Page 51 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
“You know I’m here whenever you need me.”
There was a slight pause before they whispered,“I know.”They cleared their throat.“Alright, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. I gotta go put pants on.”
I snorted at that. “Thanks for that visual.”
“No problem, boo. Love ya, bye!”They hung up before I could even saylove you too.
Shaking my head, I walked back over to Miles and Chaos and said, “Lyric’s on their way. They’ll be about fifteen minutes.”
Chaos nodded his head. “Good. Hopefully, they can find something.” He made a face. “Shit. My boss is headed this way. Pretend to buy tickets.”
“How about I actually buy some so we can go inside?” I asked, pulling out my wallet. “Two please.”
Chaos gave me a nod. “No problem, sir.”
Thesirmade me snort.
He started ringing me up, and I couldn’t help but notice how tense his shoulders were.
Chaos was such a confident person who seemed so at ease in his own skin. I never would’ve thought someone could make him feel that uncomfortable. That didn’t bode well for my opinion on the man. Making kids who worked for you feel that way was… such a prick thing to do. Like… just be nice. Treat people with kindness. It wasn’t a difficult concept.
I glanced at Miles, and his gaze was on the manager. His eyes narrowed, and his lips pursed. He must’ve seen the same thing I had.
Miles looked at me with a frown, and I shook my head, shrugging my shoulders a little.
The kid obviously didn’t like his boss, but was it more than that?
Was this guy… a bad dude?
Chapter Fourteen
Winter
The manager glared at Chaos but didn’t say anything, and after a minute or two, he walked back inside.
Miles and I both caught Chaos’s sigh of relief.
“God, I hate that guy.”
“Have you thought about finding somewhere else to work?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Chaos eyed me and shrugged. “It’s easier if Ace and I work at the same place since we only have one car. Relying on the bus sucks, especially because the closest station to our, um, house is a forty-five-minute walk.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Ace loves being a tour guide here.” He said it with finality. Like that was the end of this discussion and that only Aeson’s happiness mattered.
If Aeson knew how much Chaos hated working here, I highly doubted he’d keep his job. He loved Chaos as much as Chaos loved him, so I had a feeling this sweet teen who tried to pretend he cared about no one—but actually had a heart as big as Miles’s—had been hiding his discomfort from his brother.
Ace had sounded amused on the phone about his brother not liking his job, but there was no way he knew how bad it really was.
“Yeah… okay.” It was all I could say. Chaos’s hackles were already up, so I didn’t want to make it any worse or he’d shut down and stop talking to us entirely. “How’s school going?” A subject change was in order.
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“What grade are you in this year?”
Instead of answering, he nodded toward the doors. “You should probably go find Ace. He texted me a minute ago asking if I’d seen you guys yet.”
