Hate Me | Eren Yeager

19. Severing Ties

The scent of expensive coffee beans and sweet pastries lingers in the air as Pieck returns to your table with two lattes with whipped cream, setting the neatly arranged cup down in front of you.

She takes her seat and sips from the straw, the high gloss on her lips somehow not transferring, "Thanks so much for agreeing to get coffee with me, I just wanted to get to know you."

Get to know me? I'm your boyfriend's ex, this is kind of weird...

"No, it's fine..."

Today Pieck is wearing a tight black turtleneck dress with no sleeves, silver bracelets ornamenting her wrists and a silver heart pendant hanging from her neck. Her hair is pulled back into a messy curled ponytail, showing off her numerous silver ear piercings. Again, she smells like lavender and jasmine.

You sip from the latte, surprised by how sweet and creamy it is. Usually you don't like the taste of caffeine beverages, but this place she took you to seems to know how to please it's customers.

"So y/n, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm becoming a song-writer, I'm getting pretty successful actually. And then I have the part-time job at the tea shop on the side."

"Wow, you sound like you're doing pretty good." She takes the straw out of her lips and sighs tiredly, "You're lucky, you seem to have time outside of work. Modeling is fun and all but I barely get any time to myself."

"And... how are you and Eren?"

"Oh, we're fine. We don't see each other much but we make it work." The words fall out nonchalantly.

"Hey Pieck... why did you ask me out for coffee?"

She smiles as she looks out the window, "I know it probably feels weird, but I honestly don't mean anything mean or sinister. He hasn't spoken about you much, I just got curious. Sorry if this makes you feel strange or threatened."

She says it doesn't mean anything, but you can't tell if she's lying or not, she confuses you. The distant but present look in her eyes makes her seem like a faraway object, that no matter how much you run towards her you'll never grasp her. She's like the moon in the sky, mysterious and dark.

"Well... that's good to hear I suppose. I was a really curious why you wanted to talk with me."

She giggles and winks at you, "Were you worried I was going to ask if you wanted to have a threesome or something? I mean I wouldn't mind..."

"Wh- no, no."

She laughs again, "Oh I'm just joking sweetie, you're cute when you're caught off guard."

The way Pieck interacts with you and others makes her seem so carefree and detached, in a bad way. You could see how friendly she was with the barista, how her eyes don't seem to deepen when she speaks of Eren so casually. It's not hard to gather that she doesn't care that much about him. But it only confuses you more. When you asked her about Eren before, it almost seemed like she forgot about him. Why is she with him if she feels like this?

"Anyways," Pieck continues, "Are you with anyone right now?"

"Um, yeah. I'm dating a man named Reiner who works a liquor store near me."

An abnormally warm breeze wafts through the cafe from the open windows. You can feel yourself start to sweet under your jacket. You pull at the sleeves and slip it off, you'd rather be caught dead than sweating in front of Pieck.

But you soon regret it as her eyes catch the entire fading bruise on your arm that you had forgotten about.

Regretfully you hide the arm under the table, hoping she won't say anything.