be the same. As she always says, "less talk, less mistake."

And it was never my style to gossip. I only want to focus on my job. I have a goal to save for my last two years in college. Jane convinced me to finish college even after how long it would take. When she declined to accept the payment I tried giving for my rent, I paid the electric bill every month since I started working in WS. From my calculation, if I keep getting overtime hours for another year working here in the W Supermarket, I'll have enough for my first year. I can stay working temporarily here while I work my way for a year, getting qualified for my grad year scholarship.

That is the plan- no, my life's goal. Inspired and motivated by Jane. I smiled, remembering why we opted for Jane than Mama Jane. We didn't want people thinking that I got in at WS because the supervisor is my Mama Jane. But she has and is still the ever-loving mother in all ways to me.

I smiled, telling myself how lucky I was to have Jane in my life. Life is a mystery! I now want to believe that everything happens for a reason. If Marc didn't leave me that night five years ago, who knows what life I am living right now? Maybe I would still be his shadow, the dependent childhood friend, the charity case that his family took. But I still can't deny that I owed his parents great gratitude for taking care of me for years. 

"A penny for your thought." An unfamiliar voice that sat on the vacant chair on my left startled me. 

In my two years of working here, only three people get the chance to converse with me, Jane, Dylan, and the HR head. Not that I have a personality issue, but since I came here, I never felt at ease socializing. The night that I said I died the first time it felt like it placed me in a coffin, I got walled all around me. I felt like to get into my daily life; I need to be closing myself from others. One that Jane doesn't approve of. But for myself, it is my way of protecting myself. 

"Earth to Aya!" I turned my head to whoever was this brave soul beside me who dared to call my name.

I am looking at a stranger. Male, age 25-27, brown hair, wearing faded blue jeans, white t-shirt, and black leather jacket, blue-eyed and reeks of alcohol, smirking face.

"Cid Wal... Williams at your service!" and reached out his right hand to me.

***