Welcome to a story of the Owenverse. Tales of the Owenverse are completely stand-alone stories, so don't worry. You need have done no homework to enjoy this tale. If you have read other Owen stories, be advised that they skip around chronologically. This one is from back in Owens freshman year in college. If you like Owen and his strangely serendipitous life, then you will find more stories about his world over time on my works page, or just by searching for 'Owenverse'. Expect new tales to show up on and off!
As always, and especially with Owen, I do not seek deep truths or high drama in my writing, just a fun, plausibly ridiculous story! Cheers!
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Tip Your Delivery Guy
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Okay, so it wasn't a car. It wasn't even a motorcycle. It wasn't even a genuine Vespa brand scooter. But it had a motor, it had a tiny cargo deck in back, and it was mine. For a freshman on a giant urban campus, it was a huge step up from riding the bus everywhere.
It also had a long seat that let me, in a pinch, offer a ride behind me, or 'pillion', to someone, though usually my only passenger was my fortunately scrawny roommate Doug, who did not even have a shitty, off-brand scooter of his own on which to go to the store. I did manage to get Jo Silverman to take a ride on the scooter with me to see a movie a few times, but I unfortunately was always unable to get her to take any subsequent rides on
me
.
But most importantly, a ride meant more than just being able to buy better chips than were available at the campus store. It meant I could get to a job, which meant I could earn some money. My parents made sure I could afford school, but they were adamant that I needed to earn my own movie, snacks, and other entertainment cash.
All I needed was a job that I could keep up with, given the schedule of a college student--a college student who actually did his homework.
Sigh.
When I became an upperclassman, there would be internships and the like. Right now, I had a full schedule of classes of the big lecture type. The kind I could easily skip attending... but not then subsequently easily ace if I did so regularly. I needed a job with weird hours.
I had driven over to a strip shopping center where there was in independent video game store that had placed a help wanted ad in the free paper, only to find the position there already filled. As I came out, my eye was caught by a hand-written Help Wanted sign at the little hole in the wall pizza place next door.
I shrugged. Maybe they had something that would work for me. And if not... well, I could use a slice at the moment, regardless.
And thus, a career in the exciting and remunerative field of Pizza Logistics was born. Turns out, an insulated pizza bag would fit just perfectly on the back deck of my scooter, and that made me just peachy in the eyes of Angus, the owner of Giuseppe's Pizza. (Why not Angus's Pizza? Would you buy a pizza from
Angus's
Pizza? 'I'll have the Haggis Special, please!')
I started immediately, as in, Angus said, "Scooter, huh? You're hired. Take this pie to 347 Juniper Ave. And hurry, it's late already."
The tips were not bad actually, unless I was delivering on campus, where my fellow douchebags, er, students were as cheap as, well, I was.
Doug, whose parents gave him actual cash to live on, so he wouldn't have to take time off from his studies to work (like he ever studied anyway), thought my new job was hilarious. He didn't laugh when he needed to ride to the store behind me on my scooter. When he needed that, it was like he was my little bitch.
"You are learning valuable life lessons, Owen," Angus was fond of telling me in the rare moments where I was not dashing in and then back out of the shop. I was not so sure at the time.
I did learn to make and toss a mean crust though--a skill that would later indirectly earn me the most oral sex-filled weekend of my life, but that's another story.
"So we have to know," Doug asked me one late Saturday after I came back to the room to find him and a few of our buddies already a joint and six-pack into the night, "Have you had any women come to the door naked yet?"
I sighed. "I've been on this job for three whole weeks, dudes!"
"And?" Wilt Meeks prompted eagerly. I happened to know that Wilt watched far, far too much porn, and thus had quite unrealistic beliefs about the life of a pizza delivery dude.
I sighed again. "Two," I admitted.
There were cheers and raised beers.
"Details," demanded Reggie James. Reggie was an Un-Flushable. He was not our friend, and we didn't want him around, but we could never seem to get rid of him.
I just grumbled and grabbed a beer of my own.
"I hate to agree with Reggie, but come on. What was it like?" Doug asked in betrayal.
"I'm not going into it," I sad firmly.
That was met with a chorus of 'Why nots?'
"Because both women were No. Thank. Yous."
"No!" howled Wilt despairingly. He was pretty stoned already. "Ugly? Old? Mean? What?"
"All of the above, and add a few more gnarly things from your imagination," I grumbled, slugging back half my beer and noting sadly that the roach was too far gone to attempt relighting.
Okay, only one naked customer had been outright mean. But... no.
After being told that there was no more pot for a second joint, I ditched them all for better company in the common room.
Better company included Lucinda, a mousy-haired, mousy-attitude, fellow freshman who lived the next floor up. But she had nice tits, and that goes a long way in a college guy's book.
"I hear you are delivering pizzas on that scooter of yours," she asked me after I opened a beer for her.
"Everyone is fascinated by this," I grumbled. "Am I the only person in this dorm who has a fucking job?"
Lucinda shrugged. "I think so. Is the pizza any good?"