THE BITTER SMELL OF coffee colliding with the sweetness of pastries kept her awake as her fingers danced across the laptop keyboard. Words upon words fell out of her mind, trailing down her veins until they were extended onto the document through the tips of her fingers, like a spell swirling down her bloodstream and taking form through letters. That literature essay would be done by the time she walked out of The Cream Accent, even if it took countless lattes and a dozen blueberry muffins.
Pencil scratching had her peering over the screen of her laptop to find Ronan hunched over his plans. His hair swept over his forehead, barely touching the scribbled paper. Rulers, a beat-up eraser, pens, and more pencils littered across the sketches he worked on, stretching over his side of the table. He shaded in a figure, which she could not make out, before sitting back to catch her gaze.
"What?" he asked, so innocently. Gwenn smiled before looking down at her own work, ignoring his question altogether.
Wolf slipped into her mind, reminding her to do her job. She was meant to be a good spy or her mother would fall off her high horse. Everything she needed was right in front of her, but no matter how hard she tried to ask what Ronan was working on to get the details, she couldn't let the words fly out of her mouth.
She knew about the car, and she was not telling Wolf about it. But she needed something to feed him, a treat to distract him from the feast behind her back.
She reached for her favorite iced chai latte, grimacing at the condensation across the plastic cup, before sipping and falling back into her work. She had to stop thinking about Wolf and his manipulation tactics. November brought in the most school load, and her brain was feeling the effects of too much stress and information in little time. Wolf could leave her thoughts alone.
She wished for a distraction. If she could afford to let loose, she would take the opportunity in a heartbeat. But the responsibilities only piled up, and every day, she wished she could stay in bed eating strawberries as she watched reruns of Criminal Minds.
A groan almost escaped her lips.
The spell working on her hands started sputtering, and she spent way too many minutes staring at the document, silently willing it to write words on its own accord. Instead of forcing herself to write clear nonsense, she went back to her notes, hoping her outline could spark another burst of academic inspiration.
Nothing.
She snapped her laptop shut, startling Ronan.
"I need fuel," she explained, pushing her seat out. He jumped to to his feet, almost knocking over his plans.
"No, stay," he said, then fumbled with his back pocket to produce his wallet. "I'll get you what you want."
Gwenn slumped back. "Ronan, you don't have to do that. I'm only getting a little thing."
He rolled his eyes, pointing towards the counter where a bored Sierra wiped down the surfaces with a wet rag. "You've been getting a little thing every thirty minutes. Now what do you want, honey?"
She studied him stretched to his full height in the middle of the café. Other girls sitting around peeked from their own work, darting their eyes quickly over him. He looked way too good in his ripped jeans and t-shirt, showing off both of his tattooed sleeves. A part of her wanted to be annoyed that he garnered so much female attention, but she understood. She couldn't blame anyone that gawked at him.
Finally, she sighed. "A chocolate chip muffin."
He threw her one last smile before stalking up to the counter. Sierra looked up after finishing polishing her space and scrambled to the register.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Luminescent
General Fiction"Just shine like you always do." Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
