After seeing this really weird object in the sky, and getting ambushed by some strange sort of dance mob, Paul decided that the best place to go would be Beanie's to see Emma. This thing seemed dangerous and so he had to warn her. He had also had a highly concerning run in with his boss, Mr Davidson, who never seemed to really care about much, but always had a slight sarcastic undertone, he knew this was bad because his boss was suddenly sharing so much that no one really wanted to know, when Paul had previously known very little about him and he would have liked to have kept it that way, thank you very much. After the traumatic ordeal, he knew nothing good would come from any form of singing or dancing, which was great for Emma since she worked in the singing coffee shop. Paul just hoped she wasn't already affected. He also needed coffee cause he wasn't sure if he was dreaming the whole thing up or not. Just a nice cup of black coffee. Nothing in it. No cream, no sugar, just black coffee.
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"HELLO! HELLO! PLEASE GOD I JUST WANT A BLACK COFFEE!
"Black coffee, I'm your coffee girl."
"NOOOO! NO!" Emma looked at him weirdly. "Not you too, Emma, please god stop singing!"
"Okay! Okay! I'll stop." Emma suddenly looked at him with recognition. "Oh, I didn't forget. You're the guy who doesn't like musicals. Paul, right?"
"Emma. You're talking to me, like a normal person." Thank the lord.
"Uh, yeah, and if my boss catches me, I'll get canned. Uh, new company policy, not only do we have to sing when people tip, but when they enter, when they order, all the time apparently!" Oh no! They must have been infected too!
"Emma, I think there's something terribly wrong with the world today."
"Yeah, fucking tell me about it." Oh, so she knows too. Well that's good. Ish. "I spent the entire morning learning some dumb ass new tip song. I'm exhausted." Paul knew she wasn't getting it so he grabbed her hands and dragged her over to a different part of the shop.
"Emma. Emma. Emma. I feel like there's something ... sinister infecting Hatchetfield, and I know this is gonna sound crazy, and not very scary, but it is scary if you think about the implications. Promise me you'll think about the implications?"
"Okay. Okay. I promise."
"Okay, Emma, I think the world is becoming ... a musical." Any trace of Emma believing what he was saying and trusting him was immediately gone from her face.
"Um, I-"
"Don't say anything. Let it sink in."
"Okay."
"Okay, now, are you frightened?"
"Uh, yeah, I think I am starting to get a little frightened..." Emma said this slowly as she backed away from Paul, trying to get free of his grip on her shoulders.
"You should be! You should be."
"Okay, I think you should just sit down and wait for me-"
"Emma! Tip!" Oh no, it's the other employees! The infected ones! On the other hand, Emma had never been so grateful in her life to do a dumb little tip dance in the middle of a dumb little coffee shop.
"Oh, thank god. Sorry Paul, I gotta do this dumbass tip song. Sorry!"
"Get your cup of roasted coffee,
Your morning cup o' joey.
We'll make a jammin' cup o' java,
Mocha latte with the froth for you jack.
Frappuccino with-a freshly roasted mung beans,
It's a caramel drizzle mod in a cup!
With a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip,
And we'll bring it right up!
Hey Mr Business, how do you do?
Can we get a triple for you?
Decaf? What? Decaf? What?
De de, de de de, de de de, de de de.
And we'll bring it right up!"
While the others were handing out coffee, Emma tried to sneak in a word to Paul, but she was quickly drawn back in by her annoying ass colleagues. They then did some weird dance sequence that was just a lot of kicking and waving.
"And we'll bring it,
And we'll bring it,
Ri- ri- right!
And we'll bring it right up!"
Emma finally thought the dreaded thing was over so she could go over to Paul and calm him down, but Zoey and Nora, for some reason, continued to dance. It was the same dance, as well, so they must have done it after they said they were done. Obviously they think they are better than her just because *Zoey* does theatre.
"What is this? There's more? Nora? Hey! Hey! You know what, alright alright alright alright stop stop stop!" Nora and Zoey stopped, but this was probably worse. They were both just stood there in the exact same position. Hands on hip, creepy smile. "What is that? A whole other A section? God! When did you learn that? You know what! When I got this job, I signed up to serve coffee and cold, shitty pastries. If I wanted to be in a musical, I'd be in a damn musical! Yeah, that's right *Zoey*. I was in Brigadoon in high school and I fucking killed it." Paul remembered their first encounter, that godforsaken play in high school. Even though he thoroughly hated musicals, he thought that Emma wasn't all that bad, especially since she hated being there as much as he did. He also liked it because it was when he first met her, but we won't get into that right now. "But now, I'm just trying to make ends meet while i work my way through community college and I can do that just as easily down the street at Starbucks. I quit.
"You can't quit Emma."
"Yeah I sure as hell can."
"The song is so simple. We'll teach it to you. Why, everyone here will be singing it soon!"
"What are you talking about?" Emma could hear loud coughing behind her and she looked around to see every single customer now on the floor coughing violently.
"They've all had their coffee. Their apotheosis will be upon them at any moment."
"Wait, what did you do to their coffee?" Emma opened the coffee pot, and inside she found a massive lump of blue goop. "Fucking gross!"
"Getcha cup o' poison coffee."
"What is this? What is this?"
"Your toxic cup o' joey."
"What?"
"We'll make a twisted cup o' java,
Mocha latte with the goo for you jack, jack, jack, jack.
Hey, Mr. Business, how do ya, how do ya, how do ya do?"
At this, the customers who had previously been lying lifeless on the floor now rose and joined in with the song.
"They're singing! Why are they all singing?"
"We need to run, Emma. Don't hold back, just run!"
"We'll make a double for you!
Hey, Mr. Business, and we'll bring it right up!"
YOU ARE READING
Repeated Encounters
FanfictionA teenage Paul Matthews is forced by his school to watch a musical. While there he meets a girl who is equally annoyed about being there. See how their friendship grows after a few fated encounters. AU until about chapter 5 when it merges with the m...
