The afternoon was hot in the city of New York. Different people went about their daily business without paying attention to each other.
In a rundown part of New York City, a young woman hurried out of her house as she tried to get to her job on time.
She was on the phone with her boss who was yelling at her for being late.
"Where the hell are you Adrianna?! You had better get back here on time or else I am going to fire you!" Her boss' voice sounded from the other end of the phone.
Adrianna's heart sank to her stomach when she heard her boss' threat. She knew that he was a very cruel man and he would fire her if he said so. Her explanations won't even matter to him.
"I am really sorry sir. I am on my way but the traffic is bad in the city today. I will get there soon. Please just give me thirty more minutes!" She pleaded with her boss as she raced to the subway, hoping to catch the bus going to downtown Manhattan.
"If you don't get here in the next twenty minutes then you can forget all about your job! Don't bother coming in if you are late! The customers who come here all come from the top of society. Do you think that they will wait for a waiter who has no sense of time and who thinks that everyone is supposed to wait for her?" Her boss continued to yell at her from the other end of the phone.
"I am so so sorry sir....I had no idea.... " Adrianna did not get to finish.
"I don't want to know what you thought! All that I want is for you to be here to serve the customers in the next twenty minutes or you can fucking forget about your job! No one has the time to wait for you and a great number of New York City residents would do anything to have your job!" Her boss said. He ended the call as soon as he was done, without giving her the chance to say anything!
"Arrogant bastard!" She said when the call ended. She had taken to cursing her boss behind his back to help her get through every shit day. But today, she realized that cursing her boss out wasn't going to help her.
Adrianna thought of the few dollars she had left in her bag. She wanted to take the train so she would use that money for groceries but if she waited for the subway then she was going to be more than thirty minutes late. She really could not lose her job as a lot of things were depending on her monthly paycheck.
She chose to take the taxi. At least, this will help her keep her job. She jumped into a taxi just as another young woman was about to enter.
"Go...go!" She said to the taxi hurriedly. She looked back and saw that the woman whose taxi she stole was cursing her.
Adrianna sighed. She did not have the time or energy to care about anyone else besides herself right now. She had too many responsibilities!
.....
Adrianna wiped a sweat off her forehead as she took the order of the table she was serving.
She managed to get to work in twenty two minutes and her boss had spent an hour yelling at her for not getting there on time.
Finally, after she begged him, he let her keep her job.
She was already tired but her shift had not ended so she had to keep going.
She would like a really hot bath, some food and sleep right now but she did not have the luxury of those things.
What seemed like normal things to other people was a luxury to her.
There was once a time when she was like other people who considered food and sleep basic human necessities but then her sister fell sick....
Adrianna stoped that train of thought because she wasn't ready to dig up painful memories for herself.
"Are you even listening to anything that we said?! If you don't want to work then you can just stop! Don't stand here all zoned out without taking our orders!" One of the customers at the table yelled at Adrianna and she was brought back to the present.
She looked at the table that was filled with young college girls. The designer clothes and bags they had made it clear that they had a lot of money.
Of course, the people who could afford the luxurious restaurant she worked at and their overpriced food were definitely rich people.
"I am sorry...." Adrianna started to say.
"Don't tell me that you are sorry! You aren't even doing anything and you're just standing here zoning out! Would you like me to talk to your manager and tell him that you aren't willing to work? We would like a waiter who isn't zoning out on us and who actually wants to work here please!" They said,
Adrianna would really like to lose her temper and tell these people to go fuck themselves but she knew that she did not have that luxury. She would lose her job and she would be left with nothing.
She had no other choice than to hold back her anger.
"I am really sorry" she ended up apologizing again.
She took their orders and went to serve them. As soon as she was done, another customer called her to complain.
After that, it was complaint after complaint and her entire body was starting to physically hurt, but she had to carry on.
Adrianna was almost done with her shift for the day when she received a phone call. Her heart sank to her chest when she saw who it was.
She didn't want to pick up the call, but she knew that they'd just come to work to look for her. She answered the call.
"Hello?" She said meekly into the phone.
"When are you going to pay us back Miss Adrianna?" A cold and mean voice sounded from the other end of the phone.
"I am really sorry but I...."
"We don't care what you are going through. Your parents didn't tell us all of this when they borrowed from us. You had either find a way to come up with the money or else we will sell off their properties!" The loan shark said..
Adrianna sighed. Her parents had borrowed money from loan sharks using their properties as collateral. Her sister had fallen sick and all of the money had gone into the treatment. Now her sister was dead, her parents had died of high blood pressure and all the responsibilities were on her to pay off the debt and get back the properties.
"I ..." Adrianna was about to beg for more time but someone called her name just then!
"Adrianna! The manager wants you in his office!" Her coworker called out to her.
"I am sorry! I have to go! I will get your money ready soon! " She said and ended the call.
She ran back to her Manager's office and stood in front of him.
"I thought you wanted to see me?" She asked.
Her manager ran his eyes through her body and nodded his head.
"Yes. I wanted to see you. The boss had decided to deduct $50 from your salary this month!" He said.
"What?!"