The smell of coffee was one that I could not go more than a day without embracing. Yeah, coffee was an addiction for me... one I had never failed to accommodate.
Going to a coffee shop every single day had never been a problem. Coffee was expensive, but I could get two drinks every day for a YEAR and it would still cost less than one of my father's pairs of shoes.
I sat cross-legged in a booth, leaning against the front window as I tapped away at my phone.
Ideas raged in my head, as usual, but my writing refused to cooperate. Not today. I couldn't today.
"Writer's block again?" the owner of the coffee shop, a close friend of mine, asked.
I raised my eyes to the fiery-haired woman and then dropped my hands onto the table. "Yeah, something like that," I replied softly.
"No escape from it, huh?" Urbosa replied with a smile. "Want another coffee?"
"Yes, please," I replied as I set my phone down on the table and then moved to look out the window.
What was bothering me - more than the usual writing frustrations - was that I had to move away. The only reason I was even here was to say goodbye. I just didn't know how to do it. I didn't want to do it.
My father was forcing me out to another city. They'd forced me to come live with them again - when it was convenient for them, of course - and now they were changing their minds and wanted to move me away?
That was something I couldn't cope with. Even though I hated living in that house. Hated my father... I couldn't stand the thought of leaving Urbosa.
My father had the last say for me, and I couldn't even argue...
... This is what I get I suppose... for trying to be a writer... I'm supposed to take over their business not chase some dream of being a self-sustained author. He's trying to teach me a lesson so I'll come crawling back... but it won't work.
It won't work.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts as my new coffee was set in front of me. "Thank you," I said with a pained smile as I forced myself to stand.
"No prob," she replied, then frowned. "Are you leaving already?"
"Yeah... I... I can't concentrate."
She nodded. "See you tomorrow."
I bit my lip as it threatened to tremble, and then I looked away from my friend. Urbosa wasn't just my only friend, she was my best friend. Basically my sister. "...actually..." I hesitated as I felt the tears start to well, but I shoved them down. I knew how to control myself. "You won't."
"What?"
"I'm..." I swallowed. "Moving..." I admitted, my voice dropping along with my heart.
Urbosa's eyes started to spark with dangerous fire. "What?"
I looked down at my feet.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asked, the pace of her voice increasing.
"Because... because they told me this morning and I... I just didn't know how to..."
The woman's fiery hair had a temper to match, and she was close to blowing. "Your parents can't-"
"Urbosa," I interrupted, grabbing her hands. "They already did, and I can't change that... You can't change that." I sighed, shaking my head. "It's my fault... I actually argued with him about being a writer and this is his retaliation... My punishment." I looked up her. "I... I'm sorr-"
Urbosa stepped forward and hugged me, nearly crushing my ribcage, and didn't let me finish apologizing.
I appreciated the comfort of my best friend's arms. I smiled and wrapped my small-in-comparison free arm around her.
"I'm glad that you are standing for what you want, please don't apologize for that," she said, then brought a hand to the top of my head. "You had better text me the moment your parents turn their backs."
I smiled. "I will," I said, then fixed my attention on Urbosa's apron. Saying goodbye again felt... impossible. "See you around, Bosa." My feet felt like lead as I left the shop, and when I turned my back to the building, the sadness in my mind shifted into anger.
~*~
The following days felt like I was walking through dream-filled jello. It didn't feel quite real, even as I knew it was. My mother's fake smiles, the insistence that this was just what I needed, and my father's words as they left me to unpack by myself, cemented in my mind that I could prove him wrong. That I would prove him wrong.
But as I sat in the middle of the small apartment, boxes stacked all around me, I found myself only staring blankly at the walls. Where could I even start?
I didn't want to figure it out right then.
I didn't want to unpack.
I didn't want to write in this blank room.
I wanted a distraction.
I wanted coffee.
That would be the beginning of it all, I supposed, finding a new coffee shop to write in. I sure as heck wasn't going to be inspired in that apartment.
Pretty prison, more like.
So I held onto my new determination and I left the cluttered room and locked the door behind me. I pulled out my phone and told it to take me to the nearest coffee shop, and off I started on my quest.
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Raising the Stakes; Zelink Coffee Shop AU (The Legend Of Zelda)
FanfictionZelda, the governor's daughter, is an aspiring author who can only write in coffee shops. Forced by her father to move away from Central, and her beloved coffee shop, she must find a replacement. She finds this in "Hyrule Coffee," owned by a kind y...