This Charming Man

Five

"Just buy something, Ryan! Your stomach's too damn loud," I whined, tugging his arm impatiently.

"I can't," he said, trying to pull out my grip, "I still feel sick from last night!"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but I'm getting something," I said and left him in the middle of the street. I knew he wouldn't wander off and he knew where the food stalls were anyway. I headed over to them and began my long saunter down the food court. It was about midday so it was fairly busy and the queues were irritatingly long. I couldn't ever really buy what I wanted since we were always on a tight budget and after Spencer's splash out on candies yesterday, I wasn't prepared to spend more than a coin of my own money on anything. But looking at all the price boards hung up on every stall, it looked like that wasn't feasible. Money was a constant problem between the three of us. When we had first arrived, we'd splashed out on anything and everything pretty or tasty we could get our hands on but that way of thinking left us starving for a week and begging to Mr Wentz for extra money was a one way ticket to certain death. We were a lot more sensible now, except the occasional treat, but we had to be very careful after those.

So I changed my mind. I turned on my heel halfway down the food court and hurried back over to Ryan who was stood by a brightly coloured stall displaying multitudes of coloured boxes. I watched him pick up a small pastel coloured box, examine it and then hand over some notes to the stall owner.

My jaw dropped. Ryan bought a fucking box with the last of his pay check which meant I was now the only one with any money until tomorrow afternoon. We still had to buy dinner and breakfast, pick up some groceries for ourselves, pay for the repairs on Spencer's watch, pay the dry cleaners, all this shit to do and Ryan had the fucking audacity to waste his money on a fucking box.

I marched over and grabbed his shoulder roughly. "Ryan!"

He jumped and quickly tried to hide the box in his pocket.

"Ryan, what the hell is this?"

"N-nothing," he mumbled and tried to pull away from me.

"I can't believe you!" I hissed, pulling him away from the stall, "What the hell did you buy that piece of junk for?"

He looked away and I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed. "I-It's a m-music box," he mumbled. I raised my eyebrows and asked, "So what? That doesn't even answer my question, Ryan!"

He hesitated and sighed, successfully pulling out my grip and began walking away from me.

"Ryan!" I followed him and grabbed his arm again, my voice almost pleading now. "Ryan, why did you buy a damn music box?"

He glanced up at me, his cheeks flushed and frowned. "I-it's for you, y-you... You fucking idiot."

I froze and stared at him, wide eyed. "You... Y-you bought it for me?" I stammered.

He looked away and nodded. "I wanted to make it up to you. F-for not getting the tickets, I-I mean. But obviously it's just a piece of junk so it doesn't mean anything," he said, his voice turning harsh and sarcastic.

I frowned. "Hey, that's not fair! I didn't know you bought it for me. I just thought you were being stupid."

"Whatever," he said and thrust the music box into my hands, "Let's just go. We've got nothing else to do here."

He turned away and sulked off. I watched him for a moment then looked down at the music box. It was small, round and brightly coloured with pale shades of blue, pink and gold and little blue and red gems decorating it. It had small, proudly dressed horses around the outside and I realised it was supposed to resemble a carousel. Of all the things Ryan could've chosen, he chose a carousel, I thought to myself and felt a grin spread over my lips. Deciding to examine it further later, I pocketed the music box and started running after Ryan.

I caught up to him on the bridge to the entrance and he was still flustered and sulky. He refused to say any more about the music box, even though I told him repeatedly how much I liked it, and announced he had to take the groceries we'd been sent to collect earlier to the kitchens and that he would meet me in the laundry rooms. I agreed, thanking him again for the music box.

"Just... Just stop, Bren. I know you don't like it. You don't have to pretend."

I scoffed. "I only called it junk because I thought you were wasting money. But I like it. It's pretty."

Ryan's cheeks flushed and he frowned. "Whatever. See you later," and turned on his heel to the entrance.