Zephaniah // z.m

10. Empty promise

Hannah

"How was the first week? Better than the bakery?" Samuel, my brother asked as he stared at the menu the waitress had just given us.

We sat down in a small café down the road, which was one of my favorite cafés. The vibe and the look of it was just extremely.. cozy. With the wooden tables and chairs to the green decorations of the plants all around the area, it was the perfect place for any situation.

And as it had been a while since me and Samuel had done something together, we decided lunch on a Sunday was the great opportunity.

I sighed as I laid the menu down on the table, "It was okay, I guess."

"You guess?" Samuel raised his eyebrows and laid his menu down as well, raising his hand when the girl, who gave us our menu, came near us.

I waited with speaking up as the girl came over, taking mine and Samuel's orders. He ordered a burger with a side of fries and lettuce and I simply ordered a shrimp panini with water.

"Thank you," He said to the girl once she left and he looked back at me, "Why do you guess? I thought you liked it. You were pretty excited when you came home."

I bit my upper lip as I thought about the past week. Zephaniah still hadn't completely opened up to me, but he started talking more and more each day. Zayn, on the other hand, didn't change at all. He was still a little cold towards me, but once Zephaniah was there he'd change completely.

I didn't know what his problem was, so I didn't know how to fix it. If even I could fix it in the first place.

"The little boy is amazing. He's really cute, very shy indeed and has his special needs and things but, I don't know. I love spending time with him." I said, then hesitated a little.

Samuel took a sip of his coke, "But?"

"But his father, I don't know. He's always so snappy towards me, and I don't even do anything wrong." I frowned deeply and played with my hair as I stared into the distance. "He's a little harsh with his words too at times, it just makes me feel uncomfortable."

The waitress came up to us and gave us our food. We thanked her and Samuel dug into his fries right away, "So why don't you tell him? He doesn't have the rights to act like that if you don't do anything wrong."

"He's my boss. He can fire me any time if he wants to," I mumbled after I swallowed down my mouthful, wiping a bit of sauce that fell on my finger away with a napkin.

"That wouldn't be fair," Samuel frowned as he sipped his coke again. "Then what does he say? Give me an example."

I sighed and played with the napkin, "Zephaniah, his son, was close to having a seizure last time and I just freaked. I didn't know what to do because it came out of nowhere, so when I told him he helped his son and he flipped." I frowned, "He said that he had told me what to do, and he had done that, I admit, but his son didn't tell me that he needed to lay down, so how could I know?"

Samuel blinked a few times, "That was confusing, but I get it. Maybe he was just stressed, Hannah. What would you feel like if it happened to your son?"

"Yeah but that doesn't give him the right to snap at me just because I didn't know. His son didn't tell me!" I defended again, feeling utterly confused as if it was my fault or not. I didn't know it anymore.

"No, he shouldn't have snapped at you, but you have to look at it from both sides." Samuel took a bite of his burger and stared outside for a while.

I stared at his blue eyes and his messy brown hair, similar to Zayn's, except for the fact that his hair was black. "But he does it with everything. I gave him coffee, he didn't even thank me, he just ordered where to place the cup. I put on the washing machine with his clothes in it, vacuumed their rooms and he didn't say anything. It's not even my job to help him with his household."