Lars was jerked from his half-asleep state to the sound of the door bell clinging loudly.

Steven waltzed up to the counter, slamming several wrinkly dollars in front of the teen with a grin. "Four of the usual-" he whipped around to see Amethyst smacking her palms on the glass vigorously, holding up two fingers. "-Make it five."

The ginger groaned, snatching the cash before grabbing a bag and lazily scooping the doughnuts inside. "Whatever, but tell that purple chick to stop bangin' on the window. She's gonna crack it, and I don't really like cleaning up fingerprints." He wrinkled his nose up at the memory of the last three times they had to clean it; it was a pain, and he had a hunch that Amethyst knew it, too.

The boy hummed and nodded, sliding the doughnuts into his shirt for no discernible reason-but that was just how he was. Lars rolled his eyes and began flipping through a random magazine he pulled from the stack. It took him a few minutes, but as he felt an intense stare burning into the top of his head, the redhead realized that Steven hadn't left. He was just standing there, smiling.

The teen mustered up the nastiest glare he could in the moment and stared right back. "Don't you got somewhere to be? Go give that gem lady her doughnuts before she breaks the window with a rock."

"She won't do it this time, I promise! I told her not to!" Steven whined. "Where's Sadie, by the way? Is she sick or something?"

It was actually a pretty good question.

Lars shrugged. "I'unno. Watchin' TV in the back." She was most likely asleep on the napkins by now.

The gem boy nodded and resorted back to humming, which was gradually growing louder as he lightly kicked and bumped his legs into the counter. Lars was doing alright at tuning it out; of course, when the kid let out a random burst of laughter, his magazine flew across the room and the napkin holder fell to the floor with a 'clang'.

The redhead whipped around, ready to burst. "Watch it, you little f-!"

"Sorry, I'm sorry! It was an accident-those dancing doughnuts look really funny."

The ginger scoffed contemptuously. "Jeez, where're all your friends? Go chill with them, I'm busy."

Steven put all his weight onto the counter, lifting himself by his arms so that his feet weren't even touching the ground. "They're all busy working. Besides, you don't look all that busy. Bring Sadie out so we can all talk together!"

Lars just let out a loud, irritated sigh. "No. Go away," he mumbled tiredly. He knew Steven was persistent, but it was usually a lot more purposeless, either way-

"So, what's up with you and Sadie, anyway?"

The teen looked up at him, a little caught off guard. It was a pretty out of the blue question. "Um…we're fine, why?"

"No reason, just curious!" Steven grinned. "So, do you like her?"

"Duh, we're friends."

The latter smacked his hand over his face. "No! I mean, like-" he propped himself on the counter again, leaning much closer than before. "Do you like like her?"

It took Lars a few seconds to process the question, but he felt an extreme burning sensation tingling in his cheeks once it did. He had a rolled up newspaper raised within seconds, swinging it at Steven's retreating figure as he stumbled over his words. "G-Go hang out with those gem ladies, you little brat!" Steven just gave him a thumbs up and a wink before leaving with his doughnuts. "You got it, dude!"

Typical.

The next few hours hadn't been much better. Lars was still a little riled up by the time rush hour began to drift in. In the summer, this meant business and a pretty decent paycheck. But, it also meant tourists.

At this time of year and day, there'd usually be a dozen or so cranky people crowded in the store at once if not more. Sadie would always be the one to serve them, and Lars would either be on break or stocking. But, of course, Sadie was asleep in the back and there wasn't much he could do about the potential influx of people.

One thing Lars had always hated was people, especially strangers, yelling at him for things that were clearly out of his control (or yelling in general). When summer rolled around, that was all there was-out-of-city vacationers that would yell at an employee any chance they got. It was even worse when the place was packed: foot tapping, rude statements made to friends non-discreetly, and everyone staring right at you as the sad chump in the front of the line goes red in the face ruining your self-esteem. While these days were limited, they were a nightmare.

Lars wasn't particularly lucky that day.

Rush hour hadn't even started by the time this man had come in and began yelling at him. As it turned out, he allegedly called the store beforehand to place an order, but the phone had been dead silent all day; they didn't even sell the flavor he was looking for. Even though the teen had tried his best to explain the situation or go to the back to get Sadie, his customer wouldn't listen-he'd just keep screaming.

One man was something he could barely handle, but he still could through shaking, sweaty palms. But the man's spiel wasn't even halfway over before people began piling in. Now, he was stuck trying to help this man, shaking and feeling ready to burst into tears. People in the back were glaring at him, checking their empty wrists to make a point, and shouting loud or occasionally passive-aggressive questions. "What's taking so long?" "I just wanted one doughnut." "What's up with this kid?" "Ever heard of proper service?"

Lars swore his knees almost gave out before Sadie rushed in with a yawn. "Sir, please order or leave."

People seemed to instantly calm down as she got the man to leave and began progressing the line, but Lars felt numbness to his fingertips. The blonde patted his back, gently pushing him in the direction of the supply closet, indicating that being on cleaning duty might help the situation a bit.

But, it didn't. The embarrassment only made him shake worse as he grabbed the mop and went to the furthest corner of the store. He hated these days the most.

In ten minutes, Sadie had taken care of the massive customer influx and had been just beneath overwhelmed. She peeked over at her coworker, who was vigorously scrubbing the mop on the floor; he stayed in the same spot and refused to look anywhere but the puddle he'd distractedly made.

The short girl pursed her lips together in a frown. She made her way over Lars and gently grabbed the mop from his hands, balancing it against the wall. "Hey, everything alright?"

He stared at her for a moment before forcing a normal scoff and kicking his shoe in the puddle. "Duh, why wouldn't it?"

Sadie looked up at him for a moment before sighing. "I'm sorry you had to deal with those guys."

Lars just stared at his reflection in the tile, silent for a moment. "'S whatever. Just some grade-A jerks…"

"No, I'm serious. Rush hour sucks, I promise I'll help out more next time. I get it."

The redhead bit the inside of his cheek, darting his eyes back and forth. "Yeah…alright…" his words came out as more of a whisper than he intended, but Sadie smiled all the same.

"Good! So," she bubbled as cheerily as she could manage to change the subject, "How's the PSAT studying going?" The shorter girl dropped some napkins on the pool of water her coworker had created, rushing off the get more.

Lars bit his lip out of habit, dropping a few spare paper towels and rolling the water bucket back to its closet. "It's…going." In other words, he hadn't been studying.

Sadie looked back at him as she made her way around the counter, using her pinky to move a wavy lock from her vision. "I can help you, ya'know. I've taken the PSATs, they're pretty easy as long as you study right."

"No thanks, man."

"What? Why?"

He shrugged. "I don't really need to study, I'm gonna know the stuff…" he trailed off, leaning against the Lion Licker fridge. Sadie just sighed with a frown.

"So, you haven't actually been studying, right?"

"…Nah."

The blonde toyed with the register, another sigh escaping from her lips. "Lars, this is a big deal."

"How? They're not the legit SATs, I don't get anything out of 'em."

"But they're helpful! And you can get a scholarship if you do well on it this year…"

"A scholarship so I can go to Nashville or some shit? Whoopie." Lars cringed at the harshness in his own voice, refusing to look at Sadie. "Listen, just…can we drop this? I'll study for them eventually. I got a lot of junk on my mind." He was never good at test taking; school in general was definitely not his forte. After enough time had passed of him barely scraping by the quizzes, homework, etc…he stopped caring. It was just his way.

Sadie just gave him a sad little smile, suddenly feeling pushy. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

After a few more hours of consistent tourists and hiding in the breakroom, their work day had finally come to a close. Lars slung his bag over his shoulder with relief and was about to hop on his skateboard before Sadie fell into the steps beside him. He just looked down at her with a raised brow. "What'cha doing?"

"I thought maybe we could chill at your place-if that's okay."

The teen swiped through the apps on his phone before shoving it back in his pocket. "Sure, 'course. What about your car, though?"

"The engine is messed up, so it's in the shop. I took the bus to work."

"Ah."

The walk home wasn't too eventful, beside Ronaldo stopping them for ten minutes to talk about his blog-again. As they turned into the neighborhood, Sadie noticed how quiet her friend had become and poked his shoulder. "You okay?"

Lars didn't answer for a moment, but seemed to snap out of his little trance within seconds. "Sorry-what?"

"I asked if you were okay."

He nodded, laughing a little. "I'm fine, just tired, 's all…" The redhead had always felt the change of atmosphere when he and Sadie just had time to themselves…it was calming, and a little peaceful.

Sadie took his word for it as the teen fumbled with his keys, nudging the door open with his shoulder. "My dad won't be home till, like, eleven." She just nodded.

"Gimme' a sec, I gotta let Piper in," he waved his hand carelessly before running off to the back door. Within a few seconds of clicking locks and squeaks, a moderately sized dog sprinted to Sadie and practically jumped on her. Light bounced off her sleek brown and black fur as she placed her paws on the short girl's shoulders.

"Hey, baby Pipes!"

"Yo-Piper, ged'down!" Lars patted her scruff a few times and plopped down on the couch, the canine pouncing on his lap with the element of surprise. "You fuckin'…your butt's heavy, get off!" he whined, but Piper stayed put, rubbing her cheeks against his.

Sadie couldn't help but laugh at her friend's pout, and plopped down beside him. "So, you wanna play some video games?"

"Yeah, man-as soon as I get this little shit to stop crushing me."

The blonde coaxed Piper to rest on her lap as she grabbed a few stray controllers, handing one to Lars. "Let's play Deadspace."

"Fuck no."

"C'mon, it's not even scary…"

"I had alien…things, jumping at me every thirty seconds. I'm not puttin' myself through that again."

He got up and rushed to a cabinet beside the TV, rummaging through the drawer before thrusting an old N64 Mortal Kombat into the air. "This. We're playing this."

Lars placed it in its designated slot before body-slamming himself back onto the couch, reaching over to scratch Piper's ears. "1v1 me, bro."

Sadie just looked over at him with a content smile before getting into primal battle mode.

"You're goin' down."