Not at first…

“What the hell???”

Simon was stunned, confused, and angry at the sign taped to the locked door of the coffee shop in front of him. Apparently, the owners decided to close the shop permanently and hadn’t bothered to tell him or his coworker L. The purple-haired goth girl had a similar reaction.

“Whatever. Fuck ‘em.”

As L stormed off, Simon couldn’t help but stare at the sign again.

“Well…”, he told himself as he tried to look at the bright side, “...at least I’ll be able to sleep in until I can find another morning job…”

NINE HOURS LATER…

“FBI! Drop everything and drop to the ground!”

Simon dropped the sponge and dirty plate in his hands into the sink and quickly fell to the floor. He didn’t know why the FBI was raiding the restaurant, but he wasn’t going to question the cops pointing guns at him. Apparently, the rumor about the restaurant’s owner having mafia connections was true. Thankfully for Simon, he was an innocent bystander, but that didn’t stop the police from questioning him for an hour.

When Simon was finally released, he rushed home.

“Well…at least I still have one part-time job…”

ONE HOUR LATER…

Simon ran inside the restaurant where he worked his formerly third but now only restaurant job. As he clocked in on the register, the manager Darren walked up next to him.

“I’m sorry I’m late! There was an incident at my other restaurant job and…”

“It’s okay Simon, but I need to talk to you. Come with me into the office.”

Simon had already run out of optimism as he followed his boss to the office and unfortunately for Simon, his day was about to get worse.

“We unfortunately have to let you go…”

Simon only caught bits and pieces of the rest of Darren’s spiel as the teenager’s mind could hardly believe everything that was happening. When Darren finally ended with a non-heartfelt “Good luck on your future endeavors”, Simon didn’t bother saying anything back to Darren or saying goodbye to any of his coworkers. He silently walked out of the restaurant and began heading back home.

“At least I still have a roof over my head…”

THIRTY MINUTES LATER…

Simon shouldn’t have been surprised to see his meager belongings packed up in a suitcase sitting in front of his building. He didn’t even bother trying his key to get inside. He could tell the lock on the front door had been changed.

Defeated, Simon grabbed the suitcase and started walking. He didn’t know where to go or what to do anymore. He just walked. To put a cherry on top of everything that had happened, the wind picked up and a gust blew a newspaper directly into his face. The universe was against Simon, and he had finally had enough.

The unfortunate dropout pulled the newspaper away from his face. He was going to put all of his anger into ripping the paper to shreds but as he was about to make the first rip, his eyes were drawn to the headline.

“AWIO OPEN SECOND BUILDING”

Simon began reading the article. Apparently, the AWIO set up a second facility called the SHARC, the “Secondary Housing and Research Center”, and they were hiring for a wide variety of jobs for all levels of work experience.

Simon momentarily forgot everything that had happened to him earlier that day as he grinned. His luck may yet turn around.