Stay High

Chapter Seven

I aggressively punch my hindrance out on the dough, the next day.

Heather stands beside me, kneading her own dough with one eye on me. She doesn't say anything, but she's obviously curious. Which is frustrating because I don't want to talk and Sidney isn't here which means there's nobody else to distract her. I grunt under my breath, throwing the dough down and resisting the urge to storm off.

Heather steps away from the bench, cleaning her hands on her apron before resting them on her hips and arching a brow at me. I don't look at her, not until she clicks her tongue at me.

"What are you doing?" She voice is clipped, exasperated. I shrug but that only seems to piss her off more. "No. No, you're not going to stand here and punch the shit out of bread. Talk to me."

"I don't want to talk," I mutter but Heather shakes her head, stepping closer to me.

"Nah, come on. What's happened in the last, like, twelve hours to shit you off?"

I purse my lips, eyeing her. I don't know her. Sharing my personal life could end very badly for me.

But Heather is an unmoving wall, eyes dark as she scowls at me. Her foot taps an irregular rhythm on the floor and I sigh, turning around to face her fully.

"It's just. Men."

Heather snorts and the scowl melts to an amused smirk. She returns to her own dough, slipping it into a bowl to rise before reaching for my own to knead. She doesn't speak for a long minute, just watches me with that half-amused look before she slips my dough into a bowl, too.

"Men are draining, hun."

Too fucking true.

Unable to continue standing around doing nothing, I grab mits to pull cakes and bread out of the oven. Nodding, I ask, "do you have a boyfriend?"

"God, no," she snorts. "Just broke up with an asshole of 5 years. Found him in bed with the girl he always assured me was 'just a friend.'" She shrugs. "I expected as much two months before I caught them."

"I'm... sorry."

Heather shakes her head. "Nah, legit. I'm over it. Sometimes guys are assholes. But so are girls." She pushes off from the bench to come and help me. "Are you doing dealing with an asshole?"

"Um." I carry the tray of cakes to the front counter. "Not exactly. It's more about my feelings towards him."

Heather hums, stepping up beside me. She hands me the tray of bread before walking around to the glass door and unlocking it, flicking the OPEN sign.

"You aren't leading some poor sucker on, are you?"

I pull a face, shrugging. Am I? I didn't...

Maxwell kisses beautifully. Maxwell is beautiful, but I don't really want to date him. But, I also don't want to lose him.

I grimace. Shit, I am leading him on.

"I don't want to lose him, though. Can't I just pretend?"

"No. You can't pretend." Heather hits me with a tea towel and I hiss, recoiling. She shakes her head at me, walking around the counter to pull out a book of crosswords. "What do you mean 'lose him'? Man, I wouldn't worry. If he likes you enough to want to date you, he'll like you enough to stay."

But nobody stays with me. You don't understand.

I drop the subject by not responding.

The first customer walks in for the day shortly after and Heather sends me to the back of the bakery. I duck away to prep more bread, because Heather and Sidney like to always have fresh bread ready to go.