I Like You a Latte {Completed}

50 | Threatening the Innocent

"Are you serious?" Alicia asked the student cashier, her voice appalled and her eyes wide. "Like, one-hundred percent, totally, absolutely, positively serious?"

The boy behind the counter, who looked bored beyond belief, nodded sluggishly. "Yeah; we don't have any rentals or used versions, so they're all at normal, new-book price."

"I swear to all things holy," Beverly's friend muttered as she pulled out her wallet and handed over her student ID and credit card with a fearsome glower, "this is insanity. Highway robbery. A Ponzi scheme!"

Beverly chuckled, passing the now-startled boy an apologetic smile. "You're not wrong, Alicia, but I don't think it's his fault."

"Well it's someone's fault," Alicia grumbled unhappily, snatching her now-bagged books and cards. "Besides, I might need a hostage if I decide to confront whoever is responsible, and he looks like an appropriate target."

"She won't take you hostage," Beverly reassured the student, before turning to her friend and grinning. "Coffee makes you hostile; have you considered switching to tea?"

Deflating, Alicia huffed and spun around, leading Beverly out of the bookstore. "Oh, hush, Bev. You and I both know that the price of textbooks is beyond outrageous. And I tried to switch to tea, but I hate all the flavors unless it's traditional sweet iced tea, but iced tea is too cold in the winter."

"Why can't you just make traditional sweet tea, but just drink it hot instead of cold? Won't it be the same flavor?"

"Beverly," Alicia sent her a disgusted look. "Please. Of course it won't—iced tea is iced tea; it's impossible to get the same flavor if it's not iced."

Shaking her head with a laugh, Beverly tightened her hold on her own bag of expensive textbooks and nudged Alicia's shoulder. "It's nice to see you again, Alicia." And it really was. Between her nightmares, medicine, painful twinges, Griffin's worry, and the Cynthia-Francis drama, it had been hard for Beverly to feel like a normal college student. Being with Alicia was a nice, relaxing reprieve from everything that had been going on lately and reminded her of how much she enjoyed the other girl.

Alicia halted halfway to the school's main entrance, and Beverly copied her actions, growing inwardly alarmed when she saw the serious, almost pained look on the other girl's face. "I'm glad you're okay, Bev," Alicia confessed, shuffling her textbooks to one arm so she could pull Beverly into a tight hug. "I was really worried about you."

Beverly could only imagine how it must've felt to get a call while away on a break, only to hear that Oh, yeah, your closest friend here at school? Yeah, she's in the hospital with a gunshot wound because she's an idiot that can't keep her nose in her own business. How's your break going, though?

Yeah, that must've sucked.

Returning Alicia's hug as well as she could with an armful of textbooks, Beverly smiled softly when the other girl pulled away. "Thanks for being here, Alicia; it means a lot to me."

"Of course, Bev, what else are BFFs for?"

"Right," Beverly grinned. "Who would've thought?" she mused, "A computer sciences major and a future teacher being best friends—what a shocker!"

This pulled a giggle from Alicia, and the two started walking once more. "I think it makes sense," Alicia said. "I'll assign all my students with papers, and you'll make sure Wikipedia doesn't crash while they're using it as their source, even though I told them not to."

"That's not exactly what I'll be doing."

"Not that you know of yet, but it very well could be."