Marked | ✔️

Part 3:Lavender Wes

"Yeah, are you hiring?" Amber asks her.

"Always. I own a coffee shop just down the street," she answers. "My name is Lavender Wes."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Wes. Does he need any qualifications or experiences?" Amber asks.

"No. I just need him to fill out a form, and he can start tomorrow. I'll teach him the ropes," she answers. Turns out her shop is just two buildings down from Amber's house. As we walk in, only two people look up for a second then return to what they were doing, and that's one of the employees and customers. "Follow me," Lavender demands, going behind the counter, and I do. "Just fill this out," she says, pulling out a paper.

"What name do I put?" I ask Amber in a whisper.

"I don't think she knows who you are considering she hasn't said anything yet. Just put your real name," she answers in a whisper, and I nod. After a few minutes, I hand the form to Lavender. She skims through it and glances at us.

"Jason Myers. Sounds like something out of a horror movie," she says and chuckles, and I swallow. "You don't look 25. At first, I thought you were 18 or 19," she comments.

"I tend to look younger than my age," I remark and smile nervously.

"What's your story?" she asks.

"What?" I ask.

"Your story. You're the Jason Myers. Right?" she asks. Amber looks at me with an 'I thought she didn't know' face.

"Uh..."

"Don't worry, I don't judge," she says with a genuine smile.

"It was self-defense," Amber blurts out quickly.

"Alright then. Thanks for telling me. Would you like to start today or tomorrow?" she asks, putting away the form.

"Wait, I'm hired?" I ask with shock.

"Of course!" she says with a beautiful smile.

"B-But," I stutter.

"Don't worry about experience. As I said, I'll teach you everything you'll need to know," she remarks.

"But I'm a criminal, a murderer," I state.

"No more buts. I'll get you your uniform. He's working today. Right?" she asks Amber, and she nods then Lavender leaves. My mouth is agape, and Amber does a victory dance in her seat.

"Yes! You've got a job now! I love her!" she exclaims.

"Ms. Wes is the most benevolent person I've ever met. She doesn't care what horrible things you've done in your life whether it was an accident, or if it was on purpose. If you want to know anything else, just come to me," a female employee says as she takes our empty cups and cleans the table then leaves.

. . .

It's two hours later after Lavender hired me. I watch the woman, who came to clean our table before, pour water for a young couple. She comes back to the counter and glances at me a few times. "Do you want to say something?" she asks as she brews a cup of espresso.

"I want to take you up on your offer," I say, and she looks at me. "I mean, you said if I had any questions I could ask you."

"Alright. Let me finish this first," she remarks. A few minutes later, we sit down at a table. "What do you want to know?" she asks, leaning back into the chair.

"I don't have anything in particular that I want to know though," I state, scratching my head.

"Fine then. I'll just start from the beginning." She sighs. "Ms. Wes wasn't always this benevolent. She used to be just like everybody else, but one day, her friend was marked. He was blamed for something he didn't do, and he tried to tell people, but nobody believed him, except for Ms. Wes. When her friend started having a hard time, she started understanding the world more. Instead of being prejudice, she looked at the world with fresh eyes like those of an infant's." She pauses to tend to a customer then returns.