Bleeding Red Haring

chapter 2: 8 Espresso Shots And Still Needing More

“Dude, did you get any sleep last night?”

Tommy blinked blearily at his baffled coworker, taking an embarrassingly long moment to even process the question. The worker, Fundy, a guy that Tommy was always glad to be on shift with, was staring at him with what seemed to be a combination of concern and astonishment.

Tommy hadn’t even bothered checking his appearance when he had left the house that morning, something that he apparently should have done. It was something he rarely did skip but the exhaustion of his breakdown the night before left a resolute depression with him. It was one of “Those Days,” with both a capital T and D as Tubbo always insisted them to be. After these days, Tommy was always beyond grateful for his friends, something he would express as often as he could but during the times, he barely even recognized who they were. There was just a vague sort of safe feeling surrounding them and that was more than enough to help Tommy from spiraling.

Despite it being one of Those Days, an occurrence that was becoming much less of a rarity as of late, Tommy still forced himself through the motions of the day of attending school and then beginning his night shift at Bad’s Cafe. Well, the place’s actual name is Comfort Cove, but it was rare that anyone actually called it anything other than Bad’s cafe as the owner, a man who always introduced himself as Badboy Halo, was always in the building and always interacting with customers. It was an easy way to spot a newcomer if you found someone referring to the cafe by its actual name, something that became almost an inside joke between all the employees.

Tommy stood at the counter now, thankfully tucked slightly away besides the coffee machines and not managing the register. He vaguely recognized he was swaying in place.

Was Tommy sleep deprived? Absolutely.

Was he also absolutely drained both emotionally, mentally, and physically? Without a doubt.

Should he be resting in bed and taking a long rest and break for himself to both recharge his mind and care for himself? Logically, of course.

Was he doing that? Of course not. Nope, Tommy forced himself through school, stumbling his way through his classes in a blurry haze of pencil scratches and murmurs, now working his night shift job, running purely on caffeine and spite.

“That’s a complicated question, big man.” Tommy replied, leaning back against the wall and letting his blinks linger and his eyes barely opening when they did. Luckily, there were just a small handful of people in the cafe already situated so at the moment there were no customers to deal with, an opportunity Tommy was absolutely not going to waste.

“It’s really not, though.” Fundy sighed with feigned exasperation, something off set by the small grin the ginger shot him. Tommy remembered on his first day how he had immediately jumped to the boy, excitedly pointing out how similar their hair was despite Fundy’s being its natural orangish brown and Tommy’s being his artificial blood red.

“Mah, details.” Tommy waved him off, smiling lazily back at him.

Tommy lazily hummed as he began to brew himself another cup of coffee, not paying much mind to the flavors itself as he simply focused on what he knew would offer the most caffeine.

“Tommy!” The familiar voice of the owner Tommy had just been musing over chirped from behind him, the wholesome man stepping out from his office and heading towards the counters his employees vacated.

“So good to see you! How was school- oh my muffin, Tommy, please do not tell me that you just added 8 espresso shots to that drink.”

Tommy slowly turned over to face his now horrified boss, grasping the iced cold brew in his hand that now was turning numb with the cold. He didn’t bother answering verbally, instead silently making direct eye contact with the increasingly traumatized man as he tilted his head back and drank over a third of the coffee in under five seconds.