Twisted Smiles

X

"That'll be two hundred and forty nine dollars, ma'am."

My world stopped turning. And then it sped off, spinning uncontrollably. Two hundred and forty nine. Two hundred fucking forty nine?!

There was no way in hell I could afford that.

I blinked several times to try to hold back tears, but it was useless. They prickled on my eyelashes, impervious of my feeble attempts to prevent them from falling.

"Are you going to take it?" he asked, seeming impatient.

"Can't you lower the price or at least divide it?"

"No, ma'am, I'm afraid I cannot lower the price. It is already with the highest discount we can offer. As for dividing it, only if you were to have a credit card."

I sighed and rose my elbows to the counter, holding my fingers to my temples and rubbing it roughly. I stood there doing that for so long I thought I was going to pierce through my temples with my fingers.

At some point, I almost jumped out of my skin when someone unexpectedly laid a hand on my right shoulder.

I spun around and came face-to-face with the last person I wanted to see at that moment. 

An involuntary grunt left my lips before I could shut it closed. "What do you want?"

"Are you okay?" he narrowed his eyes on me and looked worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and turned my back to him. I could almost hear him rolling his eyes.

He stepped beside me coolly. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I mumbled. "Leave me alone."

"Come on, Kenzie." He put his hand on my shoulder again and nudged me to face him. "Tell me what's going on... please." Was he giving me a puppy-dog look? I didn't even know he could muster anything besides anger and sarcasm.

I sighed, turning to look him straight in the eyes and spoke as slowly as I could so that he would, hopefully, realize I meant it. "Go away, Nathan."

"I can tell that you were crying. Either you tell me what's wrong or I'll have no choice but to ask the pharmacist."

I huffed, "there's nothing wrong. Now go home and leave me alone." I pursed my lips and drew my hands to my hips, annoyed. He was such a pest.

He simply crossed his arms across his chest and raised his right eyebrow defiantly. We stood there competing a brief, but awkward, staring contest until the unfortunate pharmacist passed by and Nathan released his posture to turn around to talk to him.

"Hey, could you help me for a sec?"

"Sure. What do you need?" The pharmacist's eyes scanned Nathan's body up and down, twice.

"I would like to know what this pretty lady here desires." He leaned over the counter, half facing me.

"No, he doesn't!" I cut in.

"Oh... her." He seemed disappointed as he turned around to retrieve the medication he'd put away in one of the many aisles behind him. Apparently not even a pharmacist hesitates in ignoring me. I released one of my hands from my hips and set it on the counter, drumming my fingers and rolling my eyes at Nathan's stupid smirk.

Once he came back, Nathan took one look at the box in his hand and drew out a low whistle.

He turned to face me. "Why are you buying such strong medicine?"