My Sunflower

six

TW// SA/ READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

I'm shoving bags of dog food into their rightful places on the slightly dusty shelves, jamming them as much as I can so I don't have to put the rest in the overcrowded stock room.

One bag topples and flops to the floor with a huge slap, making a few people turn their heads.

I sigh, picking it up and throwing it back on the trolley. I check the time on my phone that's shoved into my pocket, noticing I only have ten minutes left.

Thank fuck.

I quickly check Twitter to see if anything new has happened, which comes back blank besides the fact Harry has surpassed ten million streams on Spotify.

That guy is insanely talented.

I breathe heavily through my nose, wheeling the trolley away to pop back the remaining bags of food at the back.

Just as I get there, Nova's voice comes through the headset asking if I can go on tills to help out with the small queue forming.

I let the trolley fly into the stock room and I hear a crash as the heavy duty doors close behind me slowly.

Someone else can clear whatever mess that's made, I don't get paid enough to care.

I come behind the counter, giving a weak smile to the elderly lady that's buying some chew toys for her gerbil. She picks up a conversation about her life story as she fishes around in her purse that's falling apart for some change.

"This is my third gerbil in the last two years. So sad Sandy past away, but then again, it's that bleeding son of mines dog's fault!" she croaks, popping her glasses onto the top of her head where her hair is thinning and exposes part of her soft freckled scalp.

She hands me the change for the gerbil chew.

"I'm sorry for your loss, love, and I hope you have better luck with this one," I say gently, handing her a penny change.

She drops it into her purse, clipping it up and closes her handbag. She grabs her cane that swings on the side of the counter, waving goodbye.

I trail her out with my eyes, spotting a lad standing by the doors where the hamsters are. He has his leg propped up onto the wall casually, palms flat on the wall. His head is turned away, staring out into the car park.

I serve another customer and when I look up, the guy is still standing there, staring out the window. I can't see his face from where he's standing and there's a small part of me that pretends it could be Harry, though his shoulders are far too small to be Harry's, and the bottom of his thumbs aren't as prominent. Not to mention the hair isn't curly, and sticks up all over the place like he's just woken up and rolled out of bed.

But still, a part of me hopes that it makes my heart flutter.

"You alright there?" I call out toward him.

The guy whips his head round and grins that flashing smile, grey eyes lightning up.

"Josh?" I question.

"You ready to go?" Josh asks.

I look to the time, brows furrowed. "Ready to go where?" I ask dumbly.

Josh looks a little taken aback. "Um... on our date? You're still up to go, right?"

I can't for the life of me remember organising anything like that. I'm guessing it was when I was drunk, and the next morning's hangover is evident that I was, in fact, very drunk.

I shake my head to clear it a little. I give a smile. I don't have the heart to tell him to leave, it'll be far too embarrassing, especially in front of Nova and all these people.