Guy From Nowhere

Chapter 2: Purrfect Day

I wake up, yawning, my own drool covering half of my chin. I stretch, take a shower, and put on a normal black button up, jeans, and shoes. I brushed my teeth and stared at my face. "Should I shave my very cool mustache and my beard in the making? Nahhhh." I splashed water in my face to make myself wake up as well as clean my face. I tapped the scar on my nose.

I headed out as I walked to the cafe. "Helloooo my cool cats and kittens!" No idea how I had the confidence to say that out loud.

Before me... I saw the girl from yesterday. And some dude. I was guessing he was recently hired? "Hey, keep it down, asshole, it's 5:30 in the fucking morning, trust me, nobody wants to fucking hear you." Katy said... The guy continued after... "that's right, fuckface, and who comes in staying that!?" I just chuckled in embarrassment...

Katy looked squinted at me and nodded her head "Ohhh, It's that alternative western son of a bitch from yesterday."

"What a rude girl." I thought to myself as I waited for her to say something I could reply to that wasn't aggressive. 

"I'm Katy, nice to meet you. Guessing you aren't here for a coffee" "That's why... I came.. yesterday... Remember?" I avoided eye as much as possible. "Fuckkk! I didn't know she actually gave you an applicationnnnn!!! And you actually came nooo!!!!!!!!" She whined. I just sighed.

"I'm Malik." The guy said... I nodded my head and smirked awkwardly.

They both stared at me before yelling in unison,

"YOU AREEEE?"

I flinched.

"Stanley. Nice to meet the both of you... I think?"

Katy nodded as she walked towards me and took the application out of my hand. "Hm. Okay, you're in."

"I-..." I was in shock that she didn't even interview me or anything at all...

Malik spoke, "Yeahhh, you were in before you even took a step in here, our old lady felt bad for you so she just kinda said, 'give him this uniform he looks like a women's medium.'" Malik held out a cutesy uniform... WHICH I DIDNT EVEN REALIZE HIM AND KATY WERE WEARING!?

I stayed silent as I took the uniform. It was a button up with pink stripes on it, white pants, and an apron with a cute calico cat slapped on it with words saying, "Meow & Café"... "how.. adorable?!" I thought to myself.

"So yaaa just gonna stand there or wear it and get to work?" Katy asked.

I walked to the employees bathroom and changed. I looked at myself in it... it was definitely NOT my style. But it  was cute. I walked out.

"Duddeeeee... You look like a goddamn twinkie in that!! Ima need to ask my old lady to give you a bigger size because we are not open to gay sugar daddies ordering every single day while we are on the job just to see you."
I sighed silently and rolled my eyes.

Katy stopped after a while. "It is onlyyyy... 6 am, I guess we will introduce you to the cats." I just... nodded. "Malik will follow you around while you look at them, I need to go get all the machines working and ready, clean the litter boxes, feed the cats... all of that..." Katy said.

"Alright..."

Malik walked with me to a cat tree with 3 different cats on it. "Hey, so, let me explain to you what this place is anyway... people have their coffee here in the morning, while petting a cute lil cat! It's a greatttt way to start the morning. This place is also an adoption place, sometimes, these little cats get the attention of people, n, they might wanna keep em, so, they can adopt em. We save strays from out, take em to a vet, allat. We give them temporary names so we can acknowledge each and every one."

This was... so kind.

Malik then named the cats on the tree, "this Persian one is named cupcake, this tabby is Tabitha, the white one is Bella." We moved on to the other tree. "Calico is Soup, she's actually our mascot and the managers cat, so, we can't give her out." "Hm. Interesting... so... the manager must really love cats. This is a self owned business I'm guessing because she didn't include her boss or anything..." I thought. "Kay, the grey one is kale, the brown one is coco, and last but not least..." I looked at the last cat. It was... the cat that gave me the stink eye before I left! "This is whiskey. Personally, ion like him. He's a mean one, totally gnarly dude, but so misunderstood as well he's like mysterious. And he's kinda ugly with that scar on his face, totally ruined his eye and people are scared of em. Usually, our kittens go fast, but since this one is all messed up, children are scared of em. He's only 3 months though, recently brought him in after we caught teenage fuckfaces tryna beat him up because he's a black cat."

"Oh..."

Malik looked at Whiskey and pointed at me with his thumb. "Get a load of this dude." I just looked at the cat. It was so... adorable.

"Oh, you could play with the cats and pet them right now as me and Katy get the place all ready, man." He handed me a cat wand. "See ya." Malik walked off. I sat on the floor next to whiskey. The kitten who everyone is scared of... Just because of his history and the way he looks. The tiredness was kicking in after using up all my social energy and stamina from walking to my apartment to here. I reached my hand out to pet Whiskey. He hissed at me and I quickly retreated my hand. "You're a spicy one, huh?" I sighed and took out the cat wand and shook it at Whiskey. After 5 minutes he started to play with the toy. I smiled. I reached my hand out, he hissed and ran away. I sighed in defeat. I didn't like getting closer to people—or well— anything. Took too much time. I fell asleep after a while of just looking at whiskey. He hissed and ran when I put my arm up on the cat tree it was residing in to hold on and sleep. Whiskey watched me sleep for a while before Katy walked towards me to wake me up, scaring whiskey away.

"Heyyy??? Stanleyyyyy? I got your name tag, and we're about to open." I got scared awake, drool dripping down my chin, I wiped it off with my sleeve and got up. Katy quickly tried to put the tag on my chest. "Ouch! Watch it, man!" "Hey, deal with it, pussy. Actin' like I stabbed you intentionally." I just winced at the pain. She put it on properly though so that's good... I thought about Whiskey my whole shift. I looked at the kitten as some people backed away from it, and even some whispering that he probably holds diseases. How rude.

I was spacing out, when I didn't notice Malik wasn't able to take another persons order as he was taking another persons. And as the 2nd cashier AND barista...

"Hey, baby mustache, are you gonna take my order or-?" "Huh?" I jumped, startled by this—-man??? He had black hair... that's all I could really say... "Oh, so sorry. What would you-?" Just then, he grabbed me by the collar. "You think I'm fuckin' playin'? You think this is a game? You know what all those middle aged ladies say, 'I haven't had my coffee yet'. I'm not here playing patty cake with you." He threw me to the ground. 

I got up, slowly and dusted myself off, I angrily walked up to the customer. "Do you think I'm a joke? Because I will fucking--" Malik stopped me for a second, grabbed me by my shoulder and walked me to a corner next to the coffee machines. "Hey, quit. Do you wanna lose  your job on the first day?" I shook my head. "Get back to work. Sorry dude, I know It's unfair how some treat you but when you're at work you just have to take it in the ass. Especially if you want to get paid" I nodded, very annoyed. I walked back to the guy ordering, he had a grin on his face.

"I would like a... pumpkin spice, that's on the menu for fall, right?"

"Ok." 

"Stanley, is it? I won't forget that name."

I just rolled my eyes, made his drink and handed it to him. Malik poked me and mouthed what we were supposed to say after handing a customer their drink. I let out a big sigh, "Have a purrfect day." Malik smiled and throw up 2 thumbs up as he went back to taking orders.

"You, too."
 I raised an eyebrow as I looked at Malik. "Hey, you saw that guy threaten me, right?" Malik responded, "The ugly one you almost got fired for? Doesn't look like a regular like the other peeps, but don't be insulted, I mean, just look at him.... He's no threat. Looks stupid.

I responded, "you shouldn't judge people by looks.."

"Oh, I am JUDGING that book by its cover." Malik responded before another customer came up to him. I just sighed and looked at this man... he was... so. I don't even know. I also looked at whiskey. I sighed and continued work and school. I headed home and just...

Passed out.