Stay

Part 1

Three months. It’s been three months since I moved to Orange County to live with my brother and his girlfriend. My mom had kicked me out and I had no where else to go. No job and nothing to fall back on. I guess I was glad that my brother took me in with open arms. He had never really gotten along with my mom ever since our dad died and I couldn’t blame him. She was awful to live with. But unlike him I had no choice. She said I owed her that much to stay with her since everyone else had abandoned her. I was in my room when I heard my brother call for me.

“Case!! Hurry up come down here!” after that I had practically flew down the stairs to see what was going on.

“What?” I asked completely out of breath.

“Check this out.” he turned his laptop to face me and it was an email. “The bank that Liz works at is hiring. You should apply.”

I looked at him confused. “You have a job already why are you getting job listings?”

“I got them for your dumb ass. If you want I’ll call Liz right now so she can pull your application.”

“What? Hell yeah!” I laughed.

“Only problem is it’s in L.A. so you’re going to have to commute. It’s not that bad though. Only an hour drive.” he said as he picked up his phone and made the call.

“I don’t care. As long as I have money in my pocket I’m totally fine!” I hugged him and went into the kitchen to grab something to drink. I could hear him talking to Liz and it seemed like forever before he finally hung up.

“Ok good news. She said the hiring manager is there now and she got you an interview with him today at 3. I’ll email her your resume while you get ready.” he smiled and I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was finally getting a job and at the largest bank in L.A none the less!!

A Few Hours Later

I walked in to the bank and Liz greeted me.

“Hey come on back.” she smiled and I followed her to a back office. The bank was fucking huge! As I was walking I looked over to one of the tellers and they were helping none other than Johnny Depp! My jaw dropped.

“Is that…” I said to Liz and she didn’t let me finish.

“Shh… but yeah it is him. You’ll be seeing a lot of famous people here. So you can’t afford to be star struck. You’ll get asked that in the interview.”

We stopped in front of an office and she stood aside for me to walk in. “Have a seat.” she gestured and then shut the door. “Ok first things first. I’m gonna walk you through some of the questions so you that have all the right answers.” she smiled.

After I had gone through 3 different rooms and interviews with 6 people I was on my way back home. I turned the radio up full blast as I was driving down the 405. My brother had gotten me an iPod for my birthday last week and it was the best gift I could’ve gotten because the radio stations here didn’t really play the music I loved.

I finally pulled up to the house and when I pulled my phone out of my purse I noticed I had a voicemail. Fuck! I shouldn’t have had my radio that loud. I dialed my voicemail and waited for the prompt.

“Please enter your password then press pound.” I did so.

“You have one unheard message. Hey Casey it’s Liz. You’re probably on the freeway right now but just thought I’d call to let you know everyone loved you! Give me a call back as soon as you can so we can set up you’re training date. I’m not supposed to call you until tomorrow but I couldn’t wait to tell you! Congrats!!”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe I had a job! Everything was starting to fall in to place!

The Following Week

I had 3 days of training and today was my first official day on the job. Liz was right when she said I would be helping a lot of famous people. I had already helped Eminem, Robert Downey Jr., and Pink. The day had gone by pretty quickly and I was an hour away from going home. I was about to start closing down my drawer when Liz approached me.

“Casey would you mind helping that gentleman over there? All of the other tellers are busy and he’s in a bit of a hurry. He‘s a regular so make sure you don‘t spook him” she laughed and gestured over to a guy sitting in the waiting area.

“Yeah sure.” I smiled.

“Good. He’ll be your last customer and you can close up.” she waved him over and he smiled as he walked towards my lane.

“You’re new aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes I am. Just came out of training today was my first official day.” I smiled.

“Oh well congratulations.” he smiled and held his hand out. “I’m Zack. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”