Christopher Alba Griffin was enjoying a walk down a wide crowded footpath next to the Rockingham shops, there was a nice cloud cover and the temperature was perfect.
Chris had decided to skip work today and was distracting himself from the possible consequences by enjoying the beautiful day.
Feeling a cold breeze from his right he's confused on why wind is coming from a wall.
Looking over he expected to see a exhaust fan or something, Not a portal floating in mid air with a kaleidoscopic tunnel leading impossibly deep into the building it was facing.
Standing right in front of the portal, he was to mesmerized by the alien beauty of it to realize that something besides air was coming out of it
"Ahhh!" he lets out a quick exclamation as something struck his leg.
But that's me getting ahead of myself lets start from the beginning...................also known as yesterday.
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(insert obnoxious alarm noise)
"RING RING" "RING RING" "RING RING"
"huuuugh" groaning like a zombie I struggle to reach for my phone on my side table 5:30am,
"mmmmm" sighing in contentment I decide I can sleep for a bit longer
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"RING RING" "RING RING" "RING RING"
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"RIN-"
"UGH" "I'm up" sitting up, my bleary mind somewhat jolts awake as I realizing that I might be late
Tapping my phone to get it to show me the time, it shows 6:15am.
I look at my phone debating whether to call in sick or not, deciding that yes, I do have enough enthusiasm I order an uber from my phone as I shuffle out of my king sized bed.
My bed that took up 1 3rd of my room called to me with its' delightfully comfy weighted blanket and foam topper, "ugh, why is the bed so comfy in the morning and not when I'm actually trying to go to sleep"
Not even giving the bed a second glance as I take of my nightclothes, which consists of comfy shorts and a sweaty cotton shirt.
Weighing in at 100kg with a height of 6,1, I'm cultivating a respectable dad bod with my nice beard hairy chest and soft belly. I have curly brown hair in cut short on the sides, green brown eyes and slightly tanned skin.
Sitting on my bed naked I pull on my blue high vis workpants, then stand up to put my yellow high vis work shirt on.
To my dismay the small amount of irritation caused by putting my clothes on caused my body to release a wave of sweat.
My entire life I've had a problem with sweat, I know its a very useful evolutionary trait but my body produces way to much to be normal.
This means that I have sweaty pits and clammy hands at all times, I don't remember a time where my hands weren't somewhat clammy.
I like to joke that I will always have baby hands "who needs moisturiser when your body does it for you"
I sit on the bed again to put my thick socks "Ding!" but hear a ding from my phone
"That's quick" I check my phone, 3mins until arrival
"That's down the street!" Looking at app I can see that the guys literally parked down the street, "Ugh" "why!?"
Quickly yanking my socks and wheat coloured boots on.
The corner stitch of my left sock is irritating my pinkie toe but I don't have enough time to fix it.
Grabbing my phone of its charging cord and my bag of the floor then exit my room.
I live at home with my mum, brother and sister. Our house is an average suburb type with 4 bedrooms taking up half the space and the other half consisting of a small front room and a lounge room with a connected kitchen, our backyard is a 2m square patch of sand that also connect to our 2 car garage, which only contains one car because its halfway full of random shit, like camping gear.
Making my way to the front exit, I go to open the door before remembering that my site access card in still in my clothes from yesterday.
Quickly getting the card I exit the house to see the uber car on the empty street in front of my house. Quickly getting in the car I make my way to my work as an NDT trainee.
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I arrive at the workshop a little early at 6.40am.
making my way into the underfunded tech room which only has 2 working computers, I'm greeted by jeers from Dan.
"Big penis! ha hah you've showed up to work today!" Dan exclaims happily
Dan is a 40 year old white Aussie with brown hair cut short to mitigate the look of his balding head he was also had a very wrinkly clean shaven face.
I've been told that he used to be a pack a day smoker and doing drugs which makes sense as you can tell that he's done some by his partway brown teeth and excess of wrinkles and by how he looks slightly underweight.
You wouldn't be able to tell from his looks but he's a very friendly guy.
Looking towards him hesitantly not knowing where to take the conversation I say eloquently "yeah"
I make my way to a chair and sit down on one of the squeaky chairs "eeee" "they should really replace these chairs"
looking toward one of the white boards in the room which someone had decided to write my passed weeks working days on
days on and off predictions 10/10-14/10 2-3 2-3 17/10-21/10 2-3 2-3 24/10-28/10 0-5
Dan looks at me with a mocking glint in his eyes and a cheerful smirk " Are you going to finally do a whole week this week buddy?"
Not really wanting to tell Dan my reasons for not being at work I tell him "Yeah planning on being here for the full weak"
My reason for not coming to work is because it's boring and the more I work here the more I realize that it's not the job for me.
Crazy right? The perfect industry job right out of school and I'm planning on quitting.
It's funny, I criticised my sister from quitting out of an industry traineeship just like this one not even a year ago and now here I am thinking of doing the same thing.
She's now a support worker, happily to it seams. "I'll wait out this buyout then go from there, I still have my whole life ahead of me"
I read a fantasy book on my phone as the tech room slowly fills with technicians, around 15 men and one woman.
The main tech walks in the room holding his laptop, and sits down at the head of the desk and begins the daily prestart. Every one goes quiet to listen.
He proceeds to go through the planner, saying what everyone is doing for the day. I try to listen to the whole thing but quickly blank out while looking in his direction thinking about random stuff.
I snap out of my thoughts when he looks at me "Chris, your good to hold down the fort and do some Tafe work?"
"Yeah, sure" I say with more enthusiasm than I feel, All my Tafe work is done until I get more of it.
The reason he didn't put me on a job is because there aren't that many jobs, and the ones we do have don't need a trainees help to complete.
Nodding at my answer he finishes of the prestart and everyone goes of to do menial jobs like checking equipment or reporting, 2 people stay in the tech room with me to use the only computers in here.
One's doing a site induction which will take the whole day and the other is listening to music while finishing up some reports from yesterday.
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I spend my whole day getting some R and R by reading Fantasy books on my phone, I took some breaks by doing other things like sweeping the workshop floor messing with some of the equipment and eating lunch but other than that a boring day.
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4pm rolls around and all I've really accomplished is reading fantasy books on my phone, which is another reason for not going to work. If I'm going to be reading all day might as well do it at home were there's actual air-conditioning.
Getting an Uber. I'm home before 4.20pm.
opening the door I'm greeted by high pitched excited barking by Doug the dog. "bark bark bark"
Doug Is a Maltese, shih-tzu cross Papillion. In other word a very fluffy small white dog with some black dots. Named Doug because his litter was born in a ditch
I do my standard hello to the dog as he runs into the front lawn and paws excitedly at my leg," Doug you rat dog go on get, get back inside"
Walking inside I say happily "hello puppy, hi, yes hello" while leaning down to give the dog a scratch
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Doug happily leaned into the scratches for a second before bounding around in front of me as I walked deeper into the house.
Doug's tail was wagging so hard that his whole butt way swaying with the movement
Walking to my room with Doug following I put my boots and bag down by the door, throw my phone on my bed then grab an old towel off my door then go to the laundry room were I close the door put all my sweaty clothes in the top loading washing machine. Naked and not sure if anyone is home I wrap the towel around myself than go to have a shower in the bathroom.
I start by washing with hot water and a bar of soap and end the shower by gradually turning the heat all the way off and conditioning my hair.
You know what's funny? Until halfway through high school I didn't know how to properly use conditioner, I used to always soap my hair, rinse, condition and then use soap again. No one taught me that your meant to lightly rinse conditioner off, so for the longest time I had some of the worst hair possible, and I used to have a jewfro, so I had long curly hair that felt like hay.
Hopping out the shower I finger comb my properly conditioned hair, Brush my teeth and floss. Looking my beard using the mirror I decide I'll shave another day. Happy with how I look I wrap my towel around my waist and exit the bathroom.
I walk to my room leaving watery footprints on our wood textured linoleum flooring . I towel of a bit as I entered my room then wrap the towel around my waist and sit down on my bed facing a desk fan that I turn on.
I grab My phone from where I threw it prop it up on my side table while plugging it on charge. And play a random YouTube video while I wait to dry.
when dry I put on a nice clean shirt and some comfy pants.
Then lay down on my bed, grab my phone and start reading again. I'm currently reading an really interesting book where the MC is slowly turning into an eldritch horror.
After I finish a certain chapter in my book I switch to playing rocket league while singing/mumbling to music. I also make a nice ham sandwich to eat, at some point.
At 6.30pm mum gets home, "kids! come help with the shopping"
I've got a minute left on the 3v3 match and its 1-2, when the other team gets another goal with only 30 secs left I vote forfeit and my teammates decide to do the same ending the match. Pausing the music and turning of my wireless headset I go to help mum. My excess sweat has caused me to have a few beads of sweat drip from my armpits down the side of my chest.
Even if It was a ranked match I play for fun and to listen to music, so I'm not bothered that I lost the match.
Seeing my mum Sara in the Kitchen I say happily "Hello"
My mum is only 40, she has long brown hair the same coloured eyes as me and is a little bit overweight.
In high school she was to top player in netball before she had us kids even then she only stopped playing when she had me her third. As we were growing up she would take us to her softball games and even now she goes to axe throwing tournaments every Tuesday.
She currently works as a real estate agent, it's always funny listening to her complain about shit tenants.
"Hi, go get your brother and sister to help with the shopping" she asked me as she walked of to her room
"KIM! MARK! Come Help with the shopping!" I yell Poking my head into the hallway leading to their rooms
"OKAY! BE there in a sec" Mark answers back
I don't hear Kim so she is probably out still.
Going out to the garage to get the shopping out of the car as I'm grabbing 2 of the 4 paper bags mark shows up, I shimmy past him and the garage wall to get back inside while I leave him with the rest of the shopping.
I put the Bags on the Kitchen island and stat to putting the shopping away, halfway through the first bag Mark shows up with the rest of the bags and helps put everything away
Mark looks the same as me except he's 20 and almost 7ft tall due to having a whole extra vertebrae. We like to say to others that he has more vertebrae than a giraffe. Mark also has a dad bod but due to not brushing enough has slightly yellow teeth. He's a bit unlucky as he's a year 2 apprentice whose boss decided that he wanted to retire, leaving my brother without work.
With nothing to talk about we work in a comfortable silence.
Finished putting away the food I grab my phone and sit on the lounge room couch watching TikTok and my brother goes back to his room to play his top down strategy games.
There's an air conditioner right above the couch which felt sublime as it blowed crisp cold air over my sweaty skin.
At 7.30pm mum walks out of her room "Hey Chris, can you make the spaghetti I bought, for dinner?"
"Can't Mark do it" I answer back not wanting to stop watching TikTok
"Yeah but your better at it, please"
I look at her
She looks back at me with a smile that says she know the answer already
Sighing I answer " As Long as he cleans the dishes"
"Deal!" She says pumping her fist as she walking back to her room
I quickly swipe through a few TikTok's to confirm that yes TikTok is mostly Brain rot before turning off my phone.
I put my phone on charge back in my room before walking to the kitchen to start dinner.
I start by putting water on a boil with some salt and a little olive oil plus putting some garlic bread in the oven. Then on a high heat pan I brown a kilo of mince an a pan with some salt, olive oil and, pepper, garlic and finely dice onion and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, I let the water evaporate before mixing the mince so that it heats up to the point that the Maillard reaction is happening making the mince crunchy and fatty and full of flavour, Its pretty dry at this point so I rehydrate It with a can of diced tomatoes and put 2 bags of pasta in the boiling water, then I let that evaporate down to where I can see the bottom of the pan for a second after mixing with my wooden spoon, at this point I add rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil a squeeze of siracha sauce for spice and a store bought past sauce bottle and set the heat down to a simmer.
After the past is cooked I stain the water of then put it back in the now empty pot with a tablespoon of butter, I toss that so that the butter melts and coats the pasta.
Done cooking I plate Up, and add a little bit of parmesan to the top for favour and dump the leftover sauce in the spaghetti pot to put in the fridge for tomorrow.
By the time I'm done Its close to 8.30. I wipe the sweat off my forehead, grab mums plate walk to her room and give her the plate.
Proud of myself for how well it turned out "Here you go"
She's laying on her bed watching CSI, looking at me and the food, her eyes widen "wow this looks delicious"
"I hope it is" I think as I go to stand just outside her room with my head poking into her doorway so that I can see her first reaction to the taste.
She see's this roles her eye's and decides to indulge my curiosity. She takes forkful of the spaghetti and eats it.
"Wow!, This Is delicious." she says happily going for more
Happy with her reaction I go back to the kitchen and grab Marks food. Walking into his room I see he's playing Warhammer 40K, I hand him the food
"There better not be any spice in this" he whines
"He gets so irrational about spice, such a white boy" "There's a little siracha, enjoy the fact that I made you dinner or make your own!" I bite back annoyed.
He gives me an annoyed look but with nothing to say to that he turns back to his computer and I walk back to the kitchen.
Getting my food and going to my room I put the plate down on my side table on a folded up cloth so that its heat doesn't mess with the wood finish.
Propping my phone up I put a random science video on YouTube to watch while I eat, The food is delicious and I finish it quickly.
I grab the plate and put it in the sink before wiping the sauce on my lips of with a paper towel and go back to my room.
With nothing else to do I read books on my phone until 11pm where I don't set an alarm and go to sleep. I don't actually fall asleep until 20 minutes later due to how sweaty I got under my blankets, I ended up falling asleep face down into the mattress with my blanket only half on my body.