For Your Eyes Only

5

I walk down the stairs of my house to the kitchen in hopes that coffee will be available to brew. My dad drinks about two pots a day while my mother never touches the stuff because she's afraid of staining her teeth.

School was rough today. We didn't have a lab scheduled so I didn't get to talk to Nate. I wanted to apologize for the way Danny treated him yesterday.

So instead I settled with a stalker mindset and sat behind him in class today and watched him. I liked the way he moves slowly. I liked the way his nose scrunches up when he is concentrating or the way he mutters under his breath when something is giving him trouble. He still never let anyone help him, though. He was stubborn. Just like me. I also found it amusing how I noticed all these things in just a few days.

Luck is once again not on my side when there are no coffee beans in sight. I sigh and head for the door because coffee wasn't going to drop from the sky. I grab my car keys and head to my favorite coffee shop. Which also happens to be the place I work.

It actually isn't a coffee shop at all but a breakfast diner that elderly people mostly occupied. I think that is why I like it. There is rarely anyone under the age of twenty that walked through those lightweight, screened doors because most kids my age didn't want eggs and sausage from dinner, but prefered burrito bowls or burgers.

Not only am I hungover from last nights shenanigans with Alyssa but now I am going to be breaking one of the boss's rule: No drinking coffee on the job. It is a stupid rule but for some odd reason Levi is totally against the bitter drink unless you were over the age of fifty.

"Vegetables are all you need for energy," he says every time he catches me chugging a mug before one of my shifts. "I can whip you up a green power smoothie, if you like?"

Levi was the son of Lincoln, the late owner of Linc's Diner who past away a little over a year ago from a heart attack. That is why Levi is so gungho on health and fitness. I don't blame him but you also couldn't pay me to drink one of those things instead of my warm, amazing, hazelnut coffee.

I tie my apron around my waist as I quickly clock in. The smell of bacon arouses my empty stomach but not in a good way. Today is going to be a long day but at least the week was halfway done and all there is left to think about is the Friday night football game.

"Good morning, sunshine," Lennette sings into my ear as she sashays past me with a pot of freshly brewed coffee.

I stop her before grabbing a cup from the closest shelf and pour the nearly black liquid into the off white mug.

"Woah, what did you do last night?" Lennette leans against the counter and grabs the pot when I hold it out for her.

I take a long drink and close my eyes, trying my hardest to block out the pounding thuds the Theta's bass seemed to leave behind.

"Oh, you know," I reply, sending her a wink. A large smile spreads across her face, leaving her aging beauty radiate under her dark skin.

"Oh, child, do I." She laughs a cackling laugh that instantly wakes me up. I quickly finish my coffee before Levi comes out of his office to greet the staff which contained of myself, Lennette, and Gary the cook. Things here were slow on weekdays. It's after the game on Fridays that we are the busiest. Sometimes I wish I wasn't a cheerleader so I could work the shift and get more tips.

That meant that I could afford a bus ticket up to New Hampshire. I would have my parents buy me one but I didn't want them to convince me on having them go with. I wanted to tour Dartmouth on my own without their encyclopedia minds rattling off this and that about the greatness of the school. I want to do this on my own.