𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘖𝘊𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘚𝘐𝘚 ❁ 𝘑𝘑 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘒 & 𝘒𝘐𝘈𝘙𝘈 𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘙𝘌𝘙𝘈

𝘍𝘖𝘜𝘙

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
❝ my board broke in half, duh ❞
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

As we near the end of our shift, Kiara heads through to the back to clean up while I man the till. I find myself doodling on the notepad, assuming that nobody will come in this close to closing time.

I am quickly proved wrong when the door opens and I lift my head to see my older brother, Rafe, with Topper.

"Psycho" I greet my brother who scowls at me.

"Runt" He spits in distaste.

"Two coffees, Pogue" Topper says, disgust laced in his voice and drops cash on the counter.

"Whatever, Thornton" I scoff, turning to make the coffees.

Once I've made them and reluctantly held myself back from spitting in them, I turn to boys. I hand Topper one and look to my brother with a blank expression.

"Tell dad I won't be home tonight. I'm staying at the chateau again" I say and he rolls his eyes at me.

"Dad doesn't care if you're home or not, and he doesn't care where you stay either. None of us do" My brother snarls, snatching the coffee from my hand and walking away.

An aching pain strikes my chest like it often does around my family and my eyes tear up pathetically, but I refuse to let them see me cry.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out, assholes!" I hear Kiara scream and I shake my head, a small smile tugging at my lips as the ache fades.

"You okay, lovie?" My best friend asks, poking her head around the door with a frown.

"I'm fine, Kie" I wave her off.

Before she can object, her dad calls her back through and she rolls her eyes, heading back. The door opens again but fortunately for me, this time John B and Pope enter the restaurant and I grin widely.

"What's up, guys?" I greet them.

"There's a storm coming so I thought we'd pick you up" John B shrugs.

"We didn't want you walking...alone...in a hurricane" Pope adds in concern and I smile gratefully, my heart swelling at how much they care.

"Thank you" I say sincerely and they both wave me off.

I head through the back, untying the apron from around my waist and Kiara looks up from the dishes.

"You leaving?" She asks me.

"Yeah, the boys came to pick me up" I explain, putting the apron with the others.

"That was sweet of them" She comments with a small smile and I hum in agreement.

"Stay safe, Kie" I tell her, pecking her cheek.

"You too" She warns me with scolding eyes and I grin cheekily.

"When am I not safe?" I gasp jokingly, walking backwards towards the doors.