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"Regular, Half-Caf Soy Latte, 120 Degrees, please," Alex says coolly as if it was a totally regular thing to ask for.
The high school-aged Barista didn't even try to hide their eye roll.
"Foam or no foam?"
Alex strokes his thin goatee as he thinks.
"Foam."
Jessica shoots him a confused look through her cat's eye, plastic-framed, tortoiseshell glasses.
Hannah approaches the counter.
"Can I get a quad non-fat mocha with whip cream?" She smiles, heavy dark circles evident under her deep blue eyes.
"Quad? As in four shots of espresso?" the barista asks, eyes wide.
"Did I stutter?" Hannah replies, ruder than she would normally be.
"Nope, just making sure," they say, writing the order on the cup.
Jessica sighs.
"I'll just have a medium skim vanilla latte," Jessica says. The barista smiles as if pleased at least one of their orders is simple. "And I'll pay for their drinks."
"Sweet, that will be $17.75."
"Shit, that's expensive."
The barista shrugs.
Jess pays and shoots a dirty look at Hannah, who bites the corner of her lip and mouths the word 'thanks'.
"I'll bring the drinks out to you when they are ready."
They sit at their table — where they started FML. Alex cringes at the memory and how edgy they thought they were.
"Half-caf? Really Alex, what is even the point?" Jess raises her eyebrows sceptically.
"I'm trying to cut back on caffeine. It makes me more anxious than I already am."
"Jesus Christ, Hannah, a quad? Let me guess. Another all-nighter finishing that English paper you've been procrastinating on for weeks?"
Hannah acts mock-offended.
"I mean, you are not wrong. I'm barely conscious right now. I'm hoping a high-octane caffeinated beverage will fix that."
After a few minutes, the barista drops off their drinks.
"Or you could, you know, sleep," Alex suggests dryly, drinking his coffee.
"Where is the fun in that, Alex?" Hannah laughed. "By the way, what is that thing, growing on your face?"
"Oh, this?" he says, giving his almost-goatee a feel. "I'm just trying it out."
"You are really embracing the whole hipster look with the plaid shirts, pre-distressed jeans and facial hair," Jessica comments, pushing her glasses up.
"Oh, like you can talk—you don't even need those glasses. Plus Charlie likes the goatee. And I prefer to call my look grudge."
"Spoken like a true hipster," Hannah adds.
“Right—miss-I-like-to-go-to-poetry-nights-for-fun,” Alex says and Hannah doesn’t deny it. “Well, if I'm a hipster, so are the two of you and we have been since we started drinking overpriced coffee drinks here as teens.”
"God, how did we even afford it?" Jessica asks.
"Our parents," Alex says.
“Hey—I worked,” Hannah protests, smiling.
"I mean, my dad still gives me money for college, so I guess they still are funding our coffee addictions.”
“Tell the Colonel, thanks for me,” Hannah says.
“Who knew it would be FML: forever drinking expensive coffee?” Jess sips her vanilla latte.
Alex smiles.
“I’ll drink to that.”