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“You sure have learned the ropes quickly Mae,” he said with enthusiasm. Of course she had, making coffee was hardly a difficult task.
“Thank you, sir, I want to make people smile with the coffee they drink here!” she said with fake pep.
“Keep up the good work and if you stick around long enough you might get a raise,” her boss smiled before walking away.
As she wiped the kitchen counter down she stared out the window to watch the rain lash down over students on their way to classes. She smiled. Just how dire was this place? Her below average skills in making coffee were worthy of praise and no one she had seen other than her boss had so much as considered smiling.
~Ding~
“You better have been serious about buying my coffee or I’m going back home,” a rather pissed off girl said through chattering teeth as she entered the shop.
“Relax Bellz, I’ll even get you extra caramel syrup, just how you like it!” her friend replied cheerily.
Something about her made Mae hold her breath, if only for a millisecond. Maybe it was the smile planted on her face that looked as if it was a permanent feature. Ditching the cleaning cloth, she headed over to the counter and smiled brightly.
“Hello miss, what can I get for you today?”
“Hmm…Can I get a green tea and a Caramel Latte with extra caramel syrup and cream please?” the girl responded, still holding her dazzling smile on her face as if it carried no weight at all.
“Of course, that will be 5 Glays please.”
She watched as the two girls chatted, their dynamic was the most interesting thing she had seen since starting this job a week ago. What was the strange feeling she got from that girl? It bothered her. She continued cleaning and let the smile slip from her face. Her cheeks were sore now. Smiling was going to be the hardest part of this job, not the coffee making she thought.
“So, I’m betting you haven’t done the reading?” the sound of the girl’s voice wandered over like a soft melody.
“You know I haven’t” her friend replied as her hair dripped onto the table.
Mae struggled not to scoff, she couldn’t stand people who were lazy. What was their purpose in society but to drain valuable resources? She had never known a life that simple and was sure she never would. The world stops for nobody, so best you keep moving before you end up drowning.
She stared at her reflection in the shining countertops and her mind travelled back to when she was young.
Growing up, she had never been given the luxury of sleepovers and playdates. Her only friend had been her brother. Together they pulled each other through the strict training their parents made them endure. Honour; it was the only thing the mattered. She’d come to realise much later in life that studying languages and fighting techniques weren’t how most children spent their time. She had the fortune of learning from her brother’s mistake of rebelling. Holding him as he lay bleeding and weeping on the floor after their mother had whipped him for his insolence did the job of teaching her that there was no way but this.
The sound of the bell ringing startled her, whipping her head around, she saw the two girls leave. It was already 1 in the afternoon, only a few hours left of her shift to go.
It wasn’t for another 2 hours that the commotion started. Students were running in groups into the same part of the university excitedly.
“Must be another god damn fight, I’ll go inform the head of school,” her boss sighed and began walking to the exit.
“SIR! It’s okay, I’ll go inform her. I don’t think I’m quite ready to hold down the fort alone just yet,” Mae smiled shyly and looked at the floor.
“Haha, that’s understandable. Do you know where her office is?” he asked.
Panting, she’d reached the scene of the fight. Just as she’d expected. Her long black hair was partially covering her face as she weakly propped herself up on the floor, but Mae knew it was her. The reason she was here. She watched the scene unfold in front of her eyes; bloodied noses hiding behind fists. Then she saw her. The girl from before, yet this time the smile had left her lips and she looked beautiful and furious; like a force to be reckoned with. There was something so raw about the anger in her eyes. As if her world had just crumbled and she was fighting to hold it together.
One of the boys caught involved in the fight flung his fist at full force at Mae’s face and made a direct hit. Time slowed as Mae watched her fall to the floor, limp like a ragdoll. Mae’s legs inched forward ever so slightly, a burning desire to help her but she couldn’t compromise her mission; nor did she need help. Pushing herself back to her feet, she screamed with a fury that buried itself inside Mae’s eardrums, before charging at the boys.
Mae snapped to her senses, she had the information she needed, now it was time to stop this lunacy. She ran as fast as her legs would take her to the head’s office.
“Mae! Good work today, you handled yourself incredibly well. I hope the fighting doesn’t make you consider leaving,” her boss said with a certain sadness in his eyes that told her he’d been in this situation too many times to count. She pitied him, he was a good guy.
“Not at all, sir,” she replied with a sincere smile, “See you tomorrow!.”
Maybe she was starting to like it here after all she thought as she left the sweet aroma of coffee behind her.
Strolling around the campus, her mind was ticking. She hadn’t been able to get the look of that girl out of her head, what had happened? That anger had spoken to her on a level she was too familiar with, but to come from the same girl she saw with the brightest smile she’d yet encountered was…unbelievable, to say the least.
“God damn it, I don’t have time for this bullshit!” she erupted. Sitting down on a nearby bench, she ran her fingers through her hair. “Focus,” she said whilst lightly slapping her cheeks. There was no time for her to get caught up in another mess, she just needed a reminder was all. She pulled her phone out of her skirt pocket and hit ‘dial’ on one of the only three numbers on her phone.
“Good evening Mother,” she said emotionlessly.
“Meredith,” her mother simply replied.
“I found her,” she informed her blankly, unsure as to what else to say. She probably shouldn’t have called in the first place with this little progress.
“I expected a call sooner, never mind, I shall inform him immediately, do not interact yet, I will give further orders shortly,” and with that, she hung up.
Mae sighed and dropped her arm down to her side. Hardly encouraging, although she wasn’t sure what else she had expected. The light raindrops sank into her skin almost as if she had become part of the scenery. She longed to ring her brother and see if he was ago, this was the longest they’d been apart from each other. She pushed the thought from her mind, she knew he would be in the dungeon by now and there was little point wasting time listening to the beeps of an unanswered phone call. She strolled along the streets that wound down to the beach, by the time she reached her destination she was drenched, and her thick side-swept fringe clung to her face. The beach had always been a place she enjoyed coming to when she needed to think, she felt connected to the sea as if it washed clarity over her. She could feel a change on the horizon and it unsettled her deeply. She couldn’t fail no matter the cost, more was at stake here than a damaged pride.
Her eyes watered; she quickly blinked the forming tears away. There was no time to get caught up in her emotions, not now, not when her brother’s life hung in the balance. Yet despite the horrors that clung to the corners of her mind, a dull light shone just enough to keep them at bay. Her mind wandered and ended up at the corners of a certain girl’s mouth. Her smile and her fury both as intoxicating as each other. She found herself worrying about this mystery girl before growing irritated at herself for allowing her mind to stray from planning.
“Now what to do about you?” she whispered, and she looked at a small printed out picture of her target, “Layla,”.