His Barista - Soap MacTavish Coffee Shop AU

5

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Chapter Five
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When the next day had come and gone, Elsie frowned at the absence of Johnny, having not turned up in the morning for his pre-work espresso. Though she wasn't all too surprised, guessing that she had scared him away with her antics the day before.

It wasn't entirely her fault, Johnny had complied with her subtle hints but she had been the one to provoke his actions; she wanted him to kiss her in that moment but now she felt foolish. She couldn't be feeling this way about someone she met merely two weeks ago.

Elsie was restless the majority of that night, Johnny's face clouding her dreams so badly that when she woke in the morning she swore she could smell his cologne on her pillow when she inhaled as she yawned. That's when she deemed herself crazy.

Apart from her shameful growing attraction to the Captain, things at home weren't doing any better, her mother was growing more near to blowing her fuses and taking it out on Elsie; she could always tell the signs before it inevitably happens. This made her tense and teetering on the borderline of paranoid, practically looking over her shoulder wherever she walked around in their own home.

A week eventually went by, dragging out as painfully as it could for Elsie and there was still no sign of Johnny. She was starting to lose hope of him walking back through the door of the cafe, but nevertheless she still snapped her head up whenever the bell chimed above it, her heart rate quickening and then a pang of disappointment whenever she realised it wasn't him.

On the two week mark, Elsie's mother had finally had enough of bottling up her self hatred and popped open a new bottle of scotch for herself and had polished it off before her daughter even finished work.
The second Elsie stepped through the door and closed it, the familiar smell of the sweet alcohol was enough to fill her in on the situation. She made a dash — quite literally jogging — for her room and had just made it inside and slammed the door before Mrs Reid was pounding her fists against it, slurring out profanities and calling Elsie hurtful names.

She knew her father was downstairs on the couch and she knew he wouldn't intervene even if he heard her mother beating the ever living shit out of her; so she opted for her next solution: sitting against her door.

Elsie fell asleep on the floor that night and every night after for the next four days until her mother's temper had subsided, but by this time the poor girl was barely functioning due to her lack of sleep. Her eyes were permanently half lidded and she walked like a real life zombie, her feet scuffing the ground under her because she was physically unable to lift them enough.

When she opened the cafe up the following morning of her mother's last outburst, she was standing behind the counter and staring in the direction of the door, but she wasn't entirely conscious. Her eyes were unfocused and her mind was in a state of dissociation. Every last bit of energy she had in her body was being used to keep her upright but now she was stuck in her head with no emergency exit to flee out of.

It wasn't until a pair of hands were clutching onto her shoulders that she was slowly dragged back into the real world.

"Elsie?" Johnny spoke softly to her, the barista's obvious fatigued appearance and disorientation worrying him.

He watched as she looked at him, a perplexed expression painted on her unusually paler toned face.

"J-Johnny?" She spoke just above a whisper, wondering if he was actually there with her or if she had begun to hallucinate.