Beyond The Smoke

Chpt. 9 The Crew

I leaned into the counter, watching the snow sprinkle the ground lightly outside. Raya had come in not too long ago, sipping on a hot chocolate instead of her usual vanilla bean. I was happy I wouldn't have to worry about running to get Mike from school in this weather, that would be horrible. He wanted to go to over to his friend's house after school, so I let him. Not that I didn't put up a little bit of a fight, but he's very convincing.

All of a sudden, a ring tone rang through the café, snapping me out of my thoughts. Raya jumped slightly before answering it.

"Hey, babe." She said happily into the phone. I was confused...'babe'? "To work in an hour, why?...Carter, don't start this up- no!" Her entire face fell, morphing into an expressions of pure anger. Her voice rose quite a bit, so she stood to take the call outside. My eyes followed her, not that she would have noticed. Honestly, she was screaming into her cell, I could hear her from in here. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but she was pissed. One thing that lingered on my mind was that one word she used...'babe'. Who was this Carter guy anyway? Her boyfriend? The thought had my stomach tighten and sting. What the hell was this? Why do I care so much anyway? It's none of my business- I need to work. Yeah, work.

I scrubbed at the counters, hoping to rid the thoughts from my head. Stupid f.ucking head. Why can't I just forget about the situation?! It's not even my damn business, what the hell is wrong with me?

"Lukas?" I'm so stupid, why can't I stop thinking?

"Lukas?" Honestly though, she has a boyfriend?

"Lukas?!" Evan yelled, snapping in my face. I blinked twice and shook my head, hoping to connect to the real world again. I hate the real world. "Dude, what's got your balls in a twist?" I gave him an odd look.

"Nothing." I shrugged it off, going back to scrubbing the counter.

"Yeah, I'm sure if you scrub that one spot any more than you have you'll rub a hole into it. If the rag doesn't, your glare will." He said in disbelief.

"I don't like this counter anyway." I blurted out a nearly incoherent excuse, which he must have heard considering he chuckled.

"Keep telling yourself that. You should talk to her though." He said, leaving to tend to the customer at the register. Oh damn, how did he know. No, he knows nothing. She's not the problem. She's not...not my type, anyway? Ugh, I don't know anymore.

The café doors swung open, revealing a very angry and helpless looking Raya. She was frantically walking over to retrieve her things, most probably ready to leave. She looked like she would break down at any given moment. I don't know why I did what I did next, or why I even cared to. Looking to Evan and getting a nod of approval, I ran out of the café after her.

"Raya! Raya, wait a second!" I caught up to her, a hand on her shoulder. She spun around swiftly, her hair whipping around with the wind as her hand attempted to keep it out of her face.

"What." She stated bluntly, coldly. She was aggravated, so I couldn't dwell on her tone. My arms found their way to each other in an attempt to warm myself up. It was damn freezing out here!

"What's wrong? And don't say nothing because you were just screaming at the top of your lungs into your phone." Her eyes left mine, looking to the ground.

"Why do you care?" She mumbled.

"You've helped me...twice now? The least I could do is be concerned when you look like you're gonna kill someone." I laughed lightly, hoping to bring light to the mood, but failed. "Now, what's wrong? If you don't wanna talk about it, I get it but-"