Stockholm Syndrome

Chapter One

Lea groaned in her bed, her long, pine green hair covered her face. Mostly to block the sun that peaked in through the pink curtains Lea had put up in the bedroom, of the apartment she shared with her two best friends Sophia, and Melina.

The night before Melina and Sophia had dragged Lea out to another college party. They were both a few years older than Lea, and took every chance they could to drag her out to their junior college parties when she had just become legal drinking age at nineteen.

Lea rolled over, her eyes locking on her alarm clock checking the big green numbers. "Shit, nine. They'll be up soon." Lea said before throwing the blankets off, her hangover killed, her head throbbing; but there was no way she could be home when her friends woke up. 

Lea jumped out of bed; holding her head as she scrambled around the room, first was Aleve  to relieve the headache, then into the closet pulling an outfit off of the shelves. A black pair of silk tights, and a white tank top with  sequins under the breasts.

Lea threw all of her clothes on, as if it were a race. She brushed her hair and teeth as quiet as possible, deciding to do her make-up when she got to her destination. She picked up her laptop bag, and put both her wallet, and her make-up bag inside. Her fingers found her sunglasses in her purse, and with a flick of her wrist she opened them, then slipped them on her face. 'I'm home free' she thought as she quietly shut her door and tiptoed to the door leading out of the apartment.

"Leeeeeaaaaaa..." she heard Melina yell from her bedroom, Lea cursed under her breath and took off like a bat out of hell, out of the door and down the stairs to the back exit where her friends would not follow.

About a block later, Lea began to ponder for the hundredth time her 'friends'. They tormented her, made her do all of the work around the apartment, and forced her to leave her studying behind to go to parties. Lea gave a slight smile, they weren't friends they were more like older sisters.

Lea had zoned so totally into her thoughts that by the time she had come to this conclusion she found herself in the line-up inside of her favourite coffee shop. She slowly let her eyes scan over the menu; she always got the same thing when she had a hangover, but she thought she would look at their specials just in case she wanted to be adventurous this morning.

Softly, she hummed 'This Means War' by Mariana's Trench -her current favourite song- swaying from foot to foot. She was growing impatient with the long line up. The line was never this long, of course she was usually there by quarter to eight in the morning, long before anyone in her apartment even thought about waking up.

As she came to the end of her humming, Lea was next in line. She pulled her wallet out of her laptop bag and came to the counter.

"Hey there, what can I....?" Said a boy looking down at the cash register. He trailed off when he looked up at her, Lea giggled softly. The boy was new, he had to be. Everyone else knew her order.

"A French vanilla latte and a cinnamon bun with cream cheese icing." She said matter-of-factly. Giggling when his cheeks turned pink and he nodded quickly. Putting her order into the register, their fingers brushed when she handed him the cash, and the boy became as red as a tomato.

"I-I'll bring it to your table in a moment." He said switching places with a blond who Lea knew as Kathy, the boy ran around as if trying to impress Lea, but Lea knew better than to indulge anyone's fancies for her anymore. So she took a seat, and beginning to set her laptop up in her usual booth by the front windows.  This particular spot let in just enough sunlight that Lea wasn't straining her eyes to look at her computer, but not to much light so there was no glare on her laptop screen. Her back was to the wall in the back corner so that she could see the door, and the counter. If she wanted to, Lea could see the whole café just by raising her eyes from the computer.