Chapter Text
Tommy woke up in his worn out mattress as usual, his phone ringing deafeningly, as if it was shouting at him to get up. He checked his phone to see that the time was 7:20. 7:20! His work started in 40 minutes! Walking to work alone took 20 minutes! He jumped out of bed, yanked off his phone from it’s charger and ran towards the door, not seeing where he was going thanks to his long, uncut dirty blonde curls that covered his eyes when not brushed out of his face properly.
With a slam he fell back a few steps. Tommy groaned as he started to get himself together.
“Fuck you, Bitch!” He shouted to the door. He quickly realized that he had wasted a precious few minutes on the ground after running into a door. He jumped up faster than he ever had and looked at his hand for his phone to check the time. His phone was clearly not in his hand. He looked around for it and found it just a few feet away from him, face down and silently buzzing.
“Who could POSSIBLY be calling right now? “ He grunted to himself as he picked up the call, not even bothering to take a look at the caller.
“Hello?” Came a feminine voice that he was sure that he had heard before somewhere. He was very familiar with this voice, but couldn’t put his finger on it. Tommy started to list off all of the people he knew that has a feminine voice, Puffy, Hannah, Clementine… He was sure he knew another person…
Oh.
“Hey Niki, whats up?” He asked his employer and close friend, Slapping his face on how stupid he was. How could he forget the owner of the voice that he heard every single day?
The voice on the call laughed softly. “Tommy, did you forget that you had an early shift today?” Niki asked, her voice still soft but slightly stern.
“Shit” Tommy bas forgotten how he had volunteered to work earlier that day, for the sake of money. “Niki, the best woman alive and dead, queen of Cafe Calm, please let me clock in at my regular time today. I forgot to set an alarm last night and forgot about it this morning, Sorry” He said.
“No, its completely fine. I was going to be here anyway.” Niki said. Tommy could practically hear the smile in her voice when she talked even on call. “Oh and before you ask, the reason I was going to be here was for supervision. Some kids need supervision when they do things.”
“I am not a chil—“ Before Tommy could finish his “statement”, Niki hung up.
He looked at his phone in annoyance. Niki’s number in his contacts taunting him. Hie eyes started to drift towards the top right corner of this phone and soon it. dawned on him that he had two minutes to get ready.
“SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT shit shit shit…” He ran off, opening the door as fast as he shut it behind him. He didn’t need to change, what he was wearing was the most intact outfit that he had, and also the cleanest. Hastily he put on socks and shoes which he had kicked off the in the exhaustion of night before.
He ran to his front door, which wasn’t locked- That was probably not safe, Tommy took a mental note to research and add a homemade lock- And he opened the battered front door with such speed that an outsider could’ve thought that he has received a message that close family was in the brink of life. He slammed the door behind his and ran (practically stumbled) down the stairs of his apartment. He ran to the Cafe, which altogether wasn’t too
far away, but as he has no other means of transportation other than walking or running by foot, it took him 20 minutes. Twice as long as a car ride.