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Rotation walked into the dark coffee shop. He had to open up shop today.
He’d done this many times before, so he started as he always did; turning on the lights; turning all the coffee machines on; putting music on; and finally flipping the closed sign to opened.
He waited for the first customer, hoping it would be someone nice, as he was tired and didn’t want to deal with someone yelling at him because his order was wrong.
His mind was a bit hazy today.
The door opened. Rotation looked up to see who it was.
It wasn’t a customer actually. It was Grayleigh, who was his co-worker.
“Hey Rotation!!” Grayleigh excitedly greeted. He just waved at her.
Rotation was glad that Grayleigh was here for once. He thought he’d have to do it by himself because Grayleigh said she might not make it today.
She then went on about something that happened to her a few days ago. He wasn’t really listening.
Then the first customer came in.
“Orphan Boy!” A very familiar voice called out. “Hi Grayleigh!”
He looked up immediately. Mike was walking towards him.
“OMG, Mike! What are you doing here?” She asked. He put his elbow on the register.
“I don’t really have a job… so I came here to annoy you guys!” He grinned. Rotation hated that grin. It made him feel emotions that he didn’t want to feel.
“Wow! It would be nice to have someone we know here actually—“
Rotation interrupted her “Technically you have to order something or you’d be loitering.”
Mike laughed. “Okay, Orphan Boy! Gimme an espresso then.”
“Aye aye!” Grayleigh nodded at him and started to make his espresso.
“So, Orphan Boy, do you like working here?” Mike asked, palm on his cheek.
“Ehh, it’s not that bad.” He responded.
“Is it better because I’m here?” He teased. Rotation’s heart skipped a few beats.
He managed to act cool about it, it’s a good thing Rotation is a good actor. “Pfft… nah. You make it worse,” He scoffed playfully.
Mike put his hand to his heart. “Ouch!… Orphan Boy… I didn’t know you could be so mean!”
“Give me a P!” Grayleigh called.
”P!” Mike cheered.
”Give me an R!”
”R!”
”Give me an I!”
“I!”
”Give me a D!”
”D!”
”Give me an E!”
”E!”
Grayleigh beamed. “And that spells ‘pride!’ Happy pride month!”
Rotation tensed. He thought that Mike wouldn’t notice.
He noticed.
“You good, Orphan Boy?” He asked, worry in his voice.
Rotation nodded. “I’m good, yeah!”
That was a lie.
A few hours pass and Mike is still at the coffee shop, sitting at one of the tables eating a croissant.
Rotation thought he would’ve gotten bored by now, but he never did.
It was kind of weird.
He didn’t really pay any mind to it. Mike probably just wanted to see his friends. He couldn’t blame him.
It would be really boring if you didn’t talk to basically anyone for the whole day. He would probably do the exact same thing as Mike.
Mike was here for other reasons, though.
Grayleigh had noticed it almost immediately. She knew Mike wasn’t just here because he was bored. She’d basically had known from the start that something was up.
He looked at Rotation like he personally hung the moon and stars.
That’s when Grayleigh knew he was down bad.
So when Rotation went to the bathroom, she went to ask him, since no customers were in shop at the time.
”So, Mike,” She started.
Mike looked over at her. “Grayleigh, what’s up?” He asked.
“You’ve been looking at Rotation a bit too much.” She just blatantly stated.
…
”It’s been that obvious?” Mike sighed.
”Yes, but I believe that you should tell him!” She grinned.
“Man, I don’t know…” He trailed off when he heard the door open.
”Hi!! Welcome to Starbucks!” Grayleigh greeted while heading over to the counter.
Mike just sat there, overthinking.
He didn’t do that much.
But he didn’t want to ruin things between him and Rotation.
His thoughts traveled over to his father. What would he think?
His father probably thinks he’s still in Paradise City.
Would he have sent people to go and find him?
That’s stupid. His father wouldn’t do that.
Paradise City.
How many people are still there? There was the guy who tried to steal his chest plate or whatever and his… son?
There was the yellow lady that Chuck told him about.
Frying pan girl—Spidey was there too!
And that old man who was kind of an asshole, what was his name? John? Jonathan. That sounded right
He could name a few more.
He hopes most of them got out of the city before anything bad happened.
”There’s no way that just happened. Mike! Mike!” He desperately called out.
There’s no way that Mike just fell.
He was right there. Now he’s dead.
And it’s all his fault.
He will never see him again.
Grayleigh and Meagon will never see him again.
…