Piercing Hatred | ✔️

3

~Flora's POV~

I worked silently alongside Knox for the next hour and a half, neither of us wanting to talk to the other, until I began to struggle to lift one of the bigger boxes. A huff of frustration left me as I tried to pick it up from the bottom, to no avail.

"Move." Knox grunted and bumped me out of the way, bending down to move the box himself. I almost cursed at him but instead I just stepped away, watching him with wide eyes when he picked it up like it was nothing at all. It was still strange, seeing him so grown and so strong now. He looked nothing like I remembered him in my head, having matured and filled out. He looked like a man now, and he was one.

His hair, though still the same dark brown color that bordered on black which I remembered, was shorter now and styled differently. It still looked very soft as well. I noticed that he seemed to have gotten tanner, and when he turned away to move the box, I spotted little hoops pierced through his ears. My eyes narrowed as I studied the piercings and saw that he had two piercings in each ear. "Hm." I hummed to myself, quiet enough that he wouldn't hear. Somehow, it suited him, or at least I thought so. Of course, though, I'd never tell him that. The line of his jaw seemed sharper, more defined than I remembered, but his lips were still just as plump. His nose was straight and his dark brows were rather nicely shaped, especially for a guy.

Knox dropped the box onto the floor and continued unpacking the box he'd been working on beforehand, leaving me to do the same. I let my eyes linger on him for a minute, scanning the span of his broad back before I continued what I was doing. For a while we kept on in silence, until I heard the door open again and, this time, Odette entered. "Everything going okay back here?" She chirped, allowing the door to swing shut behind her as I turned around.

Her eyes flicked over to Knox, who didn't bother to acknowledge her being here or even stop to glance at her to answer her question. "Yeah, I think it's going fine." I answered with a shrug, biting on the inside of my cheek. "Hopefully." I added. Odette smiled and scanned her gaze over the clothes that I had sorted so far. "Looks good to me." She nodded, brushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Is he being...difficult at all?" She whispered, as if expecting it from him. I cocked up a brow and she grinned, as if knowing what was on my mind. "Knox is generally pretty cranky, so most of us here are used to him being like that." She told me.

Somehow, I wasn't very surprised to hear that at all, so I just snorted. "Unfortunately, I've had my fair share of Knox being difficult, but it's nothing I can't handle." I assured her, not wanting her to think that this would be a problem. Knox wasn't about to ruin this for me no matter how much we disliked each other, not if I had anything to do with it.

Odette paused, likely catching the disdain layering my voice, and glanced between the two of us with a curious tilt of her head. It probably wasn't too hard to figure out that I knew Knox, but thankfully she was kind and professional enough to not ask. Instead, she simply nodded her head and gave me a friendly smile. "If you say so. You surely would know your limits better than I, but if you need anything, you can just come ask me. I'll be working out behind the register today." She informed me, pointing a short finger towards the door that led back out to the store.

I nodded my head to let her know that I was listening and waited until she had left again before I went back to work, sorting the clothes into their correct places again. Knox, who had moved to the other side of the room by now, spoke up the second she was gone.

"You're not even folding them correctly. What the hell is this?" He asked, causing me to turn around with an annoyed frown on my face. There he stood, holding up one of the skirts that I'd just folded. Irritation itched along my skin, causing me to give him a harsh glare. "Stop fucking unfolding them, Knox." I snapped, snatching the skirt from his hand. It had unfolded since he'd grabbed it. "Besides, if I was doing it badly, Odette would've said something considering she was just here."

Knox rolled his eyes, crossing his strong arms over his chest. "Keep telling yourself that, Flora." He hummed, the edges of his lips twitching up as he turned around to get back to whatever he'd been doing on his side of the room. I glared at the back of his head, my leg bouncing absentmindedly as I dug my nails into the palms of my hands. "Asshole." I grunted beneath my breath, turning away from him.

It seemed, though, that I hadn't said it quietly enough because Knox scoffed as though he had heard my insult. I ignored him, not bothering to look his way when I heard his heavy footsteps approaching from behind. His large hand grasped onto my elbow to spin me around, to which I immediately jerked away from him, surprised that he had touched me. "You know, I'm trying to help you, as hard as that might be for you to believe." He told me with a scoff, stepping away from me when he noticed that I had pressed myself against the table just to get away from him a little.

"Considering you don't care about me, I'm sure you can understand why that is." I retorted, peering up at him from beneath my lashes. Unsurprisingly, he didn't turn or look away, but rather stared back at me. His gaze was intense, too intense, and I quickly found myself looking away. There was something about his eyes that made it feel intimidating to stare into them, something which I was learning had not changed about him. Even when I had known him years ago, it had always been like that.

"Fine, then. I won't offer you help anymore, if that's what you want." He said, shaking his head at me before he turned around. I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched him. "Good." I grunted. "The last thing I want or need is help from an asshat like you, anyway." I retorted.

Unsurprisingly, Knox just ignored me and went back to work.