HAZE |🔼{ON HOLD}

UNEXPECTED GAURDIAN PART-2

Day 2

Next day I called shop's manager to let him know why I wasn't able to make it to work yesterday.
I was let out of the hospital that evening and since today was no school due to some function held for the chairman, I was asked by the manager to cover for my missed shift this morning.

I agreed to do it, since now I needed extra money to pay Kyle. The pocket money I got at the orphanage was not enough to meet my daily needs.

I worked at a bookstore just three streets from my orpahanage. I loved working there. The manager is aware of my conditions and so he is always considerate to make amends in my schedule whenever I needed.

On my breaks I read a lot of books which he allowed me to read for free. Reading is the best distraction from my miserable life.

I can read anything but my favourites are mystery, thriller, horror and science and sometimes romance as well.

I reached my work place at around 9:30 am. As I entered the bookstore, Jake startled me with a big hug, it was like he was waiting for me since forever.

Then he stretched my hands and started searching on them, "Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere?"
After he made sure that everything seems to be fine and working, he put his head on my shoulder and gave the biggest sigh of relief I have ever heard, without me answering any of his questions he said, "Thank god you are ok, I got so scared when I heard from the manager that you were involved in an accident" his voice full of panick as well as concern at the same time . "It's alright Jake, you know all this is normal for me. Don't worry". I said blithely.

By the way, Jake is my co-worker and a close friend. We both joined the same day. Actually if I have to admit it, honestly he is my only friend because children at orphanage as well as at school thinks that being with me might be dangerous for them.

He has always worried about me and was always there for me whenever I needed him. He knows about my circumstances and supports me in every possible way. Somehow he is kind of like an over-protective brother.

Whenever we hangout he never lets me out of his sight, even though I have told him thousands of time that I am not a baby and can take care of myself.

After recovering from his sudden burst, I asked him "What are you doing here? Today is not your shift" He told me that he wanted to make sure I was ok with his own two eyes so he exchanged shifts with the other person who was supposed to work today.

I was incharge of the cash counter while he arranged books. Whenever Jack was on duty, there would be a lot more customers, mostly females. He was really handsome and had a muscular body so he attracted a lot of people, sometimes even guys, I used to tease him a lot for this.

It was in his nature to always be cheerful and he smiled whenever he talked to anyone but due to this I accumulated a lot of hatred and death glares from females whenever he talked to me.

It's not like I feel bad or anything though. And it was too much of a hassle to make them understand that he was just my co-worker so I just let it be.

I was at the cash counter, when a customer came in. I raised my head to greet them and to my surprise the person standing at the entry was none other than my savior, Kyle.

He walked towards me as he noticed me at the counter. "Are you alright now?" he asked. I told him I was okay, he needn't worry. To my surprise he started patting my head. I gave him an uncomfortable look which he took as a hint and removed his hand.

Just when I was going to ask him how could I help him, Jack surprised me by coming from behind and arbitrarily putting his hand on my shoulder.

I have told him many times not to be too friendly in front of a customer because it might give out the wrong impression of me flirting and not working. I would blame it on my girlish face.

Officer Kyle was gazing at me intently. And I don't know why but I felt the need explain this to him. So I said, "Umm..Kyle" pointing towards Jack I said "This is Jack, my co-worker and a friend" Kyle nodded towards him.

I was just going to introduce Kyle to Jack when he suddenly cut me off and said "So, dear sir, do you want to buy any books or are you here for hitting on girls because let me tell you flirting with the staff is prohibited." I glared at him and he just gave me a crooked smile.

Just when I was about to apologize for his rude behavior, Kyle said, "I guess I will be off now, sorry for disturbing you at work" He waved us a goodbye and left the shop.

After he was gone I turned to Jack and looked at him with my rahe filled eyes. And to my amusement, he just shrugged at me and said "What?" rather nonchalantly. "What do you mean 'WHAT' , do you have any idea what the hell you did just now!!".

For a moment there was surprise in his eyes but then with a plain expression he said, "Yes! Driving away a customer who had no self-control and tried flirting with a staff. Didn't you see how he touched your head?"

I have to admit if I could I would have blown up by now with this much heat in my head. Even though I always used to control my temper but at that I just burst out, "He was the guy who helped me yesterday! That was so ungrateful of you and why would you think he was flirting. I would have kicked his ass if he was".

Jack looked a little bit hurt but then clearing his throat he said, "Ok I'm sorry, I didn't know that"

"Of course you didn't! You didn't let me introduce him."

"When he patted your head, I thought he had other intentions so I got the wrong idea".

This time controlling my temper I said "Ok.... He did that because first, may be he was worried about me and second, he was an investigator so it must his habit to pat little children on heads"

"You are not little." he said

"But I am a child compared to him considering I am just 18 years old."

"Yeah! Like hell!" he snorted.

"18 yrs are not considered children, under the law you are legally an adult."

"Ok fine, I will let this slide, now we should get back to work before manager sees us and  starts lecturing."

"Yeah Ok" he said and went back to the shelf he was arranging at the back side.

I don't even how the hell did he manage to see me from that spot. Seriously, I don't know why he gets so irritated whenever I talk to a customer for more than a minute. Such a considerate friend, I swear.

Note the sarcasm.

After my work, Jack offered to drop me off but I declined. I was walking towards my orphanage when I started getting this feeling that I was being followed, I looked behind me but no one was there.

As of now I could hear the footsteps. Ok, whoever he was, he was going to be nothing more than a corpse when I get my hands on him.

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1323w