Chapter Text
Objectively speaking, the coffee shop was the best job Adam had ever had. His boss was kind, the tips were plentiful and the free caffeine perk was put to good use, especially on the nights when his shift ended and he went directly to his second job at the garage. Unfortunately, it was difficult to keep all of that in mind at four thirty in the morning, pedaling against the wind on old Henrietta roads before the sun even began to peak over the horizon.
On Saturdays and Sundays, Adam was scheduled for the opening shift. He woke up at four in the morning, took the fastest, quietest shower imaginable as to not wake up his sleeping (or passed out) parents and then dashed out the door to make it in on time. Hours later, when the rest of the world had woken up and begun their days, his best friend stopped in for a sugary latte and a distraction. It was a tradition they'd kept up every Saturday for the four months Adam had worked there.
Blue was currently perched at the bar, flipping through her sketchbook and slurping at an iced hazelnut drink. When the line died out, Adam walked over to her and leaned his elbows against the counter to sneak a look at her latest piece, a sketch of the pizza place where she worked.
It had been a steady stream of customers all morning. Summer was screeching to a halt in the late days of August and teenagers from all the schools nearby were taking advantage of their last days of vacation to enjoy the sticky heat and sunshine with iced and frozen drinks. Adam, meanwhile, was using the last few days before his start at Aglionby to scrape together as much money for his first tuition payment as he could before he had to cut his hours for school.
Blue reached over to Adam's wrist and pulled his hand to her, twisting it to check the time on his watch. "It's almost time for your favorite customer," she said, wearing a grin that Adam matched easily enough. Sometimes, when Blue looked at him like that, he thought he could fall in love with her.
As if on cue, the tiny bell above the door sounded with another customer's arrival. Blue wasn't the only one who made a habit of stopping in every Saturday. Ronan- Adam knew his name from writing it on a cup once a week, his fingers carefully sloping the letters- rarely said more than his order and his name, but the brief exchange was one of Adam's favorite parts of the week.
It probably had something to do with his stunning good looks, a beautiful display of fierce eyes and sharp edges as he approached the counter with a less than friendly expression. Sometimes Adam wondered if human interaction physically pained him.
"Cappuccino," he said shortly, as he did every week. "Ronan."
Adam scrawled Ronan's name on the paper cup with a squeaky marker and moved it over to the bar. He was quiet as he slid Ronan's card through the machine. They had developed an understood silence after a few failed attempts of Adam trying to make friendly small talk.
Ronan snatched his card back a bit roughly and took a seat next to Blue to wait for his drink.
Chewing on the inside of his cheek, Adam glanced over at Blue while he steamed milk even though he knew better. She was smiling, gesturing to Ronan with obvious head jerks and mouthing the words, 'Say something.'
Over the past few months, he and Blue had discussed Ronan at length. He was mysterious and unapproachable and too handsome to be ignored. They had exchanged theories back and forth about why he was so angry with the world. Blue thought he was just an asshole. Adam knew there had to be more to it than that. They were both equally fascinated.
Blue jerked her head so hard that Adam thought she might break her neck. He mouthed back, 'Fine.' As long as she would stop.
Adam set the drink down in front of Ronan. He realized too late that he hadn't come up with anything to say and led with this gem: "Hi."
Ronan looked up from his drink with a glare that said two things at once- one, that it was not okay to talk to him outside of their quick transaction and two, that he thought Adam was the stupidest person on earth. Adam was also beginning to suspect that he was indeed the stupidest person on earth as their failed interaction stretched on in silence, his ears burning red with embarrassment.
Instead of dignifying him with a response, Ronan grabbed his drink and waltzed out of the shop, the door ringing behind him.
Blue watched him go with a scowl of her own. "What an asshole!" She held her middle finger up, hoping he might catch a glimpse of it through the large shop windows, but he was already long gone.
Adam walked over to the tip jar. There was a crisp, twenty dollar bill where there hadn't been one a moment ago. Adam had never seen Ronan put money in the jar, but coincidences didn't happen on a perfect schedule, week after week. He could set his watch to the perfectly timed charity.
"He's not that bad," Adam murmured and turned away to wash dishes in the back.
--
A little over a week later, Adam checked himself in the reflection of the mirror in Blue's bedroom. His Aglionby uniform was secondhand, slightly frayed and worn, and his furrowed eyebrows betrayed his forced smile as a display of the tumultuous emotions at war in his stomach.
No matter where you go, there you are. A uniform changed nothing about where he'd come from and who he inherently was underneath it all, but at least the long sleeves hid the bruises.
The local high school didn't start classes for another week, so Blue was still fast asleep in her bed. Adam imagined another reality where he hadn't gotten a partial scholarship to Aglionby, where he was still sleeping beside her, a steady rise and fall of chests and even breathing.
He scribbled a note to thank Blue for letting him sleep over, an excuse not to go home, and snuck out of the house with practiced diligence that didn't interrupt anyone's sleep. He mounted his bike and pedaled the route he'd already practiced three times, just to be sure he wouldn't be late on his first day.
The campus was just as large and intimidating as it was when he had biked by just to stare at it over the summer, despite having a reason to be there now. His well-worn backpack hung off a shoulder as he locked up his rusty bike, not that anyone would bother stealing the hunk of metal here, and headed inside with a held breath.
His first two classes weren't bad. He sat in the back and tried not to be noticed by his intimidatingly rich classmates while he took notes on everything the teacher said about deadlines and due dates for the upcoming year.
By third period Latin, he was beginning to feel optimistic. The tension in his shoulders had begun to loosen with the avoidance of any disasters. Feeling a rare confidence, he sat in the middle of the class before he could lose his nerve, taking a desk by the window.
The voices of the students on the other side of the room carried. Adam stared at his notebook and tried not to eavesdrop.
"All I'm saying is that he's just looking out for you," the first voice was saying. "Declan's right, you can't be skipping class already. It's the first day of school, for Christ sake."
"Fuck Declan. I don't care," came the second voice. It sounded vaguely familiar in a way that made Adam want to lift his eyes, but instead he kept them glued to the blue-lined notebook paper in front of him.
"Ronan," the first voice said. He said something after that too, but Adam didn't hear it. His good ear was suddenly ringing. He looked across the room to find Ronan slouching in a seat with an expression that could kill. Adam's heart lurched in his chest. This couldn't be happening.
But of course it was. Of course Ronan was a raven boy, rich and handsome, the entire world at his feet. And of course Adam was a nobody pretending to be something he wasn't and of course Ronan was here, in his Latin class, with the knowledge of his working class life.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Ronan barked at him. Adam hadn't realized he'd been staring.
Adam ducked his head and tried with difficulty to ignore the embarrassment seeping through him. The teacher started class and Adam stared forward, not really hearing the friendly introduction. When the bell rang, Ronan was the first one out the door. Adam stalled until he was the last person to leave, putting as much space between them as possible. That would be a habit, he thought, avoiding Ronan to the best of his ability.