An Interesting Day at PetSmart

A couple of years ago, I was working part time at PetSmart. I was an early morning stocker and cashier. My shifts varied during that job from 5am-10am (early morning stocking), 2pm-7pm (cashier) and 3pm-9pm (cashier). In the month of July, my managers decided to just have me working 5am-10am because they needed me more as an early morning stocker. They asked me if that was an issue, but I told them that it was fine. I didn’t mind just working in the mornings. In fact, I was excited to just work as just an early morning stocker.

In the early morning shift, I just worked with two people. I worked with my manager Jim and my coworker Chris. Jim would work by himself with manager stuff, while Chris and I worked together on getting everything stocked from cat litter, cat food, dog food, toys, crates, treats and other things. We had about four hours to stock everything we needed (5am-9am), then we had a 30-minute lunch and 30 minutes to clean up. It varied if we got everything stocked or not in time. It just depended on how much we had to stock. Also, Chris and I talked and joked around a lot, and this also effected if we got everything stocked in time. However, my first day starting as primarily an early morning stocker was a day like no other.

It was a Monday morning, and I was at PetSmart at 4:55 am. A few minutes later, Chris had arrived. Chris and I had to wait for Jim to arrive because the store was locked, and he had the keys to the store. We’re both in our cars and on our phones just waiting for Jim to come. Ten minutes pass, and Jim’s not at PetSmart. Twenty minutes pass, and he’s still not here. Thirty minutes pass, and Chris and I are wondering what’s going on. We get out of our cars, and I asked him what’s going on. Chris said, “I don’t know, but Jim’s late, man.”

We were both hoping nothing bad happened to him, and Chris wondered if another manager was supposed to be working with us. I showed him the schedule on my phone to show that Jim was scheduled to work with us. Chris started rubbing his eyes and said, “Alright, I’ll just shoot him text and see what’s going on.”

He texted Jim, “Yo where u at?”

A few minutes later, he laughed and texted, “U up lol?”

He started giggling, and I couldn’t help but shake my head and giggle with him. Ten minutes passed, and there was still no response. I looked at and Chris said, “Well, let’s try calling him.”

We tried calling him, but there was no answer. It was 6:00 am now, and we were contemplating if we were able to leave or not. Five minutes later, Chris gets a text from our manager Jim. It read, “Hey fellas, I forgot to set my alarm and my phone was on silent. Whoopsies! I’ll be there in 30 mins.”

Chris and I started laughing because we saw the word “Whoopsies.” We kept joking around and saying that now he can’t be mad at us if we were 10-15 minutes late to work. Also, we were joking about how we could just use this against him.

It was 6:45 when Jim arrived at work. When Jim got out of his car, Chris yelled, “Hey sleeping beauty, did you get enough sleep?”

Everyone laughed, and Chris explained that he didn’t know what happened. His wife ended up waking him up. We all laughed as we all walked inside PetSmart, clocked in and headed to the back room. Chris assured us that he would make sure that we get our two other hours for coming in on time, and we thanked him. When we made it to the backroom, we saw that there was a lot to stock. Also, we only had two hours to stock everything. Jim looked at us and said, “Alright look, I’m not expecting yinz to get all this stocked in two hours. Just get as much as you can done, and we’ll just have to figure this all out later.”

After Jim said all of this, he left the backroom and went to his office. Chris and I looked at each other, and we were so excited because we pretty much had a free day. We didn’t have to feel rushed or anything, and it was gonna be a fun day at work. We only had to work for two hours and thirty minutes.

Chris and I started working, and we were just two happy campers. We’re smiling, talking and having a great time together. Chris was talking about his iFunny page with me, and some interesting memes. It was all sunshine and rainbows, until Chris came at me with a thunderstorm.

It’s around 8:00, and we were stocking dog food. All of sudden, he remembered something. He told me that he forgot to mention something interesting to me. I asked him what, and he explained that last week a cute girl was asking about me on Friday. I was excited and wanted to hear more. Chris said, “Yeah man, she was fine. Her body was popping, her booty was looking right. Everything was just on point, my man. She was such a cutie.”

Chris was really hyping her up for me, and I just wanted to know more. Chris continued, “Yeah man, she was talking about how sweet and cute you were, and she just wanted you to have her number.”

After he said that, we both got excited and started clapping our hands and jumping up an down. It was a great moment we shared together, and all I needed was the number to solidify this moment. So, I said, “Alright bro, let me get them digits.”

Suddenly, Chris stopped jumping, made a face and said, “Yeah, about that. I actually didn’t get the number.”

I stopped jumping and clapping, and I asked him what did he mean. He replied, “Well, I just didn’t get the number. It just never came up in our conversation.”

“Conversation? How long were y’all talking together?” I asked.

“Like a good five minutes,” he said.

“Wow, so you were talking to this goddess that wants me for five minutes, and you somehow don’t have the necessary information I need to pursue this girl,” I said.

I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing, Chris yelled, “Now, wait a minute! In that time, I was hyping you up. I told her all these great things about you, and I got her really excited about you. I mean really excited about you. And I did get some information. I found out that she works around here.”

I said okay, and I asked him where does she work. He gave me a scared look and started looking away from me. Then, I said, “Chris, please tell me you know where she works. Surely, you would at least get that information for me.”

Chris turned to me, gave a weird face and said, “I wasn’t able to find out—

“Oh my gosh, Chris! You didn’t get any information for me! I thought you were my boy, how could not give me anything to work with?” I interrupted.

“Jan was around, Isaiah. You know how strict she can be. I didn’t want her thinking that I was just talking to a customer,” he said.

“But you were talking to a customer! For five minutes! You could’ve gotten some information for me. It’s not that hard to ask people where they work. Also, you have my number. You could’ve just given it to her in less than ten seconds. I just can’t believe this betrayal by you. I thought we were brothers,” I said.

I started to fake cry, and Chris started laughing and asking why did I have to be so dramatic. I responded, “Because this is a serious moment. If the situation was reversed and you were the one she wanted, I would’ve gotten her number, her place of employment, her Facebook, her Snapchat, her Instagram, her address, her driver’s license number, her social security card, her birth certificate, and so much more in under five minutes for you. I would do that for you. Give you everything and anything you needed to be with this goddess you described to me. I just can’t believe that you didn’t give me anything. I thought we were brothers, but that was clearly a lie. I just can’t believe this betrayal.”

I continued my fake crying, when Chris came to me and embraced me. He started fake crying and said, “I’m sorry, Isaiah. I’m ashamed of myself. I let you down, and I didn’t get you your goddess. Please, forgive me, my brother.”

I responded, “Your betrayal is unforgivable. The damage has been done, and there’s nothing you can do to fix it. That goddess you described was probably the love of my life that I’ll never see again.”

We fake cried some more and then we let go of each other. Then, we started laughing. I told him that I was still low-key mad that he didn’t get anything from me. He said, “I know, but I also found out that she comes in the afternoons at PetSmart. I told her that she’ll probably eventually see you again in the afternoon.”

I sighed, looked at him and said, “Nah bro, I only work the mornings now. So, I’m probably never gonna see her again.”

“Oh. Whoopsies,” Chris said.

We both started laughing, Chris looked at his watch and said, “Well, it’s 9:00 right now, so it’s break time. Do you want to go and get some Chick-Fil-A?”

“Yeah sure, I could use some Chick-Fil-A right now.”

So, Chris and I headed to Chick-Fil-A, ate and talked for thirty minutes, came back to PetSmart to clean up our mess for thirty minutes and went home afterwards. It was truly an interesting day at PetSmart filled with bliss, laughter, fun and betrayal.

This is the end of “An Interesting Day at PetSmart.”

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This weekend, I will be posting and sharing poetry.