Lost In Time

A Feathered Companion

Saturday couldn't come fast enough. I quickly found out one thing during my short half week of school. I hated it. The assignments were dumb, tedious, and had no applications in real life whatsoever. So Saturday morning...I skipped War Games. Yep. That's right. I skipped a class. I was probably going to take hell for it. Oh well. As long as Simon found out after I learned how to find the entrance to Travelerverse, I wouldn't mind whatever lecture came.

So that is how I found myself leaving the dorm quietly at six am and conveniently leaving through the rift on the backside of the building. No one would be the wiser...well, probably. I was too excited to care. I had my Mark on round my neck, my wallet, credentials, phone, and the receipt Simon had given to me for my birthday, all tucked away in my decent-sized strap purse. A simple black lanyard was poking out of the half-zippered top, the pepper spray attached armed and ready to go. A girl can't be too careful you know.

The lines for the elevators seemed to go on and on as I bounced impatiently on the balls of my feet. My stomach grumbled urgently, and my mind was going haywire without my caffeine fix, so could people seriously hurry the hell up!? I had somewhere to be! When a fight broke out between a vampire and a werewolf in front of me and blood and fur went flying everywhere, I ducked under the flying spittle and squeezed into the last elevator, smirking slightly. Now it would take everyone else ages to get to their respective offices, since security would have to check everyone for hazardous bodily fluids. Vampire venom is nasty. My floor came, and I broke out into a full-on sprint, glaring at Simon's closed door. He was probably still at the coffee shop in Maine (where he lived when he wasn't eating, breathing, and sleeping in the mountain of paperwork that was his office), making sure they got his super complicated order right. I had never been there before. Nor did I ever want to walk in with him. I am sure he didn't tip them enough. I shuddered briefly, remembering the one time I had done a coffee run for him.

"Yeah, I want one medium white chocolate mocha with an extra pump of white chocolate, and one...hang on, let me get this post-it note out here...oh yes. A quad grande, non-fat, extra-hot caramel macchiato...upside down? Bloody hell Simon..."

That poor kid, it was way too early in the morning to deal with my order. The manager had to do it, and it had taken them three tries to get it right. Then Simon had said it was too weak, and trashed it. Never again. But seriously, what was UPSIDE DOWN COFFEE!? This had been a year ago, and I still had no idea. Shaking my head ruefully, I jumped off the train heading down memory lane and greeted Simon by snatching my coffee and greasy breakfast bag from him, taking one large gulp of the bitter goodness. Ah, much better.

"Good morning to you too Eliana." He grumbled, shoving me aside to access his office. Raising my eyebrow, I took another swig.

"So how mad was the barista today?" I began conversationally, throwing my feet up on his immaculate desk as I sat down in one of his chairs.

He scowled fiercely. "They got a new barista. He hadn't even heard of upside down coffee! I mean, he's a coffee barista, they are supposed to be trained! It took him twenty minutes to make my precious!" He burst out, fuming as he organized his papers.

I sighed, putting down breakfast for one moment, and reached over to pat his hand consolingly, meeting his eyes for a moment.

"It's ok Simon; no one has." I burst out laughing, and he scowled once more, shoving my breakfast bag at me to furiously wipe off the grease spots. Did I mention he is OCD?

"Oh shut up Eli." He scowled once more, then pointedly began typing, ignoring me. Shrugging, I ignored the frosty tension in the air and finished my breakfast. Simon was always grumpy until his espresso kicked in.