How Far?

Chapter One: Jackie

*beep beep*

"ughhh!" Jackie groans, rolling over on her bed as she reaches for her alarm clock. 6.30am. "too early!" she complains, rubbing her eyes attempting to wake herself up. She flops her hands back onto the mattress, staring up at the black ceiling that had been splattered with stars to represent the night sky.
"Another day!" She says, rolling herself up on the bed causing cracks to esacape her spine as it clicks from being stiff for so long. Yawning loudly, she stands up off of her bed and shakes out her legs before heading for her bedroom door. Rustling is heard from downstairs and a light, muffled bark escaped Jackie's dog, Daisy.
"Daisy! Good morning fluff ball!" Jackie smiles as she tramples down the stairs to greet her dog. She strokes the beautiful grey fur of daisy, who snuffles into Jackie's hand.
She stands up from Daisy and makes her way into her small kitchen, beginning her long day with a bowl of cereal. As she sits at the small table , Jackie scrolls through her phone, checking the messages from her employees. 2 of them off ill today. "That makes only 2 of us today, it's gonna be stressful." Jackie says under her breath to herself, sighing as she thinks of the rush on a Monday morning. Jackie owns a cafe on the streets of London called 'Jackie's Coffee' (a/n: not an actual place... I don't think, well not in London anyway?😂). Her employees work hard with her, there is only six of them in total and 2 of them don't even work on a Monday so now, with another two people off, there are only 2 people working today: Jackie and her friend Josh. Jackie and Josh are a hardcore team when it's just the two of them but on a Monday, they struggle a lot more than any other day. You have the people with a slight hangover from the weekend on their way to work and in need of a coffee, the people who just dropped their kids off at school who need a coffee or a tea, the people who just wake up early and want cake, and then you have every other worker in need of coffee on the way to their big company jobs.
Jackie sighed as she finished off her breakfast, the thought of the day ahead of her draining her energy all ready, not that she had much in the first place. She loved her job, loved owning the cafe and everything but sometimes she wished she could just lay about all day and do nothing. a text popped up from Josh and she opened it.

Josh: Morning! Heard it's just us two today, that's gonna be fun 😐anyway, see you at 7.30!

Jackie: Yeah, lots of fun 😒 see you then!

And with that she swung herself off the chair causing a little excitement off of Daisy, knowing it was soon time for her walk. Jackie ran up the stairs, Daisy following behind, and she trudged into her room. She threw together a quick outfit, just some leggings and a grey top, and then ran back down the stairs to grab stuff for daisy's walk. Jackie would shower once she got home. Daisy bounds toward her and Jackie attached the lead to Daisys bright yellow collar. Jackie steps out into the cool British air, despite it being the middle of May, the weather was pretty crap but being raised in England, Jackie was used to it. Jackie and Daisy walked down the streets, their normal route on a Monday morning. The ground a little damp from the morning dew, daisy pranced her way down the streets, sniffing at the drains and other dogs. Jackie smiles at the other people walking along the streets of London, not all of them smile back but she got a kick out of the ones who did. Soon after, Jackie and Daisy head back toward their small house, daisy trotting happily toward the front door, awaiting Jackie to unlock it.
When they enter through into the small utility room, daisy shakes herself off and waits for Jackie to unleash her, once done so, daisy bustles off into the rest of the house, charging right for her bed. Jackie wishes she could do the same but refrained and instead headed for the bathroom, chucking her clothes on the floor and hopping in the shower. She tied her long, dirty blonde hair into a messy bun and held the shower in her hand, washing the water over herself. Once done in the shower, she hops out, wraps a towel around her and quickly runs back to her room. She picks out a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt which she tucks into the jeans before grabbing her bag and making her way downstairs to get her shoes on and wait for Josh to drop by. They normally walk to work together as her house is on the way from Josh's and it also means they get a little time to talk a bit more before work. Josh and Jackie have been friends for years, he helped her open up the cafe so they basically co-own it but he gives all credit to Jackie. He was the one to get her to pursue it, he helped her get another job so that she could save up and he then helped her find the right place. They knew each other in secondary school and have been best friends ever since. A loud knock on the door sends daisy crazy and, after yelling at the crazy dog, Jackie scurried towards the front door, opening it to find Josh's smiling face there. "Hiya!" He says, brown eyes shining, his floppy auburn hair swooped back messily.
"Hi, come in for a sec, I just gotta grab some stuff!" Jackie says as she ushers Josh into the entranceway. He steps inside and is instantly hounded by Daisy at his feet. Jackie laughs as Josh switches on his baby voice to talk to the dog. She quickly runs upstairs to grab the remainder of her stuff before grabbing her bag from the kitchen table and stuffing everything in it.
"Daisy! in your bed, come on!" Jackie says, bribing daisy away from Josh with treats. Jackie fills up daisy's bowl of water and food and leaves a toy beside her bed before taking daisy into her arms as the bribe failed, and placed her gently in her bed.
"Sit!" Jackie orders, holding a treat in front of daisy. She sits obediently, eyes trained on the treat in front of her. Jackie hands the treat to her dog before getting up ready to rush out the door. "let's go!" Josh says happily, following behind Jackie.
They walk down the now bustling streets of the city, the sun making its way up into the sky.
"So, how've you been then?" Josh asks, looking down at his small friend. Jackie was pretty short compared to most people her age, she was only 5'1 and Josh was 6'0. The difference was a lot but they still had a laugh, Josh was always complaining about his neck aching from looking down so much and Jackie always shot back that she had the same issue from looking up.
"I've been good thanks, you don't work tomorrow do you?" Jackie asks,
"Oh and I'm very good too thank you for asking!" Josh rolls his eyes,
"Yeah yeah okay but do you?" Jackie waves her hand off at him, waiting for him to answer.
"No I don't work on a Tuesday, why?" He asks back, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Just need to know who I will have and who I won't."
"Well Monday it's normally you, me, Amy and Oscar then Tuesday its you, Oscar, Luke, and Harry but Oscar and Amy are ill today so I'm guessing Oscar won't be in tomorrow but surely Luke and Harry will be in?" Josh recites the first two days of the week.
"Yeah I guess I'll have Luke and Harry tomorrow then!" Jackie smiles, relieved that she'll have staff in tomorrow.
"Do you ever have a day off?" Josh laughs.
"Uh, yeah I do! I don't work Wednesday, and like you I'm off on Thursdays!" Jackie says. Josh nods at that and they both continue on to the cafe, a comfortable silence between them other than the sounds of cars and other people. Jackie and Josh turn the corner to where the cafe is. Jackie notices eyes darting her way as she heads up to the front door, beginning to unlock it. "Seems like a lot of people want coffee!" Josh says under his breath so that only Jackie heard it. He had also noticed the eyes shooting daggers at the two of them, impatiently awaiting the cafe to be opened. Jackie laughs a little before pushing the door open, Josh follows her inside and they leave the sign on closed. Angry glares are shot their way through the wide windows of the cafe but the two of them ignore them, being used to it. "What's the time then Josh?" Jackie asks, tying her apron around her after switching on the lights. "7.57am! Shall we open it up for them?" Josh grins, Jackie smirks back at him. "Hmm, but then we'd be opening three minutes early!" Jackie says, pouting her lip jokingly. "True, surely they can wait another... 2 minutes!" Josh says peering at his phone again and then gazing outside. A small crowd had formed behind the glass and they could see angry faces peering through. Jackie and Josh glance at each other, hesitant looks on each of their faces. "Should we-?" "yeh" Josh cuts Jackie off and steps toward the front door, turning the sign to open and stepping back to make sure he doesn't get ambushed by a bunch of customers.

The day went by quickly and before she knew it, Jackie was home. Yes, it was late but still, she was home. She's had to stay later before, some people like to come in for a late night snack. Jackie's been at work until 2am before, she was lucky she got back by 11 tonight. Her and Josh were able to control the rucass this morning and by lunchtime everything had sort of settled. "Well daisy, how was your day?" Jackie asks the dog that was lazily spread across her lap. Daisy sat up and cocked her head at Jackie, causing her to laugh. "What am I doing? I'm talking to you as though you're gonna reply! You cute little thing!" Jackie grins, ruffling daisy's fur. Jackie flops back into the sofa, her TV blaring some random TV show she was barely paying notice to. A text popped up on her phone, causing the screen to light up.

Josh: Hey! You still awake?

Jackie: Yup, got daisy lying on me so got no luck of moving for a good half hour!

Josh: Haha oh god! Loola is already asleep!

Jackie smiled at the mention of her friends dog. Jackie and Josh both got Daisy and Taloola, loola for short, at the same time. The two dogs were of the same litter and Josh and Jackie love how they can still see each other, they believe family is a great thing even with dogs!

Jackie: Aww, Daisy is wide awake oh god and now she's barking at the TV!

Josh: Hehe, classic daisy!

Jackie: Yeah, anyway I'm gonna have to go as gotta be up early again tomorrow and got to get daisy to sleep! Goodnight

Josh: Okay! Have fun at work tomorrow, goodnight 😋

Jackie smiles to herself before switching off her phone and picking Daisy up off her lap, "Right you, time to get in bed!" Jackie switches off the TV and brings daisy up to her room.
"You can sleep up here tonight, I'll go grab your bed." she says, placing daisy down gently on her floor before quickly running to grab her bed. When she gets back up to her room however, daisy had already made herself comfortable on Jackie's bed. Rolling her eyes, she plops daisy's bed onto the floor and gets herself into her own bed. Daisy curls up beside Jackie and they both fall asleep peacefully, mentally preparing for the day to come.