My life was a boring, pathetic mess; I had dropped out of college to work full time at some shitty coffee house across the street from my house. I had my long unbrushed hair pulled into a messy bun 98% of the time; because that was the amount of time I had to spend in work just to pay the bills on my one bedroom flat. My clothes constantly reeked of stale coffee and my face told a thousand unspoken tales of world-weariness and apathy.
It was a soggy Wednesday, and I had served a grand total of eleven customers in the last three hours. The time in-between serving these customers I had spent watching the hand of the clock drag themselves around in a tired way that I could sympathise with. The tiny gold bell that hung above the door to the shop sounded, and I pulled myself away from by battered book to meet the eyes of a new customer. I didn’t recognise the tall boy who stood in front of me and to most this wouldn’t seem unusual. However, I had yet to serve a customer in this run down café who didn’t visit every day consistently and whose name and occupation I didn’t know.
‘Hey, what can I get for you?’
I pulled my eyes over this boy, taking in as much as possible. He had a sweeping black fringe and a pierced lip. Usually I found facial piercings a little too much, but this one just seemed to suit him; it added something to his face. He was unreasonably tall and wiry and he wore his faded black skinny jeans low on his hips. A t shirt for a band I did not recognise clad his torso and a red beanie fit snugly over all his hair but the fringe I had initially noticed. I immediately pigeon holed him as ‘hipster’.
‘I’ll take a latte please.’
‘Sure, I’ll just get it for you now.’
I spun on my heels and busied myself frothing milk and pouring coffee. When I had finished I placed the cup gently into the mystery boy’s hands and took the change he had handed me. I noticed a subtle shading of purple and green up the boys wrists, an obvious tell-tale that bruises were developing. As I glanced back at his face I noticed that a dark shadow was appearing around his eye.
‘Are you going to give me my change?’
I must have taken too long staring at the boy’s face, because he looked confused, and slightly worried.
‘God, sorry, your face just looks sore that’s all’
As I dropped the coins into his other hand, he grimaced in reply and then nodded his head slightly.
‘We’ve got some ice if that would help?’
He nodded his head again, but this time he seemed more grateful that I had noticed the rapidly worsening marks on his face. I handed him a bag of ice to put against them and tried not to seem strangely concerned about this random stranger. That tended to scare them off.
‘I’m Hayley by the way.’
His piercing green eyes rose to meet mine.
‘Rob, I’m Rob.’
