(Y/N) POV:

"Ugh another day at work." You sat down behind the counter of your small downtown shop watching people pass by the open front door. It hadn't been a busy day at all which meant you weren't going to be going home with a big paycheck today. However you were the only one who worked in the shop so you didn't have to pay anyone else, which meant the money that you did make went all to you. You had a few teenagers come in a few hours ago but that was it. That's normally how busy you were on the weekdays so this didn't surprise you.

After a while you got sick of sitting around and figured that the shop could use some cleaning up. You picked yourself up from the chair and walked over to one of the tables displaying shirts and started refolding the ones that weren't perfect. You liked everything to be neat and tidy, especially in the shop since other people would be coming in and looking around from time to time. As you continued to fold clothes you heard someone walk into the shop. It was a boy, he was tall, had three lip piercings and was clearly in a band of some sort. He stopped and looked into your direction, you could almost tell he was going to ask if you worked here.

You laughed, "Yeah I work here, I'm the owner actually." You walked quickly behind the counter and over to where the counter separated you and the boy.

"It was the questioning look wasn't it." He smiled and you noticed how amazing his drawn on eyebrows were. You were honestly jealous of this, how did he get them so perfect?!?!

"So what can I do for you today?" You smiled expecting him to ask if you had a specific shirt in stock like everyone always did.

"Well actually my friend Ricky told me about you, he said you design merch? Oh and i'm Chris by the way." He stuck his hand out and you firmly shook it. You had told Ricky more about your job over the past few days of living with him. You spoke on how your dream was to design merch for a big band some day. He replied by telling you how awesome it would be to have you design his band's merch for their new album that apparently was coming out soon. You had said that you would think about the offer and get back to him on it.

"Im (Y/N) and yeah I do design some things." You smiled sweetly at him as his face lit up with happiness.

"You must be his new roommate! I'm in a band with Ricky and he said you would be more than happy to help us come up with something." Did Ricky really send his friend here just so you would say yes to designing his merch? What a sly fucker.

"Yeah I can do that." You laughed figuring if anything this would at least help you pay some of the bills.

"Great! Ricky has everything you need at hi- I mean your house." Chris laughed, correcting himself.

"Alright, I'll make sure to ask him about it when I get off work." Chris gave you a head nod before saying goodbye, walking out of the shop, and down the road. You walked back over to the table to reorganize the t-shirts on it for the 400th time that day. God this job could get so boring sometimes. Between nobody ever coming in and the lack of sales caused by people not coming in, your mind often drifted off into wondering if it was really a good idea to keep the shop open. You broke from your thoughts as you heard the shop's phone ring, you ran over to it and picked it up.

"Thank you for calling A Little Less Normal my name is (Y/N), how can I help you today?"

"So do you want pasta for dinner or do you want me to order something so it's ready when you get here?" You already knew it was Ricky and for some reason hearing his voice made you smile.

"Can you order bread sticks and garlic bread from that one Italian place?" You could hear his deep laugh which made you smile even more.

"Yeah I was thinking about doing that anyway....so i'm guessing you're not that busy huh?"

"Not at all." You groaned into the phone, clearly not enjoying work.

"Yeah Chris texted me saying there was nobody in the shop when he stopped by." He laughed again, you just rolled your eyes playfully.

"Ha ha ha very funny, you know you could have just begged me to make your merch and I would have done it right?" You honestly were going to do it anyway, but it was nice the other members in the band were okay with Ricky's decision of having you design it. This gave you the extra push you needed to make it 110% amazing.

"Yeah I figured....but I thought it would be funnier to send Chris in there." You laughed into the phone looking out at downtown. God you loved downtown. So many good memories with your old friends and your family members who have now passed. You remembered the cemetery you loved to go and have lunch in with your old friends, and all the cute little shops you would spend money at. It was really a miracle you got to keep the shop since many stores downtown didn't stay there for long, especially a shop like yours. You were really the only girl in the town who had this type of style. It was almost refreshing to know that people like Ricky and Chris actually existed around here.

"HEY LOOK IT'S THE LITTLE EMO BITCH!" Your head shot over to where the man's voice was coming from. No shock to you it was the same old guy who harassed you every other day. You sighed into the phone, really not wanting to deal with him today.

"Is everything okay?" Ricky asked, clearly hearing what the guy had said to you. You forced yourself to mumble out a response to him.

"Y-yeah.....hey look i'll probably be home in like the next hour if you wanted to order the food." And before Ricky could even give you a response you hung up the phone.

You calmly walked over to where the guy was standing just outside the door of the shop. You knew he wasn't going to go away just by you ignoring him, so you did what every nice person would do and asked him to calmly leave.

"NO! FUCK YOU! WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE AND TAKE YOUR UGLY ASS SHOP WITH YOU!" He spat, his words hurting you more then you thought they would.

"Sir, I get it, it's not your type of shop. Just please move on with your day..." You motioned for him to leave.

"HEY!" You screamed and grabbed your face as the old man walked away from the shop just after punching you across the cheek. You shakily walked back into your shop and locked the door closing for the night.

Ricky's POV:

What the fuck? Did she really just hang up on me? I was just wondering if she was okay...I mean I figured she got those types of comments often already, but damn that man sounded angry. We had only lived together for a few days now but I cared about her, and a lot. Maybe she just had to deal with an angry customer or something. I sighed and pushed the thought into the back of my head and dialed the number to the Italian place, ordering the garlic bread and bread sticks we were both craving. I continued to then go back to practicing on my guitar while I waited for the food and for (Y/N) to return home from work.  

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The food had gotten to the house before (Y/N) did. I wonder what was holding her up at work. I went ahead and made both of our plates anticipating that she would be home soon. Just as I was doing so I heard the front door slam and the sound of boots against the hardwood floor. Finally she was back from work and we could eat. I walked around to the front of the house only to be met with the saddest looking face I had ever seen.

"(Y/N) you okay?" I asked softly, afraid to speak too loud. She looked over in my direction and I could tell she had been crying. I also noticed a forming black eye. "Oh my-"

"I know it looks bad okay..." she wiped a tear away from the bad eye, flinching as her hand touched the skin. "I asked the man nicely to leave and he didn't want to...he said I should shut the place down and then punched me when I motioned for him to go...."

I was speechless. I didn't have a good answer of what to say. "Im so sorry...." I trailed off not being able to come up with anything else. She nodded setting her things down and walked over to the table, sitting down in what had now become her usual seat. I carefully sat down in my seat across from (Y/N) and started to nibble at my food. I glanced up every few moments just looking at her. I never realized how perfect her pale skin was until it was stained black and blue from the man's punch.

"I-I'm not that hungry...." She looked down at her plate and crossed her arms across her stomach. God this stupid old man must have really messed her up. "I'm just going to take a shower and then go to bed..." she stood up from her seat and set her extra food in a container for later. I sat there continuing to nibble at my food, my thoughts drifting to (Y/N)....

(Y/N) POV:

You stood there, the hot water cascading down your body, You hadn't realized you had been crying until the cold feeling of a teardrop hit your hand. God you were such a baby! You never cried this much! What was wrong with you lately!? You washed your hair, making sure to get every last bit of soap out before getting out of the shower and wrapping your body in a towel. You grabbed your dirty clothes and proceeded to open the door, only to be stopped by running right into Ricky, almost making you lose your towel.

"Oh shit sorry." he knelt down and grabbed your clothes off the ground for you that had been knocked out of your hands. Your eyes met for a second as he handed you your clothes. There was almost something about him that made him so dreamy? Those beautiful blue eyes stared back into yours and there was almost something in you that wanted to lean in and kiss him. No (Y/N) snap out of it he's your roommate and that's it. You weren't going to screw this up like that, Plus who knew if he was even into you in the first place.  You mumbled out a quick thank you before breaking eye contact and heading into your bedroom. You shut the door and let out a sigh. So you now had a ugly black eye and some part of you was apparently into Ricky....Great.

"This day can't get any more complicated."  You mumbled and quickly threw on your favorite pajamas and crawled into bed, ready to forget about what happened today.

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You shot up out of your bed and quickly looked around. You didn't know where you were or what was happening. But before you could count to 3 you realized you were in your bedroom and you had just woken up from a nightmare. You ran your hands through your hair and got up out of the nice warm bed. The dream had clearly startled you, you were shaking for crying out loud! You slowly pulled open your door trying not to wake up Ricky who was more than likely asleep in the next room over. To your surprise, as you turned the corner to go to the kitchen you could see Ricky awake sitting on the couch watching a movie in the living room. Your footsteps became a bit heavier as you were no longer afraid to wake your roommate. There was a cup on the table and you grabbed it thankful that you didn't have to go searching for one. As you filled the cup with water, you could just tell Ricky was looking at you.

"Cant sleep?" He questioned with ease. Not even seeming like he was tired at all.

"Nightmare...." You replied back, Hearing the tiredness in your own voice. You looked over at Ricky and he motioned for you to come sit with him, Which you gladly accepted.

"Want to watch with me.....I mean I could use a movie buddy anyway." He smiled. You enjoyed it when he smiled, you liked seeing him happy.

"Yeah what the hell why not." You carefully sat down next to him so you didn't knock his popcorn over. He sweetly shared his blanket laying it over your legs. "Thanks." You gave him a smile and cuddled into the couch cushions. "If I fall asleep, just leave me here, got it?" Ricky laughed and so did you. He slowly put his arm around you, however you could tell this was in more of a friendly comforting way. You really enjoyed this with the day you were having, it almost made you feel like someone had your back.....and you hadn't felt that way in months.

Before you both knew it you were completely passed out. However Ricky didn't just leave you there like he said he would, He couldn't. You were all over him, Your head was on his shoulder and your whole body was snuggled up against his, there was no way he could move even if he tried. Ricky didn't mind this tho, he actually enjoyed the comfort, something he hasn't felt in a long ass time. He figured you needed the sleep anyway, so he did what any real man would do and cuddled up right with you. Sure you're not in a relationship or anything but that doesn't mean that you can't cuddle with each other from time to time right? Either way, before Ricky was even aware of it he was asleep too, oh what a morning it was going to be tomorrow when you both would realize what had happened.