Piece By Piece | ✓

10 | tristan

     Tristan hurried to Books and Brews once he received a text from Kayla. His phone had been repeatedly vibrating on his nightstand, immediately jolting him awake. He thought it was one of those annoying spam messages again, but he was wrong.

     There were lots of messages from Kayla, all of it containing the

     You need to come here ASAP, her text had said. I'll be on break after five minutes. Hurry up!

     And that's how he ended up in Books in Brews that Saturday morning, still clad in a white shirt he had slipped on and his green pajamas. He just bolted out of bed and brushed his teeth before running outside, straight towards his car.

     "Why? What's wrong?" Tristan asked in a frantic voice, instantly looking around the coffee shop. On instinct, his eyes searched for Vanessa.

     "Tristan!" Kayla called out from one of the tables she was cleaning, a wide smile spreading across her face as she carried a tray with empty plates and coffee cups. "Just in time, pretty boy. This is the last table I'm cleaning before my break."

     Tristan gave her a once over, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he noted that there was nothing wrong with her posture or the expression on her face.

     What could possibly be the urgent news that made her want to come here at such an early hour? It was just a few minutes after nine o'clock in the morning—if Kayla hadn't texted him, he would still be in bed, sleeping peacefully.

     Then again, Tristan could feel that it wasn't just some random person she wanted to talk about. Kayla was probably going to tell him that she had been promoted or that she had snagged another shade of red lipstick that was on sale.

     Either way, he knew that whatever it was she wanted to tell him, it was important.

     "What you're about to hear will snatch your weaves," Kayla proclaimed dramatically once she was done with cleaning tables, her blue eyes wide and filled with excitement. She was practically bouncing on her seat. He didn't get what she was saying, though.

     "Okay, fine, metaphorical weaves," she rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue, as if she was scolding him for not understanding the reference.

     "What kind of emergency did I come here for?" Tristan frowned and crossed his arms across his chest. He went straight to this place because of her, without even drinking coffee first. Of course he was grouchy.

     "Haven't had your dose of caffeine yet, huh, pretty boy?" Kayla smirked at him, clearly amused by his bad mood.

     "What do you think?" Tristan snapped. His patience wasn't always his best asset whenever he didn't get a chance to drink his coffee. He didn't mean to be an asshole towards his blonde friend, but he was still deprived of coffee—he didn't have much of a choice.

     Kayla laughed. "Chill the fuck out, pretty boy," she said, standing up from her seat all of a sudden. "I'll get you an espresso this time, alright? You look like you badly need the caffeine, anyway. And don't worry, it's on me."

     Okay, that didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

     His mood mellowed immediately. "Awesome," he flashed her a lazy smile.

     Kayla narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Did you do that on purpose?"

     This time, it was his turn to laugh. "No," he answered sincerely. "I become a grouchy old troll without coffee in the morning all the time."