"I need to what?"

"You heard me."

My mom was staring at me intensely as if I was an alien that had just landed on earth. "You need to start paying for gas and insurance so its time to get a job." She repeated for the seventh time. Literally counted. My mouth was forming an 'o' shape trying to pop out some line of defense. Its not that I didn't want to work I just didn't want to work with people. Or talk to people. Or do anything that involved people.

Mom tied her hair back with a scrunchie that she always had on her wrist, if it was not in her hair. I felt like she was so worried that she would loose it that she even sleeps with it wrapped around her arm. Now that her long blonde hair was up in a low ponytail, she folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "You didn't think you were going to get away with driving for free forever right?" I groaned and fell backwards into the couch for dramatic affect. First this book club and now a job. Where do I even want to work?

Mom left me to my own devices so she could organize her messy work closet. I'm guessing before dad got home and saw another reason to start yelling again. Since she was occupied, I decided to go out and start searching for a job that I could tolerate for the summer. The whole time I was praying for something with barely any hours, a lot of pay and no human interaction would just pop out to me and say "we are hiring."

I decided to go downtown, towards Myrtle Lane. Downtown is also close to the beach so thats where the cute souvenir shops, ice cream parlors, and beach themed restaurants would be. Anything by the beach paid top dollar too.

The road sign read 20 m.p.h. But I was actually driving about ten. People were bustling out stores and walking blindly into the streets without a care in the world if they were to get hit or not. I pumped my brakes down the entire road, my palms sweating from all the people. Today was insanely busy and it wasnt even a weekend. Must be the tourist.

I parallel parked near a timed parking spot. I had an hour. I figured I could check a few storefronts then get back in my car and slowly work my way down the road since every parking spot here was timed and the rules were heavily in-forced. The meter police, I think, sit at every filled spot awaiting for the hour to come to and end so they could slap tickets on windshields.

Whenever I come down here and see them it reminds me of Judy Hopps off the animated Disney movie 'Zootopia'.

I like kid shows ok.

I grabbed my purse and loud dangly key chain then pressed my lock button. The beep my car made  assured me that it was locked properly and I was on my way to the first store that had a "we are hiring" sign.  The store was a small boutique that had a lot of trendy, chic beach wear hanging near the front windows for everyone to see. The building was small, very small and crowded. I felt claustrophobic. Not only were there too many people in a small space but there was a lot of merchandise propped everywhere that made it hard to walk without fearing you would break something.  There were stained glass jars with painted seashells inside them, or just some that were filled with jewelry or nothing at all. The store smelled very sweet and perfumey. Which would have been okay if the strong smells of perfume didn't give me a headache.

The cashier greeted me with too much enthusiasm. "Hello there, welcome to Katie's boutique! Feel free to look around or ask me if you need anything." She said this with a bit of southern twang in her accent that made me feel welcomed. I don't think I could ever manage that much hospitality.

I already knew this wasn't the right place for me, but what did it hurt to try.

I zigzagged between two rich and proper dressed elderly ladies and then through the racks of bright colored swimsuits that they were looking at.

"Hey," I tried with a smile. The girl at the counter looked about nineteen. She wore a black tank top that was cropped with a white coat draped around her shoulders, which did not make sense to me since its literally 100 degrees outside. The counter blocked her pants so i could not see her whole outfit. "Can I help you?" She asked with a cheery smile. "Yes, actually I was wondering if I could apply for a job here." She oh'ed and ducked under the counter to grab something. Seconds later she popped back up with a handful of papers and gave me a wad of papers.

"The manager is out for lunch so you can't talk to her at the moment. On the papers there is her phone number," she paused and grabbed a pen then came back and circled the phone number that was on the bottom of the page. "You can come back and talk to her in person when she gets back this evening if you'd like." I was reading the application and nodding my head as she spoke. Not even really paying attention. "I should be able to come back this evening."

She smiled wider than she had been before which seemed impossible. "Okay cool! Great."

I read her name tag. 'New Employee. Ray'.

"It was nice meeting you, Ray. And you're doing good for just starting to work here." I encouraged.  She sighed. "Oh thanks, I'm so stressed with being by myself right now." This was the first time she said something and seemed like she gad other emotions besides radiant happiness.

I looked around and realized she was managing this whole entire store by herself while the manager was gone and she probably didn't have a real clue what to do. I felt really bad for her.

As I left the stores and souvenirs shops that were all closely built together, my applications clutched tightly in my hand I couldn't help but keep thinking back on the sad sight of Ray by herself working her butt off with no one else to help her.

Besides even though I did not like how crowded it was, it was actually nothing in comparison to the stores that were closer to the shore. They were all packed with people, like little sardine cans. I could never in a million years work in any of them. Plus none of them had matched the sweet and cheery vibes Ray had brought to that store.

Deep down I made my decision. I was most likely going to try to work there if the manager accepted me. Just because I couldn't get the thought of her working by herself out of my mind.

I parked infront of a small cafe. "Seashore cafe" was the name. It was painted bright blue with seashell wind-chimes hanging off the porch. The sign itself was a white washed board with a small fish painted in the corner and "Seashore cafe" in neat cursive. The 'e' at the end of cafe was dragged and looped into the fish's mouth, like a fishing line.

It was cute and I figured I could apply here if things didn't work out at the boutique.

I step in and the smell of seafood and burgers punches me in the stomach. I'm famished and the smells are so delectably good I'm drooling like a dog as I walk to the front.  A lady greets me, and pulls out a menu. "Table for one?" She asks. I was very tempted to say yes, but it seemed like it would be expensive here so I shook my head. "No, I was actually here to apply for a job." I say. She nods and holds up a hand. "Give me a second." And then shes gone and walking fast through a door that swings shut.

I sit down on the bench thats close to the door,  people are already squished together, sitting down and waiting for their tables. I play on my phone for about fifteen minutes and practically do anything in my power to waste time.

The time ticks by and I had been sitting there for a total of thirty minutes. I stood up to leave because of my parking being timed, I figured I could just leave. Even though that would leave a bad reputation I was not about to sit around for an hour and get a ticket when I didn't have the money to pay for it. I scanned through the benches and chairs to see how many people were seated. The booths were full except for a few tables here and there that were left cluttered with plates and crumpled up napkins from families that had just eaten there.

Then I saw him.

He was sitting across the table from a tall wavy haired brunette boy that looked about his age. The brunette smiled, one of those really wide smiles that crinkles your nose. His brown eyes met mine and he dropped the smile, probably weirded out by how I was just staring at them.  Grayson whips his head around to make eye contact with me, at first seeming bewildered then relaxing.

"Hey, tallie." He greets like thats forever been his childhood nickname for me, then he turns around and im faced with his shoulder.

Confused, I just left wondering why he would ignore me then choose to call me such a weird nickname. Im not even tall, tall. I'm actually pretty short in comparison to other girls especially the long legged pretty model like girls in our book club.

Maybe he meant it in a sarcastic way. And if he did so help me I will kill him.