I Never

Tea

"I dunno, Lee. Sounds pretty gay to me," Jacob said, weighing out some English Breakfast leaves. Jacob was my best friend since childhood, and basically my brother at this point. He was also criminally straight and miraculously self-assured for his age. He grinned.

"Not like it's all that shocking."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Jacob gestured to my name tag. Underneath my name in parenthesis was "she/they." I batted his hand away.

"Hey! Gender id-"

"Gender identity and pronouns and who you like are separate or whatever. I know, buddy." He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm just saying you've kind of been through this rodeo before. I don't get why you're freaking out that you like a girl."

"I don't know if I like her!"

"That's bull. You just told me the exact story you gave back in middle school when you started liking that David guy, except you changed the name. Put these up?" He handed me a box of newly measured tea leaves. I huffed and left the back to go put them where they belonged. It was Saturday, our busiest day, which basically meant a few customers an hour came in, walked around for five minutes, and then left. There was an old couple browsing the green teas, a regular counting their reward points, and...

Yikes!

I turned my face away and quickly hung up some black tea before speed-walking away from the front of the store. In the back, Jacob immediately caught on.

"She's out there, isn't she?"

"I can't go out there."

"There's a regular that needs to be rung up and I have my hands full, so tough luck." I could hear the joy in his voice at my suffering. I looked at him with my most pathetic expression and he just shook his head no with a shit-eating grin. The bell at the register rang. I didn't even have time to put on a poker face. I forced my legs to move.

"And will that be all for you today?" I asked cheerfully, though I knew my face was not smiling. The regular nodded, said thanks, and left with their bag. I glanced over where I had seen Daisy, but she wasn't where I left her. I felt a small twinge of disappointment.

"Hey, Lee. I didn't know you worked here."

Ahhhhh shit!

I turned to see her right in front of me. She had been right behind the last customer!?

"Oh, uh, yeah! I don't work too many hours 'cause school..." I glanced away, trying to remember what to do in this situation. "Do you... need help finding anything?"

"I was just looking around, cause it looked pretty neat in here! What do you like, though?"

My brain was screaming red alert.

"I like most of the dessert teas! And you can't go wrong with Earl Grey, though... I haven't exactly tried everything here, so I could be saying absolute nonsense, heheh!"

Please shut up.

Daisy gave a small chuckle. Was it just polite?

"I guess I should get some Earl Grey then, while I'm here. I'm not exactly a tea drinker, but I've been trying to wean off the coffee." She sounded so casual.

I nodded and smiled, moving out from around the counter.

"Ye-yeah I can show you where it is, cause we have a pretty big black tea section and also we just have the loose leaves but you get your first tea bags free if you sign up for rewards and also Emma Masterson students get extra discounts, so uh... yeah here they are!"

I reached up to try and grab the leaves for her, but I was just a little too short. I awkwardly lowered my arm as she jumped up and got them for herself.

"Thanks. I guess I'll sign up, then."

The moment she left with her things I stormed into the back room and leaned on Jacob, feeling like I might cry. He put his hand on my head, ruffled my short curls and just laughed.

"Smooth moves, Lee. She's totally into you."

(Hiiii! This is the first story that I'm gonna finally get out of drafts! Starting with 2 chapters off the bat, but hopefully, there will be one new update every Sunday? I have the story planned out and the chapters should be pretty short so let's hope for the best. I really hope you enjoy :D)