Warmth

The land began to become greener as the air warmed up and the clouds thickened.  There was a predicted down pour next week, and I couldn’t wait!  I absolutely loved the rain!  The end of school came, and once again I was sitting on the bus.  Edward came last minute as usual.  He sat next to me.

“What’s up?” he said. 

“Nothing much,” I muttered, but I was thinking about how for the past week he’d been coming on the morning bus just to sleep on my lap.  My brain began to die from no Sudoku puzzles, so yesterday I discovered something amazing!  Edward’s head made a very nice table.

“Doing anything after school?” he wondered.

“I have to work until ten o’clock,” I told him, flipping my backpack over and hugging it to my chest.  My head leaned back against the seat.

“Where do you work?”

“Orange Julius,” I replied in disgust.

His eyebrow rose. “Is it bad?”

“Quite,” I said, looking up at him from my lowered slouching position.  Edward was already tall, so now he was even taller.

“Well then, don’t work there,” he suggested. 

My eyebrows narrowed. “I can’t just ditch out.  My mom would freak on me,” I explained, lowering my eyes.

“That’s what I would do,” he grumbled. “Back when I worked at McDonalds, I hated it there, so my friend told me I should quit, so I did,” he said like it was a piece of cake.

“Well, yeah but my mom…” I trailed off.

“I know.  But you can always find another job,” he told me.

“It wouldn’t look good on my part for quitting,” I muttered.

“In that case, find a job first then quit your other job,” he ordered �" again �" like it was effortless.  I opened my mouth, but Edward jumped in first. “I know, it’s not easy, but if you really dislike it there THAT much, you should quit.  If you don’t enjoy where you work, how will you do a good job?  And if you don’t do a good job, they won’t like you.  And if they don’t like you, they might fire you.  Not only that, but if you don’t like the job, you won’t be happy.  Don’t you think happiness comes before money? Does the money even matter?  No, of course it doesn’t matter.  And I know you’re worried about your mom, but its okay.  You’ll find another job �" a better job, one that you actually enjoy.”

I stared wide eyed at Edward for a moment.  That was the longest speech I’d ever heard him say, and surprisingly most of it had absorbed into my head. “But, if the money doesn’t matter, why get a job?” I questioned.

“Get a job for yourself,” he said.  “Like for experience or for simple enjoyment,” he shrugged.

“Enjoyment?” I repeated, perplexed.  I’d never heard things like this before…  The adults always urged us teenagers to get a job to just get a job.  To gain money to save up and �" well �" they talked about enjoying a job but that didn’t seem as much of a big deal.  I was always told that the first couple jobs were going to stink…

“Justine,” Edward poked at my troubled bubble.

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured me. 

“I-I’m not worried,” I said.  I wasn’t sure if I liked being comforted by Ed.

A small smiled played at his lips. “Don’t think about it,” he commanded, and added a soft, “okay?”  I forced myself to stop coming up with worse case scenarios and turned to the window where I could hide my face from Edward’s gaze.  

Reviews

[Kaliope]

"[A] very nice table" indeed - hahaha! I just love the subtle humor in your story, that makes it such a joy to read.
The first sentence - I noticed - is very similar to the (edited) very first sentence in the book, and since there is not very much text in between I remembered that on first read-through... so maybe change it a bit here? I don't know, maybe not necessary, just an idea. In any case I'd advise to get rid of the "began to" in that sentence, it doesn't add anything.
Anyway, I loved this chapter as much as the prior ones :-)