Forever Enigmatic

Chapter 11

THE TIME HAD COME to start paying the additional two-hundred dollars for her rent. Sierra saved up accordingly, but that didn't mean her financial situation was out of rapid waters. Each week, she spent less time with her friends and Kyle because she needed to get back in the game. She couldn't go out and pretend like her life wasn't in shambles.

She went out to train with Kyle every other week. With her tight schedule, she didn't see Kyle as much as she wanted. There were times where she'd get upset that she had to cancel a training day with him. She missed him, even if he was rough at the gym.

When her friends invited her to Red's Diner one evening after her shift, she broke down for the first time in months. A real break down. Not some pitiful tears running down her face out of pent up frustration, rather choking on her tears and falling down on her knees in the middle of The Cream Accent, confused over why her life was the way it was.

Afterwards, she spent the entire night cramming for a test, reading the material through glassy eyes.

Taking the test was another struggle in and of itself. Her head pounded on her skull as she wrecked her brain for the answers she read about the night before. The only thing that calmed her down was the fact that she recognized some questions from what she crammed. She had high hopes that she wouldn't fail, but she wouldn't ace it either. At least she knew her grades wouldn't slip, but that didn't mean she didn't have the worst headache ever.

And with that pain, she trudged to her job, dreading the next couple of hours of serving coffee and attending snobby and entitled customers.

She was two hours into her shift when Kyle walked through the door, heading straight towards her, as usual. With one soft smile her way, her shoulders relaxed and, instinctively, the sides of her mouth tipped upwards.

"Figured you'd be here," he greeted.

"Where else?" She teased. "Do you want anything?"

He shook his head, but stopped to ponder. "You know what? Get me a small black coffee."

She nodded and punched in his order. She set out to make the drink turning on the coffee maker. Her mind drifted away as she poured water into it.

She wondered why he spent so much time going after her. Maybe he couldn't believe he had someone to train, someone who looked forward to training with him, and went crazy. From the past, everyone hated how he trained, complaining that he was too rough. Yet he was the one with the degree. Within weeks, she was seeing the difference in her physical body. However, it was weird, but not in a bad way, how he was so aware of her. He checked up on her more than some of her friends, and made an effort to know how she was doing after so much work.

Even with his grand efforts, she hadn't seen him in a week due to their conflicting schedules. Although, he still managed to text her at least once a day to make sure she was alive. Now seeing him in front of her, her tension detached itself from her body and floated away. It was almost as liberating as working out.

She poured his coffee in a foam cup and made sure to doodle a cute smiley face on the side. He accepted it, but stayed leaning on the counter as she continued taking orders from new customers and making drinks upon drinks.

"Well, if it isn't Sie the Robot." Sierra froze as she poured iced coffee into a large cup. When she was done, she turned to both of her friends, Zilla and Gwenn, leaning on the counter beside Kyle. He raised an eyebrow at her, obviously confused. She bit the inside of her cheek before handing the iced coffee to her last customer.

"Guys, what are you doing here?"

"Girl, we don't even know if you're breathing lately." Zilla crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You could at least tell us you're alive, Dios mío."