coldblood || Michael Afton X Reader

chapter 2 ~ disposition

disposition ~ a person's inherent qualities of mind and character.

I was tired. It was time for work and I just simply, didn't feel like going. It wasn't that I hated my job, in fact, I actually really enjoyed it. I work at a store that sells vinyl records. Music had always been a passion of mine since a young age, and I listened to a concerning amount of music. I'm shocked I'm not losing my hearing yet. The store I work at was fairly known in my town, and widely known amongst fans of Kate Bush. I was a huge fan of Kate Bush myself, and always ordered some of her vinyls for the store so there was always one in stock for a fan like myself. My favorite album is The Dreaming, but ironically enough, my favorite song was Cloudbusting, which wasn't on that album.

I had to open today, but something about the crisp, cold air that day just made me feel...off. It was the middle of January, another year coming close passing by since I last saw him. I always dreaded the beginning of Spring. That's when things were worse. Talk about some weird season depression, to go along with my terrible allergies. Well, in all fairness, the depression wasn't seasonal, but look on the bright side, me! The allergies are only seasonal. My depression only got worse during the Spring time.  Too many memories.

"Stop it, you're at work, focus!!" I yelled at myself. The last thing I wanted to do was lose my PTO before the summer.

The bell on the door began to jingle. It was Jennie. One of the people I actually enjoyed being around. Jennie was exactly who I needed to see today. I could trust Jennie with anything, and vise versa. We are best friends. We've both been through plenty more shit than we needed to, and that's why we were so close. Jennie was taller than me, only by 1 inch. 5'7 and 5'6. We were really two peas in a pod.

Jennie and I met in High school, and the two of us had really been inseparable since. Jennie had long, black hair. I loved dyeing mine and Jennie's hair. I had black hair too, and right now I was rocking some cool ass navy blue highlights that mixed with my hair nicely. I had never been one to do that, not until I met an old friend of mine. I still haven't seen or heard from them in years, but I give them all the credit for getting me into it. Even if they never dyed their own, they had always been such an expert at it.

As we set up shop for the day, getting ready to turn on the radio, both our manager, Jeremy, and our other coworker, Masaki, had arrived together...again. Jennie and I constantly had gossip and tea over these two. We considered ourselves to be good friends with Masaki, but we both thought something was going on between those two. Something fruity. Not that I have an issue with that. I'm pansexual myself.

You could say that the two were just best friends, the boys just hanging out, being bros, or whatever you wanted to call it, but you could tell by the way they looked flustered when entering there was more to it. You could tell by the way they looked at each other there was more to it. It was deep, but neither would confess the truth myself or Jennie. In reality, they didn't need to, but it would just be nice to be queued in, you know? We're friends after all.

I missed receiving looks like that. Looks that signaled the other person was glad to see me enter a room. Looks that signaled the other person was always happy to be in my company. Looks that signaled more than that. Looks that signaled love. I know, I'm needy. I hate myself for it.

However, I already accepted the fact, and made the decision to close my heart off to those thoughts. I was already dealing with my own personal demons, it would be senseless to take on somebody else's too, right?

I turned on the radio they kept in the store, to keep things lively. Since Jeremy was already there, he'd just turn on the group playlist the four of us made together on Spotify. The future was great, in some ways more than others. It's crazy how time as basically been fucked with itself. With the new news of a "life boosting" chemical being emitted into the air, everyone's age was changed to a certain degree, and the government "recommended" to restart at the age given to you by your doctor. Why? I had absolutely no idea.