My Sunflower

five

I'm standing,  slumped over tills bored out my mind. Only a few customers scatter here and there, but the majority of them leave without buying anything.

The sun is peeping behind the trees surrounding the retail park, an orange glow striping through the lines. The sky is painted pretty corals and yellows, soft, like watercolour paintings.

It reminds me of that one painting Zayn did many months ago of a spring meadow where a cottage laid idle at the bottom. He captured the colours beautifully, brush strokes dainty.

I run my nail into the crack of the wood from the counter top, feeling the way the grooves change course the further down it runs. Pretty sure it was Jason that did these slashes with a pair of scissors before he left. Well, didn't leave, fired. He was caught stealing abandoned credit cards customer's dropped from the safe upstairs.

Twit.

I look at the clock on the tills, seeing it's only turned three past six in the evening.

I huff a sigh, propping my head into the palm of my hand.

"Tommo!" Niall's voice trails down the aisles.

I snap my head up to see him with a pink frisbee in hand.

"Catch!" He chucks it and it glides through the air, floating toward me slowly.

I jump a little in order to grab it and I toss it back over toward him. We go back and forth with it, going higher and lower just to make the game more entertaining.

Darren isn't in today, so it's Chris who's locking up tonight, and Chris doesn't really tell anyone off, as long as you do the work, fucking about a bit doesn't phase him.

The next throw I miss to catch and I'm plucking it off the floor after it bounces off the tills with a clatter.

I shake my head at Niall who's giggling to himself, not once taking a step closer from where all the dog toys stack up two rows away.

I flick this one a little too hard, the frisbee barrelling through the air. Niall jumps, but it just barely grazes over his fingers, continuing its course.

It's like a scene from The Inbetweeners.

We both watch eyes wide, as the frisbee angles sideways, slowing down. It's almost slow motion when it hits the back of a customer who's checking out the cat beds. It thwacks them on the head, and they yelp.

Niall and I quickly avert our attention away when they turn their head in order to not look like the culprit.

Niall is cackling loudly, head flung back, hand on his tummy. He buckles over as he comes closer toward me, hands on his knees as his famous ha, ha, ha cackle falls from his wide mouth.

My shoulders shake with silent laughter, and I'm having to bury my head into the crook of my arm that rests on the counter top in order to not draw more attention onto us.

Niall's hand slaps down hard against the counter as he continues to laugh. I look up through tear filled eyes at my friend, his hair flopping into his eyes whilst he crouches down toward the floor, snorts leaving his nose, cheeks rosy. My cheeks too, burn up, heat making my shirt feel tacky against my back. 

Jade comes into view, hauling a split bag of rabbit food in her hands in order to tape it back up.

"What's got you two witch laughing?" she questions, smiling fondly over at Niall who's almost flat out on the floor, feet kicking.

A customer walks past him, tutting at his foolish behaviour. I flip the customer off behind their back as they leave with just their Tesco bag in hand.

"We- we were playing frisbee," Niall giggles, wiping his tears.