Shadows Need Sunshine - Pain Cross (e reader for manga TXT) 📗

Want to get rid of someone? Invite them for coffee!

Sebastian liked to think of himself as perfect. How could he not be?

He had good looks, - auburn hair with hazel eyes, in case you were curious - high grades, popularity, a well off family, a talent for both arts and sport... The list could go on and on.

So, why? Why did he have such a horrible job?

At the moment, he sat behind the counter of his workplace, flipping the pages of a magazine. The flower shop belonged to a friend of his mother's, who just so happened to need help at the shop. Before Sebastian could utter a word, his mother had already agreed to send him there every weekend to help for a couple of hours. Sebastian knew better than to argue against ones own mother, knowing full well that ones opinion will always be ignored when expressed to their parents, so he accepted.

His mother's friend was a fragile old woman who people called Berry and liked to take naps in the room at the back. Sebastian was perfectly okay with it, having learned to always respect your elders even if they were a bit nutty. So, here he was, alone in the flower shop.

The flower shop itself was relatively nice. The walls were painted bright yellow with small, realistic flower paintings that Berry had painted herself. The walls were also lined up with shelves that held almost hundreds of vases with every flower Sebastian had ever bothered to remember, filling the store with a quite delightful smell. There was only one wooden counter which happened to have a computer and a cash register sitting on it with a rolling chair behind it, which Sebastian currently sat on. Behind the counter and Sebastian, was a small wooden door that lead to both storage and a small room that Berry slept in.

Sebastian closed the magazine and looked at his watch, noticing he only had an hour and a half to go. He knew there were almost never customers, and that usually annoyed him because he felt as if his presence was wasted here. No one ever came... All thanks to that... thing outside. Said thing wasn't really a thing, but a person. A woman, no older then Sebastian himself.

Sebastian chuckled to himself, looking out one of the two large windows beside the two glass front doors. He didn't think the thing out there should qualify as a woman. Sebastian had even thought it was a man at first glance.The women had black hair that reached little over her shoulders but was so messy that it made Sebastian feel disgusted, him being a very neat boy. She wore an oversized black shirt that matched her hair with sleeves too long. She wore extremely baggy jeans and wore very dirty black socks. Her skin was sickeningly pale and her posture was bad, to the point where her back seemed to permanently stay hunched. She appeared oddly malnourished, making Sebastian wonder if she had eaten at all in the past few months.

Sebastian stared at her for a few moments, wondering why... Just why... she paced in front of the store like a madwoman every single day he came to work. And why she wore the same exact clothes everyday.Sebastian looked down at his watch, happily realizing that it was almost closing time.

There was a sudden little ding that echoed off the walls and Sebastian looked towards the door, standing to greet the customer. She was a usual here and his younger brother's teacher. Sebastian smiled and walked towards her, greeting her kindly. He was almost a hundred percent certain that she was completely infatuated by him, and he wasn't very comfortable with that. However, he needed some form of conversation to get his mind off the crazy woman outside.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you too, Sebastian!" she said with a smile, brushing some of her red bangs out of her face.

Sebastian felt like rolling his eyes, but he had been raised to never be rude, no matter the circumstances. So, he smiled.

"What kind of flowers would you like?"

"How about the red roses that I bought like a month ago?" she responded.

"I really liked those and they match both my house and hair so well!"

Sebastian laughed. "Well, I really do think they compliment your hair nicely."

She smiled back at him and tossed her hair. "Why, thank you, Sebastian! I really wish your brother was like you!"

Sebastian walked toward the roses' vase and grabbed about ten. He walked towards the counter and opened a drawer with a practiced motion.

"What color for the ribbon?"

"I think I'll go with white," she said after a very short pause.

Sebastian nodded then reached to grab a long white ribbon in the clutter of colorful ribbons in the drawer. He grabbed one then, using the scissors on his desk, cut it into the appropriate size. He wrapped the flowers in the ribbon and placed them on the counter delicately.

"That's fifteen, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Sebastian answered, dropping the remaining ribbon into the drawer before shutting it softly.

"I only have a twenty," the red-haired women sighed, showing him a twenty dollar bill. "Can I have change?"

Sebastian nodded, taking the bill and clicking open the cash register.

"That weird girl outside," the lady said quietly. "I think she's driving away the customers, Sebastian. You need to call the police. Do you think she's a stalker?"

Sebastian gave the women her change and said, "I'll try to fix this predicament tonight, but I don't think she's a stalker. Maybe a strange girl, but not a stalker."

How could she be? The only place he ever saw her was here. Maybe she didn't even come here to see him, but just to pace in front of a flower shop.

Sebastian glanced at the window and almost jumped in surprise. The strange women was pressed against the window, watching both Sebastian and the red-haired woman intently as if they were her lab specimen. The thought alone made Sebastian feel much more uncomfortable than he should be, but that may just be because he wasn't used to people viewing him like a lab rat. Sebastian gulped nervously. "D-don't worry, I'll take care of her..."

An hour later, Sebastian couldn't be happier when it was finally closing time. He stood up, grabbed his book bag, then headed towards the door. The eccentric woman was gone, as she always was a little before the time he had to actually leave.

The incident an hour ago when she had pressed against herself against the glass to stare at him had been quite disorienting, but he was back to his normal calm composure. After the customer had hurried away, the woman had gone back to pacing as if she wasn't stalking him. Sebastian couldn't help but feel ever so worried for himself. Along with being worried, Sebastian was annoyed that being around so many flowers made him smell funny by the end of his shift. He hated that he was forced to take long showers after work to get rid of the smell. Apparently, girls didn't find guys who smelled like flowers very attractive.

He opened the front door, hearing a soft ding before he walked out into the dark night. The moon was a bright crescent tonight, the area around it decorated with shining stars. He took a deep breath and let the soft breeze blow his hair to the side. He turned to walk home, as he usually did, to find himself looking at two endless black pits.

Which turned out to be the woman's eyes, eyes that were wide and unblinking. Sebastian had never seemed to have noticed from the distance he usually saw her in, but he saw now that her eyes were so... soulless? No, well, that was rude of him, but what can he say?

Sebastian had had many girlfriends, not that he didn't take his relationships seriously, but because most girls were so... boring. At the moment in fact, he was deciding against dating a bubbly girl in his class that had already appeared in several modeling magazines and a smart but beautiful girl in his class. They both had such bright blue eyes that Sebastian personally had a liking to. Yet, he found this woman's eyes so much more interesting...

Sebastian opened his mouth then closed it again, unsure of what to say. For a moment, he thought that she wore too much eyeliner, but why only eyeliner and no other makeup? Then, it dawned on him that she wore no eyeliner, and he was really staring at the bags under her eyes. Bags so deep and dark that he actually believed it to be makeup.

"Hello..." Sebastian tried, noticing that she kept a blank face with a stare that never seemed to falter. Sebastian felt like running towards his home, locking the door, and calling the police. But, he hated running away from problems. Well, she wasn't exactly a problem... Nevertheless, he still had to get rid of her. He smiled slightly because he felt it was appropriate, but she didn't smile back. He cleared his throat and thought of something to say. Then, he ended up saying the first thing that popped into his head.

"Would you like to have some coffee with me?" Sebastian wasn't sure why he had asked that, but he was sure she would refuse and go on her merry way. In hindsight, he really should have just run past her and called the police when he had the chance.

Ragged Clothes = Poor

In his short lifetime, Sebastian had become victim to quite a few bad decisions. One of his most famous was betting that the Denver Broncos would win the 2014 Super Bowl. Poor Sebastian had lost a whole five dollars... He had always listed that as the biggest blunder in his life, but now he wasn't so sure.

 

Sebastian was sitting in a booth at a coffee shop he and his friends usually came to, especially after finals. He hadn't actually thought the women would accept. Alas, he had been wrong... She'd given him a simple nod, never letting her very unnerving look falter, then let him lead the way.

 

The woman was still standing beside the table, as if she was waiting for him to give her permission to sit. Just as Sebastian opened his mouth to tell her to sit, she sat.

 

Well, no, she didn't sit...

 

She crawled on to the red cushioned seat then... sat upside down with her knees bent and feet thrown over the chair. It was quite for about ten seconds, but it felt like ten decades in Sebastian's mind. Not to mention, she kept staring at him as if this was all perfectly normal.

 

Well, who knew? Maybe she was an asylum escapee and it really was normal for her...

 

Sebastian cleared his throat. "I hope you don't think I'm being rude, but why are you sitting like that?"

 

She looked at him curiously. "I don't sit like this because I want to, I have to sit like this. If I sit any other way, I'll get a horrible headache."

 

Okay, how did that even work?

 

Sebastian