As soon as we all walked into the café all I could feel was anxiety. My fingers were bleeding from picking at them the entire car ride to the café and now I was resorted to cracking my knuckles and pulling the top layer of skin off my lips.
“Hey your hand is bleeding,” Mason said, looking down and pointing at them.
Quickly I pulled the sleeve of my jacket over my hands and proceeded farther into the café with the rest of the group to find an area where we could connect tables.
The smell of coffee and baked goods filled my nose, and images of coming here with friends during finals and midterms flashed through my head. Those were the better times, the times where I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling and could push it back. All I could now was remember how it felt. Now I knew exactly what I was feeling and the heaviness it brought to me.
“Over here guys,” Cleo called, her southern drawl thicker as she spoke louder. “Wiley, you put the tables together we’re all goin’ to go order.”
Wiley gave her a quick thumbs up sign, and went over to the back of the café where Cleo had set down her orange trench coat and the others had removed their own jackets.
“Ya’ll ready to go order something?” her eyes lit up with kindness and excitement. “Make it good because who knows when the last time you been here or the next time you coming.”
Timidly they formed a line, Mason at the front and I in the back behind Cleo who was behind Avery who was behind Felix who was behind Bria.
Mason stepped up to the counter and scanned the menu that hung over head. The girl at the cash register waited patiently as he scanned and politely smiled at all of us.
After his order was done, Bria went up and ordered a bottle of water and left to head back to the table where Mason and Wiley were now waiting.
Cleo turned and looked at me, “Whatcha gonna get, Odette?”
I shrugged. I wasn’t planning on getting anything since I couldn’t talk. I only came up because I knew if I didn’t Cleo would have dragged me up there anyways or made a scene of some sorts. The more I participated the better, because then maybe I’d be out of this faster.
“You’re gonna have to talk so they know what you want. They aren’t mind readers, here.” She swirled both her index fingers around the temples of her head to emphases and let out a loud cackling laugh.
Avery made her order with no problem and no attitude in her voice. She seemed to have calmed down since her scene in the parking-lot. Bria ended up riding up front and Wiley was in the way back with Avery. I couldn’t tell you who was more miserable between the two of them.
When it was my turn to order I stepped out of the way and headed back to the table, Cleo staring after me as she mixed some cream and sugar into her small coffee and held a biscuit in her hand.
“Odette!” she called after me.
I turned and looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
“Come on, you can’t not order something. They have great stuff here. I’ll buy if you order.” She gave me an inviting smile, but I ignored it and continued on my way back to the table where everyone was awkwardly drinking and avoiding making any sort of eye contact with anyone.
Sitting down and doing my best not to scrape the legs of the chair across the tiled ground, I stared blankly at the pale blue wall that was on my right. I cleared my mind of any thoughts and let myself begin to sink into that numb feeling I lived to feel now.
YOU ARE READING
Falling Colors
Novela Juvenil"The unfixable; the shattered; the torn; the broken. They all come here. It's my job to remake them, because once its broken there is no going back to the way it was. It must be remade." Six individuals. Six unique stories. Five exercises. One...
