Requested by Winter Wonderland on Quotev
Word Count: 1478
You worked at a coffee shop. From 7 AM to 9 PM every day. And then you went to work at a nightclub for 6 hours. For 3 years you had been surviving on 4 hours of sleep, but it was anything to pay the bills. You had gotten into the college of your dreams, had a perfect boyfriend, and everything felt perfect... But then your whole life came crashing down on you.
You didn't feel the same with your boyfriend, it was all emotionless. Then it dawned on you, this didn't feel like love, it felt like friendship. Intense friendship that involved... Benefits. And so you dumped him. You tried to be as kind as possible, but it still ended with screaming and a lot of harsh language. After you dumped him your whole life just spiraled out of control, your parents were in a car accident, and you had to spend every last penny of your college fund to pay for their medical needs, but unfortunately only your mom made it. But she had to take up permanent residence at a medical care center.
So you were stuck working two minimum wage jobs all to support you and your non-working mother. The dream life. Throughout your whole life you've only wanted one thing: to be happy. To live in a mansion and have kids and be married and just be happy. But now it's all just a pipe dream.
It's 9 AM and your mindlessly doodling on a notebook while your waiting for the next customer to come in when you hear a bell ring. A woman with straight blonde shoulder-length hair walked in. She was wearing a green jacket and black skinny jeans, she was wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and when she walked her hips swayed in a way that made her look like she was in slow motion.
"Umm, could I have a black coffee, no foam." While she was thinking she put the edge of the earpiece on her glasses in the corner of her mouth. And it was surprisingly sexy.
"Yeah, um, sure." You reach for a cup and shakily knock the whole stack over. "Sorry, sorry." You exclaim, bending over to pick it up, a blush growing on your cheeks. When you stand back up she's looking at you with an amused expression on her face, in the exact position she in was before.
"So, um, what's your name?" You ask, my hand reaching for a sharpie in my apron, and reaching for a cup in a seperate stack than the one you had knocked over.
"Natasha." Her smirk was growing by the second. You write it down, hoping that she won't notice my shaky handwriting.
"It'll be out in a second." You exclaim. It takes a little bit longer than a second, but no more than 2 and a half minutes.
When I hand her the cup she takes it. "I hope to see you around someday." She states, while you just stand there gulping like a fish.
~~~
After that day Natasha would come to the coffee shop frequently. At first it wasn't consistent. After the first time you met it was over a week until you saw her again. Then her visits began to be more frequent, but occasionally she would take a couple of days to 3 week off, all to come back covered in scrapes and bruises. But whenever she wasn't on one of her escapades she started to come to the coffee shop every day. So often that whenever the bell rang and you looked toward the door and saw her you would start making her coffee, you had gotten so good at it you'd be finished by the time she'd reached the counter. It was a year since that day, and you could probably make a black coffee with no foam in your sleep.
Natasha hadn't come back to the coffee shop for a couple of days, but besides being disappointed you felt no unusual concern. You had once asked Natasha what she did for a living. She didn't say anything. So you just assumed she worked in the CIA or something. But she weren't that concerned. A guy once tried to flirt with you, but luckily Natasha was there and twisted his arm behind his back and that was that.
The word unusual in unusual concern was key. You were always terrified for Natasha's safety, as would anyone with a friend in the CIA; but at this point it was more of a state of constant fear, so her being missing wasn't anything out of the ordinary terror.
But then the blip happened. You were sitting at the counter and one of the customers started screaming. You looked up from the sketch and you saw a woman with a toddler turning into dusk. You pressed the alarm button to alert the police that something bad was happening. You ran from behind the counter to try to calm the woman down, when you noticed that people all around you were disappearing. You ran into the street to watch as people were fading away.
You heard screaming and panicking and crying. And worst of all you heard silence. There were some people, not a lot, but some, that weren't screaming or crying or anything. They simply held up their fading hands into the sun, in complete and total confusion and terror that they were dying, they were in shock, and so were you. You help your hands in front of your face, you were expecting to die as well.
But you didn't.
The numbers of people dwindled.
10 less.
20 less.
50 less.
Until there was roughly half of the people standing there than there were in the beginning.
And then you heard sobs. Loud terrifying sobs. And then you realized they were yours.
~~~
Your mother died. You went to her funeral, and you welcomed the hugs from relatives and friends, and gave them back to the people who had lost as well, and everyone lost. No one wins in a game of death, not even the villians.
Your mothers death had hurt, but it didn't feel that different from when she was alive. Your mother's mind was broken ever since the accident. Her brain didn't work as well, and many days she couldn't remember her own name. So her being dead hurt like a knife in the heart, but you knew that it was alright. She wouldn't have to suffer anymore.
That pain was joined shortly by more. The death of high school friends, colleagues, and more. And then one that shown like a star in your heart. A woman you cared about. A woman you loved. A woman named Natasha.
You were out at your job at the nightclub. You hadn't stopped working. Working took your mind off things. But you quit your job at the coffee shop, too many painful memories.
So you were standing in a mini dress with a platter of champagne glasses, walking around handing them to drunk people drinking away their sorrows. It was a month after they disappeared, and the people who survived choose 3 different forms of grief. The first one being the most obvious: crying, and being quiet and denial. The second was acting out, being loud and basically going rogue. Like everyone here.
And the third was the least common. Pretend like nothing happened. Which is what your doing. Of course you quit your day job, but you got a new one. At an art studio. After half the population died there were a lot of free slots.
~~~
It was exactly midnight. You were told to give someone in booth #12 four shots, so that's what you did. The woman had red hair that fell over her eyes and she was wearing a green jacket. You feel like you remember that jacket from somewhere, but you don't know where.
"Here are your shots ma'am." I say.
"Thank you-" The woman looks up and I'm shocked by who it is.
Natasha.
Natasha is alive.
Natasha is breathing.
Natasha is here.
And I love Natasha.
"Natasha."
"Your alive. Your actually alive! When I went to the coffee shop and you weren't there I thought you were dead!" She has tears streaming down her face and she's shockingly smiling. She starts to whisper: "I can't believe that I didn't know your name was (y/n)."
"I thought you were dead. That's why I quit; because I couldn't go back to the place where I met the woman I lo-" you stop and look at Natasha, she's smiling.
She doesn't say anything, just leans in and captures your lips in hers. And you smile, for the first time in a month, because of the small sliver of a fairy tale that Natasha had brought into your life.
