Falling For My Trainers

~34~ Red Coffee Cup

"Here you go." I hand the woman her coffee and I watch as she leaves the now-empty coffee shop. Even though it's quiet hour, I stand behind the counter and stare at the door hoping a flood of customers walk in. I know it's tense between Peyton and me, but it'd still be nice to have her here even if we don't talk. It'd still be nice to at least hear her breathing or be near her presence. 

I give up on waiting and I start wiping down tables. The bell rings above the door, notifying me that someone has just walked in. "I'll be with you in one moment." 

"I can help you if you'd like." Peyton?

I turn around and it's her. By herself, standing by the door, with a smile.

It's a real smile this time because her eyes crinkle. Her face is as pale as ever and she's hunched over a bit as if something is wrong with her chest and to be fair, the way Jacob was beating on her chest, he may have broken some ribs. 

Her hair is in a loose bun, as always, and a majority of her body is leaning to my left and she's chewing on her lip waiting for one of us to do or say something.

I let go of the thin, wearing cloth that is in desperate need of being replaced, and I hug Peyton and she graciously returns it. I only hug her lightly because she looks and feels fragile. "You can hug me tighter, you won't break me." A hug her a little tighter and I can feel her wince, so I pull away.

She sits in a chair closest to her, rests her elbow on the table, and rests her head in her hand. She tilts her head and I just focus on her eyes. 

It's almost as if her eyes lost a little bit of color too.

Hers scans mine in a desperate search to see some type of emotion and I just know my eyes are giving her the answers to any question she probably has about what happened almost a week ago. 

"I'm glad to see you up and moving well," I say, taking a seat across from her. "Glad to see you haven't burned down the shop."

"Are you ever going to let that go?" She laughs and shakes her head, a few strands of hair falling in her face and she pushes them behind her ear. "No. The machine exploded, and instead of you grabbing the extinguisher or calling 911, you stared at it." I throw up my hands. "I was shocked."

"Me too, but at least mine only lasted half a millisecond before I put out the fire and prevented the building from burning to the ground." I roll my eyes and she hobbles behind the counter and starts to pour herself a cup of coffee. "Ma'am, you're not allowed back there." She shoots me a death glare while pouring the coffee. Without taking her eyes off me, she adds creamer, sugar, and whipped cream to the warm, dark drink. "I work here." "Not right now you don't."

"Good thing I'm done making my coffee." She sits back down across from me and takes a long sip of her drink. "What brings you in?"

"I needed a good cup of coffee and I wanted to make sure the building was still standing," She hugs the red glass with her hands and her eyes pierce into mine. "And, I knew it was quiet hour and you'd be bored and lonely without my wonderful self, so I came to keep you company."

She set her cup down and attempts to redo her bun. "Jacob allowed that? How'd you even get here?"

"Jacob can't control what I can and can't do and he's your best friend so he didn't care and he dropped me off." I give a slow nod and I watch as the door swings open and the figure that nearly took the door off the hinges is none other than 'John'.

"How can we help you?" Peyton asks, getting up from her chair, and wincing a bit.

"Can I get a large black coffee to go?" He stuffs a five into my chest as I walk by to assist Peyton. 

She grabs a cup and writes on it with a sharpie before handing it to me to fill.

"Hey John, how about taking your ass to jail instead of a coffee shop. <3 ~P"

I fill the cup and hand it back to Peyton who gives the cup to John and he reads the cup as he walks out the door. "Did he even pay?" I hold up the five dollar bill and her lips form an 'o' shape. She tends to do that a lot.

She and I go back to chatting while we wait for the long two hours to pass. I guess since she's here, it won't go by as slow.

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I've been so caught up with schoolwork that I forgot to publish a chapter. I'm so sorry!!

I'll post two chapters tonight to make up for it <3

Thank you guys for 3.2k reads ilysm!!

lmk ab typos and the length. thanks!

~lia

Question of the chapter: what would you do if "John" walked into your coffee shop?