The staff room was a small space with a few cabinets. It led into a break room that had a long rectangular table and a few chairs surrounding it. Melissa made her way past the staff room and the break room, until she was in front of an oak tree door. The word "boss" was written boldly on at the top of the door. Melissa knocked on the door lightly and listen for a response.
"The door's open." A low voice said from behind the door.
Melissa took that as a go ahead and swung the door open slowly. In the small cramped up office, filled with piles and piles of papers stacked up on each side of the large mahogany desk that was basically taking up all the space in the office, Melissa wriggled in. In the midst of the messy office, a fortyish looking man sat in a chair behind the desk, a cigarette in his mouth and his nose buried deep in some paperwork Melissa couldn't understand.
"You called for me boss?"
The man finally looked up at her and scratched his short black hair that had a few grey strands contrasting the colour.
"Yeah, Melissa, have a seat."
Melissa looked at the only chair in the office, which was occupied with heaps of worn out books and piles of papers sticking out everywhere.
"You can clear out the chair. Uh, dump those papers anywhere, I don't really care."
Melissa sheepishly obeyed and picked up the piles of paperwork, dumping it on the floor beside the chair. She plopped down on the now free chair and looked at the man expectantly. The man took of his horned rim glasses and placed them down on the table. He took out his cigarette from his lips and blew out a whiff of smoke, as he looked pensive for a while.
"Hm, I'm honestly looking for a good way to tell you this Melissa, but it seems like it's impossible." He said as he put off his cigarette in the small ashtray on the table.
"What do you mean Boss?" Melissa questioned, confused and slightly anxious.
She had never been called into the boss' office before, so her intuition had been telling her that what he wanted to say to her was most definitely serious.
"Melissa, I've been hearing about how you're always getting harassed during night shifts, is that true?"
Melissa nodded slowly, not sure where he was going with this.
"Of course it is, that's the reason why I put you on the evening shifts instead."
He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and fished a cigarette out from it.
"But you see Melissa, I've been getting complaints," He said and placed the cigarette between his lips. "You can't handle the rush hour and tend to have slip ups. Calculating the change, printing out the wrong receipt, stuff like that. And it's been getting worse, no?"
Melissa grimaced inwardly and bowed her head down. He was right. The evening and afternoon shifts were too hard for her to manage. There had been too many slip ups and she was sure the customers had complained to him. The man lit his cigarette and inhaled it for a few seconds before releasing the smoke. Melissa watched absentmindedly, as the smoke lingered in a air for a couple of seconds, before disappearing into thin air.
"I hate seeing dissatisfied customers Melissa, you know that."
Melissa nodded, her eyes still fixed on the ground like glue.
"It pains me to say this, but I'll have to lay you off."
Melissa looked up at him with wide eyes, not sure what he meant by "lay off". "I don't understand boss, what do you mean?"
The man clicked his tongue and sighed.
"I'm firing you , I can't cover up for your numerous slip ups anymore."
Melissa went cold, dead cold. She stared at her boss, her brain unable to process everything he had just said to her. "S-Sir, please don't fire me. I promise to be more careful next t-"
The man waved a hand in front of her face, cutting her mid sentence.
"I hate hearing people beg Melissa. Once I've made my final decision, I don't go back on my word. I'll send you your paycheck for this month. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
"Damn, you're a total mess." Tory said as soon as saw Melissa slumped back on the sofa, a can of beer in her hands.
Tory looked at the table and saw multiple empty beer cans scattered around, some were even on the floor. She sighed and walked over to Melissa, who was hopelessly drunk.
"Dont tell me you drank each can of beer?"
Melissa just stared blankly at Tory, too tired to answer her question.
"What are you doing here? Did I drunk dial your number? I don't remember doing that though." Melissa mumbled.
"Brandon called. Poor boy, he seemed worried about you."
Melissa scoffed and shook her head. "That's impossible, Brandon hates me."
Tory sighed and snatched the can of beer in Melissa's hand. "Get a grip of yourself Mel. You can act like this in front of Brandon. And just how much money did you waste on this?"
Melissa felt hot tears crawl down her cheeks and as she sniffled. She quickly wiped her cheeks and stared blankly at the cans of beer in front of her.
"What happened? I know you, you never drink without a reason."
"I got fired from my job at the mart."
"What? Why?!"
Melissa told Tory everything the manager had told her.
"I don't know what to do Tory and the loan sharks are pressurizing me." Melissa croaked.
Tory looked at Melissa with warm compassionate eyes.
"I'm really sorry Mel, I wish I could do something, anything I could to help you." Tory said and wrapped her around in a tight hug.
"You just being here for me is enough Tory, thanks."
In the corner of the corridor, Brandon stood there quietly, eavesdropping on their conversation. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as his sister's sobs resounds through the whole apartment.