Quarter Life Crisis

“Kellin, I need you to stop what you’re doing and go clean the bathroom,” Vic said to me one day, as I was slicing bread.
“Are you serious?” I moaned. I had been working there for only a few weeks, and I was already annoyed with Vic. I man, he was good-looking and funny and interesting and all, but he was unpredictable. One minute I would be doing something he had asked me to do, then he would criticize the way I did it (earlier I had received a lecture on how to slice bread the right way). For instance, now he was so fed up with my apparent lack of bread slicing skills that he was sending me on to another task all together.
“I’m a hundred percent serious,” he said, nodding towards a mop in the back corner of the room by the sink. I sighed and trudged towards the mop when I heard the sound of the front door opening. “Scratch that, I’m going to help this customer and I want you to prepare their order.”
I sighed without looking over the counter as I trudged back to my poorly sliced bread. To my surprise, when Vic asked the customer how he could help them, I heard Zoe’s voice answer.
“Um, is Kellin Quinn working today?” she asked, sounding confused.
“Sure- Kellin, get over here,” he barked. I slipped over to the counter and tried to stay calm as I casually leaned against the counter.
“Oh, uh, hey Zoe,” I said.
“Is this your girlfriend?” Vic asked, raising an eyebrow eyebrow.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “Uh, Zoe, this is Vic.”
Vic rolled his eyes for some reason and disappeared. I glanced behind me to see that he was walking over to Rita to talk to her about something. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, though, because I was busy with Zoe.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, in a low voice.
“I wanted to see what it was like,” she whispered back. “And I wanted to see if Vic really got hot.”
“And?” I asked, awaiting her verdict.
“I guess puberty worked miracles on him or something,” she chuckled. “You should tap that.”
“What! No!” I hissed. “One, he’s my manager, two, he thinks I’m dating you.”
“That’s your fault, hon, you should just come clean before he finds out and gets mad for real,” she suggested, with a shrug.
I let out a pathetic sounding whine, before she apologized for cutting her visit short and dashed off, claiming she had to get to class.
I sighed again and walked back over to where Vic and Rita were standing. They stopped talking to each other as I came up on them.
“So that was your girlfriend, huh?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled, with a shrug.
“That’s funny, my brother’s best friend has the same one,” he said, accusingly. I pretty much died.
“You know Alfie?!” I gasped.
“Wow,” he said, shaking his head. “I actually don’t, but wasn’t that a great way to get the truth out?”
“Are you kidding me!” I shrieked, enraged that he had just tricked me into telling the truth that quickly. I felt so stupid. I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.
“Why would you lie about something like that, hon?” Rita asked me.
“Yeah, why? Did you lie about anything else?” he asked. “You’re not some weird inspector are you? You’re not trying to shut this place down are you?”
“What! No, that’s insane, it’s just the one part because … “ I said, trailing off. This wasn’t exactly my ideal way of outing myself to my coworkers.
“Because?” he prompted.
“I was afraid … I was afraid you’d be homophobic,” I said in a small voice.
There was a slightly awkward moment of silence before Rita broke it with a fit of laughter. Vic just stood there, stiffly.
“It’s not that funny, Rita,” he muttered between gritted teeth.
“Oh, yes, it’s hilarious,” she howled.
“Fine, I don’t have to take this shit,” I said, ripping off my apron and preparing myself for a dramatic exit.
“Whoa, slow down there,” he said. “She’s not laughing at you.”
“Oh yeah? Then what’s she laughing at?” I demanded to know, feeling insulted and humiliated all at once.
“Honey, Vic is just about as straight as a circle,” she said, erupting into a whole new fit of laughter. Vic rolled his eyes. So Zoe was right about Vic being gay. I tried not to think about other details she might be right about.
“I told you, it’s not that funny!” he repeated, insisting for her to stop. She finally did and excused herself so she could go get a sip of water or something.
“Well then, this is awkward,” I sighed.
“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward,” he shrugged, going over to the counter to straighten out the mess I had made with the bread.
“Unfortunately, that’s something I’m really good at,” I sighed. Vic put the bread down and turned back to me.
“I can tell,” he snapped, leaning backwards and folding his arms. “So who is that girl, if she’s not your girlfriend?”
“She’s my best friend,” I said. “I’ve been living on the couch in her living room for a month now.”
“Because you dropped out?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you go back to Oregon?” he asked.
“My mom is mad at me. I think if I went back, it would be hell,” I said, chuckling darkly. I still hadn’t talked to her since I told her I’d dropped out. I had called a few times, only for her to tell me she was busy and couldn’t talk.
“I’m sorry to hear about that,” he said, though I couldn’t tell if it was sincere or not.
“She’s also always trying to set me up with girls,” I chuckled nervously, trying to lighten the mood.
“Oh really?” he asked. “Thankfully, that’s never happened to me.”
“Are your parents cool with it?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess. They just have more to worry about than my sexual orientation, so whatever,” he said, going back to the bread.
“Well that’s cool. Where do your parents live-“
“Go clean the bathrooms,” he snapped suddenly, telling me that asking about his parents was a bad idea on my part. I jumped a little, but didn’t question him this time. I went to get the mop and then over to the back room where the bathroom was.

Notes