Red

Chapter Fifteen

Picture of  Michael on the side ;)        

***

‘So I’m taking it you got time off work?’ Michael questioned me as we walked side by side down to the beach from where my car is currently parked in the staff car park. With my surfboard tucked under my left arm and my towel occupying my right hand, I was well prepared to hit the water. 

Michael had my dad’s big surf board tucked under his left arm. Today I was teaching him how to surf, or at least attempting to. His towel was flung over his left shoulder and he too was prepared to hit the water straight away.

Our bodies weren’t separated by much of a distance, and from the close distance that we were walking by each other was making Blake very tense, which made Tanner awkward, which made me embarrassed.

Michael just stayed with his usual emotion, whatever that even is.

‘Yeah, Sally gave me three days off, so I can go to your house for five days.’ I said while glancing up at him and gave him a polite smile. The smile disappeared when he frowned down at me.

‘Five days? But we were going to go for a week,’ he trailed off confused. His eyebrows were furried as he peered down at me.

‘Well, at the shop there isn’t that many staff.’ I explained. ‘There’s only like, seven of us or something. If I go for too long, then Sally will be short of workers to run the floor.’

‘You don’t even need to work. I can provide for you.’ He said with the frown on his face.

‘Yeah right,’ I scoffed. ‘And stop frowning, you’ll get wrinkles.’ I joked, attempting to add some humour. Seeing that he wasn’t in the mood for joking around, I straightened my face. ‘Five days is better than two days, right?’ I asked trying to make the best of the situation.

‘I’m sure if you ask the boy that always tries to kick me out, he will cover your shift for two days.’ He scoffed. ‘And seven days is better than five days,’ he mocked my attempt of making the situation better.

The boy? I’m assuming he meant Lenny, but why would he be talking about him like that? ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I questioned.

‘I’m just saying, he seems to care for you a lot. I’m here now, there’s no point for him to anymore.’ He answered like there was nothing wrong about talking that way. As he saw me starting to get angry, he avoided looking at me, so he looked at the scene around him.

‘Excuse me?’ I said through gritted teeth.

‘Forget it.’ he said, knowing that I would turn it into an argument.

‘Asshole,’ I muttered under my breath knowing fully well that he would be able to hear me.

He softly nudged me in my side, causing me to whip my head around to glare at him. I was about to open my mouth to say something that more than likely wouldn’t be too polite, when I saw his playful expression.

Instantly, I forgot about feeling ticked off moments before and nudged him back, probably a bit harder than necessary. When he didn’t even stumble to the side even the slightest bit, he grinned smugly down at me and I playfully narrowed my eyes up at him.

I nudged him again, throwing more of my body weight into him and yet again he didn’t move. I scowled at him. ‘What are you, a boulder? Move!’ I joked with a laugh and some seriousness to my voice, shoving him once more. He still didn’t move and his smug grin didn’t fall.

‘That’s the part when you go all sympathetic and feel sorry for me that I can’t shove you, and you pretend to stumble the slightest bit to make me feel better about not being able to move you.’ I said with a flat voice.