STATIC BLUE | carmen berzatto

viii. apologies

"Didn't sleep much." he half joked, trying to draw more than 2 words from her. He wasn't an idiot ; he knew that her sour mood was because of him.

She huffed, still continuing to cut onions, "Like you would know." she spat, her tone frigid.

Carmen felt his cheeks grow hot with anger, brushing past her without a word. He did his remaining checks on the other cooks before returning to his office. He sunk into his chair, running a hand through his hair.

It didn't make sense to him why she was so mad. Her bubbly personality had changed into a cold front towards him since their first disagreement. Sure, her attitude might have resulted in the buildup of their problems, last night being the breaking point. But he didn't do anything that should've drastically changed her mood to this.

With Carmen out of her eyeline, she set down her knife, gripping the counter as she leaned against it, taking in a breath. She truly had no reason to be mad, she thought to herself. All he did was go home, he could have had a multitude of reasons why.

-

As the day went on, Carmen and Margaret basically avoided each other, trying to keep one another out of their eyesight. Both of them were extremely stubborn, not wanting to be the first to apologize to the other. What she had said earlier had put him in a bad mood, her snarkiness striking a sense of frustration within him. Sure she had been mean before, but most times were just sarcastically. She usually never stayed mad at him for more than a day, but this was vastly different than previous instances.

After the work day ended, he ended up catching Margaret by the lockers. She was collecting her belongings, getting ready to leave when he approached her.

"What's your problem?" he asked, watching her shove her stuff into her backpack.

"Nothing." she said, keeping her response short.

"What is. your. problem?" he asked again, emphazing each word.

She finally looked up, eyes blazing with frustration, "You left without a word!" she raised her voice.

"You cant seriously be mad about that. Jesus, Margaret." he shouted back, throwing his hands into the air, exasperated with her incessant attitude.

"Well I am." After slamming her locker shut, she tugged the zipper of her bag closed and pulled it over her shoulder.

She took a step past Carmen, but he grabbed her bag and pulled her backwards. After almost falling into him, Margaret's eyes went wide for a millisecond before her expression snapped into a disgusted cringe.

"You could have at least left a note!" she said coldly, taking a step away from Carmen.

He forced a dry laugh, "You wanted to me to leave a note for not sleeping over?" he recited, dumbfounded by her response.

Margaret walked past him, stopping a few feet away from him. She turned around to face him, her lip tugging downwards as she spoke. "Do you have to have an answer for everything?" she asked, ultimately defeated. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she waited for a response, but he didn't say a word.

She left Carmen alone in the restaurant, walking out the door with a harsh shove. "Fuck!" he yelled out, smacking a locked with a clenched fist.

For next week, work was extremely rocky for them. They constantly argued over the smallest things, mostly concerning the way the kitchen was ran.

Needless to say, they both dreaded coming work.

-

"Carmen, what the fuck is with the books?" Richie asked, rifling through stacks of papers.