I Wanna Get Well

I sat on my tall chair in the Starbucks, my left leg clad in blue, skinny jeans bouncing subconsciously. My coffee sat untouched with my right index finger tapping on the Styrofoam in time with my leg. Suddenly a hand was placed on my knee to stop its movement. I looked up to see Parker smiling softly. “I’m sorry but that is driving me insane Fee.”

“Sorry,” I murmured, forcing myself to cross my left leg over my right knee. I forced myself to down a sip of my caffeinated drink and began to nervously twirl my pin-straight hair around my index finger. I had rid myself of my unruly ponytail from the day’s work and brushed it out to look decent. I was simply happy my bangs had finally decided to be obedient and did as I had styled them to do.

“I don’t know why you’re freaking out anyways,” Parker remarked, taking a much more grateful sip of his own coffee. He seemed totally at ease as if my life didn’t depend on this interview. Well, I mean, it wasn’t life or death situation obviously but it sure as hell felt like it. I needed a real job and making ten dollars an hour for 35 hours a week sounded like a deal to me. And that was just for one week! “You’re a shoe in for this thing. You’re OCD and can deal with annoying people.”

“I know. I have you to thank for that,” I commented. Parker made a sour face at me which caused me to laugh. “But it’s my, erm, medicial issues I’m worried about making me miss on this thing.”

“Please, the way this guy you’ll be working to clean up for sounds like a total nutcase. I’m sure his friend that wants to hire you doesn’t care if you were a seventy-five year old hobo. As long as you show you can deal with a little turd you’ll get hired,” Parker assured, placing a hand over the one that was tapping on the table frantically.

“Oh, ew. That gives me the mental image of a wrinkly, old, scrawny guy in a French maid outfit,” I groaned. Parker and I shared a shiver of disgust.

“Thanks for that beautiful fucking image,” Parker murmured, taking a sad sip of his coffee. I smiled weakly and shrugged. I was really starting to get anxious. It was three minutes after Matt said he’d get here. I know I was overreacting but punctuality seemed important to me in these type of situations. I began to fiddle with the loose threads on the end of the sleeves of Parker’s infamous Korn hoodie he had lent me. He’s had the thing since he was sixteen and I was pretty shocked it was still in such great condition.

“Matt! Your order is ready!”

My head snapped up, eyes skimming the pretty busy Starbucks. With the line obscuring my view I couldn’t quite see the pickup counter fully, even though I was only a few feet from the counter. There were many people waiting for their order so they blocked any proper glance at the person who took the cup. Then again it might not have helped my case since I was pretty short, even with the chair’s height. I caught a glimpse of a baseball hat and big muscles and that was enough to make me jump off my seat and push my way towards the counter. After recovering from having to shove through so many people, I looked up at the man.

His back was turned to me, skimming over the crowd himself as he sipped from his cup. He had a good few inches on me, a bit taller than Parker. Unlike Parker, however, he was very muscular and looked extremely intimidating. He wore a backwards baseball cap, Aviators, and a lip ring jutted out the left side of his lip. He was dressed in a sleeveless Metallica shirt, showing off his heavily tattooed arms. He was clad in simple blue jeans and black Vans. I suddenly felt like slinking to the nearest rock and staying there until I died, but I needed this job to work out.

I took a deep breath before gently tapping him on his arm. He turned around and confusion crossed his face. I glared lightly. Come on, I can’t be that short! I cleared my throat and his head instantly inclined down to see me. He chuckled nervously, rubbing his neck. “Sorry. Are you Phoenix?”

“That’s me,” I squeaked. I shut my eyes tightly, not believing I had just done that. I sounded like a fifteen year old boy going through puberty. Whelp; guess that takes care of the whole embarrassing myself thing. I opened my eyes again and smiled weakly up at him. Four inches of difference in height was a real bitch. “And you must be Matt.”

“Yes I am. Nice to meet you,” he spoke, smiling and holding out a hand. I gave it a short shake, noticing how callused it was. I smiled again and motioned for him to follow me. I noticed Parker had moved outside to give us more space and privacy. I led the way to the normal heighted table he was now sitting at, plopping down in the seat next to him.

“Matt, this is my brother Parker.” Parker stood to his feet so they could shake hands before Parker sat back in his seat and Matt sat across from us. As he took off his sunglasses I almost gasped. His eyes were a breath taking hazel. I’m sure he could stop anyone in their tracks with those kind of eyes.

Suddenly Parker snapped his fingers, a wide grin stretched across his face. “You’re Matt Sanders, right?”

“Yes,” Matt said slowly, an uncomfortable look growing on his face. I was going to turn to scowl at my brother but he was already talking again before I could do anything.

“I’ve seen you before! I work for Zacky over at his clothing line,” Parker explained, noticing how tense Matt now was. Soon recognition flashed through Matt’s eyes and he was at ease again.

“Oh, so you’re his favorite designer, huh? I hear a lot about you from him. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now.” He paused, letting his eyes trail over to me. “So you guys are siblings?”

“You wouldn’t think so comparing us to each other, but yeah. And I am the older one! He’s just a butt and wouldn’t stop growing,” I murmured, glaring playfully at Parker. He shrugged with a smile.

“So do you have any past work experience?” My eyes grew wide at this. He said no experience was needed, I read the wanted post twice more on Parker’s phone as we had waited. Matt noticed my concern and smiled. “No, it doesn’t affect the job position, I’m just curious.”

“Well I work at a diner right now. Before that I was working as a teacher’s assistant at a daycare. I stopped working there about three years ago.”

“When did you start working at the diner?”

“Two months ago.” The question was apparent in Matt’s eyes and I sighed, figuring he was going to find out eventually. “I have been at a hospital in Newport for the last two years for my depression.”

“You mean a…?”

“Yeah, it’s a mental hospital. But don’t worry, I’m clinically sane and I haven’t killed anyone yet,” I joked tensely. I didn’t know what was going through his mind due to his poker face and it was causing me to want to hyperventilate. This was it, I lost the job. Even if he kind of knew Parker there was no way a person would hire a psycho as an employee. Looked like it was going to be back to waitressing the screaming children and drunken perverts. More Craigslist searching and more going insane again.

“So when can you start?” My thoughts stopped short. I looked up with wide eyes and I knew my shock was clear, but I really didn’t care. Was he seriously? He was just yanking my chain, wasn’t he? I searched his eyes for any sign of a lie, but came up empty handed. His smiling face seemed sincere.

“You’re not fucking with me, are you?” I blurted out. Matt laughed, causing me to blush a deep red. I didn’t find it very funny. It wasn’t funny! I had legit reasons for assuming he was just messing with me. Can he truly blame me for not believing him? “What’s so funny?!”

“The fact that you really thought I wouldn’t still try to give you a job because of that. I don’t care about your past, no offense. As long as you didn’t smuggle drugs into the country or were a serial killer, you can have the job. I told you I’m just worried people won’t want to put up with my friend,” Matt explained with a smile. I felt like I could finally breathe again.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“There is one thing though,” Matt added after a moment. I felt myself slump in my seat. Damn it, he was going to give me a shrink test, isn’t he? Here we go. “You need to meet my friend.”

“Who is it?” Parker interjected curiously. Matt gave him a weird stare, but realization dawned on him.

“You’re also a fan, aren’t you?” Parker smiled bashfully, grinning nervously. “You know, I figured it wasn’t just luck that you got to start working for Zack. You hounded him for that job, huh?”

“Well, I mean, maybe a little. It was an opportunity I was dying to get.” What was going on that I was missing?

“Fan?” I repeated, looking between Matt and Parker. My brother laughed and I glared at him. Why does it seem like everyone likes to laugh at my discomfort?

“Matt here, and my boss, are in a band together. I could only assume his friend he’s talking about is another one of the guys in the band.” I nodded slowly, eyes trailing back to Matt again. No wonder his hands were so calloused.

“What band?”

“Avenged Sevenfold.” I shrugged at my brother’s answer. Matt’s eyes slightly grew wider and tilted his head to the side as if asking how I couldn’t know who they were if my own brother knew. “Phoenix is a little out of touch with music. She only listens to 80’s music for the most part.”

“Oh. Well it’s Johnny. He has quite a temper lately,” Matt remarked, wincing slightly. Parker nodded grimly. I looked between the two, silently reminding myself to ask him about it later on.

“So when did you plan on me meeting this Johnny guy?”

“If you don’t mind, we can leave to his place from here. I just need to see how you interact with him to make sure it will work out. I wouldn’t want to send you into something like that with someone like him without any experience before the first day,” Matt explained.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Great. You guys can follow me in your car,” Matt piped up, smiling.



Soon we were pulling to a stop behind Matt’s Cadillac in front of a large, two story home. It was made of white bricks with black doors and window frames. The front lawn was filled with bright green grass and had a garden gnome by the front door. As we climbed out and I asked about it, Matt explained with some laughs that Johnny’s nickname between the friends was ‘garden gnome’ and so they thought it was fitting to put one in his lawn. I chuckled as I followed him up the walkway, Parker on my heels. I was happy he had opted out on sitting in the car. I needed him to keep me focused on this and not curl into a ball and cry incase this guy snapped at me, Matt told us it was possible but he was physically harmless.

Instead of knocking, Matt slipped a key into the slot and strolled in. We followed after him. Once he shut the door he called out Johnny’s name. A ‘fuck off’ was heard from down the hall. Instead of listening to the voice, Matt led us down the hall to a room that looked to be an entertainment room. It held two couches in right angles from each other, a coffee table, and shelves filled with movies and video games. The curtains were drawn to close out the bright sunlight from behind them. The room was lit up by a flat screen television showing a football game. On the floors, coffee table, and one couch was so much garbage of pizza boxes, beer bottles, and other stuff that made my OCD-ness tingle with disgust.

On the other couch was a human-looking form. It had a comforter wrapped around its body and head and it laid across the leather. A beer bottle was in the only visible arm that snaked out of the blanket to rest on the floor. It was then I noticed a cigarette was being held by an arm inside the blanket, the tip burning orange as he took a drag. After a moment he tossed the blanket off his head and glared towards us. He had messy brown hair that looked like it needed a good shampooing. His nose glittered in the television light letting me know he had a nose piercing. That was really all I could make out in the dim lit room.

“Who the hell are they?” His voice sounded tired. I knew the tone well; it was exactly how I sounded the first few months I was in Newport. It was the sound of someone who had completely given up on everything and had no idea why they were still there. I didn’t care if he was an ass, I suddenly felt incredibly sorry for this Johnny character.

“This is Phoenix and Parker,” Matt introduced, motioning towards each of us in turn. “This is Johnny. Phoenix here is inquiring about the job I told you about.”

“I thought you were fucking kidding,” Johnny murmured, sinking back into the blanket and focusing on the television again. He cursed as one team made a touchdown, obviously the team he was rooting against.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I forced out, trying to be humble.

“Fuck you.” I was put a bit off guard by this and I could tell Parker was instantly pissed. I could feel him tense up next to me even though I wasn’t even touching him. I sent a soft smile to cool him before walking around the couch and standing in front of Johnny. He growled, obviously unhappy I was blocking his game. His dark colored eyes were obviously unhappy and I noticed deep, purple bags under them. Someone hadn’t seen much sunlight, got little sleep, or both. “Get out of the fucking way.”

“I’m going to tell you a secret Johnny boy,” I spoke, completely ignoring his harsh attitude. I knelt down and smiled at him even though he continued to glare at me. “I don’t care how much you hate me or how much you try to make my life difficult. I need a job and a prick like you isn’t going to stop me from getting it. I will make your life living hell right back if you try, so come Monday; make your choice on how you treat me.”

He sat up and then stood, glaring down at me. Inside I was crying but on the outside I stood to my full height, looking up at him without even so much as batting an eye. He was only two inches taller than me, making me feel slightly better unlike his tall friend. “We’ll just see how long that lasts.”

With that he stormed from the room, leaving Parker, Matt, and I in a stunned silence. Suddenly a smile began to grow on my face. I had just ballsed up to someone! I haven’t had the guts to do that in months. In an odd way, this guy might be good for me. I will finally have a chance to defend myself against someone. All of a sudden I wanted this job more than ever. “So Monday is my first day, yeah?”