Barrett followed Dorothy to the trash bin, poking at the edge of a shard with his thumb. It wasn’t too sharp, and it was something better to focus on than every impending thought on his mind. The embarrassed ones, the frustrated ones, all of them were far inferior to rubbing his thumb against glass. Who knew a boring piece of glass could suddenly be so fascinating… Until it had to go in the trash, and Barrett had to stop lying to himself about the merit of the shard.
He stood off to the side awkwardly, waiting for her to finish sweeping. He tried not to stare- it’d be uncomfortable for both of them, but… The rest of the shop was so still. There was nothing else even remotely eye-catching to feign interest in. Barrett had seen all of this before, no less than a million times. Still, he tried, and ended up zoning out on a speck on the wall.
His concentration broke as Dorothy approached, just in time for him to catch that small gesture. He glanced down at her arms, then around the room. It took until now for him to realise the doll was gone, but he knew it was important to her. Dorothy was hardly ever seen without it, so it must have been. “You can go get it, I’m not in a rush.” He nodded his head in the direction of Fern. “I just need a potion. I’ll have to wait either way.”
Dorothy flinched a little at the words, biting her lip slightly too hard in an attempt to hold back yet another apology. She knew they tended to bother people after the first few times and Barrett had never been especially easy to talk to. She would feel better with Fern to talk through, but she really didn’t need her just to sell a potion.
“N-No, I shouldn’t keep y-you w-waiting any longer,” she insisted softly, though without the doll she had simply ended up hugging herself. She wasn’t sure how to hold herself around most other people when her usual position didn’t actually work anymore. “O-One moment please!”
She pivoted on her heel and disappeared into the store room quickly, relieved for the moment to calm herself. She didn’t take any longer than she had to in retrieving the item though, determined not to make Barrett wait. She had already caused him enough trouble as it was.
“You only n-needed the o-one?” she asked as she reemerged from the room, clutching the bottle carefully. She had already broken one thing, she was admittedly worried she would end up dropping another. “Was there a-anything else? You a-aren’t unwell are you?”
