Intoxication

Chapter 1

482 Bay Road,

Waverly,

Surrey,

England

The simple address of where this journal begins; a small little coffee house in the nook of a busy main road, in the heart of downtown. The smell of tea, cream, and week old coffee filters being used in their compost hits you as you walk in. Not a hard hit, not a soft hit, but rather a welcoming hit. You go up to the counter, order you drink, and simply relax. The atmosphere immediately takes away all the stress, and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I’ve been coming here for a while and I can tell that this coffeehouse does more than just relax. It’ll mend a broken heart, patch up some crushed dreams, comfort the disturbed, and welcome many others. So much joy, so much energy, so much peace... in a tiny cafe.

“One hot chocolate, please.”

“Nice to see you again,” The cashier boy says, “Ever going to order anything else?”

“Yes, actually a side of please make it quick will do.”

“Ah, so that’s the type of girl you are.”

“Type? I highly doubt you can put me into a category with anyone else.”

“You wanna bet?”

Silence, as we stared into each other’s eyes. I studied him, his blue grey eyes that looked back at me with slight amusement.

“How much is it?” I said as I broke the silence.

“With or without the side order?”

“Cut the crap.” He chuckled, as I scold him.

“5.” He finally said, and I passed over the money. “My name’s TJ, by the way.”

“Jennifer. Call me Jenny though.”

“Jenny from the Block,” Looks like I caught myself a little joker, I thought. “Here you go Jenny, your hot chocolate... and if I may ask... was it quick enough?”

“Not even close.” I snatched the cup from his hand, and with perfect timing he dropped it. Immediately, he hopped over the counter to assist me as I tried to save my dance shoes inside my bag.

“You dance?”

“Something like that.”

“You’re really stubborn, you know.”

“It happens when you get your dreams crushed, over and over. And then you run away. And you end up like me.”

“Sounds like you’ve had a journey.”

“A very hard one at that.”

“Let me get a mop,” TJ said as he got up but right as he called to the second employee I stopped him. “I’m fine. I got it. My mess, my responsibility”

“Not today, love. C’mon get up. Sean! Bring the mop out.” And within two seconds the mop was out, my hot chocolate was being remade and I somehow ended up at a table face to face with TJ... What a joy.

“What now TJ?”

“I want to know about your journey.”

“My journey?”

“Your struggles, your worries, your dreams. Ties you’ve severed, ties you want to have. I want to know about you, Jenny from the Block.”

I paused again, once again creating the dreadful silence, and I leaned forward looking deeper and deeper into his eyes. It was like you could see the curiosity popping out, you could just tell he genuinely wanted to know something.

“Where do I start?”

“Anywhere, it’s almost closing time and your next hot chocolate is on the house anyway so.. just.. start.”

“Well, I’m from Iceland. I’m 19 years of age, and I love dancing. It’s been my dream, I love the way you express yourself through the music and the movement. Its like double the amount of expression that you would get in art or singing...” And just like that, I went through 4 hot chocolates, a whole 19 years of my life, and full out explanation of how my dreams have been crushed and what’s been going on lately. And a whole load of eye contact.