"Do you really need Fruit Loops?"
"How can you even ask that? Yes, I really need Fruit Loops."
"But you just grabbed a box of Coco Pops!"
"So?"
"Flynn, both are just as unhealthy as each other."
Flynn scowled, throwing the box of childrens cereal into our trolley, right on top of the yellow box of Coco Pops. "No, one is chocolate, the other is fruit flavoured."
I felt my eyes bulge in disbelief, and the half scoff, half chuckle that fell out of my mouth had his scowl deepening and his eyes narrowing into a glare.
"What are you laughing at?" He asked, stopping the trolley near the produce section. I tried not to grin at his expression, but my mouth twitched on it's own accord, moving upwards into a smile.
"Flynn, you're just about to buy two types of kids cereal. It's a little funny."
"Your face is a little funny." He grumbled, pushing the trolley passed me as my mouth dropped open in shock.
"Rude." Narrowing my eyes at him, he paused as his body passed mine and leant in a little, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Rude," He mimicked, and I sent him a scowl as the area around me suddenly closed into a small, enclosed area with our trolley to my right, the shelf of produce behind me, and Flynn crowding the leftover space. He was only about half a metre away, and because he was half a head taller, he felt even closer to me then he was.
This was the sort of thing I was trying to avoid, sharing a trolley with him. Flirting. Bantering. Couply things.
Because quite frankly, my heart couldn't handle the palpatations he gave it, just by being near.
My mind instantly sprang to the night at my house when Flynn came around to tell me off, and we ended up against the wall, making out.
I really didn't need that picture right now, however, because Flynn was still right there, right in front of me, and I found myself wanting to wrap my hands around his neck and-
I huffed, pushing his chest a little roughly to make him step back. He did, and had a knowing little smirk on his face as he turned and grabbed the trolley handle.
He knew the affect he had, and I wasn't sure if I was annoyed, or relieved that he wasn't so oblivious as other men could be.
I was swinging more to the annoyance feeling, however. That one was easier to deal with.
"What else do you need?" I asked him as we turned down the next aisle, which stocked the biscuits and chips. We moved down each aisle slowly, shopping for both of us as we laughed together, arguing over what we did and didn't need.
I shouldn't be here, I thought as we neared the checkout. I had started to imagine us as a couple but stopped myself as quickly as the thought came.
Flynn was a cop. Yeah, so his job made him quite appealing to the opposite sex, I got that, but still. He was growing close to my family, and he was incredibly appealing in the looks department.
All good points.
But for me, that made it worse. Flynn's sort of girl would be a fun loving, carefree sort with big career goals, a college degree, that sort of thing.
I would be at college if we could afford it, however. But that was beside the point.
I wasn't carefree either. I spent most of my time worrying about Marley, how he was going, worrying about dad, how he worked too much, worrying about not having enough money to live comfortably because our mother had cleaned us out of most of our savings.
I even worried about Stan sometimes, when he'd go out on a dangerous job.
I wasn't Flynn's type. I wouldn't be Flynn's type. I was stuck in this town, working at a diner and looking after the broken brother and weary father that I loved to death.
Even if I was the right girl for Flynn, my life would hold him back, that I was sure of. His career in the police force has only just started, and he was going places.
Places being not here.
And I couldn't leave with him. I couldn't leave Marley here, when he was going through such a rough patch. I couldn't leave dad here, because that's just what my mother did.
I sighed as I watched Flynn from the corner of my eye unloading the groceries. There was no point even thinking about being in a relationship with him, because there wasn't much of a future for us.
"Hey," I said when I realised what he was doing. "You just put all my groceries with yours."
"I know," Flynn said in a 'duh' tone. "I'm paying."
"Uh, no." I countered, putting my hands on my hips. "You are not paying for my groceries, Flynn."
"I am, I just told you I was."
"No, I don't need you to, and it's so not necessary-"
"Harlow will you just let me-"
"No! You can't just pay for my groceries, I got a lot of things-"
"Whoever said romance was dead was wrong." A dry, bored voice said from over the other side of the counter. I looked up and almost threw my hands up in the air because it was the same supermarket worker from the night I followed those two gang members.
From the look on her face, she recognized me too. "The mans offering to pay for your groceries. Don't be silly. Just take him up on the offer."
"See? This girl knows what she's talking about." Flynn grinned in victory, and I tried to protest even more when he just handed his card over and she swiped it through the efpos machine quickly. They both ignored me as I continued to half shout, half whisper at Flynn, seriously not lliking the fact he was paying for my damn groceries.
When he finally stopped blocking me out, we were carrying the multiple bags of ours to our cars, and I was still fuming.
"I can't believe you just did that!"
"Did what? God, Harlow, I paid for your groceries, not your mortagage. Chill."
"Chill? Chill! Flynn, you brought me almost one hundred dollars worth of food!"
"Why are you so dificult all the time." Flynn groaned and he stopped walking, tilting his head back as he closed his eyes and moaned at my bickering. "I wanted to, I was being a gentleman."
"I can look after myself." I said in a sharp voice, and I had to wonder why I was even this worked up about it.
Maybe it's because I prided myself on being an independent person, or maybe it was because I hated people spending money on me, I wasn't sure.
But it had me overreacting, alright.
"Yeah, I can see that. But you don't always have to." The tone of his voice made me look back at Flynn, who had an intense, imploring look in his eyes. They were determined, firm. "We're friends, right? Friends help each other out, hence me paying. Now get over it and unlock my car, my hands are a little full."
"I don't have your keys," I grumbled, and he just rolled his eyes and poked his hip in my direction.
"They're in this pocket, get them. Please." He nodded down at his hip and added the please when he saw my expression. I sighed, reaching out quickly to try and snag the keys, but they were pocketed deeper than I had expected. Stepping forward, I stuck my hand in his pocket fully and grasped the keys, pulling them out faster then I'd found them.
When I looked up, Flynn had that familiar amused look on his face, but there was something else there too. It was something I couldn't quite work out, but it had my pulse quickening all the same.
I think Flynn noticed to, because he angled his body towards mine, still holding eye contact. I couldn't look away, not in the hold he had me in.
The kiss sprang into my mind again, and I inwardly groaned as his eyes flicked to my lips and his tightened in a small grin. The way his lips felt, the way his hot breath mingled with mine, the feel of his tongue against mine-
"Cars not going to unlock itself, Harls."
His voice whispered across my lips, and it was only then that I realised how close we'd gotten to each other yet again. I stepped back hastily and managed to hit the unlock button on his keys without fumbling, and tapped my foot impaitently as I waited for him to put his groceries in so I could give him the keys and get out of here as fast as humanly possible.
Once Flynn was standing in front of me again, I threw the keys at his chest and smiled quickly. "Thanks for sharing your trolley with me. And paying, even if I hate you for it."
Flynn laughed, and I spun to take off towards my car.
"Hey, Harls?"
"What?" Spinning back to look at him, Flynn was leaning on his car as he studied me rushing away.
"Do you need help with those?" He pointed to the load in my hands, and I looked down, then shook my head quickly as he made a move to step forward as if to come nearer.
"No, no I'm fine. You did enough, buying the groceries." I tried out a laugh, and a hint of a frown crossed his expression, but it turned into a warm grin when he chuckled and shook his head.
"That's right, you're an independent woman. You don't need anyones help."
I narrowed my eyes. "I hope that wasn't sarcasm."
Flynn backed away towards his car driver door, a grin attached to his face. "I would never. See you round?"
"Yeah. Thank you again, Flynn!" I called after him, a small pang in my chest when he jumped into his front seat and started to back his car out.
Was I sad he was leaving? Was that what that pang was?
It was to complicated to think about, so I unlocked my own car, threw the grocery bags in the back seat, and left the car park with as much calmness as possible.
Inside? I was trying to fight off the feelings that wanted to surface at the mention of Flynn's name. I was going well, until we shared a trolley.
Then he brought me groceries.
Not the most romantic thing a guy could do, but still. He brought them.
"I'm a mess." I shook my head as I pulled into my driveway ten minutes later. "An absolute mess."
Manhandling the groceries in through the front door, I dropped them onto the kitchen counter with a very unladylike grunt and tossed my keys next to them.
Suddenly, I didn't feel like I was alone.
Spinning towards the lounge, I almost screamed when I saw a guy standing there, about to walk over to me. I must have opened my mouth because his eyes popped open and he spoke before I could do anything.
"It's okay, I'm Marley's friend. He's been hurt."
"What?" I said, a cold shot of panic racing up my body. "Where is he?"
As the guy turned, a hand appeared in the air above the couch. "I'm here," Marley groaned, and I rushed over, gasping when I saw him.
His right eye was already coming out in purplish bruises, his lip was split and there was a small, but deep looking gash on his forehead and he was clutching at his ribs as if one was broken.
"Who the hell did this?" I asked, dropping to my knees beside his face. Marley turned his head towards me and tried a grin, but it just made the lip split worse.
"Would you believe me if I said it was a punching bag?"
I just glared at him. "I'm calling Flynn or Stan-"
"No, wait." Marley tried to sit up, but he hissed as his arm clenched around his midsection. "It's okay, I just need-"
"Marley, you might have a broken rib. I'm taking you to the hospital and calling the police."
"You should see the others," Marley's friend spoke up. I looked up to see the guy smiling down at Marley, who grinned back up at him. He had a few red grazes on the side of his face, and a bruise was starting to blossom on the right side of his jaw, but he looked a hell of a lot better than Marley.
"Others? What really happened?"
Marley tried to sit up again, and I quickly reached under his shoulder to help him. His friend did the same on the other side, and we got him up standing, which was wher Marley sublty shook us off. I started leading him towards the front door while I grabbed my keys, wallet and phone.
"I was leaving the gym when I heard fighting, and came around the corner and it was Marley here on three guys I hadn't seen before." His friend-I still didn't know his name-spoke. "So I tried to help, and they ran off a few minutes later. I'd never seen them before."
"I had." Marley sighed, closing his eyes as I opened the front door for him to work through.
"Who was it?"
"Jamie's brother and two of his friends." Marley said, his voice tight, his jaw tighter.
All I could do was shake my head. I was too tired to even try and work up any emotion related to that family, other than deep remorse.
"Lets just get to the hospital, and we'll worry about thes rest later."
And as I scrolled through my phone to find Stan and Flynn's number, I wondered how they were going to deal with this. Flynn didn't even know the whole story, but I had the feeling he was about to find out.
I just hoped he wouldn't view Marley any differently, because that's what every single other person had done.
* * * *
Another chapter! I hope you all like, I feeling a bit funny right now so I don't know what it'll be like, but hopedully this chappie isn't that bad!
Comment, vote, fan, you know what to do :)
x
P.S. Sorry for any errors, I ran out of time to edit! :) I hope you forgive me :)