Tainted Knives

02| A Normal Day

D A L L A S

"That'll be 4.99," I said, smirking at a regular customer, Griffin, who simply glared back at me.

"I," he said readily, smirking back, "have a coupon."

"Oh?" I nodded back, my smirk slowly becoming a smile, "is it expired?"

Griffin paled. His smug smile slowly turned into a nervous one, and he took out the coupon from his bag. It was crumpled, almost torn, but Griffin opened it up slowly.

"Aha! The coupon isn't expired!" Griffin exclaimed, slamming the coupon on the counter. He showed it to me, all happy and smug.

Griffin was a regular customer in this small convenience store I was working in. He was quite handsome, painted in white, with a nicely cut jawline, thick, dark messy brown hair and he had high cheekbones. His almond shaped eyes were dark brown, the usual black, and his lips suited his face well. He was 5'9 or 5'10.

"Ugh," I groaned, checking the coupon once more before scanning the bar code.

Goddamn it.

If only Griffin had actually gotten an expired coupon.

Wait-

I stared at the computer, my annoyance slowly dissipating. The words flashed in red, and I just stared at Griffin, with a smile creeping on my face.

"Wha- What is it? Why are you smiling like that?" Griffin looked at me, having a disgusted look in his eyes, "smiling like that makes you look creepy."

"I mean, I'm really happy right now," I said, smiling even more, feeling giddy, "just look at this."

"What?" Griffin replied, annoyance seeping into his voice. His handsome features were etched into that of absolute irritation.

Griffin's dark eyes widened on seeing the screen. He ruffled his hair in exasperation, and blinked quite a number of times, as if he was refusing to believe what he was seeing.

"NO! IT'S FUCKING EXPIRED?!" Griffin screamed in disbelief, and I felt extremely pleased with myself.

I heard footsteps from the back.

"Fuck off Griffin," Amara swore at him, her dark hair covering her eyes, "we have other customers to tend to."

Amara Elna Skye. She was the manager of this store, the boss, to be precise. She was tall and had a strong build, about 5'8 or 5'9, just a few centimetres shorter than Griffin. 

She had long, straight black hair that came down till her shoulders, with skin as white as snow. Her features were quite plain, other than her dark brown eyes which flashed with emotion. 

"Customers?" Griffin feigned, looking all over the shop with his hand above his eyes, as if he were looking for something, "where?"

"Fuck off! We do have customers! You just drive them away!" Amara yelled at him, annoyance flashing in her eyes.

"Really? Exactly when do you have these so called customers?" Griffin asked, acting like a baby by crossing his arms.

"When you're not there, Griffin," Amara narrowed her eyes at him, a slight frown appearing on her face.

"Hmph," Griffin pouted, "and stop smiling Dallas. You look scary."

I smiled wider.

My face hurt, but if Griffin got annoyed by it, then I would smile even more if I had to.

"So," I asked him, scanning the bar code of his product once more, "how will you pay?"

"Um, what was the price again?" Griffin asked.