Levi woke-up to violent ringing of his alarm “Dammit” he muttered before smacking the

alarm to shut it up. After getting out of his bed, Levi went to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth

with mouthwash. After that he put on his boots and rushed out the door, “How many times did I

hit snooze? Now I’ll have to run if I want to make it in time.” He said to himself before he

started running to work. After a few minutes, his head started pounding as much as his heart and

the hangover kicked in.

Alice pulled up to Levi’s house, 5:30pm, exactly when she said she would be there. So

where was Levi? She reached to grab her phone to call him, but immediately stopped herself.

“That won’t do much good. Where are you at Levi?” After a few minutes of waiting, Alice

walked up to the door and started knocking, maybe he was still asleep she thought. “But no way

he can sleep through this.” Alice said before banging a little harder on the door.

“I don’t think he’s home, young lady.” An older woman’s voice shouted over the

banging.

Alice almost jumped out of her skin, then looked over her shoulder and saw a small old

lady with grey hair, pink glasses, and a light blue floral dress. She hobbled over in Alice’s

direction while using an ivory white cane to guide and assist her. “I’m so sorry miss, I’m here to

pick him up and he was supposed to be out here by now.”

“Well does he know that?”

Alice was confused by the question “Um yeah, we talked about it last night.”

“You are talking about that odd young man with the mismatched eyes, correct?”

Alice began to feel like she was racing against the clock, at this rate she was going to late

and didn’t have time to entertain this old lady. “Yup, that’s Levi. But if you haven’t seen him

then I really have to get going.” Alice started to walk back to her car.

“Who said I haven’t seen him?” The old lady recaptured Alice’s attention and she turned

around.

“Really do you know where he is?” Alice was pleading at this point.

“Not exactly, but I did see him take off running in that direction and he seemed like he

was in quite a rush. I dare say, he was looking a little rough too.”

“He what?!” Alice was beyond annoyed. “Why on Earth would he do that! He knew I

was going to be here! What an absolute- “

The old lady held up her finger and said “Language, darling. I’m sure you weren’t going

to say something inappropriate; it’s not fitting for a young lady like yourself.”

This old lady was starting to remind Alice of her mother and that was only adding to her

irritation. “No ma’am, thank you for your help. But I really have to get going.”

Before the old lady could say another word, Alice was in her car and driving to work. She

talked to herself on the way to the warehouse, venting her frustrations. “I swear to God he better

not come in today or have a good reason for ditching me. You know what? There is no good

reason for ditching me like this. When I see him I’m gonna do… I don’t know but it’ll be

something to make him regret wasting my time.”

At that moment she saw a man hunched over, vomiting on the side of the road. She

recognized the hair and the clothes. Alice pulled up next to him and shouted “Levi!”

“One minute, I’m busy.” He said before vomiting up what little was left in his stomach.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Levi was drenched with sweat. When he finished, he walked up to the car and stared at the

ground because every time he lifted up his head, he wanted to throw up again. “Morning.”

“WHY. DIDN’T. YOU. WAIT.” Alice could not contain her frustration inside her. If

Levi could hold his head up long enough to look in her eyes, then he’d see the fire of that

frustration.

“What are you talking about?”

“Last night! You said we would ride together to work.”

“That doesn’t sound like me.”

“Well it happened, so get in and we can still make it on time.”

He wanted to say no, but then the memories of last night before he started drinking came

back. “Alright…sorry.” Levi got in and felt a mixture of sadness and guilt for ditching Alice.

Alice looked at the sorry state of Levi. Pale, sweaty, blood shot eyes and she asked, “Are

those the same clothes you wore yesterday?”

Levi looked at himself “Probably.”

Alice flared her nostrils “You smell like a dumpster covered in whiskey.”

“Gin actually. I forgot about this and thought I slept in, so I just threw on my boots and

took off. Which again, I’m sorry about. But it won’t happen again.”

“What makes you think that I want to do this again.”

At first Levi was caught off-guard and then said, “I guess that’s a fair response.”

Alice looked at Levi who had gone back to staring at the floor, she couldn’t tell if her

comment hurt him or if he was going to throw up. She sighed “I’m kidding, I’ll be there

tomorrow. At 5:30! Write it down this time.”

Levi let out what could have been considered a goofy smile, but it was the first time she

saw him smile and it felt genuine. “I will, I promise.”

“Just please, for the love of God, shower before I get you.”

Levi took a whiff and then nodded his head. “Yeah I will cause this is bad, even for me.”

Alice pulled the car into her usual parking space; Alex’s truck was already gone. Alice

couldn’t help but feel a little sad that she missed him. The 2 went into the warehouse, Alice

stashed her stuff into her locker and Levi washed up a bit in the sink and changed into a spare set

of clothes he kept in his locker.

Afterwards Alice and Levi met up on the main floor and began working, there was

silence between them until Alice finally asked, “So what happened to you last night?”

Levi continued stacking boxes as he answered her “I had a few drinks. Why?”

“A few?”

“Alright fine, more than a few.”

“Why would you do that when you know we have work the next day?”

Levi remained silent.

“That’s cool, just don’t answer then.”

Levi stopped and looked at her “Honestly, I just did it. Does there have to be a reason

behind it?”

“There usually is and we talked about why you drink so much yesterday. But let me take

a wild guess, you don’t remember any of that, do you?”

Levi shrugged and got back to work.

“Awesome, what are you doing after we get off today.”

Levi thought about it and came to the answer that he was going to do the same thing as

yesterday. Drink himself into oblivion but decided that he probably shouldn’t say that. “Nothing,

what about you?”

“Same here, so let’s go get you a phone then.”

“What, why?”

“Because in today’s world it makes everything easier.”

“How?”

“What do you mean how? Quit being a smartass and just get one.”

“I’m not being a smartass; how do they make your life easier?”

“Seriously, have you never had a phone before?”

“No.”

Now Alice stopped working and stared at Levi in pure amazement. “You really haven’t,

your parents never got you one?”

“I never knew my parents.” Levi’s started to feel uncomfortable with where this

conversation was leading and wanted this conversation to end or be about a new topic.

Something that wasn’t so personal.

“I’m sorry, did they pass when you were younger?” Alice asked, she knew how hard it

was to lose a parent.

“No clue.” Levi desperately wanted her to drop the topic.

“Were you adopted?”

Levi snapped “Look, I really don’t want to talk about it. Can we just work please?”

Alice realized that her snooping was out of line, especially with having just met Levi not

long ago. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll drop it.”

After a few moments of silence, Alice spoke. “But if you ever want to talk about it, I’ll be

around.”

Levi felt tears build up in his eyes and thought to himself ‘What the hell, why am I

getting like this?’ After a few deep breaths he responded to Alice “Thanks and alright, we can go look at

phones when we get off.”

Alice’s mood was brightened by Levi agreeing to go with her after work. The rest of the

day was filled with the 2 building pallets as Alice talked his ear off about all the kinds of phones

out now and everything they could do.