Blurred Lines

“Come again, have a good night,” Sadie said in a bubbly tone to the last customer for the night, wearing an automatic grin that quickly vanished when the entrance door opened and closed, the small bell chiming their departure. With a sigh that she didn’t make, she looked over at the boy sharing the counter with her, Lars.

“Ugh, thank god the day’s finally over~” he groaned, getting up from the counter he disappeared into the back, his voice floating to Sadie as he yelled, “I’m so ready to get the hell outta here.” before leaving Sadie by herself.

She looked after the lanky teen until she exhaled her own lengthy sigh, getting the feeling that she had to clean up the front by herself….again.

Grabbing a towel and spritz bottle from a shelf in the counter she walked around, spraying the cleaning spray across the counter she wiped it clean. She moved silently towards the few tables the shop had, spraying the table tops and the plastic chairs and wiping them down, letting her mind drift.

It had been some weeks since their little trip to that magical island, and Sadie honestly wished the estranged atmosphere they had going on would just disappear. She could admit to herself that maybe she’d gone a little overboard by hiding the warp pad thing from Steven and him, but all she was trying to do was help.

That’s all she ever wants to do; help Lars.

He’s always so anxious, like he can’t relax and just enjoy things for the way they are. But he’s never satisfied either, as if things aren’t ever good enough for him. Honestly, why did she even try to help him? Her help was always in vain, blowing up in her face and always unappreciated. She might as well be invisible to that whiny, lazy, skinny son a bi-

A large hand sat on top of hers and she paused, travelling up a long arm before looking up at Lars, who said, “You were scrubbing the table so hard I thought you were gonna put a hole in the damn thing,”

Registering his words took longer than expected, and she snapped back to reality immediately, spluttering, “Huh? Oh, oh! Whoops, well look at that, I must be more burned out than I thought,”

She gave him a nervous smile followed by a little chuckle, which quickly turned awkward for Sadie cause Lars only stared at her like she had a tumor growing from the side of her head.

Moving her hand she cleared her throat and put some distance between them, saying, “Sorry, I’ll just uh...get to the others table then,”

“Oh no need,” Lars said, “I cleaned them already.”

She paused then, giving the shop a look over. The tables had been cleaned, there was a sparkle to the floor and even the doughnuts had been put up for the night.

“I’ll shut the coolers down…” Sadie suggested.

“I did that too,” Lars said with a small huff, “Geez, you didn’t notice anything I did, did you?”

Sadie looked at the coolers then, they were pitch black and even the soda machine was cleaned spotless. Sadie couldn’t help it when she felt her jaw drop.

“What?” Sadie said in disbelief, “You did all that? But you usually make me do it…”

The pair were looking at each other then, and Sadie saw a slight blush to the boy’s dark skin.

“Aw come on Sadie, I can do stuff too you know,” the boy said, avoiding her eyes he scratched his neck, adding, “‘sides, you looked so beat today I thought I’d help out.”

So much for being invisible, the thought crossed her mind as she felt her face heat up, a small smile curling her lips. Lars had spared her a glance, and immediately turned away, his blush growing darker as he mumbled something to himself.

“Thank you,” Sadie said in a small, gracious voice.

“It was nothing,” the boy mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“No I mean it, really,” Sadie said, her smile not so bashful as she said, “I mean, for looking out for me, I really appreciate it.”

If the boy wasn’t red enough Sadie would expect steam to rise off of him. In a bit of an exasperated sigh he huffed, “Alright man I get it, can we just go now? I’m tired too, you know,”

“Oh right, right,” Sadie said, quickly shuffling to the counter she put the cleaning products away, “I’ll just get my coat….”

The sentence fell dead on her lips when the boy had extended his arm, her burgundy jacket in his hand. Looking at the ground he mumbled, “I got it already,”

Sadie took another pause, her cheeks turning bright red as she walked from around the counter to grab her coat, slowly putting it on as she watched Lars face, who looked like he was going to keel over in embarrassment.

Silently they strode out the shop and Lars pulled the metal gate down for the short girl to officially lock up the establishment for the night. For a moment they stood there, mumbled an awkward farewell before finally going their own way.

When Sadie thought that she was alone and could think over what just happened, she heard Lars call her name. Spinning around she had called, “Yeah, Lars,”

“Oh, I just uh….” Lars spluttered, before yelling, “Have a good night, ok? See you tomorrow.”

When Sadie stood there and didn’t say anything, he spun on his heels and she could’ve swore he had fire on his ass, cause he wasn’t running fast enough. The girl wasn’t sure what had gotten into him but she couldn’t help but like the new change, she just hoped it was here to stay.

But the blush on his cheeks was too cute, and it made her laugh out loud as she started walking home. She definitely wasn’t going to forget that.