Masterpieces {Book 2}

Glitches, chocolate, and mess

Credit; Juliaenerys

[song; everything has changed,, Taylor swift ft. Ed sheeran]

Summary:

Calum has a thing for the cute Starbucks employee. And Calum sucks at flirting.

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The first time Calum sees him, he feels like taking the pink bow off the promotional cup of cream and strawberry coffee displayed in the shop and pinning it in the middle of his golden hair. He feels like telling him all the worst jokes he knows just to see a smile form on his lips. He feels like making him ask for a hug. He feels like lacing their fingers together and never letting go. Mostly. Calum feels like falling in love with him. But instead, he fucks up.

"Hello sir, what would you like to get?"

"Yeah."

Calum only realizes he just glitched when the golden-haired guy gives him a puzzled look. He sniffles mechanically, blinks and shakes his head. "What would you like to get?" the guy repeats. His hands rest on the counter and Calum guesses he's standing on tiptoes which oh my Gosh makes him look even taller than he already is and damn, Calum wishes he could see his legs instead of that ugly wooden decoration and terrible Starbucks logo.

"A – a...tall...hot chocolate and a vanilla muffin, please. Yeah," he says with slight difficulty. The guy smiles and he heads to another part of the counter. Calum realizes he's the only one working at the moment, and that the coffee shop is actually pretty calm, there aren't many more than ten people. Not a busy hour. As the lovely Starbucks employee prepares his chocolate and places a chubby vanilla muffin on a tray for him, Calum breaks his neck trying to read his name on the fucking tiny badge he's got. When he doesn't succeed, he curses internally and thinks he should have been to the eye doctor instead of putting it off as usual.

"Here," the barista says finally. "Your name?" Calum thinks it's kinda useless because he's the only one waiting to be served right now and he's getting his drink directly, but he still opens his mouth.

"Hood," he blurts. Twice in a row. Great. "I mean, no, Calum. Sorry. Used to school and all that last-name-calling stuff."

The blonde-haired guy giggles and Calum thinks he's starting to find him embarrassingly hot for a stranger. He looks away while the guy scribbles his name on the cup of chocolate. When it's done, the guy puts it on the tray. He has a crumpled, messy handwriting. "Eight dollars and fifty cents," he says. Calum fumbles in his pocket to gather coins and hands them to him at last. "Thanks, enjoy your drink," the guy says.

"Thank you," Calum says, trying not to sound too weird. Because it's not like he finally managed to read the barista's name and wow Luke is a really hot name and Calum thinks 10/10 would date. He manages a last grin and walks to a table with his order, and spends the next 20 minutes glancing at Luke.

~

Okay but seriously, Calum knows that having a crush on a Starbucks employee is absolutely ridiculous, especially when only you go there once a week and you don't know more about them than their name. And they don't even know yours. Or do they? The fourth time Calum goes to Starbucks again, he has a feeling Luke writes his name down before he says it. Or perhaps he imagines that.

Truly, Calum likes him. A lot. It's a bit mental because they don't exchange more than a dozen sentences per week and it's not really about the most personal issues, but he's definitely attracted to him. Every Friday, Calum's head feels light and his heart flutters when he opens the door of the coffee shop. He would go there everyday if he could but long story short, money doesn't grow on trees for Calum (at least not on the ones he knows) and Starbucks can be really fucking expensive.