[No ones] Out there, OPEN

[Travis Summers]

Travis looked around as he leaned back against the shelves behind him. So bored. It was days like this that he really didn’t like his job. So he wasn’t the biggest fan of his job in the first place, but he didn’t hate it. And when no one came to buy anything he got so bored. He used to get into trouble for reading a magazine or something while no one was around because someone could get gas and then drive away. Though he always thought that was stupid, because he would notice a car driving up. Besides they had cameras. He could just go back and look. Though that would add to his work load and that wasn’t cool.

Brushing his hand through his shaggy hair, he looked out the window and sighed as some kids ran down the side walk. Come on! He knew those kids! They could at least come in and talk to him. Though he got in trouble for that too. But whatever, he was the manager. Shouldn’t he be able to do whatever he wanted to do? And where was everyone else? Should he really be the only one working? Standing up and walking over to the work schedule he sighed. No one was working other then him for at least another hour. And that was giving the person credit since they never came in on time. Where were the punctual people when you needed them? Not working there that was for sure.

Going to sit back down in his chair he sighed and crossed his arms over his chest pouting. Come on. It was summer, people should at least be driving through to get home or something stupid like that. Shouldn’t they need gas? Or kids that needed to go to the bathroom? Then he could talk to someone. But no people were stupid and it was like a ghost town out there. With little kids running around. Travis watched as the same kids ran past again and he rolled his eyes. Next time he was going to knock on the window at them. Though they probably wouldn’t notice. Little kids were so loud...

Standing up again he walked out from behind the counter and went to the magazine rack to look for something to read. It was better then being bored. And he was the only one here, so who the hell would know if he was reading anything? No one would know, that was who. Picking up a tabloid magazine he went back to his seat and sat down leaning back against the shelves again and flipping it open glancing down at the first page. He flipped the page, then again, then again, before he realized he shouldn’t probably just skim the magazine. He was bored. He needed something to do.

Did they have Sudoku on these things? He flipped the pages and didn’t see one. Everything had Sudoku now-a-days and this stupid magazine didn’t? Stupid. He looked up as the kids ran past and leaned over to knock on the window but didn’t since they were already gone by the time he had scooted over to the window. They were to fast. Kids were to fast.

[Grace Burch]

Cancer. That's what she was going to get, her mother declared (as usual), when she'd seen Grace light up a cigarette. First, she was going to get gross and shriveled lungs, and then she was going to die of cancer, alone and unloved. Grace laughed at that point, declared her mother was overreacting, and kept on taking slow drags of the dangerous air, occasionally tapping the end against the banister of their house, watching the ignited ashes float to the ground. Grace didn't see that far into the future: she wasn't going to get cancer for many years yet, and besides, she could stop whenever she wanted to... right? She pointedly ignored the little niggling voice at the back of her head that declared that she was addicted, choosing instead to take another deep drag, wrapping a strand of hair loosely around her index finger. Her mother was still bitching, still yelling at her, telling her she was never going to amount to anything in life if she kept going out and hanging with the people she did. She tuned the voice out, staring absently at the house across the street, where she could see Mrs. Jarvis vacuuming through the translucent purple curtains. Oh, fuck it. She didn't want to keep sitting here, getting preached at by her mother. It was actually quite possibly the last thing she wanted to do.

Which was why she stood up, and, not even bothering to say good-bye, walked away, leaving her mother gaping, speechless for a second at her daughter's nerve, behind her. There was only one problem now - her mother was pissed, she couldn't go home for at least another couple hours. Which was why she had to find something to do. Was Tiff working today? She frowned, trying to remember, first of all, what day it was, and second of all, whether Tiff worked on said day. She gave up halfway through her train of thought, and shrugged, heading towards the gas station. Even if Tiff wasn't there, that meant that someone had to be there. And if Tiff was somewhere else, she'd be at the school helping her mom or with Asher. Grace did not want to go to school until she was legally forced to, and... well, she'd rather not act like a third wheel. And she didn't exactly want to walk in on the two of them doing something not suitable for younger children. She had enough nightmare material, thank you very much.

It was a normal Texas summer day: impossibly warm. With the sun beating on her back, Grace dropped the cigarette and squished it under the toe of her flip-flops. Fire, now that she was no longer in the shade of the big tree in front of her house, was considerably less appetizing than before. She ran the back of her hand across her forehead as she crossed the wide parking lot that was situated on the other side of the street from the parking lot. Goddamnit, it was hot. She sighed. This was another reason why she hated living here. She died every summer. Even in shorts and a tank top, it was still impossibly hot. She grimaced, shading her eyes to peer across the street at the window of the gas station. No bouncing head of blonde hair, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. She might've been in the back, or something. But there was movement, which was always good. At least there would be someoneto talk to, even if it wasn't Tiff.

As she opened the door, a little bell tinkled above her head. The cold air from the air conditioning hit her like a wall, and she shivered, glancing quickly around the store. Aha! And there was Travis. She loved that kid. In a purely let's-hit-on-him-'cause-he's-cool way, of course. "Trav!" she exclaimed brightly, smiling cheerfully. "Is Tiff working today? Not that I don't want to hang out with you, of course." While she was speaking she'd made her way over to him, hugging him briefly around the shoulders and planting a kiss on his cheek before hoisting herself up on the counter. Travis would probably get in some deep shit for this (she'd gotten Tiff in trouble before), but it wasn't like there was anyone there. At all. "How are you?"

[Travis Summers]

He had been zoned out for quite a while staring at the horoscope page of the magazine he was “reading” when the bell indicating someone had walked in rang. It took him a while to realize that it had actually rang and that wasn’t just him imagining it. So he looked up and blinked at the red headed girl who appeared in the gas station and smiled at her. “Hey Gracie.” He said and hugged her back as she reached him and thought for a moment about her question. He had just been over at the schedule he should know if Tiffany was working today or not right? He was generally the one that made them up. Unless people changed their names around like they usually did. The schedule wasn’t really set in stone. If people wanted to trade and for the most part they did they could.

“No,” He said faintly and shook his head. “No she’s not.” He repeated more certain. “I remember because she was complaining about having to work all day tomorrow so I let her off today.” Duh. That was why he was here alone. Because he was a caring and considerate guy. He knew what it was like having to work all day for two days in a row. He was letting her off today and she was going to cover for him tomorrow. They didn’t actually need two people working there anyway. It’s not like it was a busy place. It’s not like it was a hard job. And if you were in the back or something you would be able to hear someone come in. It wasn’t rocket science.

Travis thought for a moment as she asked how he was doing. “I’m pretty fair.” he said honestly. Fair was the best he could come up with. Better then alright worse then good. He was bored so he wasn’t going to say he was good. That wasn’t his way. Besides boredom was definitely a very contagious thing. If you were around someone who was bored then you were probably going to catch it too. It was like yawning or something of that sort. Speaking of yawning he didn’t know why that was contagious. He never yawned after someone else did, so he didn’t actually think it was like that at all now that he thought about it. Maybe a smile, those were supposed to be contagious, but he didn’t believe that either. If you smiled at someone who didn’t like you they wouldn’t smile back. He had tried it before. With Grace’s mom as a matter of fact.

“Speaking of,” He said though he realized he hadn’t mentioned her mom at all unless she could read his mind. “How is your lovely mother? Lovely I hope.” He said and grinned. He knew that wasn’t going to be the answer. She was probably in some sort of bad mood. Which was probably why Grace had come to find Tiffany to trash her mother to her. Ah well. He was just as good as she was in that sense. Though he didn’t hate his parents, he didn’t think Tiffany hated her mom either now that he thought about it. But anyway. “And besides her, how are you doing? Great? That’s lovely.” he said not really waiting for her to answer because it didn’t matter if he waited or not. She was going to answer him. He just always did that. Answered questions for people. It was a habit. Even if he had no idea what the answer would be. It sometimes turned out with hilarious results.

“And on the topic of your BFF.” Travis said thinking of something. “You should probably stop in tomorrow.” He said and nodded. “If you can. Because she’s going to be here alone and you know what happens when she’s alone. She dies a little inside. Or tries to redecorate. And I don’t think she realizes that she can’t move those shelves.” he said and pointed to the rows. “Last time she spent like who knows how long trying. She never gives up that one. And she got in trouble for it. We don’t want that to happen again.” he said honestly and shook his head. Sure he had some authority. But he could be over ridden by the owner who could fire whoever he wanted. Even if it took a lot to get fired. Which was a good thing for basically all his employees since they did some pretty bad things during work.

[Grace Burch]

Grace wrinkled her nose angrily, letting her feet dangle and sway with gravity. She liked being around Travis, but Tiff was simply better for ranting to about her mother. Because Tiff always managed to cheer her up, or at least get her thinking about something else that wasn't how much she wanted to go on a homicidal killing spree against her mother (and Mr. Harrison, though her mother would be the first to go). She ran her fingers through her curls, wincing as her fingers got stuck in the knots. Girls with naturally straight hair didn't know how lucky they were. She let out a small sigh, eyes automatically flicking to the schedule she couldn't read from here, as if she could magically confirm Travis' statement. "She's probably off somewhere with that nerd of hers." She commented ungratefully, self pity evident in her tone. She was feeling sorry for herself, as usual - poor her, with her best friend off spending time with her boyfriend... It was pathetic, and she knew it, but she couldn't help herself. Besides, Travis knew that she wasn't exactly fond of Asher - he was probably expecting her to say something similar.

Her eyes flickered to Travis as he answered her question, a small smile pulling up the corners of her lips. Amusement was evident in her eyes. "Fair?" She asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow in silent mockery. "Did you just honestly say that you were 'fair'? You've been spending too much time around adults, babe. You're turning into one of them." She honestly had no idea what the hell she was talking about, but it sounded insulting. Which was the whole point. 'Fair' was a stupid thing to reply, even if it was the best way to express your feelings. Grace had very strong beliefs about these kinds of things. One of her quirks, she supposed. She had strong loyalties to the stupidest things known to man - such as, say, what people should reply to the question 'How are you?'. Fair was, as you can tell, not one of her 'answers' that she expected people to reply. Strange, yes, but she was Grace Burch - who knew what she was going to think? It was usually something stupid.

And then, Travis mentioned her mother. She groaned, tucking one of her ankles under her on the counter. "Oh, you know, the usual. We went on a family picnic yesterday and went to the zoo and then had a long mother-daughter talk and she told me that she wanted to see me in a movie someday." she declared sarcastically, rolling light blue eyes exaggeratedly at him. Sarcasm was a trait that was found too often in Grace's tone when she spoke of her mother, though she couldn't help it. "Well, you know how she is. Telling me that theater is just going to earn me a cardboard box on a street corner, or is gonna turn me into a prostitute... Telling me that I shouldn't have friends like you, " She smiled apologetically at him, but continued "that I shouldn't smoke, that I shouldn't drink, get high, and basically that I should stay home all the fucking time and do laundry the second the load's done." She let out another exasperated sigh, leaning on the heels of her hands. None of her other friends hated their mothers as much as she did, really. She didn't know whether it was her fault or her mother's. And honestly, she didn't care. She was at the age where it was always your parent's fault - no need to start delving into parental respect and the love of your children.

"But aside from that, I'm good. Definitely not excited for school. You're so lucky to be rid of that shit. But I'm looking on the bright side, you know? It's my last year in this goddamn town, and then, poof, I'm gone. Off to some big city." She smiled dreamily, a far-off look hopping into her eyes that meant she was daydreaming about fame and fortune and all that wonderful stuff. She wasn't much of a daydreamer, naturally, being more down on the ground than say, Tiffany, but the idea of getting out of Texas was enough to turn her into a daydreaming fool like the rest of them.

She was wrenched out of her daydream (involving her and multi-million dollar movie deals and a gorgeous costar) by Travis, and she looked up. "Oh, definitely. The Mom-Bot is gonna be pissed that I just left her hanging in a middle of a bitching session, anyways, so I might actually sleep over at Tiff's tonight. Mom's working late anyways. I want her to blow off some steam." And witness the way she'd practically become Tiff's sister - staying at her house almost once a week since third grade did that to a person. Grace liked it, though. The Duckeys were laid-back, and she was around Tiff, and they could stay up late gossiping and laughing and it was just one of the things that made Grace a happy person.