Morning Shift

Bob Dylan

        Jonah was beyond surprised when Nicky walked into Happy's and, upon being asked what he needed, he said nothing.

        "Nothing?" Jonah questioned.

        Nicky hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Yeah. I just wanted to hang out for a few minutes if that's alright with you."

        Of course it was alright with Jonah. He hadn't had someone ask to hang out with him in a long time.

        Well, there was that group of seniors from his hockey team freshman year who asked him if he wanted hang out with them after school, but then he overheard a few of them in the locker room talking about throwing him into the school swimming pool with his clothes on, and he didn't like the sound of that, so he decided not to go.

        He scrunched up his nose and shook his head, trying to get the thought out of his mind before it could make him feel any worse. Nicky gave him a look, but he really couldn't tell what it meant, so he ignored it.

        "Sure," Priya finally answered for him, even though Nicky was looking at Jonah.

        "Of course," Jonah smiled, because Nicky was still looking at him, and he really wanted him to stay.

Nicky's lips were pressed together like he was trying to hold back a smile as he responded with a nonchalant, "cool."

        A few awkward beats of silence passed by, but Jonah didn't pay mind to it.

        "Wanna come see our hideout?" He asked, noticing how Nicky let out a little breath right after he spoke.

        "You have a hideout?"

        Jonah nodded. "It's got one Snuggie, fourteen Cup Noodles, and 1 party bag of flaming hot Cheetos."

        Nicky jumped over the counter and crouched down on the ground so he could properly see it all. It was a pretty good fort given the circumstances. Priya had helped Jonah build it the first day they had the morning shift, and every time they left they'd lock up their belongings in a cabinet that was supposed to be holding extra cigarette packs.

        Priya ducked down under the counter and took her seat, grabbing the lukewarm Cup Noodles her and Jonah were sharing (they had to ration, otherwise there'd be no way they'd survive the winter). Jonah did the same, tucking one arm into the Snuggie and holding the other one out to Nicky. "Want an arm?"

        "I'm good," he said, squeezing into the little space they had left between them, "so this is where you guys were the first time I came in?"

        Jonah nodded. "Priya was probably telling me something about her boyfriend. She never shuts up about him."

        "Hey! I-" she paused, her hand over her heart like she was trying to be offended, but then she dropped it back into her lap with a shrug. "You're right. I can't help it, though. He's the hottest, Nicky. Seriously. The other day..."

        Jonah watched curiously as Priya chatted Nicky's ear off, even though he didn't look like he cared one bit about whatever she was blabbing on about. The resting bitch face Jonah had come to know— where Nicky's lips were pursed in a straight line, his jaw was clenched, and his eyebrows were furrowed— was in full swing, and Jonah suddenly found it hard to look away from.

        "He sounds really cool, Priya," Nicky said at one point, which didn't really make sense to Jonah, because Priya was describing her boyfriend's "perfect hair," and that wasn't cool at all. But then, Nicky glanced over at Jonah and rolled his eyes as a small smile appeared on his lips, which only confused Jonah more. Still, he smiled back, and then he thought about Nicky's little smile and grinned even wider.

        The few minutes Nicky was staying quickly turned into hours, and by the end of their shift, they'd gone through two more Cup Noodles and the only evidence the Cheetos ever existed was their red dusted fingers.

        When Priya stood up and announced that she was leaving, Jonah couldn't help but be a little disappointed. they'd only helped a customer or two, which wasn't out of the ordinary considering how early it was, but still. Time usually passed agonizingly slow, but it felt like only a few minutes had gone by.

        "Your shift is over?" Nicky asked. Jonah couldn't tell by his mostly monotone voice if he was glad that it was over or disappointed that they had to go, but he sort of hoped it was the latter. He liked it when Nicky came in.

        "Pretty much. Priya leaves on time, but I stay because the ladies that come in after— Dora and Susan— always come late," Jonah explained as him and Nicky packed up the hideout.

        "So what do you do while you wait?" Nicky asked.

        Jonah grinned deviously and pulled an extension cord out from the cabinet all their hideout stuff had been packed into. "Blast music Priya won't let me play when she's here."

        "What kind of music?"

        "You won't like it."

        "Probably not," Nicky admitted. "Still, I wanna hear."

        Jonah shrugged and clicked his favorite song, smiling when it boomed throughout the entire store. "It's a lot of this."

        Nicky's jaw was practically hanging on the floor when the first chord shook every display in the store. "Subterranean Homesick Blues? That's my third favourite Bob Dylan song."

        "You like Bob Dylan?"

        "He's pretty much all I listen to, yeah."

        Jonah felt like squealing. He'd never met a kid his own age who had a love— no, obsession— for Bob Dylan like he did. "No fucking way!" He exclaimed. "What's your favourite song?"

        "Easy," Nicky said without any hesitation, "Hurricane. It's like the perfect balance of a rock and roll song and-"

        "And a protest of injustice! That's exactly what I think," Jonah finished for him.

        Nicky laughed— a real laugh, like the one Jonah heard one of the first times they met— and smiled at Jonah. Nothing was on his chronically bored face but excitement. That was the first time Jonah saw Nicky be genuinely happy about something, and he really didn't want it to end. He would talk about Bob Dylan for hours if it meant he got to see Nicky smile like that again.

        "We should hang out one time outside of Happy's and talk about this more. I'm sure eema would appreciate me rambling on about Bob Dylan to someone else for once," Jonah said.

        Nicky chuckled for a second, but now he looked more nervous than excited. Still, he said, "um... sure. Yeah. Why not?"

        Jonah decided that was a pretty good answer coming from Nicky.

———————

Me? Trying to force my music taste through my writing? Nooooooooooo.

Anyway, I wanna hear your thoughts and stuff. Nicky is all excited, which is pretty cool. Really cool, actually. And I think we know by now Jonah's always excited this isn't new.

Thanks for reading!! Lots of loveeeee
~Teddy

(ps. Eema is mom in Hebrew #hebrewschoolgang)