~●Harvest Season●~

🥕

"So that would be... a Chica Chug, Devilish Delights, and a Fazbar?" I read off my list of an order that I had written down. The customer nodded and gave their approval as they fished around their pocket, pulling out some crumpled cash and setting it down on the counter, before making their way to their seat. I sighed and took the money, placing it on the cashier and calculating the change. The moment I turned around, I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little out of stress of the overwhelming amount of people that I had to deal with.

Then again..

This is a big mall..

I placed the appropriate snacks and the change in a tray and put it on the robots that rolled around and served customers as mechanic little waiters. The robot beeped and started rolling towards the previous customer. I forced a smile as I faced another, betting with myself if this one was a decent person or an arse.

________________

"Oh, hey (Y/n)!" Anna greeted cheerfully.

"Wow you look like shit." Cody snickered as I barged into an employee's only room that had two tables and a few chairs that were occupied by other employees that were startled by my dramatic entrance.

"You look worse." I shot back and let out a groan as I sat next to Cody, who gave me a raised brow look.

"We all had a tough day y'know." Anna said with a full mouth while chewing on a Freddy Fudgebar.

"We have a tough day everyday. Damn kids gotta have a fancy ass birthday party." Aiden huffed, rolling his eyes and sipped his drink through a straw.

"Atleast were getting paid.." I shrugged.

"Yeah, 13.5$ an hour!" Aiden threw his hands up. "A big ass mall making millions every year and they give us this crap."

"I mean...isn't that like every corporate mall though?" I snickered a little, throwing a bit of shade.

"The point is, I don't get paid enough to give a rat's about what the customers want. This shit is just Christmas money." He ranted a bit more before continuing to grumpily sip on his soda.

"Honestly I don't know how you haven't been fired yet." Cody laughed as Anna joined him, "If you wanna stop getting your ass handed to you by Ness, you better start doing your job right."

"Oh yeah? What if I want her to hand my ass to me--"

The door suddenly opened to Vanessa, being somehow the only security guard in the entire mall, who was standing their expectantly with her arms crossed.

Cody fake coughed at Aiden who gave him a "shut up dude" look

"Alright everyone! Come on, get up! Break's over!!" Vanessa entered our room and started barking out orders. We all whined like children at her while she looked at us, unamused.

"C'moooon, Nessieee~" Anna groaned, "Just a little longeeerrr..!"

"Yeah why don't ya join us?" Cody invited with a friendly smile, hoping Vanessa would give us atleast a couple more minutes by convincing her to have a snack with us. I also secretly hoped it would work.

"You guys heard her. Get off your asses and let's get back to work." Aiden spoke loudly and stood up, crossing his arms and mimicking Vanessa. Cody raised a brow while Anna straight up called him out.

"Listen, just 'cause you wanna impress Nessie doesn't mean you get to boss us around."

"Wh- Hey!! It's not like that!!" Aiden shouted frantically as the other two laughed. Vanessa however didn't entertain the statement and kept ushering us to get out.

"Come on, you guys. Wait here any longer and the customers are gonna start a war."

"Whatever you say buddy." Cody winked at Aiden who was beet red and was trying to hide his very painful and obvious crush on Vanessa by rushing past everyone out of the door, Cody and Anna following afterwards still giggling like mischievous little children.

During all the commotion I slowly sunk in my seat and tried to hide under the table, hoping Vanessa assumed I already got out with them.

"I can still see you, Carrots."

Damnit..

Vanessa's bright, emerald green eyes stared down at me as she leaned over the table. Her light blonde hair was put in a pony tail and covered with a black cap that had the word 'Security' on it. She wore a white, button up, long sleeve uniform and black pants that fit around her waist. A smirk was on her lips while raising a brow at me.

I whined a little and got up from under the table and dusted myself off a little.

"Carrots?" I question her newfound nickname for me.

"Heh.. yeah. You look like one with your uniform." She snickered, referring to my orange apron and green hat.

"Now come on out already, it's been 3 minutes past the break and I bet there's already enough lined up people to make a circle around the entire Earth at this point.

"Ughh.. don't remind me." I shuddered, dreading to face that many customers. Vanessa laughed, following behind me after she closed the door to the room.

"Oh, don't be like that. It's just 5 more hours until your shift ends!" She said enthusiastically.

"Woooww.. 5 more hours." I rolled my eyes playfully as I dragged out my sentence. "You're really dedicated to this place, aren't you?"

"Yeah well, work here long enough and you'll start getting attached too." Vanessa grinned, walking beside me.

Her and I haven't talked too much the whole time I worked here. The first time I got here. She was extremely friendly towards me but I think that's just employee's courtesy. Nonetheless, I never had any bad encounters with Vanessa and she just continued to be nice to me despite our scarce communication.

I hadn't noticed before, but now I can see that she was walking me back to my station when she still followed me even though she was supposed to take the other hall and go back to her job. We both talked and talked the entire way until we were infront of Chica's Shoppe.

"Call me if you need me to beat up an unruly customer for you, or if you need anything, yeah?" Vanessa smiled at me. I nodded and smiled back at her.

"Please don't, but I'll call you if there's any trouble. Thanks, Vanessa." I waved at her as I entered the shop and immediately drowned in the crowd.

However I could still hear her voice among the loud chatter.

"See you soon, Carrots."