Skinny Love

Chapter Seven

“Oh.”

“I’m so sorry.” I winced, leaning on the bar top while he played with his apron. Jonah was in the doorway, staring at us while craning his neck to hear. Chewing my lip, I leant over and patted his hand reassuringly, trying not to act as if I noticed the look in his eyes. He was sort of torn up; his usual handsome face was turned into some confusing ball, his mouth in a tight line while he scanned over me. He removed his hand from my grip.

“Do you have another date or something?” He whispered, almost scared. My eyes flickered to Jonah, who blanched at that sentence, sending me some sort of look that I couldn’t pick from far away.

“What? No!” I sputtered out, suddenly staring at him with such a blank face I could have been a brand-new whiteboard. “It’s just Saturday is my night with all my friends. It’s been like this since I was eight years old, I promise. I agreed on accident because I was so, um, caught up.”

He gave me the same hard look, sort of mad; a William I had never seen before. I shrugged nervously, a small, apologetic smile on my face to sort of soften the blow.

“It’s okay.” He sighed. “I had something I wanted to do anyway.”

“Oh. Alright then.” I mumbled dryly, pushing my fringe out of my eyes and backing away.

I was only in this situation because I was so dedicated to my friends. Not that that was a bad thing, but sometimes a Saturday night could be used for something other than a sleep over. I had not missed a sleepover in the eleven years that they had been happening, and I was honestly doing better than Harriet, Taylor and Mia. Mia was often out because of her grandparents visiting, Taylor got sick a lot and Harriet always told us that she would be spending time with her parents when she’d be out with her boyfriend. I minded, a lot actually, but I never said anything.

But they told me to go on my date, all guilty and sad when I offered to give William up for them. I refused when they tried to pressure me into it, though, feeling like a super friend. They seemed almost reluctant, like they were really quite upset that I was respecting their feelings.

Jonah had slinked over to Will while I was making small talk with a man in the corner. He was swaying in his seat, barely opening his eyes in the dull light of the bar and I was complimenting on his new shirt. He was a regular, spending most of his day in the dimly-lit pit in the main street.

The windows were non-existent in the Wooden Willows because when you can’t tell whether it’s light or dark, you can’t tell how long you’ve spent in there, thus more drinks are bought. Jonah had explained this to me when I had complained about the dullness of the place.

He was actually a smart guy, Jonah. Although most of the time he didn’t seem it he was really quite a brilliant and intuitive guy. He and William were alike that way; both really quite clever when it came to life. Though, as I think I’ve mentioned before, William is definitely more broody and dark while Jonah is a barrel of laughs.

“Can I have another one, love?” He held up an empty glass. I looked down at the man, so pitiful and drunk, and I smiled.

“Of course you can.” I patted his shoulder, taking his glass and slipping over to the bar where Jonah and William were talking quietly. Placing the empty glass on the bench, I cleared my throat. They both looked at me, each with different looks on their face; William with his mad look (I still felt horrible, but I felt that in a professional environment I had to keep a straight face) and Jonah with his stressed, slightly older face. “Um, Lenny wants another, um... beer. Um, I’m sorry to interrupt, err, but yeah, um. Yeah.”

Jonah looked at me, blanching again and letting out a huge sigh.

“Just do your job, William.” He muttered, flinging himself out into the back room. I looked at William, who refused to return my glance. He grabbed himself a clean glass and poured it, evening out the froth before handing it to me. Awkwardly, I took it off him and returned to Lenny at his table. Taking one last quick look at Will who was staring at me, I pulled a face and took to the staff room with my head down.