Candles

05 | L I G H T

I CHOKED ON MY DRINK. Harry deepened his stare and he did not look happy at all. I coughed a few times and placed a hand on my chest. He did not seem to care that I was choking. God, why did I not look away when I had the chance? I was stupid for staring at him in the first place. In fact, I was stupid for still staring at him. As much as I wanted to look away, I could not. My eyes were being disobedient and they were doing whatever they wanted to do as of right now. I wanted Harry to look away from me but he did not. He moved his head down a bit, his eyes still locked on mine. I was almost frightened by his stare but I still did not look away. His eyes were sending me a message and I did not quite know what it was. From where I was sitting, I could barely see the greenness of his eyes and his eyes looked almost black.

Jillian came back from helping her customer and when she placed her hands on Harry's shoulders, he broke away from the stare to look at her. He seemed more relaxed now and his smile returned. I was somewhat shocked at how he was currently behaving. Only moments ago, he looked like he wanted to throw anything he could find at me. Now, he looked like he had just won the lottery. What the hell was up with this man? I rolled my eyes and grabbed my belongings, pulling the key out of the ignition. I walked back inside of the herb shop and I tossed my lunch into the trash can by the front door. I made my way to the back of the shop and put my purse back where it was and pulled my apron over my body, tying the back of it quickly.

I found myself uncomfortable on the chair I was sitting on earlier and I leaned forward on the desk, burying my face in my hands. I took a deep breath and shook my head slowly. This day was not how I thought it would be. Jett and I were probably not going to have another conversation anytime soon and it bothered me. The day had been going by slowly and that bothered me. Harry being here in general bothered me. The chipped wood on the desk bothered me. Everything bothered me. I was ready to go home and I had to be here for a few more hours. I had no idea how I was going to survive.

"Sydney?"

I looked up to see Clare looking right back at me, "Yes, ma'am?"

"Come here for a second?"

"Oh," I stood up from the chair and fixed my apron. "Of course."

I walked over to her and she smiled before pointing up to the ceiling. I glanced up to see one of the light bulbs was constantly flickering on and off. I tilted my head to the side. Why did she want me to come see this?

"I'm almost certain it'll be blown before we close up tonight," she sighed. "I'm going to need you and Harry to change it real quick while there aren't many people here. Can you do that for me?" I wanted to tell her that I could not do it. I refused to do it. However, when I looked at her, she just looked so sweet and kind. I could not bring myself to tell her anything but yes. I simply nodded my head and she widened her smile. More wrinkles formed on the sides of her mouth as she did so. "Go fetch Harry while I go get the new bulb, yeah?"

"Yeah," I muttered as I wandered over to where Jillian and Harry were standing. "Hey."

"Oh, hello!" Jillian looked over her shoulder at me.

"Hi."

"You must be Sydney! Oh, Clare has told me so much about you! She even told me about how you were early this morning. Good job!"

"What do you want?" Harry jumped into the conversation. "Can't you see we're in the middle of a conversation? God, how rude could you possibly be?"

"Harry, behave yourself." Jillian hissed.

I tried to sound stern but failed miserably, "We have to change the light bulb."

"Which light bulb?" he sounded quite all right for someone who looked like they wanted to murder me earlier. I pointed to the bulb that was on its last amount of juice and when I looked back at Harry, he was staring at it...studying it. Jillian looked at it, too, and they both seemed deep in thought. It was just a light bulb. Why were they looking at it like that?