Heart of Sun

2. Unwind

I'm fucked.

I'm so fucked.

It took way too much pep talking and physical strength just to get Marie to calm down and to get the woman to leave. I'm getting way too damn old for this shit, I swear.

Okay, not old. But, I swear there's a few red hairs. Red? No, gray hairs. Sorry.

Anyways. Once I got them to calm down, I made Marie help the Koko kid with his shirt and make him a new drink while I cleaned up the floors and counters. What a waste of a perfectly good caramel frappe.

"You don't look phased by your shirt being ruined. What are you even trying to get out of that? The cup is empty." Marie said, taking the cup out of Koko's hands and tossing it in the trash can. She went back to grabbing a wet towel and gently trying to at least get the coffee out of his shirt, obviously still irritated over the whole situation. Koko noticed that bit.

The pout on her lips, her scrunched up eyebrows, the huffs she keeps letting out. They were all a dead giveaway. So, he spoke up in a low monotone tone. "You're not fat." He said, which caused Jaylen to pause for a moment. She turned her head up to look up at him, tilting her head a bit. "What? What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're not fat. You have some weight on your legs, yea, but you're not fat." Koko explained with a shrug of his shoulders. Marie had to stare at him for a moment. She knew she wasn't fat, but she didn't deny that the title wasn't given to her frequently. Marie sighed and slowly continued to dab and squeeze at his shirt. "..Right."

While Marie dealt with Koko and his little coffee incident, I decided it was time for me to clock out. I'll have to call a few others to come in, but it'll be fine. I'll have to have Amir take over for a while. So, I quickly texted a few people to make sure they could be here before actually clocking out myself. I said goodbye to Marie and took off my apron, leaving it in its rightful place before leaving my keys behind and heading out of the cafe.

After today, I definitely needed some time to unwind. Probably get a new tattoo or piercing. Something light to enjoy by myself for a while. Thank god there was that one store down the street. I'm pretty sure they do tattoos. No, I mean piercings. I do not need any more tattoos.

I took my time walking to the shop I mentioned, not really rushing since I needed to clear my head anyways. The whole altercation that happened earlier was frying my brain at this point. Fries sound good right now.

I arrived at the shop and opened the front door. I was immediately hit with a huge wave of masculinity and a slight mix of different perfumes. It smelled like what I imagine most places like this to smell. Hopefully it's not dirty, though. I wouldn't want to get any piercings where I see a lot of dirt.

I entered in anyways, closing the door behind myself and looking around for a moment. Inspecting. It looked neat, mainly clean. It looked like they cleaned it regularly. I quickly made my way to the front desk, where I saw a rather tall man standing. Filing his nails.

"Aye," I quickly let him know I was there, since he obviously didn't see me walk up given my height. He looked about 6"4, nearly 6"5. "Y'all do piercings here? I need a new nose piercing. Mines closed."

The man looked up for a moment, and let his eyes (and head) dip down towards the sound of my voice. He looked like he didn't expect me to be so short given how I sound. I guess I do sound older. More mature. "Hi, yes we do. I can do it for you in just a moment since you don't look like you'll care about a little quick pain."

The man giggled, typing in a few things on the laptop next to him. All I could do was hum in response, not sure what that was supposed to mean. I inspected him as he worked, noticing a few things. He had a significant amount of piercings all over his face, ears, and even his knuckles. Who in the hell came up with that? It's sick as hell. Unnecessary, but sick.

I decided to ask about them, lifting my arms up to cross them and lean forwards onto the counter in front of me. "Hm. What's with the knuckle piercings? They look aight'." I don't think he expected me to speak to him because it looked like he froze up a bit before continuing his work.

"I think they're cool. You wanna touch em'?" He asked, balling his fist up and presenting his hand to me. I hesitated for a moment, but reluctantly lifted a hand and poked at his knuckles. It was freaky. "Do they not hurt?"

I asked, the guy shaking his head. Surprisingly. They looked cool, but they looked like they'd hurt a hell of a lot. Letting my hand drop by my side, I heard him speak. "Okay, follow me please?". And I did, following the tall guy to the back of the store, sitting down in the black chair he guided me to. I let the man prep my skin for the piercing, not really wanting to say much until he spoke himself. I didn't expect it since he's been rather quiet even if he was happy this entire time.

"Name's Rio. What's yours? Just so I know who I'm piercing." He said, rubbing the surface of my skin with.. whatever he was using. I hummed and nodded my head, looking him in the eyes so he could be aware that I was interested and focused in the conversation. He looked like the shy type despite his appearance. "Payne. My names Payne."

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Bro when I say this took me DAYS because I've been so tired so it probably makes absolutely no sense. 😭 I'll fix it later but I need naps NEOW.