Customer Service:The Slow Downfall of Happiness [Chapter Twenty-One]

"Did you find everything, okay, Ma'am?" I ask a little old lady as she walks up to my register and starts placing items on the counter.
"Yes, I did young man." She says, her voice old and delicate. She's so small and cute, and wrinkly. I scan all her items and we exchange money and I give her, her receipt.
"Thank you, have a nice day!" I say with an over exaggerated smile.
"But wait, it says here that the single candles are supposed to be sixty-nine cents each." She's pointed at the book of coupons CVC gives out every week. "On my receipt it says you charged me seventy-nine cents for each of them."
"Oh, sorry about that." I say trying to be as polite as I can.
"Yeah, well..." She rolls her eyes and smacks her lips. "...that's why you're working a minimum wage job."
Ooooh, low blow. The gloves are off, lady. You're about to get fuckin' pwnd!
"At least I'm not the one bitching about ten cents." I say and put one hand in my pocket. I pull out a dime and flick it off of my thumb at her.
"Why you little--Let me speak to your manager!" She yells.

Luckily for me, Bella was the only supervisor there at that moment, the others were off to lunch, or off. She called me to the office after it was all said and done. I had to continue to check on the register, the whole while listening to that little old lady [who was no longer cute anymore] bitch and moan, and make insane exaggerations about what had happened.
"He called me a whore!" I heard her shrill little voice say. I lifted my head away from the customers I was helping at that moment, raised my left arm [my index finger extended] and called out.
"No, I didn't!" I think my joking tone pissed her off more.
"Ryan!" Bella called out to me and shot me a look.
"Don't provoke her, I don't want to write you up." Was what the look said to me, so I kept my mouth shut for the duration of her slander.
After the little old lady left Bella walked into the office.
"Tawnya check, Ryan to the office, thank you." We did as requested.
Cut to me in the office thinking that this would be one of those scenes in a porno where the hot manager, sitting there with her tight button up shirt squeezing her breasts and her tight black pants, fucks the weary clerk in the back office. I started to feel myself pitching a tent, so before I entered the office I thought of Omega, that erection went away like Mexican when he finds out he impregnated a fifteen year old.
And there she was, sitting in the big black manager chair, looking very disappointed.
"Okay, Ryan." She said. "What the hell was that all about?" She motioned to the sales floor.
"What!? That lady was being a bitch!" I shouted.
"You don't need to yell." She said, her voice low and mournful.
"I'm sorry, but still...that lady was being ridiculous." I told her.
"That doesn't matter, you have to be nice to them. It's part of your job." Then she got really quiet.
"I have to write you up." She told me, it sounded like she was going to break down into a crying fit at any second.
"That's fine, I know you do." I said, even though I knew it was my final and that I was going to be fired because of it. How ironic, the woman I love being the one to fire me. Even years from now, I don't hold any ill feelings towards her for that. A job's a job, I knew that and so did she. Also, to make things a little bit easier, it wasn't like we started out as friends and became co-workers -- it was work first.
Cut to me, a week later job hunting. I applied everywhere but construction and for the military. But as the days drug on I made up my mind that joining the army wouldn't be so bad. It was a guaranteed job, I would get paid a shit load of money [more than I'd make anywhere else at the time], it would look damn good on a resume for future jobs, I would get the chance to travel, and I'd gain some really good inspiration for later literary works.
Cut to nine days after I was fired from CVC for 'Insubordination', me walking into the army recruiter's office and applying to be a grunt--infantry man. Hey, set your standards low and everything is a pleasant surprise.
I didn't tell Bella I was joining until after it was said and done. I already knew what advice she'd give me.
"It's up to you, I can't tell you what to do." Even though I knew she was upset, knowing that her best friend was leaving for eight years, but that's just what happens sometimes.

-Sir Jestro