"THERE IS SOMETHING OFF ABOUT THIS," the brunette pushed up her glasses to keep them falling from the bridge of her nose. She glanced up from the monitor to realize what was the problem.
No one called for her.
No one asked what the code for this or that was.
She was utterly alone - well almost utterly alone. Aleksandr stood next to her as he began pressing buttons on the monitor. "Alek!" The girl exclaimed as he started to click a button here and there.
It was a holiday, so the entire store quieted into some sort of silence that felt deadly. Aleksandr Cayir just shook his head at her before picking up the reprinted receipt. "While you, Forsythia, were sitting there trying to figure out whatever you were doing, I spotted someone who probably should not have used that many coupons."
"Well next time stop them! That's your job, remember?"
"I'm still technically your boss."
"Nope, Leia and Reinhardt are my bosses," she stuck her tongue out at him. "You are just Aleksandr Cayir. Got it, Scot?"
"And you are an elf." Aleksandr poked Forsythia's slightly pointed ears. The girl, only a few inches smaller than him, swatted his hands away and gave him a glare. To be fair, Ryan - the security guard who stood behind them watching this with an amused smile on his face, broke out laughing at Forsythia's try at a death stare.
She squinted her eyes into slits and scrunched her button nose. Her entire face turned red as a result, but no one would tell her that. Biting back a laugh, rather poorly by the way, Alek only shook his head. "But, your well known status as an elf doesn't matter right now. I am still Front End, Elfie, so I am your boss. And, I say, stop telling me what to do." He stuck his tongue out back at her.
"How mature," she replied when she rolled her eyes.
"THIA, WE NEED YOU!" Leia called from the other podium further down the front end. Forsythia sighed and turned to Alek.
"I guess I'll see you later," she began a shuffle over to her boss. The brunette stopped for only a second when she heard Aleksandr Cayir say one thing.
"YOU'RE DOING GREAT, SWEETIE!"
Then the very few people who were checking out wondered if they should call an ambulance.
Alek smirked and the chuckle that escaped his lips couldn't exactly be helped.
≿━━༺❀༻━━≾
THEY SAT OUTSIDE, watching as the dark clouds rolled into the scene. Forsythia Albion sipped on her iced coffee drink contentedly. The silence, for once, felt comfortable.
Then thunder struck and Forsythia bolted up from the bench. "Come with me." The tiny woman grabbed Alek's hand and pulled him back into the store with her. She ran up the stairs and into the managers' office.
It was Memorial Day. The managers were at a cross-company conference with their families - it included a family barbecue. The two responsible runners left for the day. Aleksandr and someone coming later were left in charge.
(This would end super well.)
Forsythia pulled out her phone and rigged it up to the speakers - by way of many piles of papers and a random auxiliary chord she found. "We're gonna get in trouble," Alek told her.
His voice held this sing-song "I-Told-Ya-So" tone despite the fact that no-one was there to get them in trouble. Sitting in the twirly chair, Forsythia spun around and gave her partner-in-crime a smile. "Since when do you care about that?" Her eyebrow quirked and she crossed her arms.
"Since when do you try to look intimidating to me, Elfie?"
She just grinned and pressed play. Then, grabbing his hand once more, the purplish-brunette ran down the stairs.
≿━━༺❀༻━━≾
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
It was plain enough to see. You had Forsythia Albion, a soon-to-be nineteen-year-old girl, dancing around the registers of the front end. She gave a slight glare - and stuck out her tongue after mocking the other person - before answering. "Dancing, Arthur, what else?" The sarcasm that dripped from her words seemed to poison him.
Arthur's eyes narrowed to slits and the brunette only gave an angelic smile. How much fun it was to annoy this person? Very fun, according to Forsythia. After all, she was only trying to end whatever he decided to start.
The songs from the (upbeat) 70s, 80s, and 90s blasted through the speakers. Cher's power ballad named "Strong Enough" turning the boring Memorial Day slump to a terrible dance party of one. Thia took a deep breath after the end of the song.
She turned to Alek as the opening bars of her favorite Bruce Springsteen song played. "Dance with me!" She exclaimed, hopping up and down like an overexcited child.
Aleksandr Cayir watched as Forsythia Albion twirled and "granny-danced" - her words, not his! - her way up and down the aisles. At a surprising rate, she finished the returns they gave her. It took her forty-five minutes this time around.
(Normally, she needed an hour.)
Either way, he preferred the idea of watching his overly caffeinated friend bounce off the walls. Yet, Thia's eyes grew to the size of saucers. She stood in the rays of sunlight that streamed into the front end. Her irises golden flecks sparkled in the light. Her chapped lips - from singing, from talking, from nervously biting - pouted. Thia would kill him if he said it aloud, but adorable tended to be her middle name when she acted like this.
"I'm supposed to be running the front end," Alek began with a sigh.
"I'm supposed to be the errand girl," countered Forsythia in a voice that meant to be mockingly mirroring his own.
"Fine. One dance."
She lit up as a rough voice played over the radio. (Thank god he agreed before Bruce Springsteen began singing!)
Oh he was going to regret this.
≿━━༺❀༻━━≾
WATCHING THE TWO DANCE IN THE EMPTY SPACE OF THE SELF CHECKOUT AREA, stood two cashiers. Both older men who had retired early but needed something to do while their wives still worked and their children flew from the nest. Both men were known to set up a bet or two around the front end - mostly for sports. Both men were known for losing said bets on said sports.
But, both men were fathers. But, both men were young once.
Both men knew they had a bet they were sure to win. So one turned to the other and gave a cunning grin. "Frank," said the second man to the first, "we lost every bet we made these past few years. How will we win this one?"
"Joey," Frank replied with a grin only a mastermind could pull off. "We bet on something we both know - love."
Joey slowly gained a grin as well. "Who will it be?" The question was moot because, as he asked, Joey watched a girl struggle from a boy's hold. She giggled and tried halfheartedly to move herself away.
Well, at least they weren't awkwardly dancing anymore. So that's a step in the right direction.