Symbiosis

Chapter 18

Alex tapped distractedly at his phone screen as he idly nibbled at some fries, giving an impatient grunt at the lack of change in the last five minutes, as his roommate sat across from him, paying little mind to Alex's troubles for the moment as he hungrily bit into his cheeseburger. After enough refreshing of his email inbox, finding no new important emails, Alex slunk back into his chair, letting out an annoyed growling sound.

Isaac, reacting to Alex's noise, finally looked up from his burger, still mid-chew, and narrowed his eyes, giving Alex a confused frown. Isaac swallowed the food he had in his mouth. "Alex, hun, are you gonna eat or what? You've barely touched your burger."

Alex gave his phone one last dirty look, as if the phone was the reason a certain email hadn't shown up yet, before giving a defeated grunt, locking his phone, and slipping it into his pocket. "Yea, yea, I will in a sec. Just... frustrated," he grumbled, resting one elbow on the hardwood table, just shy of hitting his own burger tray, and leaning forward to lean his forehead into the palm of his hand.

Isaac gave a swift exhale that Alex couldn't decipher the meaning behind. "Well you better eat soon so your burger doesn't go to waste. You were the one who wanted to drag me down here to try out this place, after all. Admittedly good as it is," he said with a small amused smirk. When Alex didn't respond immediately, Isaac's smirk shifted into a frown of mild concern. "What's got you so worked up anyway?" he asked before taking another bite of his burger.

Alex took a long breath before lifting himself off the table. "Oh just... I sent in my job application and I haven't heard anything from them yet," he muttered in a tired voice.

Isaac just blinked as Alex spoke, still chewing on his food. "Mm, ya don thing dat burgersh are a bit more impordant dan a job righ now?"

Alex gave Isaac an unamused frown.

Isaac swallowed his food. "Okay," he continued in a more serious tone as he set down his burger, "when did you send in your application?"

Alex's irritation shifted into concern. "Two days ago. In the morning."

Isaac brought a finger to his chin, briefly putting on a thoughtful look. "So basically the morning after I told you about the position?"

Alex nodded and took a tentative bite of his almost untouched burger, but was still too worried to really enjoy his food.

Isaac made a quick thoughtful humming sound before resting his arms on the table, ever so slightly leaning forwards towards Alex. "Alright, that's still fine. Chances are, they're pretty busy over there, whatever they're doing. So if I were you, I'd follow up on your application by giving them a phone call."

Alex narrowed his eyes slightly. "A phone call? How would that help?"

Isaac did a small double take, not expecting the question. "How would- I mean..," he paused mid sentence and composed himself, "Well, generally speaking, a follow-up phone call to whatever place you're applying to would help with any job. It's basically you saying 'hey, I'm super interested in this position, and I care enough and will take this seriously enough to follow up on my application because I really think I'd do well here.' It's kind of standard stuff, really," Isaac paused again and gave a confused look towards Alex, "Did you not have to do that before?"

Alex pursed his lips and averted his gaze from his roommate, suddenly feeling self conscious. "Well uh... no, not really. I mean, I've only ever had the two jobs. First at that whataburger and second at the warehouse. And both places called me back pretty much right away. I didn't know I was supposed to follow up on them," Alex paused and his expression darkened slightly as something came to mind. "Of course, that would explain why I had to wait so long after sending in several applications in between those two jobs," he added, muttering under his breath.