Canary /Discontinued/

Chapter 28

Narrator's POV:

The (h/c) walked out of the hospital.
She has survived this week without being thrown up on or dumped food on so far.

Daaé hospital was depressing as always.
Her nose has gotten used to the stench of chlorine and disinfectant by now.
The rushing has also become usual to her.

Stephen hadn't shown any signs of getting better so far. The state of him and his illness was stagnant.
The poor boy was still pale as ever. His appetite showed no changes.
Sadly, the same can't be said about his mood.
The once friendly and bright child has by now turned into a distant and melancholic one.
He has also lost a lot of weight, which has shown on his sunken in eyes and cheeks.

The only thing that cheered the attached student up was that the doctors have seemed to have been wrong about his life expectancy.
The estimated three months have long passed by since, and he's still here.
She hoped that things will stay this way and the little boy will start to get better soon.

Sadly, she knew that this is all just wishful thinking.
She knew that chronic illnesses don't work this way.

On her way back to the flat, she has decided to make a detour.

She made her way downtown.
As the number of cracks grew in the pavement, she knew that she's approaching her destination.
After cutting through numerous shady alleyways, she finally found herself in front of the small, blue store.

The bell chimed above the door as usual as she stepped in.
She walked to the end of the line, the only sound caused by her being the creaking of the floorboards due to her weight being applied to them.
She took her headphones off as she glanced around the room.
Luck didn't seem to be on her side today, as she noticed a group of teens occupying her usual spot.

After ten minutes or so, she finally reached the counter.
Her gaze hungrily wondered over the assortment of pastries.

The old man watched her actions with a smile on his face.
“So, what will it be today?” He asked the girl.
“A cinnamon roll and a melange, please.”
“Alright.

You know, your taste didn't really change throughout the past few years.”

The (h/c) whipped her head up at the remark.
' What's he talking about?
How would he know anything about me?'
Thoughts like these swarmed her mind all of a sudden.

“You used to come here with your mom when you were little.
She said that your name is… Cheryl, right?”
“No. It's actually (Y/n).” She corrected him.

“Right!
Sorry, I always mix you up with Mrs. Gatersberg's great-granddaughter.
You two looked a lot alike when you were kids.” Max sheepishly smiled.

She nodded while feeling rather uncomfortable by the man.

“You always used to have your plush rabbit with you and threw tantrums whenever we ran out of cocoa snails even though you only liked it's middle”
He chuckled as he still vividly remembered the tiny (h/c) puffing her cheeks out and nagging him and his wife until they made a new batch of it.

“Wait…

Are you that man who always wore that weird hat?”
“It's not weird, just vintage.”
The old man defended himself.

As the girl got the reassurance she expected, a smile formed on her lips.
“You also dressed up as the Easter Bunny on Halloween once, if I remember right.” She mentioned with a chuckle of her own.

“Well, it really drove the sales up.” He shrugged.
“Anyways, here's your roll and coffee.”

“Thank you.”

She took her plate and cup and scanned the area for an empty seat. As soon as she found one, she made her way over to it.
Sure, sitting under the old and noisy air conditioner wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it was still better than standing around like an idiot until another place frees up.

Max went to the back to do the dishes.

Almost half an hour later he reemerged, served the new guests and cleaned the counter before walking over to some regulars.

The girl ran her gaze over everyone.
There was a handful of old people, that noisy group of teens, a lesbian couple that seemed to love cottagecore, collage students typing away furiously on their laptops and a middle-aged couple.

She slowly sipped her cold coffee as she immersed herself in scrolling through her Tumblr front page.
Nearly 40 minutes later, the sound of approaching footsteps caught her attention.
She looked up from her phone's screen just to be met eye to eye with the barista.

“Can I sit down?” He asked.
She nodded to which he pulled over a chair, one of the nearby tables.

“So, how's your life going? You rarely ever drop by nowadays.”
“It's going fine. I moved away and school has been taking up most of my time.”
“Oh, that's good to hear.
I was starting to worry that the concurrence stole you away too. “ He laughed heartily.
“They could never.” She chuckled.

“So, what are you studying?"
“I'm on a nursing major currently.”
“Oh really? Must be interesting.”
“Not really. It's actually really boring. And all those Latin expressions make my head hurt.” She jokingly admitted.

“Well, study as long as you can. If I'd be your age, I'd do the same too.”

She nodded and accepted the unrequested piece of advice.

They've spent the next hour like that. Reminiscing of a childhood she'd prefer to forget all about.