Hiding Sparrows

6. Just a friend

"I'm sick of you avoiding me."

It was mid afternoon, and we were in the store's parking lot. I was just arriving for my shift, and Heath was finished his. It had been a few days since tats-guy showed up, but I was yet to hear anything from him. This just meant I was more stressed about what he wanted me to do. Like what it even was.

"I'm not avoiding you," I told Heath, not looking him in the face. "I'm just going through some stuff, is all."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, stuff like stealing expensive earrings. Do you still have that jewellery, is that why you don't want to talk to me?"

I quickly shook my head. "No, of course not. I got rid of it."

Technically it wasn't a lie.

"Then what's going on, Rob? What stuff are you going through?" He asked, giving me a pleading look.

I bit my lip. "It's personal, Heath. I would have told you if I needed help."

He scowled. "Stop dodging my questions, you're scaring me. Is something wrong with your health? Are you sick or something?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "It's not like that. Listen, would you just drop it? I'm going to be late for my shift."

I pushed past him and headed towards the store entrance. As I was walking away, I heard him call out.

"Oh my god. You're pregnant!"

A middle aged woman who was unloading her groceries into the boot of her car looked up in surprise. My cheeks burned red, and I slowly turned and walked back across to Heath, trying not to show the anger on my face.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," he said. "You don't want to tell me because you think I'm the father, and you're getting an abortion, right?"

I scowled at him. "Heath I swear to god, this has nothing to do with you. I'm not pregnant, and if you weren't so far up your own ass then you would realise how dumb that is. Now, I have a shift that started two minutes ago, so if you don't fucking mind, I'm going to go work my ass off so I don't lose the only job I've got."

With that, I spun on my heel and marched into the store. Thankfully, he didn't follow me.

By the time I dropped my stuff into the break room and made my way to the checkout, I was five minutes late. I apologised to the cashier I was taking over from, a nice girl named Bonnie, and she just gave me a smile and said not to worry about it before grabbing her water bottle and heading off.

I took over the till and began scanning through the next customer. Then the next. And the next. And the next, and the next, and the next.

It kept going like that pretty much all shift, customer after customer, with only a few minutes of quiet every so often.

Finally, the crowds thinned out around and I could take a moment to breathe.

After a significant enough lapse in crowds, I called out to Nate, the guy working the next register over. "Hey, can you cover me while I take my fifteen minute break?"

He nodded, so I locked my till and headed to the break room. Shoddy but comfortable, the break room sat out the back beside the loading bay, along with the manager's office. Heaving a sigh, I collapsed into the peeling leather couch in the middle of the room and drew my phone from my pocket. We weren't supposed to have it on us while we were working but in the angry haze I'd been in after leaving Heath, I had forgotten to take it out.

I unlocked it now, and started to scroll mindlessly through Instagram. About ten minutes into my break, I got a call.

It was from an unknown number.