Chapter Text
The rain splattered against the bus windows, rattling Beau’s ear drums as she let her head rest against them. Her work out had tired her out, but she had promised to meet Caleb for their weekly study session. She’d almost cancelled, but she knew that was the start of bad habits she couldn’t catch again. As long as she wasn’t sick or injured, she needed the routine.
The bus came to her stop just as thunder rumbled overhead. Beau sighed as she pulled her jacket closed and picked up her bag. She’d run, but she knew she’d end up slipping and face planting in the parking lot. So she walked from the bus, getting pelted by the rain as she entered the Blooming Grove Coffee and Tea Shop.
She wiped her shoes on the carpet in the front and pulled off her dark blue hoodie. She placed it on the set of hooks next to the door, hoping it would dry by the time she was done. She did her best to shake the water from her bag, but most of it had settled into the worn out canvas fabric. She sighed. Her books would be fine, but her laptop was probably covered in water. Not her highest point this week.
Caleb was sitting at their normal booth a few feet away, and she made her way over. The Blooming Grove was a “small” coffee shop. Small in terms of ownership, large in terms of space. Some landlord had converted an empty warehouse into a place for businesses to rent out. The result was that the blooming grove gave off the feeling of a warehouse apartment, with high ceilings and a second landing that she occasionally went up to.
The place was also a greenhouse of sorts. The large windows allowed for plants to grow easily and were hung from the walls and ceilings along with tiny one’s sitting on the tables. A few of them were tea plants that they used to make a few of their special blends.
None of the furniture was consistent. The tables ranged from a large wooden monstrosity to a regular coffee table, to one of those circular tables that could barely hold anything. Off to the side was the only booth in the place. Beau once asked why they never got a second one, but he always just shrugged his shoulders and gave her her coffee. Beau just accepted it after that. The place was a jumble of weird things, and that was part of what she liked about it. Why question it.
Beau walked past Caleb’s side of the booth and placed her bag in the seat across from him. The small noise startled him and broke his concentration. He removed his headphones and gave her an annoyed look.
“Did you have to do that?” He asked, quickly going back to looking through his notes.
“Yes.” She flipped open her bag, finding that most of her books dry, but her laptop that was previously pressed to the front of her bag covered in water droplets. “Dammit.” She placed it on the table and grabbed a napkin from Caleb’s stack. The water wiped away easily and she opened it up. The engine gave a small wir when she clicked the power button, and logged in her password. The thing was a few years old, and worked fine but would take forever to start up. She pulled her wallet from her bag. “Watch my shit. I’m getting a coffee.” She didn’t wait for his response as she spun around to the cash register.
While the Grove had quite a few customers in the morning, there wasn’t anyone up at the front. Most already had their drinks and had gone off to their own cozy corners. Which left Caduceus standing alone at the register, placing pastries in the display case. He looked up and gave her a smile.
“Hello Beau.” He said.
“Hey Cad.” She pulled out her credit card and handed it over. “My usual.”
“I have no idea what that is.” He replied, still holding the card in his hand.
“Don’t be an ass. You know what I order.”
“I see so many people a day, I’m lucky I remember which tea I like.”
Beau let out a sigh. “Black coffee with two shots of espresso.”
“Coming up.” He slid the card through the card reader and passed it back to her, before turning back to make her order.
Beau let Cad take his time. The music overhead was rather light, some indie folk band she’d never heard before. She normally stuck her headphones in and blasted some of her own music, but when she was too out of it she normally just listened to the very calming music that played throughout the shop. Although, now there was something slightly off about it. There was a light hum singing a different song, and Beau looked to the left finding its source.
There was an old fashioned metal table and chair set right by the register. At it sat a young woman, only a year or two younger than Beau herself. Her hair was a chin length blue-black bob with bangs. She had a variety of gold rings on her hands, and earring loops that wrapped around her ears. Her dark skin was covered in freckles. She was wearing a dark green off the shoulder shirt, a flowy blue skirt, black tights and brown boots.
She was beautiful.
The woman was drawing in her sketchpad, Beau unable to see what it was, and had her headphones in. She seemed to be humming along to her own music, some bubblegum pop that Beau had before on the radio. Or from Molly’s room. Beau was taken out of her five seconds of staring by Caduceus placing her mug in front of her.
“Caleb’s on his third cup, just so you know.” He said, wiping his hands on his apron.
“He survived on coffee and red bull last finals week.” Beau took the coffee in her hands. “He’ll be fine.”
“And what happened after finals week?” Caduceus asked.
“He went into a three day coma.” She quickly turned around and started back to the table before Caduceus had the chance to comment.
She briefly caught a glance of the artist. She was now staring up at the wall but quickly turned back to her sketchpad and started drawing again. Beau considered going over to talk to her, but she probably wasn’t in the mood. She was wearing headphones, and artists didn’t like it when you interrupted them while they were in the zone.
Beau went back to the table and placed her mug down. Caleb noticed her and quickly tried to grab it, but she pulled it away before he could lay a finger on it.
“Ernsthaft.” he said.
“First of all, you’ve taken one german class. You don’t need to insert it into your conversations as a way to show off. Second of all, you’re on your third one.”
“I finished it.” Beau rolled her eyes.
“Then I’m not enabling your addiction. Or driving you home when you inevitably pass out from dehydration.” She sat herself and sipped from her cup. She pulled her history notes from her bag and placed them next to her laptop.
“You pulled an all nighter two weeks ago, and drank like five cups.” Caleb pointed out. He had pulled off his headphones and was practically coloring his notes in yellow highlighter.
“Yeah, but I’m awesome and can take it.” She opened up her essay on the middle ages and flipped the notebook open to the page with a sticky note. “You on the other hand weigh 90 pounds and die if you move more than five feet.”
Caleb just rolled his eyes before turning back to his work. This is how most of their study sessions went. Quick conversation followed by studying till one of them had to leave. Occasionally interrupted by the need for caffeine or asking for advice on a certain part of their courses. They weren’t going for the same major, but a couple of their gen eds and other courses matched up enough that it was helpful.
They were near the end point when Beau decided to call it quits. She was losing all focus and about five minutes from crashing on the table. She closed her laptop and started to pack up her things.
“You’re not studying.” Beau rolled her eyes at Caleb stating the obvious.
“I’ve lost focus.” Beau put the last of her stuff in her bag, but quickly grabbed her wallet. “I’m gonna grab something for the road.”
“Are you going to offer to buy me anything?” He asked. His headphones were on the table, on the verge of losing his own focus.
“Dehydration. You drove here.” Caleb rolled his eyes, and started to pack his own things.
Beau stood up and spun around from her side of the booth, only to immediately crash into someone.
Ice cold coffee hit the front of her shirt and seeped into her sports bra. Her feet tangled underneath her and felt herself fall. She expected the impact of her back and head smacking hard against the floor, but instead she was caught by someone.
Her brain caught up with the whole situation, and looked up to see that the artist had caught her in her arms. Arms that were now wrapped around her waist. The artist stared at her, blinking for a few moments as they both caught their breath. Beau could see the light freckles dotted across the artist's face, around her cheeks and under her eyes. Beau felt her tongue go dry and heavy in her mouth. The silence seemed to last for hours.
“Are you okay?” The artist was the first to speak.
“Yeah, um,” Beau forced herself to steady her feet and remove herself from the artist's arms as she stood up correctly. “Uh, nice catch.”
“Thank you.” Her voice was light and high pitched, some kind of european accent laced in her voice Beau wanted her to speak more. “Oh no. Your shirt.” Beau looked down. Her Cobalt Soul gym shirt had coffee covering the logo. “Here.” The artist was suddenly handing her napkins, and forgot about personal space as she started wiping away the coffee herself. Beau’s tongue was stuck in her mouth again, and all the language classes she took we’re suddenly thrown out the window. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no.” Beau forced herself to speak. “It’s fine, I have a sweater I wear.”
“Still, wet clothes are super uncomfortable.” There was a moment where she stopped what she was doing, and was now looking into Beau’s eyes. It had to be less than a minute, but Beau wanted to stare deep into those eyes. They weren’t her natural color, instead covered by magenta contacts. Beau could see the natural hazel slightly behind them though. She could practically swim in them. “I think it’s fine now.” The artist pulled herself away quickly, and Beau’s brain started to work again.
“Uh yeah thanks.” Beau awkwardly rubbed at the back of her neck. Her shirt was far from clean, but she was gonna throw it in the wash once she got home anyways. “Sorry, about your coffee.”
“It’s fine. It was mostly ice at this point.” The artist bent down and Beau then noticed that her sketchbook and a handful of colored pencils had scattered to the ground around them. Beau quickly bent down to join her, picking up the empty throwaway cup and placing the used napkins inside. She put the pencils all in one hand till she got them all and handed them to the artist. "Thank you." She placed them in a tin box that had opened when it slammed into the ground.
“You’re welcome.” Beau still felt that she could only say a few words. She heard footsteps and looked to her right to see Caduceus walking towards them with a mop and bucket. "Sorry Cad."
"Sorry Caduceus." The artist swept her hair behind her ear.
"It's alright." He started mopping up the small mess they made. Beau watched for a second before turning back to the artist.
"Sorry again."
"It's alright." The artist turned to Caduceus. "I'll see you in class Caduceus."
"See you then Jester." The artist gave Beau a small smile, then slid past her to the doors. She grabbed a leather jacket off the coat rack and quickly put it on before leaving out the double door. She then entered the back of a red car out front and it drove away.
“Uh, Cad. Who was that?” Caduceus placed his mop in the bucket against the booth, the ice all melted away.
“Oh, that’s Jester. She’s in one of my nursing courses. She comes by every once in a while to study or draw. You gonna throw that away?” Beau looked down at her hand and saw that she was still holding the empty plastic cup
“Yeah, I got it.” She then turned to the garbage nearby as Caduceus went back to his spot behind the register. She returned to Caleb who was now staring at her. “What?”
“Who was she?” His wide eyes were insistent for an answer.
“A friend of Cad’s.” Beau grabbed her back and pulled it over her shoulder, deciding to forgo the coffee to go she was going to get. Caleb kept giving her the eyes, along with a more pointed look. “What?”
“I’ve seen that look on your face before.” He started throwing the rest of his stuff in his bag, a complete mess. Despite being a “genius” with an eidetic memory, he didn’t seem to realize that keeping things organized would help him.
“What look?”
“The look that says you like someone.”
“She was cute. So what?” Beau waited for Caleb to finish. “I can’t find a girl cute?”
“No, but you’ve got the same look from when you used to talk about Tori.” He pulled himself out of the booth.
Beau groaned. “Can we not talk about my ex. That was like, twelve different levels of mistakes.” The two started to walk towards the front, Beau stopping to grab her hoodie and pulled it over her head, now masking what was left of the coffee. “See ya Cad.” She called back into the tea shop.
“Bye Caduceus.”
“Bye guys.” Caduceus gave a friendly wave as they exited through the door.
The sun had come out since they’d been in there and was casting through some of the gray clouds. The parking lot was still wet, and Beau decided to hop over the giant puddle in the center while Caleb walked around it.
“And what does ‘that look’ have to do with her anyway? It’s just my ‘girls are cute’ face. It happens all the time.” Beau stopped at Caleb's car with him as he threw his stuff into the back.
“Well everytime I see that look on your face it ends badly.”
“Based on the one time you’ve seen it.”
“I’m just looking out for you. I can’t see you break like that again.” Beau looked away from him to her reflection in the puddle.
“I’m not going to break. It’s just a cute girl I’ll probably never see again. Besides, she’s probably straight.” Beau assured him. Caleb looked like he wanted to continue, but dropped it instead.
“I’ll see you monday.” He entered the front of his car.
“See you monday.” He then drove off and she continued walking, waiting for her bus to arrive.
-
Beau pulled her keys out and awkwardly stuck them in the door. The lock was stuck again and Beau had to force her way through like always. This is what happened when you rented a house that three college students and a street artist could afford.
“Someone’s home.” Beau saw Molly sitting in the living room as she entered, painting his nails a nice dark red to match his lavender hair. “You bored of school yet?”
“Nope.” Beau walked past him and over to the kitchen. If she was younger she would have been mean and knocked over the polish. But she had controlled her anger now. It involved a lot of meditating. She placed her bag on the table and pulled off her hoodie. Fjord hadn’t put laundry away yet, so the basket was still in the kitchen. She grabbed one of her shirts and changed quickly before tossing the messy one into the dirty clothes hamper. She then turned to the fridge and pulled out a sprite. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Fjord’s swimming and Yasha’s yasha-ing.” Beau would never understand what he meant by that, but Yasha always came home so she figured it wasn’t bad. She walked into the living room and threw herself down on the couch. Quickly grabbed the remote, she changed it from some gratuitous horror film to the History Channel. “Hey! I was watching that.”
“You were watching garbage.”
“You’re watching Pawn Stars.”
“I’m watching the last five minutes of Pawn Stars as I await for Cities of the Underground reruns.” She took a long sip as Molly rolled his eyes. He grabbed his phone with the dry hand and started scrolling through his messages.
“Who’s Jester?” Beau nearly spat out her drink but choked it down instead.
“The fuck Caleb.” She made a grab for Molly’s phone, but he elected to hold it out of reach and stick his foot in her face. She threw it back at him and gagged.
“Not Caleb. Our favorite healer. Caddyshack has ratted out your future wife to me.”
“Since when do you two text?”
“Since I found out that he’s good at League, and that Fjord has a massive crush on him.”
“Stop playing League, it’s a bad game.”
“No. Now tell me about your future wife.”
“What did Cad even say?”
“That you had a meet cute with his fellow major-y.”
“That’s not a thing.”
“What isn’t?”
“A major-y. What does that even mean?”
“Someone in the same major as you.”
“First of all, there’s no word for that. Second of all, we all know Cad should change his major to cooking. Thirdly, I did not have a meet cute. I didn’t even meet her. It was a five second conversation.”
“I say different. This is your future wife.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“I’ll do a reading and prove it.” Molly stood up to grab his cards.
“Nails.” Molly immediately sat down. “Also, you know I don’t believe in that bullshit.”
“It’s not magic, it’s about the energy you put into it. Ouji boards on the other hand, those will kill you.”
Beau just stared at him. “Stop believing in dumb white people bullshit. It’s a toy made by hasbro.”
“Okay, you wanna go buy one?”
“No.”
“My point is made.”
Beau slumped down on the couch and stuck her foot in his face. He quickly batted away and removed himself from the couch, muttering “asshole” as he did so. It was then that the door opened and Fjord and Yasha walked in.
“We’re home.” Fjord called. His hair was wet from the pool, while Yasha looked the same she did that morning. She walked over to Molly and placed a bottle of Vodka next to him.
“You are an angel.” He reached up and gave his best friend a kiss on the cheek.
“What’s up?” Yasha asked. She pushed Molly aside and took his spot, but he just quickly lounged in her lap.
“Beau’s getting married.”
“Fuck you.” Beau almost threw the remote at his head, but Fjord had grabbed it before she could.
“Play nice.” He returned it to her but took a spot in the chair next to the couch.
“What does he mean by that?” Yasha asked.
“Oh, Fjord’s boyfriend texted me,” Molly started to scroll through his phone, while Fjord’s face became red, and whispered “oh my god”. He turned the phone to Yasha. “Beau’s met the love of her life. Ow!” Fjord didn’t stop Beau that time.
“‘My friend Jester was here. Beau accidentally spilled her coffee and nearly fell but Jester caught her.’ That’s cute.” Yasha handed Molly back the phone and eyed Beau.
“It’s not cute. It’s awkward and embarrassing.” Beau insisted.
“Oh, I’m getting details now.” Molly flopped over Yasha and squeezed his way back to Beau. Beau just kicked him onto the floor.
“Not details. I spilled her coffee. She caught me. I helped her pick up her stuff. It was awkward and I’ll never see her again. That’s the end of it.” Beau tried to turn her attention back to the tv, but Molly was insistent.
“Or is it?” Molly wiggled his eyebrows as he stared up at her from the floor.
Beau grabbed the pillow from behind her head and promptly screamed into it.
“Let it go Molly.” Beau was forever grateful for Fjord. The only voice of reason in this house
“Two more questions. One. Why would you ever think that Caleb would tell me things? He’s the most boring person I’ve ever met.” Beau threw the pillow at his head. “You’re in a throw-y mood.”
“You’re being an asshole.” Beau countered and promptly looked back at the TV.
“Two. Can I paint your toenails?” He asked after a moment.
“Knock yourself out.”
Molly gave her a smile and grabbed the light blue nail polish. He proceeded to start painting from his spot on the ground. Beau felt herself relax into the couch. She and her roommates set into their normal routine for the rest of the day, the earlier conversations driven from their minds. Beau didn’t really think about that morning. Besides, she was probably right.
She was never going to see Jester again.