wonderwall ♔ k. bryant

thirteen

A/N

double update because i love you guys

and the last chapter sucked so maybe this will make up for it

he also looks really good in the gif

just putting that out there

***

You know what really sucks? Mother's Day when your mom's not even alive. It's supposed to be a day where you spend time with your mother and let her know how much you love her, my just to my shitty luck, I can't do that.

But I do love my mother. Out of my dad and her, she's the only one who cared enough about their own kid to stick around and not leave for someone that was fresh out of college. She was a single parent for a long time until things got pretty serious with my stepdad and she was the strongest person I knew. I just seriously miss my mom and Mother's Day just reminds me that I lost her.

***

As the painful hours of my shift at some old record store keep counting down, I find myself nearly wanting to pass out behind the counter. This is not how I planned my life to be after college. Freshman year me thought I'd get a job at CSN or something right  after I graduate and I'd have a super nice apartment  and an amazing fiancee, which that last part was really pushing it because Brendon is currently the furthest away from proposing to me as possible. But here I am. I'm working two shifts so I can pay my bills for my apartment (but it's not like my apartment's awful, it's quite decent for my current status), sleep deprived and so close to going back to my college student ramen noodles diet and I have a boyfriend who's cheated on me multiple times. It could be worse, though, and that's all that matters. Right?

"Mal, no one's going to come in if you keep looking dead," my co-worker, Spencer, says to me and I yawn.

"I don't remember the last time I had an actual full night of sleep."

"You have two more hours. You can make it," he encourages me and I stand up off of the stool behind the counter. I rub my eyes and yawn again. A customer walks in and Spencer says the same old generic greeting we say to everyone else that walks in. I stay behind the counter for a few moments, watching the clock, until I realize that Spencer went to the back and I should probably go and help this guy searching through all of our stuff.

"Hey! Can I help you find anything?" My voice sounds so happy and fake, it almost makes me want to puke.

"Um, yeah, do you have anything from The Killers?"

"Yes, actually, we just got some of their stuff in. I'll bring it out to you," I tell him, shooting him a quick smile, and making my way towards the back. The Killers? The guy has a great taste.

I start searching through our recent shipment, finding Hot Fuss and Battle Born. I set those things aside to see if we have anything else, and my search is interrupted when Spencer comes in.

"Mallory? Some girl named Delaney was calling you. I didn't want to hit answer because I didn't know if you'd be okay with that. But here's your phone." I stand up off the floor, picking up the records with me, and exchange my phone for the records with Spencer.

"It's just my stepsister. I should call her back, can you take these to the guy out there?" Spencer nods and walks off. I unlock my phone, going to missed calls and hitting Delaney's name. I put the phone up to my ear and she picks up after one ring.

"You need to come home." It's the first thing she tells me. My mom said those words to me over the phone just months prior and hearing them again makes my stomach uneasy.