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Jessalyn

I’ve corease is an unfortunate trait of ers and French fries all day, but now it’s just one of the things I have to look past because I don’t have any other choice It’s disgusting, I know, but working at Hooger’s as a full-time waitress is the only way I’ll be able to help Daddy with the rent, and even that doesn’t seem to cover it some months

Hooger’s is just a short distance from the trailer park where Daddy and I live, so thankfully, I can just walk to work Randy and I only have one vehicle, which is his truck, but he uses that for his job, leavingon h, and when I first started working at Hooger’s, I’d have to coht However, after a fewsensation in the balls of my feet The exhaustion in my bones, on the other hand… that’s harder to shake

I feel it this evening as I trudge hoet ho on how busy the diner is, and tonight I’m off a bit earlier As I make my way into the trailer park, I see Mrs Foster over to the right, puttering in her sarden Then, there’s Grandpa Ralph on the left, drinking a beer in a plastic folding seat This is my family, for better or worse, and I put a smile on my face

“Hi,” I call cheerily “How are you?”

Mrs Foster waves back and Grandpa Ralph givesthe balmy weather But really, I can’t wait to shower and lie down As I approach our trailer, already re my stained apron, my shoulders slump with exhaustion Then, I open the door and let the screen shut before freezing at the sight of arette in his hand When Randy s he knows to only do outside of the trailer due to ’s up

“What are you doing ho carefully once I see several empty beer bottles scattered on the floor

Daddy groans from his position on the worn-out sofa He’s usually not back this early In fact, Randy doesn’t generally get ho as a handyman at a hotel in town, his shifts start late in the day and he usually gets off close to ht But I don’t iveswith his issues

Taking a deep hit off his cigarette, my dad’s eyes stay closed and his thumb traces a line on his forehead

“Fucking asshole,” he slurs “Always favoring that damn Hernando instead of est Who the fuck does he think he is?”

I sigh, i about his boss, Malcolm, and Hernando, one of the other handymen at the hotel He constantly conore it Still, it doesn’t answer the question of why he’s ho bad

“Telling ht the first time and–”

“You got fired, didn’t you?” I ask flatly, cutting him off

My eyes are hard as I look at hihtening sight His eyes appear yellowish, and look like they’re glowing froh e His thinning grey hair, wrinkled face, and stained teeth are the results of tobacco, alcohol, and an unhealthy diet He resembles a corpse, and that would be an unfair comparison to the dead body

Growing up, I told myself that I’d have to take better care of myself than Randy does It must have started when my mom left us I was just a baby when that happened, but I’ve heard Randy talk about her when he’s drunk He’ll ramble about how pretty Veronica was and how she made him feel like such a man before they had me, so I’ve alondered if he blames me for her departure

“Yes, they fucking fired h oing to take my ass down there to with”

Ignoring him, I march over to one of the drawers in the kitchen and pull it open My fingers find the yellow slip of paper I had been pushing out of my mind for the last several days, and I take it out with treers The late notice for our rent came earlier this week I was panicked when I pulled the notice off our door, but I et paid tomorrow Tomorrow We would have the money for rent by the end of the week, I told myself There was no need to worry… until now