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She's working an early morning barista shift at Tim's. Technically she doesn't need this job since her parents cover her college expenses but it's nice to have a little extra cash, for the occasional bar crawl with friends on a Friday night or weekend social events. Also she enjoys the people watching and people meeting, occasional asshole customers aside. She wouldn't want to be doing this full time but a few shifts a week is good.
Today though she's finding things unusually and increasingly stressful. Customers asking about her week, or especially the regulars who ask more specific questions are suddenly anxiety inducing. At first she manages to force herself to give the normal responses, but as this becomes more and more difficult until all she can respond with is "Fine, thank you.' She's afraid that they will notice that she's not fine. She does her best to keep up a professional customer service smile. Some of the regulars notice anyway, which is worse. She wants to scream but then they'd definitely know how not fine she is. She hopes the people sitting at the tables can't tell. They probably can't (...but what i they can? What if...). She's WORKING. Be professional and don't freak out. She twists the bottom of her apron with her free hand. Nobody can see that anyway.
A nice older lady smiles at her sympathetically and says 'Finals coming up, hon?'. She nods. (Finals are definitely coming up, that's an objective fact. It doesn't have anything to do with her feelings). The 'hon' feels uncomfortably personal, but some people just talk like that. It's not actually about her. (..probably). More apron twisting behind the counter.
She didn't think she was that stressed about the damned finals but maybe that actually is why everything sucks right now..Or maybe she just needs more sleep. Maybe she should take a rain check on class today and take a longer nap. It's an elective anyway, it's fine.
She goes to the bathroom, and idly opens her phone messages like always. She sees a text from her aunt about her cousin's engagement party (it's a week from Saturday). She gets along well with her cousin, and her cousin's fiancé but today she doesn't want to think about going to a party full of people who will ask her personal questions. The fact that many of them will be family makes it wore somehow. She almost deletes the text but instead she stuffs the phone back in her pocket. She can deal with that later. Hopefully. Assuming she doesn't fucking lose it entirely. She really does need a rain check on that class. But for now, she has to finish this shift. And be professional about it. Right, even the small talk is professional. She can do this (maybe).
Professional. Deep breaths. Smile. Everything will be fine.
