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The coffee shop was busy today, with people buzzing around, papers, laptops, and people talking, but the coffee smell was burning no matter how many people opened the door.
Charlie was happy that sounds didn’t affect smell, because at that moment it was the only grounding thing.
Now don’t get him wrong, he decided to work in the coffee shop and wanted to work in the same place where most of his friends worked, but he was still new. Busy days were hard for anyone working on concrete, it’s a bit stressful.
To make matters of the day worse, they were understaffed and none of the people working were his friends today. They usually work Saturdays but something came up. Which of course is the book fair; a book fair Issac desperately wanted to go to, which made it especially important because Issac doesn’t make plans unless he’s really excited, and the book fair was definitely something he could get excited about.
Tao and Elle wanted to go as well, and something has been different since they have been hanging out recently. You see, Tao and Elle are actually soulmates but it's…complicated. They met in 7th grade, on a field trip, Tao and Elle both forgot to grab their lunches off the bus, Elle got on first, so Tao asked if she could grab him as well, and she did, and they got off the bus and Elle handed the lunch box over but at that moment their hands grazed each other. Making the mark on the back of Elle’s thumb knuckle disappear and the same with Tao’s spotted mark on his pointer finger. The rest of the field trip was interesting.
Tao, not knowing yet that Elle was really a girl, exclaimed that they must be platonic soulmates because he doesn’t like boys. Elle was a bit heartbroken at the moment but agreed. They had been great friends ever since but after Elle came out and started Transitioning, whatever energy they had between them has been changing.
So they wanted to go to the fair as well, for Issac and for themselves. But that left Charlie feeling like the person that least needed to go to the fair, so when the coffee shop said they needed more people today because they were understaffed for rush hour, he decided to sacrifice himself for their job and took the shift, a shift he was now regretting.
Rush hour was not a good time to only have three people working at the rather large coffee shop.
Since Charlie was new he was at the counter to take orders, he needed more time to get quicker at making lattes, mochas, and even expressos, so that left him at the counter…talking to people.
He was shy but he had been building up confidence for the job, a job where he would need to talk to a lot of strangers.
“Hello, w-elcome to Nellie’s Coffee Shop, what would you like to order today?”
“Two large lattes with cinnamon, heavy cream, a swirl of white chocolate for one, and two shots of espresso for the other,” They said a bit swiftly, Charlie wrote it down quickly on the cup.
“Name?” he asked timidly,
“It's…” the customer spaced out, not into the distance but at Charlie, in fact, Charlie's left side of his body.
His very big and visible soulmate mark covered almost the entire left side of his body from his face to his hand, the places that his clothes couldn’t cover. It was a very hot day as well, he thought it would be okay, most people aren’t out rightly rude about his visible mark.
The stares were uncomfortable, his family was always making sure he didn’t feel like it was agonizing. But still, the support didn’t stop the stares that asked questions everywhere he went, the same question that he had. How could this be a soul mark? It didn’t connect, it was the full left side, where they were going to fall on him. Would it be someone getting off the bus and bumping into him? Or would they just be going to look at each other and now run into each other and do an awkward but loving hug? But he also wondered if the universe gave him this mark to make him more insecure than he already was.
But he knew he should be grateful, not everyone gets a soulmate…like Tori. His parents explained it to him growing up, ‘sometimes people just don’t get marks’ and ‘Soulmates are necessary to live a fulfilled life but some people get sad about it.’ Charlie was sad for Tori at first, and so were his parents, but over the years Tori showed she could live without a soulmate. Their parents believe that Tori is having a happy and fulfilled life, but Charlie wondered if that was true.
Yet, Charlie was a bit spiteful towards his mark, or being so visible and for still being there and not meeting his soulmate yet.
He knows so many people who met their soulmates young, Tao and Elle for example, which always made him feel insecure. The thoughts of ‘Shouldn’t I have met him by now? What if he doesn’t like me? Wait he’s my soulmate of course he-’
“Hello?!” A consumer nearly yelled. Oh shit, how long has he been spacing out,
“Yes sorry, here you go,” He says, handing him (slightly cold) coffee.
“Thank you!” The man says sarcastically, which stung Charlie a bit, he was always a bit sensitive to the rude, yet what he felt was justified in this case, customers.
He wished his friends were here, but he didn’t want to be a burden and beg them to come in today, especially after how excited Issac had gotten. No, he wouldn’t call them to come in, he decides.
Today couldn’t get much worse, could it?
…
It got worse.
The second Charlie thought the lunch rush was over there was a second, bigger, wave of people coming into the coffee shop. There were so many people, probably coming from the fair to get a pick-me-up. Either way, Charlie was getting more overwhelmed by the second. And to make it all worse one of the coffee machines broke so they were only making half the drinks in the casual amount of time to get a normal drink.
So not only was he dealing with customers ordering a coffee, but he was also dealing with angry customers wanting to know how long their coffee is going to be. And Charlie was trying.
“Hello, welcome to Nellie’s coffee shop, what can I-”
“Yeah, Yeah, I want five drinks; two your daily special but I want half the foam on one and with the extra foam but make sure it’s oat milk, I want one white flat that one with almond milk, they don’t like oak milk, make sure to had five pumps of vanilla, the next is an americano with another shot of espresso, and lastly Fredo with seven pumps of caramel and two of cinnamon. Did you get all that?”
“No actu-ually could you repeat the last one-”
“Thanks, put it under Becky,”
Charlie wanted to scream, yell, or do any behavior to show the distress he was feeling, but he knew he couldn’t, he couldn’t even ask for help right now they were too packed and the other two people working were too busy making drinks and trying to find what was wrong with the other coffee machine too.
“Any luck back there?” He said praying for some hope,
The red curly-haired co-worker, Jermey, looked up from the machine he was working on,
“Nah, they think is a mystery I’m trying my best but I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with it,”
“Great, then come over and here and help me make the drinks,” Brenda, his brunette with blonde tips co-worker complained.
“Fine, Fine,” Jermey said getting up, Charlie looked back in front of him, not noticing the doorbell swing again as another person entered the coffee shop, the people buzzing around stopped him from seeing who.
“Hello?! Anyone actually WORKING here?” A boy, looking Charlie's age, yelled from his table,
“Yes, we’ll be right with you,” Brenda said sounding distressed,
“TODAY PEOPLE,” He yelled again,
“Charlie, can you handle him?” Jeremy supplied, and this made it feel obvious to Charlie that these people were really not close enough to be friends yet because anyone who knew him wouldn’t give him the responsibility of this.
Charlie abandoned the ordering station as calmly and at least shakily as possible and walked over to the rude customer’s table.
“Hello, what can we do-” Charlie started until he was cut off, again. How many times have people cut him off today?-
“Hello,” He looked at his nametag, “Charlie, I want my drinks,”
“I understand sir but-” Charlie started
“Ben, my name is Ben not ‘sir’, stop acting like a goddamn doormat,” Ben stated and Charlie flushed in embarrassment at the comment,
“Okay, we understand Ben but we are very busy and understaffed today so we will be with you in a moment,” He explained,
“You aren’t understaffed you are just lazy workers if you were better at your job, you would have seen they need someone at the ordering station,” Ben’s group laughed,
Now Charlie was a bit angry, the only reason he left the ordering station was to deal with him, he may be a pushover, but he wasn’t that much of a pushover. He was going to yell at him for not treating workers when understaffed, actually for treating workers like this ever!
“CHARLIE! ‘BEN’ ORDER IS DONE, YOU CAN COME BACK,” Brenda thankfully yelled from the coffee machine.
Charlie breathed thankfully that he didn’t have to deal with this customer anymore,
“Great, you can go get that for us as an apology for such bad service and for having workers with such…pride in their ugly marks.” The group laughed again,
Charlie was half considering telling him to get it himself and the other more unrealistic part of himself wanted to tell ‘Ben’ to go fuck himself, but most of all he felt hurt as he wanted to run away from his moment.
“Because if you if you do I would think that such proper workers deserve a good tip,” He says waving money on his table,
He must have read his face about was thinking. He could still tell him to fuck off. But…
Ugghh, he wanted that money, fuck capitalism.
“Okay sir I will bring them right to you in a moment,” Charlie said with a little fake smile.
He went to grab his drinks at the front, dissociated as possible.
“You don’t actually have to bring him his drinks it’s not part of your job,” Brenda said as she tried to manage the drink-making and ordering station.
“I know but he promised a good tip,” Charlie said as the door opened and the bell rang, and for some reason, Charlie felt it rang longer than usual.
“Damnit, but maybe spit in his drink,” She whispered, maybe she could be a future friend he thought as he loaded his arms with drinks.
He carried them cautiously, he had never had to carry drinks to a table before, especially busy.
He was almost to the front of the store where they were sitting, but it was weird, the table was missing the ‘Ben’ of the table.
He felt like something terrible would happen but didn’t expect it to be so bad.
It happened so quickly, he wasn’t more than six feet from the table when someone tripped him, it was like a disaster film, he felt himself fall and the drinks fall, and break open, and spill all over him. It was hot, not many of them boiling, only the one with his right hand, and he knew it was going to be painful when it set in. But surprisingly he didn’t hit the floor, he fell to his left side expecting him to hit the floor but he didn’t instead it was soft and…comforting.
He was so overwhelmed though, that he just got up and ran, ignoring the gasps of the shop and the grasping arms that held him so sweetly without looking at his face, and he ran and ran to the backroom to the alley.
He sat there on a grate in the alley on a beautiful day, coffee stained and crying leaving his coworkers to deal with the clean-up and the stress of the store. He felt pathetic. And yet he couldn’t move anything beyond crying. He felt embarrassed and that Ben had probably tripped him made him feel so much worse for some reason.
He stayed there for a moment just crying, but after a while, he realized he should go back inside and help them clean up the mess he made.
He went to the door, but it opened for him, revealing a blonde boy with freckles.
“Oh uh, sorry, Brenda and Jemerey said it was okay to come back here,” The blonde tall boy supplied.
Oh damn it, he’s cute, Charlie thought, and he’s all dirty with dried coffee, why today?
Wait what did the boy need back here?
“I- okay, what were you looking for?” Charlie said trying to be helpful,
“I- uh, you actually,” The blonde boy said flustered
“Oh,” Charlie blushed, was it about the coffee slip, did he slip on him and ruin something, or was he the one he— oh no.
“So inside when you tripped you actually fell on me and-“
No, no, no, universe why would you do this, He’s so cute and I could’ve had a shot-
“We’re Soulmates,”
Why does everyone keep cutting him off today, Jesus Christ, what the Fuck.
..
…
….
…..
.
.
.
God, he’s been staring too long, say something!
“I-i what?” Charlie says stuttering,
“I yeah,” He responds
Why is this blonde so cute!?!
“I didn’t expect this either… I mean like today I just wanted to get a coffee,”
Wait he just wanted a coffee that makes sense, but he phrasing it weirdly is he regretting him, can soulmates do that?
“But I’m really happy this did happen today,” Charlie’s heart spread up
“Especially since yours so…cute,” The freckled boy said and Charlie let himself go to heaven, because holy shit, this cute boy, HIS SOULMATE, just called him cute,
“You..are pretty cute too…” Charlie said looking down, too embarrassed to look the other in the eyes,
“Thank you,” He responded politely
“I’m Nick by the way,” he introduced,
“I’m Charlie,” Looking Nick back in the eyes, those beautiful fucking eyes,
“I know, it’s on your nametag,” Charlie looked down like his nametag was something new,
“Oh, oh yeah,” Charlie blushed harder than he already was, he must look like a strawberry,
“Um, I was wondering, I kinda decided when I met my soulmate, I, or we, should kiss,” Nick said, and Charlie felt his heart stop.
IS HE DYING FROM A HEART ATTACK, OH MY BLOODY HELL,
“We don’t have to if you don’t have to if you're not comfor-,”
“Yes,” His voice cut him off before his mind could think,
“I think I am going to like being your soulmate,” Nick stated,
Charlie was going to die from what his boy said he thought, but he looked at Nick, maybe that wouldn’t be a bad way to die, they walked back inside~