sugar, sugar // irwin

001 // a new normal

4:50 AM. It wasn't even five yet. Way too early.

First day on the job and Olivia was already contemplating quitting. Unfortunately, she worked for her older sister and walking out wasn't really an option for her. Nepotism's a bitch.

"Liv, are you working on the muffins? We're gonna need two dozen blueberries." Olivia could feel the last bit of her soul shriveling up before decaying into dust. "Don't look at me like that. Blueberries, now."

Biting her tongue-- very hard--, Olivia shuffled her way toward the back of the kitchen to the walk-in freezer. The door was heavy and hard to open, but she managed on her third try to yank the metal door open. Kicking off her shoe, she used the dusty and dirty sneaker to prop the door open so that it wouldn't close on her and lock her inside; a lesson she may or may not have learned the day before during her training.

"Danielle," she called out to her sister. "I don't think we have any."

Bending down slightly, she lazily scanned the bags of frozen hand-picked fruits. It was way too early for her to give any more than twenty-percent effort. After ten more seconds of half-assed looking, she heard the rushed footsteps of her sister coming towards her.

"Did you even look?" No.

"Yes."

Taking a step back and allowing the oldest Garcia to take a look, Olivia's sock-covered foot came into contact with something cold and wet. As if this day couldn't get any worse.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Lifting her foot up, she let out a heavy sigh. The big bright purple stain mocked her; the mushed blueberry might as well have been laughing at her.

"You found them," Danielle quipped dryly. "Now get started on the muffins."

Watching as her sister scurried off back into the kitchen, Olivia waited until she was out of sight before flipping up the bird. Of course, Danielle's mother-like senses made it nearly impossible for Olivia to get away with anything.

"Saw that," Danielle shouted from wherever she was in the kitchen. "And put your shoe back on, cochina. Health codes."

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Was this her new normal? Making blueberry muffins at five in the morning in her sister's bakery? Is this what she had to look forward to? Because if it was, then maybe she would've been better off dying in the accident, too.

Immediately, she regretted the thought.

If her dad and step-mom had the opportunity to come back to life and work in Danielle's failing bakery, she was sure they wouldn't hesitate. Then again, if they were still alive then no one would have to work there at five in the morning with mushed blueberries staining all their good socks.

Now Olivia felt guilty; guilty for being mad at her dead parents for being dead.

It wasn't their fault and she understood that. Accidents happen; sometimes they happen at ten o'clock at night during an impromptu McDonald's run. Sometimes they happen when drunken teenage boys run a red-light and slam head-on into a minivan. Sometimes, accidents happen.

The chime of the front entrance pulled Olivia from her thoughts.

Looking up from placing the freshly baked blueberry muffins in the display case, her attention was stolen by a mousy haired man in his mid-twenties; he was cute, kind of tall, and not someone she'd seen come into the bakery since she started training two weeks ago.