Candles

33 | B R E A T H E

IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE she was actually filling out the application right in front of me. Did she not see how this was bothering me? How this was affecting me? I chewed slowly on my slice of pizza and narrowed my eyes at her. She moved the pen quickly with a smile on her face and I wanted to grab the application and rip it into a million pieces. I wanted to make her happy myself. She did not need a second job. It was unnecessary and it was going to make our time together even more limited. I did not want that.

"Sydney," I sighed. "You know—"

"Harry," she looked at me and her smile was long gone. "Let me do this for me, okay?"

"But—"

"Harry," her tone was suddenly cold and bitter. "You can't keep buying me things. I want to be able to buy stuff with my own money, yeah? You're too nice and I don't want to take advantage of you."

"You're not!" I snapped.

She dropped the pen and slowly met my gaze. Her lips were pursed together and I realized her left eye was twitching a little bit. I swallowed hard and when she pointed a finger at me, my heart leaped. "What are we even doing, Harry?" She looked somewhat calmed down but her eye was still twitching. "You can't be mad at me for wanting another job. You act as if this will affect your life—"

"Time," was all I said.

"Time?" she rolled her eyes. "You were just yelling at me and now you want to know the time? I swear—" I threw her a look. "Oh, right. You're afraid of time. I forgot."

"And you're afraid of rifles. I forgot."

"That isn't funny."

"You don't see me laughing."

"What happened to having a fun day?" she asked. "This day has been officially ruined!"

"It didn't start out good to begin with."

"How many times are you going to bring up the whole baseball bat thing? I swear, it's going to get old real fast if you bring it up every freaking hour."

"Come on," I stood up. "We're leaving."

"Excuse me?" she looked at me with wide eyes.

"Go wait for me in the truck," I tossed her the keys. "I'm going to pay for the pizza."

"You're kidding," she gaped. "You want me to walk back to the beach by myself?" When my expression did not change, she picked the pen up and scribbled some more words down before rising to her feet. "Fine. I'll go. But if I get kidnapped and die, it'll be your fault for making me go by myself without any kind of protection. Your keys can only do so much."

She continued to ramble as she went inside of the building. I followed her but kept a safe distance. She was socializing with Madi and my shoulders fell when she handed her the pink application. Madi said something back and disappeared in the back of the restaurant. Sydney then walked out of the front door, not once noticing me standing there. My hands balled up into fists and I marched right up to the desk, slamming down a couple twenties. Olivia's mother looked up at me and I muttered, "Keep the change."

"Oh, Harry, thank—"

I hurried after Sydney.

She was not walking very fast. In fact, she seemed to be stopping every few steps to look around. My heart was pounding against my chest and I had the sudden urge to grab her and convince her that I could take care of her. I knew she would not believe me because I had not spoken to Jillian but it was only a matter of time before that happened. I was still going to talk to her today and I just wanted Sydney to trust me.