Facade (manga/webcomic)

Chapter 1

When I go to work, I try my best to work hard. I hate people, I hate interacting with people, and I hate the drama that comes with people. Yet, I always try to put on a smile and deal with it. Such is the life of a café barista.

My name is Avery Anderson, but people usually only call me by my alias, Distance. Some people even refer to me by the ridiculous nickname, Disty.

I was born a girl, but I feel more comfortable looking like and being referred to as male. As the current state of our world isn't necessarily fantastic, I can't really undergo a sex change, but I'm content as I am for now.

I'm blonde, have perpetually-messy hair, purple eyes, freckles, and a red-brown scar across the bridge of my nose from a serious incident during my childhood. I'm short, slender, and unfortunately have a very, very feminine-looking body.

At the moment, there are few people in the café, and there is only one other barista working with me. Her name is Aspen, but few people know her by her real name. As such, I only ever refer to her by her alias, Mouse. She's currently retrieving more cold beverage cups from the back room, so I'm leaning lazily against the counter, waiting for my shift to end. Ten minutes left...

As I start considering making myself a cup of coffee, I hear the bell on the front door jingle. I look up, ready to call out a greeting, when I catch sight of the person standing in the front door. Feathery black hair, white bangs hiding his right eye, an oversized red and white hoodie, and the unmistakable blue and white scarf around his neck. A stupid grin on his face and green eyes.

"Hey, Disty!" He greets me cheerfully with an embarrassingly exaggerated wave. I narrow my eyes and let loose a groan of exasperation.

"Why are you here? I don't need you to be around me all the time, you idiot." I sigh. In response, he only grins wider and approaches the counter. Our eyes meet, but I just glare. His bangs fall over both his eyes as he leans forward on the counter. He blinks in surprise and brushes them back over his right eye. Despite giving him some hair clips, he refuses to tie back the hair that just falls over that eye. That pisses me off, despite being completely unimportant.

"Well, I finished cleaning the house, so I called Shark and she told me to come see you." He replies. I roll my eyes.

Sasha "Shark" Anderson is my mother, and the idiot's guardian. He lives with us and is basically my roommate. Unfortunately for me, however, I've grown far too attached to him. He's also gotten far too attached to me. He's open about his attachment to me and I am not. I'm actually irritated that I have these feelings for him, as I just find feelings a burden.

I mean, I loved my father to bits and he ended up getting himself possessed by a malicious Remnant, a boar whom he'd accidentally wronged in his youth. Well, that was according to a story he'd told me about an encounter with it he'd had in university. The Remnant forced him to beat me within an inch of my life(which is where my scar came from), and when he finally regained control, he felt so terrible that he left and never came back. He never called, he never responded to texts or emails, and basically vanished off the face of the earth. My mother and I assume he's dead or rotting in prison.

Someone flicks my nose lightly, and I am abruptly brought back to reality. "Memory," I begin, bringing his attention to me, "What are you doing?"

He tilts his head with an eyebrow raised. "You looked like you were spacing out. Were you thinking about your dad again?"

I'm about to shoot a sharp remark his way to shut him up, but I pause. My eyes again catch sight of the scar around his throat. A dark, jagged scar winding all the way around his neck like the teeth of a shark. It's usually very hard to notice since his scarf hides it from view, but as he spoke to me, he leaned forward and the scarf slid down a small bit. I close my mouth and let out a sigh.