for the price of a cup of coffee
@digiauthorenergize
Hikari was thrilled to be able to go outside, to see something of the world besides her bedroom and the small apartment she shared with her brother and parents. She had been stuck there for over a week, unable to even go to school, until her doctor gave her the clear to return Monday. But it wasn’t Monday yet, her brother had argued. Taichi had watched over her like a hawk, as usual. She begged one of his friends to help her, and they lured him outside with something they knew he couldn’t resist: a soccer match between his grade and the one above.
Once she was outside though, she didn’t really know what to do with herself. She had to avoid the park where the boys played, and she didn’t have school... She wasn’t even in clubs right now. She was absent too often. So she went the only place she could think of: the little coffee shop that sat on a corner a few blocks away. She could walk there without getting too winded, and she could sit there for hours. Some of the baristas had learned she liked sweet things but couldn’t have them often, and they would try make tea mixes that tasted like desserts. But she had learned them all. Except there was someone different behind the counter today. Someone she had seen before, but now he was out of place. He wasn’t in his usual window seat with his laptop, across the cafe from her. He was talking to another customer, smiling. It made her feel like she was eavesdropping on something private, and she moved to step back and walk back out, but a line had already begun to form behind her. She felt stuck.
Then the other customer was gone, and it was her at the front of the line, not at all knowing what she wanted besides “out of my room”. She’d just pick a basic tea, she told herself. Just the first one her eyes landed on. Instead of an order, however, she blurted out, “Why are you here?”
She wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
