Enchantress

Chapter 2: Coffees and Crashes

     "How can I help you?" I asked the lady on the other side of the counter. 

     "One mocha iced, please" she said with a smile. She was older, and her face was softly lined, but I could tell she was the only person in this line who wouldn't just blurt out their memorized order with their eyes attached to their phone. I've had enough of those customers today to make me watch the clock with anticipation to leave.

     "Sure, and your name?" I said, trying to seem extra friendly, despite my current state of tiredness. 

     I scrawled her name, purposely spelling it in the most outrageously incorrect way, like our boss previously told us to do, "it gives us more publicity when they post it on social media," she had said.

     I turned around to start the order, but when I made my way over to the ice machine, nothing came out. I groaned and headed to the back freezer to collect ice for the machine, which always seemed to be in need of more. When I opened it, there was no ice to be found. 

     "Shit. There's gotta be backup around here somewhere," I muttered to myself and started rummaging around for extra bags of ice while repeating a string of "shit, shit, shit". I poked my head out of the room to peer at the enormous line forming in the store and the antsy look on their faces.

     Of course we run out of ice on the hottest day of the year, I thought to myself. I debated telling the manager, but by the time someone went to the store to get it, the customers would already be heading to our competitors across the street, which would not make the boss happy.

     A solution popped into my head, but I was so dead if I got caught. I looked around myself again to make sure none of my co- workers had come in checking for the same thing, and took up one of the giant jugs of water. I poured it into one of the used ice bags, the water practically vibrating at my touch, sensing the power surge through my body. 

     After a couple sips of lukewarm water, I shut my eyes tight and felt the water course and flow through my veins. I willed it colder and colder until it was near freezing.  I could imagine the goosebumps forming everywhere on my body, along with the tingling sensation in my lips that indicated they were turning blue. When the tingling moved down to my fingertips, I braced myself as mini ice cold waterfalls shot through the skins of my palms and strategically fell into the bag of water, freezing it by the second. 

     When the whole bag had turned into somewhat looking crushed ice pieces, I stopped the stream of water bursting through my skin and stood there, hands still dripping like some sort of broken faucet.

     My body needed a moment to relax, calm down and gain composure again, but my brain reminded me of the angry customer's faces, and my mind immediately disobeyed my body, saying you don't have time for that.

     Once I had collected enough ice to keep the machine working through my shift, I headed back out to the, now doubled, angry crowd. I finished making the old lady's drink and called  out her name.

     When she approached the counter, I was expecting her to match my own smile, but instead a frown took place on her face. 

     "Is there something wrong ma'am?" I asked.

     "Well I was just about to ask you the same thing," she stated " you don't look well darling, your lips, they're awfully blue and your skin is an odd shade... looks kinda blue, actually. Surely you can't be cold in this weather, perhaps you're sick, dear."

     My heart raced as soon as she said something about my skin tone. It must be much darker than normal, if she can see it from there. God, how could I have been that dumb, not giving myself a minute to recover I thought.