Minimum Wage Summer Jobs

So I talked with Marlie and she's coming over tomorrow just to have lunch and sit about for a bit. Every minute with her is precious because she has three jobs.

It's funny-- last year, I had an extremely good job with a start-up dollar store chain. That sounds incredibly stupid, right? My mother thought it was. She fretted day and night, telling me that "That store will close down before March." Then it was "Before April." "Before May." Inside me, there was a little defiant flame that kept going "Fuck you, I'm still working here. What now? Bring it" and I think that's what jinxed me in the end. The store opened in the beginning of February and I was one of their first employees. By December, however, we lost the capital that was keeping our struggling little store afloat. The day after Christmas, my favorite manager called me.

"Hon, we're belly-up," he said to me, and I looked across the table to where my mom sat expectantly and went "Damn."

I still miss that job. It's the underlying cause of my current unemployment. Every time I see a "We're Hiring!" sign, I get depressed thinking about the job I left. Actually, I get depressed thinking about the people I left. Of all the people that store hired, in the end, it was me and my three hard-working managers that were still there to watch the smoke.

Er, the point of all that was that Marlie has three jobs this summer when last year she was the one who had none and I had the great one. I hate her managers because they think we sleep together. Seriously, it's water cooler discussion. Marlie works at the local movie theater as her main job. All they talk about is how when I come to visit and/or pick her up, she lights up like a Christmas tree. It makes me wonder if people have 'just good friends' any more, for Christ's sake.

Marlie's the one with the good ears, unfortunately, so I can't hear what they're saying. Whatever it is, though, is enough to make her blush. That fact alone makes me nervous.

I wish I could say something... but I don't. I like to think I'm tough, but, in the exact manner of hikaris, I would never dare to say anything in that kind of situation. Just a simple "Shut the fuck up" would probably suffice... yet that doesn't mean I have the balls to say it. She does, but she would most likely go further than words. I wondered for the first few couple of weeks why she didn't say anything to them despite that; she's certainly not afraid of confrontations (unlike me).

Marlie was flipping through channels, mostly looking for HGTV's What Not to Wear but pausing now and again on anything that promised violence or sex. The usual. I was sitting next to her, half-reading my copy of Abhorsen and half-skimming the channels with her. I've read Abhorsen so many times that I barely look at the words anymore. Mostly, I look at pages 109, 168, 308, and 355. I have those memorized.

"Hey," Marlie said without looking at me.

"Mm?"

"I thought about what to do to those pricks I work with."

"Yeah?"

"I'm not going to do anything."

I swiveled to look at her in astonishment. I remember saying, "You're not... afraid, are you?"

"No. But I think I like that job."

And that was that. I was so proud of her. This post makes her sound like a mentally retarded bull who charges everyone and everything that annoys her. Her only fault, really, is that she doesn't think anything through. Nothing. I'm the one who thinks about everything too much, overanalyzing it down to the gristle. She's the sort of person who'll try anything once, regardless of consequences.

I have two questions that readers should respond to. If I ever have any readers, that is.

1. Have you or someone you know ever taken shit from their coworkers/boss at a job because they didn't want to lose the position? If you start telling this story, I want you to tell me how it ended as well.

2. Do you over analyze things like me or do you just rush blindly into everything like Marlie? Whichever one you do, do you prefer it, or would you switch to the other if you could?