Brick Hands

Morning

“You a grown ass man without anything to show for it. You think you got things settled cause’ you know how to throw hands? It’ll be a cold day in Hell before you learn how to not fuck shit up.”

Nobody said that to me, I don’t think so. Still, when you hear shit like that all the time, you get used to imagining scenarios of you getting your ass handed to you. Slips into your subconscious after a few years from the repetition, Doesn’t matter now though, voices of home don’t matter here.

I was awake for about two hours before I actually woke up, I somehow forgot to process the fact that my eyes were open. I slept on a little ass twin bed, legs dangling. Junior year in college and I can’t help but think about my home life - what my pops would say if he knew I was still fighting, even though he isn’t around. What is my damage?

Whatever it was, my roommate, Geor must’ve wondered too. He jumped down from the top bunk of our bed frame, his big ass feet always made enough noise to scare the fuck out of me, but I had to be at work the same time he had to be at school.

Anyways, that’s my cue, time to serve coffee to some robotic ass rich folks.

-Rick’s Diary

Afternoon

A hot burn on the side of Rick’s hand started the shift with a mild irritation. The espresso machine glared harshly at the six-foot giant with an equally menacing glow in its eight red buttons - buttons that may have well been giant spider eyes to Rick. The store was empty, luckily, though his coworker, Tia heard the word “fuck” coming from under his breath.

The collaboration of silence and profanity always made the two laugh childishly, and that would have been the case today, hadn’t it been for a certain [DING] at the door of the coffee shop.

Finally, a customer in this broken down piece of shit, Tia thought to herself, setting down what must have been her fifth iced chai - no manager clocked in, no monitoring.

A man in a thick trench coat walked slowly through the door, his blue pupils finding their way towards Rick before his eyelids made a smile towards Tia, who returned the gesture, both their masks bending in the center to accommodate their lips.

Gave you an extra shot of espresso once and you still wanna be a bitch, I wish he wore something other than black so I could see him coming from the shadows of Hell, Rick said out loud. . . or at least he fantasized about doing that.

“One deadshot please, Tia,” The man in black said with a welcoming and warm tone. Tia gave him a wink and proceeded to his order.

“Hey, new guy - you think you can help me get my suitcase out of the car? An old man can only do so much.”

Rick let out a sigh of relief, he felt stiff prior to actually being addressed. “Sure, sir,” He replied, hopping over the wooden counter to follow the man back outside. His sense of security had been shaky though, the man in black couldn’t have been any more unreadable.

Rick turned his head to face Tia, who was trying her hardest to get the espresso machine to actually function. His vision of her was cut off now, he was outside, standing on the lonely street. Here he saw that there’d be no other customers by this point, that was a bonus to being out here.

“There’s no car, kid. Just wanted to get you outsid-,”

“I’m confused, you come to my job to drag me outside? Are you trying to threaten me or something?” Rick had enough, his interruption of the man’s speech coming as a surprise to both him and the male.

A few seconds past before anything else was said, then a few more seconds of Rick raising his eyebrows to rush a response.

The stranger raised both his hands, chuckling underneath his black polyester mask.

“I’ve been wanting to approach you for a while now - I’m Luis, and I used to watch your fights back in Ragnarok. It’s just crazy that you serve coffee now, why did you give up fighting for this?” Luis questioned, his raised hands turning so his palms faced upwards, his knees bending simultaneously in a pose of prayer.

“So you being a lousy customer was all because of you being mad at my life decisions? You don’t even know me,” Rick concluded, strafing cautiously through the door of the diner, Luis watching him before leaving the front of the shop, and departing from his finally prepared beverage.

Tia eyed Rick as he came back into the shop, the bell making her feel an odd sense of comfort.

“You were gone for a while, old guy didn’t want his coffee?” Tia questioned, her arms raised. Tia’s face indicated that she wanted to know more though, raising her chin and forming a nosey smirk, one that thirsted for info.

“Guy said that he wanted to know where he could get some fighting experience? Told him I wasn’t the guy for that, so he just left. Now, can I have his coffee? Pretty please?” Rick clasped his hands together, motioning towards the drink that he’d just take before he could get an answer.

The rest of the night was laughter and free drinks they had no right to be taking advantage of.

Night

Today was a fun night, more joy than I’ve had in a while. I knew it was temporary though, the shop was destined to close down soon - that would be the end of my friendship with Tia. Honestly, I’m not sure if she considers me someone worth befriending outside of work, but hey, guess I can say I have a cool friend that isn’t Geor.

Love him, but he’s a bit of a smart ass, asked him if he needed help with his homework tonight and he laughed in my face. Anyways, goodnight world, tomorrow is going to be a great one, here’s to Saturday!

-Rick’s Diary

“Wake up, bro. I made breakfast with your little mini grill thing,” Geor commanded proudly, coming into Rick’s field of vision with a foam plate of food - a roasted tomato, bacon, veggie omelet, and brown beans.

“Brown beans? Who does that? Where on Earth is -” A pointed finger from Geor motioned Rick to stop talking.

“Thanks, you know I can be a bitch when I wake up early, but I do appreciate the food,” the sound of the plastic fork and foam plate made a light bass vibration each time Rick’s fork went into the plate for more food - his current reaction forced Geor to smile.

Rick was surprised that he didn’t die on the spot. Culinary school truly worked for Geor, who before becoming his roommate, couldn’t cook a grilled cheese with the help of a YouTube tutorial.

“You know Gee, where I’m from these beans are a struggle meal, hella cheap and sold everywhere,” Rick explained, much to Geor’s silent reactions of facial exaggerations. He had no more to say, knowing his breakfast skills were getting better had been more than enough words for him.

He could never hear anyone above his own thoughts of self-compliments. This kept Geor healthy though, rarely in a drought of positivity until homework came into play.

That silence is exactly what allowed Geor to disappear from Rick’s vicinity once he placed his attention back to the empty plate. He sat it beside his bed on the floor, the lower bunk at least about two inches above the wooden tile.

Rick’s phone chimed underneath his pillow, much to his surprise.

An Instagram notification?

Tia’s name popped up on his phone, and in a fit of show, he turned his gaze back and forth between the phone and the plate who was the only person around to share excitement with, at least it could substitute for a person while nobody was looking.

As soon as he unlocked his phone to open the app, a message notification hit the top of his screen, from Tia - from Tianidus89 to be more exact.

Rick cheered, he’d been wanting to befriend Tia outside of the coffee shop for a while now, she was cool.

His fingers accelerated towards the screen in intense clicks to get to the message, one with an image file attached.

A red “R.”

Shit, Rick thought to himself, sitting his phone down before pushing the blue blanket off of his body. Past trauma’s came back.

Bet it was that fucking old guy. Ragnarok strikes once again. My first boyfriend, now Tia. Bastards are making me fight for her freedom like I did his - like I tried to do for him.

Rick crawled out of bed, eyeing his closet with an increasingly violent glare.