Sin and Sinner

19

~Darlina's POV~

Humming quietly to myself as I swept up the kitchen floor, I suddenly began to hear the sound of quiet arguing coming from the living room, causing me to pull out a headphone and pause. It was very clearly Emmett and Atlas, though the faint argument didn't seem serious because they weren't yelling.

Still, I leaned the broom against the wall and headed into the living room just to make sure everything was okay. "What's the big deal? I'm not asking for a fucking kidney here, man." Emmett huffed at Atlas, who rolled his eyes. "I don't see any point in this. You practically promised you'd leave it alone and now you're asking me to do this?" Atlas muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Is everything okay?" I asked the two of them after a moment of hesitation, cocking my head to the side as I stood by the couch.

The both of them snapped their heads in my direction, Atlas with a scowl on his face that made me flinch. Was that directed at me?

"Yes!" Emmett huffed.

"No." Atlas said at the same time, flatly.

I paused, furrowing my brows as I looked back and forth between the two. "Um..." I mumbled, a little confused. "What are you guys arguing about? I could hear you from the kitchen." I said, frowning. The two of them glanced back and forth between one another, Emmett frowning as Atlas gave him a dirty look, clearly not happy about whatever it was they'd been talking about before.

"Em wants me to go to some place called Diya's with you to volunteer." Atlas scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. I just looked at him, a little unsure if that was the only problem. "Oh." I said when he didn't add anything more. "That's it?" I asked, a smile growing on my lips. To me, it sounded like a great idea.

As if he'd expected me to side with him, Atlas gave me an incredulous look. "What? You're fine with going to volunteer? Don't you have a job already?" He asked, causing me to laugh. "Diya's is where I work. It's an animal daycare and pet adoption center." I explained, leaning against the arm of the couch.

After my explanation, I could've sworn he seemed to lighten up a little bit on the idea, but he promptly turned his head away, so maybe I imagined it. "It's a good idea, right?" Emmett asked me, clearly fishing for my support on the matter, which I grinned at. "I do think it's a good idea." I agreed, nodding, and Atlas pursed his lips as if frustrated. "But I don't want to pressure Atlas into doing something he doesn't want to." I added quickly.

The expression on Atlas' face didn't change, but now Emmett was giving me a very unimpressed look. I gave him a sheepish smile, unable to offer more than that. "It's really not that bad, man." Emmett sighed, glancing up at Atlas again as he resumed the conversation. "You don't have anything to do all day, anyway." He pointed out. I pursed my lips and simply watched, deciding I didn't want to take sides. Either way it was fine with me.

"Does it fucking matter?" Atlas sighed, exasperated with Emmett. "What could I possibly get out of this, huh?" He asked. Emmett shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, not backing down. "I dunno. Why do you have to get anything from it? It'd just be good for you to get out of the apartment, have something to do." He argued, which admittedly had me leaning more towards Emmett's side of the argument. Just a little bit.

Atlas, clearly unimpressed, rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine." He relented. "Just until I hear back about my interview I had." He mumbled, causing my interest to peak. I cocked my head to the side and smiled. "You found a place that's willing to interview you?" I gasped, knowing that he had been looking for a while now. According to Emmett, the struggle of even finding a place willing to interview Atlas with his record had been frustrating him.

So I couldn't help but to be a little bit excited for him now that I knew he'd had an interview, a smile growing on my lips.

"What place was it?" I asked happily, my eyes meeting Atlas' when he looked my way. He tightened his jaw and looked away. "It's a mechanic shop. Jac's car repair is the one." He told me in a mutter. 

I smiled, glad to hear that. "Well, congratulations. I hope you get good news back." I said, and his eyes flicked my way with slight wariness within them. Sometimes I wondered if he was uncertain about my kindness towards him, just because of the way he would look at me like he was expecting me to one day start being rude. 

"Just to be clear, you are agreeing to this, then?" Emmett cut in, narrowing his eyes at his best friend. "Going to Diya's with Li, I mean." He clarified, though he didn't really need to. I watched Atlas closely as he hesitated, staring down at the floor. "Yeah." Atlas agreed gruffly, practically having to force the word from his mouth. "I'll do it." He affirmed.

Emmett cheered, visibly happy to hear that, and punched Atlas in the arm before he ran into the kitchen. The punch didn't seem to actually hurt Atlas, which didn't surprise me because Emmett wasn't anywhere near as muscular as he was. 

The two of us were left in the living room, my eyes peering up at him. "It really won't be that bad, you know." I told him, my voice coming out small. I didn't want him to think that this was going to be something to be upset about. I mean, I work around a bunch of dogs. "The dogs are all really sweet. I think it'll be nice to just get out of the apartment a little, too." I said, trying to get him to be more optimistic about it.

He shrugged his shoulders and plopped down on the couch, throwing an arm over the back of it as he parted his muscular thighs. "As long as I don't have to fucking talk to people, I don't care, I guess." He said grumpily, staring up at me through dark eyes.

Although I didn't quite agree with his sentiment, I merely nodded my head, accepting his terms. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that. We usually get most customers on the weekend and very rarely any throughout the week, which I can handle if you don't want to. The only people you might end up talking to are my coworkers." I assured him, tucking a strand of my blonde hair behind my ear. 

Atlas lulled his head to the side slightly, cocking up a dark eyebrow. He didn't look very happy about the idea, which caused me to frown and shift slightly. "I usually leave at about seven forty in the morning." I mentioned, thoughtlessly playing with the ends of my hair. 

"That's fine." He hummed. "I usually get up early anyway." He said, watching me closely. I hesitated before I sat down on the end of the couch he was on, curling one leg up beneath my butt. "Just make sure you're ready by the time we need to leave. I'm basically the only one that takes care of the dogs first thing in the morning, so I have to be there on time." I explained, to which he just stared at me with a pensive frown on his face.

"Okay, then." He eventually murmured. "I guess I can do that, smalls."