Awks. ✓

Chapter 34: I Got You Off For The Rest Of The Day.

Okay for reals though, who made up country boundaries? Who cut up the planet as if it were a big, almost round cake and decided to make certain slices bigger than others? Have you seen the size of China on a map compared to Qatar?? Like, seriously???

"Youmissedaspot."

I turned around and faced the source of the deep voice, utterly confused. "Huh?"

"YOU MISSED A SPOT!!" He screamed, pointing at the table I had been wiping.

Ever since my little 'incident' with Elliott after our photo shoot, Alexander had made it his mission to remind me of the terrible ordeal and relive it on a daily basis. This time, deciding to imitate what I had yelled that day.

I stood in front of him and pointed the can of wood cleaner I had in my hand to his face.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't spray you with this?" I asked, genuinely waiting for a good enough reason because I was prepared to cover him in the foamy substance.

Alexander leaned on a nearby chair as he ran a finger over his bottom lip. "Because I'm so unbelievably attractive that you don't want to ruin the wonderful piece of art that is my face."

"Who lied to you? Your mum?" I sarcastically replied, stepping closer to him and aiming the can at him again. I must've looked determined as fuck because all of a sudden, he stumbled and waved his hands in front of him in defeat.

"Just kidding." He chuckled hesitantly. "I was just kidding. What I meant to say was because, erm." He began to take a few steps back. "There's no need to resort to violence. Just put that down so we can talk this out like reasonable adults."

With every step he took backwards, I took one forwards, narrowing the gap he failed to maintain between us. A couple of customers even encouraging me to 'give him what he deserved'.

"This is me being a reasonable adult," I told him, "responding reasonably to the way you've been treating me." He roughly ran a hand through his hair, creating a disheveled mop of locks on top of his head. He was now backed up against a wall, with no visible escape in sight.

"Okay, okay. I have one." I rolled my eyes and got ready to spray. "An actual reason," he pleaded, "I swear!"

"I'm listening." I replied, not moving my outstretched arm nor the index finger placed comfortably on top of the can.

"My uncle is your boss and I got you off for the rest of the day." He blurted out, his eyes darting between me and the brown can in front of him.

I scoffed. "That's a lame one, even for you."

"I mean it! I'm not chatting shit Marianne, I swear to God." His gaze shifted to something behind me before continuing. "Even ask Claire." I turned and saw her standing behind the bar, on drink duty. Before I knew it, Alexander had already begun walking up to her in a hurry, leaving me to follow in close pursuit.

We were now both standing behind the bar, right next to Claire but she was so engrossed in her work that she had failed to notice our presence.

"Claire." Alexander called, making her slowly turn her head away from the Maroon Lagoons she had been preparing. I'm not kidding, it was like she was moving in slow motion or something.

Once her head had finally finished rotating, Alexander continued. "You were in the backroom when I was talking to my uncle, right?" He asked. Her eyes widened and her lips parted for a few seconds before being pulled back into a thin line as she nodded.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Tell me you heard him say that Marianne's shift ends at noon." Claire's irises shifted to the left of Alexander, where I was standing and then back to him. She then blinked several times.

What is she doing? Mentally taking pictures of him?

Claire stepped back and took a very deep breath.

"Tìo, how's business going? Good my boy, good. Can I ask you something? Sì, go ahead. Can Marianne get off of her shift early today? I kind of need her help with something. You need help? From a person? From a girl person? Not like that Tìo. No no no, yes she can. What? She can leave at noon, she is my favourite nephew's friend, no?" Claire retold quickly all in one go, as if she were a broken tape recorder.

"Erm, thanks." Alexander muttered, sounding just as surprised with her response as I was. She grinned at us both without saying another word and went right back to finishing off the two drinks she had been making.

"I hope that was good enough." Alexander sighed, shutting his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Why wasn't it Dylan or Beth in the backroom? A simple 'yes' would've sufficed."

"Nah," I disagreed, patting him on the shoulder, "I felt like I was actually there in person."

Alexander rolled his eyes. "Let's get going then."

We stepped out of the café and Alexander was laughing every two seconds, attempting to cover them up with a series of coughs.

"What?" I asked, fed up with his constant chuckling.

"You planning on taking that with us?" He asked back, pointing down at my hand.

My eyes widened when I noticed that I was still holding onto the can of wood cleaner. Alexander bursted out laughing once I caught sight of it. I narrowed my eyes at him before heading back into the café and putting it back.

Smooth Marianne, real smooth.

"And where is it that we are going to, may I ask?" I questioned, as I walked back out. He pressed one of the buttons on his car keys, resulting in a loud beep from his dark grey Cadillac.

"The mall."

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A/N:

You were red,
And you liked me because I was blue.
But you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky,
Then you decided purple just wasn't for you.

HALSEY IS A LYRICAL GENIUS!!

Dedicated to KarlieGlasgow14
for the cute message she left in my inbox:

"PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ UPDATE
I have nothing else to read and I was so sad that I started singing church hyms. And thank you, you're book is the best I've ever read. It's even better than Rubixcubes' books."

Awwwww, thank you so much 😭😂😂 and tbh, I didn't even know who "rubixcubes" was until I saw this. THAT PERSON'S A PRO, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!!!! But hey, if you find my work remotely good enough to even consider comparing it to theirs then I'm truly flabbergasted. Thank you 🙊.

Claire Woo: played by Hana Mae Lee. (You probably recognise her from Pitch Perfect. You know how weird she is in that? Imagine her just as weird in this story because that's what I do 😂).

Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')

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