|| Secret Lies ||

Chapter One

The sharp smell of cinnamon and coffee lingered no matter how she stood at the front counter, absently running a rag through her hands.

It had been quiet for hours, and Katie was bored. One could only clean a counter so many times before you were just getting it dirty on purpose.

Six people, all college students who had already paid and honestly, probably already finished their drinks still sat in the quiet shop, filling the air with an occasional sigh and tap of keys. A muffled curse broke the soft sounds of instrumental music and she turned to her left.

"Need help?" she whispered, hesitant to kill the silence.

Lucy huffed loudly, "Nope. Totally got this. Man, I am the best at like, fixing things."

Katie looked down to see where Lucy was struggling in her identical black apron, kneeling in a pile of coffee beans. Mechanical, stilted clicks followed a loud sigh and she shook her head dubiously.

The clock up on the wall with the fancy roman numerals on it that took her two months to figure out read 5:00.

Three more hours.

Honestly, there was no need for a coffee shop to be open until eight-

The tinny jangle of the bells above the door exploded into sound like a gunshot and Katie jumped to attention, fixing her nicest smile on.

A huge man, hunched literally in half to fit through the door, stooped in and Katie's smile faltered with shock.

He was burly, with three sets of arching, surprisingly elegant horns sprouting from a ruffled mess of shock white hair in startling contrast to his pitch coloured skin. Sunglasses couldn't hide the long scar twisting across one of his eyes and she adjusted her apron nervously.

Following him, sandy hair folding from brushing the doorframe, was another man, this one with curling, gray ram horns and the same sunglasses. A bright, toothy grin split his face, and he approached the counter.

Her breath caught, and she frantically nudged Lucy with her foot.

He slid off his sunglasses, revealing warm green eyes and as he got closer, hundreds of freckles spread over his neck and face.

"Huh? Why'd you kick me?" Lucy grumbled, looking up and then pausing.

"Hi! Welcome to um, Coffee Shop (idont know. ill come up with berter name later)! What can I do for you?" She tried her best to pour as much cheer as she could into her voice.

This is normal, they're buying coffee, don't know why I'm panicking-

"Hi. I don't know, I don't go here often, uh..." he trailed off, and Katie was glad he did, because that gave her a chance to breathe. He didn't sound like some kind of evil murderer, he sounded normal. Better than normal. He had a warm, deep voice. Kinda nice.

"Oh, thank god. You guys have normal sizes. Man, those Venti things confuse me. Can only ask the big guy for a translation so many times," the man laughed, eyes and freckles scrunching up, creating a new pattern in the dots around his face, and Katie noticed a small scar over his eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah! Totally!" she agreed eagerly, ears heating up as he scanned the menu.

"Yeah, I'll do a large black coffee- oh, sorry. Excuse me," he smiled apologetically, turning to the man lingering at the door, "Pup, want anything?"

Katie couldn't help herself, she followed his view, noticing a long black tail for the first time, adorned with spines as the guy at the door laughed.

"Coffee makes you short, Claud."