(Tribute to the really nice GameStop employee who was super nice to me despite my very obvious social anxiety)

You walked into the GameStop at the local mall. It was a strangely quiet afternoon at the mall but several others were shopping around at the store silently. Every now and then a couple of friends would chit chat about a game before going back to browsing the options. Filling the silence was the radio in the overhead speakers. It played, very quietly, different 8-bit video game tunes.

Behind the counter stood a girl and a guy. The two seemed to get along pretty well as they were making small talk while waiting for a customer to need something or come up to purchase items. The guy must have been really funny considering the girl was laughing up such a storm that she was keeled over the counter, barely breathing.

The guy—whose name tag read “Josh”—had short brown curly hair and tan skin. Like your typical employee he wore casual clothing. He didn’t seem all too interesting overall other than the fact that he kept making his coworker laugh quite a lot and, upon closer inspection, he had a couple of scars on his left cheek and a few more peeking out from under his shirt. They were fairly noticeable but it didn’t seem like there was any attempt to hide them with cosmetics.

The girl—whose name tag read “Elaina”—had long auburn hair tied up into a high ponytail. She seemed even more casual than Josh, sporting an extra large crew neck depicting Mario and a pair of plain black shorts. Her makeup was done lightly with the most exotic part being her cats eye eyeliner. Nothing noticeable about her except her tendency to wheeze instead of laugh which caused her to have to hold onto the counter for support.