Coffee and Cigarrettes

chapter two

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I GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER

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chapter two

My apartment isn't in an apartment building: it's in an old two-story house with a couple renting out the bottom portion and I get the top. It could be worse. At least they seem like nice people.

They introduced themselves as Tom and Jen, and they tell me they just moved here about a year ago. They're young like me, about in their early 20s. I'm 18 myself, and independent.

I get a few things unpacked before I collapse on my sheetless mattress and I set myself on snooze to offload on my heavy fatigue. My eyes flutter open to darkness, and my phone informs me that I've been asleep for four and a half hours. It's about 9 pm.

I unpack a few more things, setting out my journal and tucking away some folded clothes. I pull my hair into a ponytail and I pull on some little denim shorts and a huge tee before heading out, tiptoeing down the steps past Tom and Jen, who must be watching a movie in their living room.

I wander out into the night air, where the fireflies are bobbing along and the crickets are humming a tune for the nightowls like me. The town is quiet right now, so I decide to drift out into the strip of shops that I passed by earlier. Might as well get some food, because I have none, and my stomach is grumbling like an irritable grizzly bear.

I stop into a little 24-hour grocery, grabbing a basket and wandering around. I pick up virtually anything vegetarian and somewhat healthy before I round a corner and end up in the same isle as the boy from earlier. The sushi shop boy.

He looks kind of cute, his thin frame bent over to read the nutrition facts of a packet of ramen noodles. I'm too socially awkward to say hi, so I just quietly tiptoe around him and reach for some pasta on a high shelf. I've always been tall, but this time the workers in this grocery have decided to put my favourite pasta shape just out of reach for a girl like me. I hop up and down on my toes, grasping for a box. No such luck. I mumble some foul language before the same voice from before startles me.

"Need help?" He's standing about two feet away from me, hands tucked in his pockets and his crooked smile tugging at his lips.

"Erm, I guess," my cheeks grow hot as I explain, "My favourite pasta is, uh, the, the bowtie shape and I, uh, can't reach it."

The boy grins broadly, reaching up easily and retrieving a box for me, "There you go."

"Thank you," I laugh nervously, taking it from him cautiously and tossing it in my basket, "That's twice you've helped me. How may I ever repay you?" I feign a dramatic faint.

He smiles, "I dunno, we'll see. So do you like your apartment?"

"Not sure yet. I think I will, but you know, this town is so obnoxious, I might not get a wink of sleep. You all need to just calm down."

He laughs at my blatant sarcasm and I blush again. Wow, I look stupid in these clothes.

"Well, I'd better get going. Nice seeing you again," I say.

"You too." He waves at me simply and I wave back, turning away to wander out of the store. I walk home with my bags of food and put them in the mini fridge that's upstairs, falling asleep to the music on my phone as I recline on my bedroom floor.

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FAN ME PLEASE OK OK OK

GO RIGHT NOW PLEASE