Your Darkness is My Weakness [Lirry]

Chapter 9: Just Getting Started

Chapter 9: Just Getting Started

"You're late, Harold."

"Um, I know?" Harry says in confusion, trying to catch his breath after running to the bakery from his house. It wasn't even that far, but he's still pretty winded. "But why do you care so much, Louis? You don't even work here, and last time I checked, you're supposed to be at work right now."

"Well, someone had to make sure you actually went to work," Louis sasses.

"What he means is," Niall cuts in from the table they're sitting at, "We all came here 'cause we're hungry."

"That's why he's so snappy," Zayn adds about Louis.

"You mean 'sassy'."

"That too," the black-haired lad agrees with Niall, dodging Louis' hand when he tries to smack both of them. "You know it's true, Tommo."

Louis rolls his eyes at them, then looks back at Harry curiously. "Care to explain why you were late? I doubt you're supposed to be late on your very first day working here. You better have a good reason, or I'll slap those dimples right off your face."

Harry blinks back at him, then says, "I'm pretty sure I should explain that to my boss."

"Who happens to be right here," says someone from behind the counter.

When Harry turns around, he smiles nervously at the old lady and makes his way over, ready to apologize and beg her not to fire him already. I mean, it's just my first day! I can do better! She can't be that heartless, right?

"Don't even bother."

"But - "

"Just go put your stuff in the back room and get this apron on," Barbara interrupts with a gentle smile, holding out an apron to him. "Come on now. You're already late. Don't wanna make it worse, do you?"

"No, of course not. Thank you for not firing me," Harry says lamely.

The boys snicker behind him, which he chooses to ignore as he makes his way to the employees room in the back to put his bag away. Once he comes back to the front of the bakery, he ties his apron on and makes his way to Barbara, who is patiently waiting for him. Louis is standing on the other side of the counter with this devious look on his face, meaning that he's about to be Harry's first customer and he's not going to make it easy.

He glares at Louis and stands beside Barbara, who gestures at him to serve Louis while she goes back into the kitchen. The blue-eyed lad smirks back and waits for Harry to ask what he would like to order.

"I'm not serving you," Harry hisses at him, hoping Barbara won't hear from the kitchen.

"Hey. Is that anyway to treat a valued customer?"

"Can you not? Just leave already and stop trying to make this difficult for me."

"But we're hungry, and those scones look good. I'll take... five of those, then how about twenty of those cookies over there? They look like the best cookies I'll ever have. Oh, and I don't care which flavours you choose. Just as long as you give me twenty."

"Really? You want twenty cookies? Who orders twenty cookies?!"

"And the scones. You can't forget about the scones. Oh! You know what? Forget about the scones. I want biscuits."

Gaping at him, Harry shook his head and argues, "Those are practically the same thing!"

"No, they're not. I swear they're different. Now go get my food before I tell Barbara to fire you for being so bad at your job," Louis threatens.