The ABC's of Growing Up

“I know you don’t want to be here Teagan, but I promised your parents,” David chuckled at the put out look on my face. “At least work here for a month and then I can fire you.”

I pouted and frowned slightly. “There will be no firing. I’ll leave!”

David laughed and ruffled my hair, making me huff slightly. Now if my parent’s had told me I’d be working with David, I wouldn’t have protested. Well not as much anyway. He was like an uncle to me, having been my dad’s best friend since they were in college. I got on with David really well and I knew that working with him would be a breeze.

“What do you want me to do now?”

David scratched the top of his head before looking around and spying a box. He went over to it and picked it up before walking back to me and passing me the box. I almost fell forward due to the weight of it and had to drop it gently to the floor. David laughed as he slung an arm around my shoulders.

“You can stock up for the rest of the day. Make sure all the CD’s are still in alphabetical order and in genre order too.”

I groaned and nodded. “Okay...but how do you expect me to get that box anywhere? I can’t pick it up...I’m too weak.”

David chuckled and picked up the box, motioning to me to leave the staff room where we were and out to the shop. He dropped the box to the floor and gestured to the racks and racks of CD’s.

“This will probably take you until you leave,” he commented and I groaned and leant against him. “It’s not like you are working forever! You’re doing a four hour shift. And you’ve already been here for two of them.”

“Whatever,” I grumbled, still hating my parents for making me get a job.

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I hummed to myself as I checked the pile of CD’s in my hand and looked at where I was stacking them. Once I had put them in the right place I crouched down and looked through the CD’s in the box and tried to find the artist that I needed. It would have made my job a lot easier if the CD’s were in some kind of order in this box but they weren’t. They were just haphazardly thrown in.

“Where the hell are you?” I muttered to myself before shrieking as someone poked me in the sides.

I jumped to my feet and spun round to find myself face to face with a chuckling Zacky. I shoved him slightly before finding myself smiling helplessly as Zacky simply grinned at me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as I turned to finish stacking up the CD’s.

I was nearly finished and I had no idea what the time was. I was hoping it was nearly home time.

“Oh I see. You don’t want me around,” Zacky sniffed and I turned just in time to see him pout at me.

I rolled my eyes and tugged his hand so he would come towards me.

“You know I like having you around,” I pointed out. “But...I thought I was texting you when I got off work.”

Zacky shrugged as he looked down at our locked hands. “I was bored so I phoned your house. Your mum told me when you finished work and so I thought I’d come and pick you up.”

“You talked to my mum?” I groaned.

“What’s wrong with me talking to your mum?”

“She’s going to ask me loads of embarrassing questions!” I exclaimed before shuddering. “Not looking forward to that.”

Zacky chuckled before we both looked to the side as David rounded it. He eyed up Zacky and then looked down at our joined hands. I hastily let go of Zacky and felt myself go slightly red. David chuckled before gesturing to the box.

“You finished? ‘Cause your shift is now over.”

I picked up one more CD and put it in the right place before grinning and nodding.

“Okay,” David laughed as I looked at him eagerly. “You can go.”

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“Working sucks,” I whined as Zacky and I got out of his car and walked up the front path to his house.

He laughed as he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me close to his body and ducking his head down quickly to press his lips to the top of my head.

“At least you will be getting money though,” he pointed out as he unlocked his front door and stepped to the side to let me in.

I smiled before shrugging. “The only upside to this job. Well that and that I don’t really have a uniform, apart from this shirt but I quite like it.”

All I had to wear uniform wise was a shirt that was in the style of a bowling shirt. It’s sleeves were short and it fitted me nicely. It was a dark purple colour with a slightly darker shade of purple for the piping. The back, in nice big white letters, was the name of the shop. But I couldn’t complain after seeing some of the uniforms that some people had to wear for work.

Zacky smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked through to his kitchen. I followed him and leant against one of the counters as he rummaged around the fridge.

“Okay, so I have beer or...soda.”

“Soda will do me,” I laughed as he smiled, obviously thinking about the last two times I was drunk around him. “We don’t want me passing out on you again do we?”

“Technically the last time, you fell asleep,” he pointed out as he passed me a soda and grabbed one for himself before kicking the door shut.

“Eh, potato, potato,” I smiled, quoting that old song that my parents loved.

Zacky laughed and nodded before taking a sip of his drink. “So what do you want to do?”

I shrugged. “It was your idea to hang out. Are you saying you didn’t think far enough to head to provide me with some much needed entertainment?”

“I’m going to say...yes.”

I laughed before looking out of the window and to his back garden.

“Let’s just go outside,” I suggested. “It’s a nice day, might as well work out what to do whilst we are happily sunning ourselves.”

Zacky nodded and followed me out to his back garden.

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I chewed my lip as I tried to think of my answer.

“You can’t think about it,” Zacky chuckled as he nudged me. “That defeats the whole object of the game.”

I whined as he kept poking me and pouted at him.

“Stop poking me.”

“Nope, not until you give me an answer.”

“Fine! Hukk!”

“Hukk?” Zacky asked incredulously as he stopped poking me. “One that’s not even a word and two how does that connect in any shape or form to elephant?”

We had been playing word association for a while as we had failed to think of anything to do and for some reason I hadn’t been able to think of a word.

“It’s Lyndsey’s way of saying ‘hello’,” I explained and watched as Zacky cocked an eyebrow at me. “And if I saw an elephant I would say ‘hello’. Therefore hukk connects to elephant.”

Zacky eyed me for a second before shaking his head and laughing.

“No! That so doesn’t count!” He laughed, making me pout.

“It so does count. You tell me that you wouldn’t say hello to an elephant, you meanie!”

Zacky grinned and shook his head. “Hukk isn’t a fucking word. So it doesn’t count.”

“It so does count!”

“No it doesn’t!”

I nodded and poked him in the forehead. “It really does.”

“Did you just poke me?”

I nodded and poked him again. “What you going to do about it?”

I shouldn’t have asked that because the next thing I knew, Zacky had pounced on me and was tickling me. I wriggled underneath him and shrieked as his hands darted beneath the very bottom of my shirt and brushed against my skin. I grabbed his wrists and tried to stop him but he simply pinned my hands above my head, all the while laughing at me.

“Zacky! I’m going to fucking piss myself!” I giggled as tears began to prick at the edges of my eyes. “Seriously! Stop!”

Zacky stopped and looked down at me, the both of us breathing heavily. I narrowed my eyes as he let go of my wrists and sat up so he was straddling the tops of my legs. I propped myself up on my elbows and pouted.

“That was mean,” I pointed out.

Zacky shrugged and smiled at me, making me melt slightly. “I thought it was quite funny.”

I huffed and ‘sulked’, looking away from him and ignoring him as he said my name.

“Teagan,” he said before pressing his lips to my forehead.

He carried on doing this, pressing his lips all across my face. From my forehead to my cheeks to my nose to my chin. He then pressed his lips to mine. Zacky pulled away as soon as he realised what he’d done and I looked at him with wide eyes. My eyes flickered across his face before zoning in on his lips. I swallowed and pushed myself up so I was propped up on my hands instead of my elbows. I leant forward slightly and moved closer to Zacky, our noses touching for a moment before I moved and pressed my lips to his.

I moved away and looked at Zacky before finding my eyes falling shut as Zacky brought his hands up and cupped my cheeks, pushing his lips to mine again but with more feeling than either of us had before. Zacky shifted and rested one of his hands to the side of me as we both slowly laid down. My back hit the floor and Zacky’s body rested comfortably on top of mine, his weight staying off of me by his arms either side of me. My hands rose and my fingers tangled in his hair as I parted my lips, letting his tongue move with mine.

Zacky pulled away after a moment, bringing a hand up to brush some of my hair away from my face. He cupped my jaw with one of his hands and gently stroked my cheek with his thumb as he smiled warmly at me. I smiled back before leaning up and pressing my lips to his once more.