A sea of drained-sleep deprived people, some dressed normal-ish with a stethoscope or a name tag still on their person and some still in white coats poured into the quaint shop. The four friends had already disappeared from where they were standing only a few moments ago to get started on their jobs. Markus operated the register, occasionally throwing ingredients that were in the cupboards below the register to the others, Oakley had already been running the machines, pouring coffee in the cups and passing them to either Kuo or Toby. Toby would drizzle honey or any other special ingredient(chocolate, cinnamon, chili powder{IS THAT PERSON INSANE}, etc.) while Kuo was busy creaming and topping her share of coffees for the stubborn workers who demand cute designs for their coffees.
"Merde, I need more coffee grounds over here!" Oakley announced as she held a coffee cup while scooping vanilla ice cream into it. Without looking away from the customer, Markus grabbed a jar of coffee grounds and threw it over his shoulder. Barely registering the thanks as Oakley now had the jar balancing on her elbow. "Sorry sir, but we don't use alcohol in our beverages" Markus told the customer as he was asking for whiskey, the man cursed at him a bit before ordering an Raf coffee. Toby, hearing the exchange, added quite a bit of chili powder {Oh, that's why} into the syrup for his coffee. Kuo felt the tinsey-ist amount of pity for the man and put a small devil design on the coffee once it was done as a small warning{but he wouldn't know that.} Looked around confused but handed the drink to the customer before he left.
There was a loud screech followed by a string of curses heard outside and all the customers turned to glare at the person while the workers continued working 'innocently' and unbothered. Eventually, the 'zombie apocalypse' mostly left around noon time and those who stayed had pleasant conversations at the tables around the shop. Meanwhile, the workers made some honey affogatos for themselves and toasted for a good job. And prepared to close the shop early for a lunchtime break. Kuo had also told Toby and Markus about her and Oakley's nigiri {date} plan and invited them to tag along. They agreed and continued to clean while the last of the customers left.
Once they cleaned up, Oakley excused herself to use the restroom but instead of using it she pulled out a metal flask that contained sake, pulled her mask down slightly, and took a swig in preparation for her panic in eating food she wouldn't be able to keep down. She considered sake as a comforter when she needed to eat because when she was younger, she grew up with her dad downing bottle after bottle of sake whenever they ate. Oakley took a breath and left the restroom, meeting up with the others after locking the store and starting they're walk to the nigiri restaurant, exchanging conversations while at it.
"How's college life Oakley?" Toby asked. "It's surprisingly easier than expected, I was expecting an overwhelming amount of work that would prevent me from spending as much time with you as I do now and for there to be a class 7 days a week. Turns out that's not the case, I can get through assignments pretty easily and Saturdays, like today, and Sundays are weekends which is a pretty good break. How about you and your bee yard?" Oakley responded, Toby grinned up at her, "It's going wonderful, Chiko here," Toby said motioning to his bumblebee friend on his shoulder "recently directed me to a nice flower shop with the most well tended 'forget-me-nots,' the owner wasn't running the store at the time but the assistant was super nice. She seemed quite shy and obviously had a lot of anxiety." "That sounds nice, what was the shop called?" Oakley commented. "It's near your college, I think it's called 'Sunlight Floral Illustration." Toby replied. "Oh, my dorm mate Victoria works there." Oakley excitedly said. "No way, she might have been the person I saw at the store." Toby chattered.
Kuo had been spacing out during the conversation, her eye bags becoming clearly visible with the tilt of her head and Oakley glanced at her worriedly from time to time. Markus on the other hand had been fiddling around with a small plastic bag with his fertilizer and toothpaste muttering about wishing he had carrots or spinach while getting some weird stares from passersby. Oakley and Toby shot each other to a mutual agreement and Toby moved to Markus side and started chatting to the taller man effectively stopping him from his little craft project while Oakley moved to Kuo's side.
クオさん大丈夫ですか？(Are you ok、 Kuo?) Oakley asked snapping Kuo from her tired trance and looked to her. "ええ、スージーが私に怒鳴り続けているのは、彼らが私たちのすべての動きを物語る声だと主張しているだけなのですか？信じていいのかどうかわかりません。"(Yeah, it's just the fact that Suzi keeps yelling at me claiming that their is a voice narrating our every move or something? I don't know whether to believe it or not.) She said as she stared at the sky. "That does sound pretty weird but then again so does the hope that you will get a full 8 hours of sleep despite our pleas that you do. Ahem~" Oakley remarked half playfully, a quarter seriously, and a quarter worriedly. Kuo briefly gave her a weird look before giggling at her friend, "I'll start thinking about sleep if you start a 'eating properly' plan." She retorted, Oakley smirked at the shorter of the two, "Touche." They then arrived at their destination and Oakley stared at the entrance very hesitant but relieved that there weren't a lot of people there before moving after Kuo tugged her sleeve when she didn't move.
She took a deep breath, she's got this. Yep, there is no need to worry.
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PTSD? Just have Coffee
Ficción históricaThe world was in shambles after World War 3. But surprisingly, humanity moved on quicker than expected. Intact cities that were previously used as survivor bases are now busier than ever as they provided the needed education that so many lacked over...
