Escaping Duty

Chapter 5

Valentina picked up her medium mocha latte with, 5 sugars, with an extra shot of mocha, and smiled at the barista who had called her name. Most of the workers in her campus Starbucks knew her, since she'd always come after her first class. She choose a high table near the window of the shop, so she could see when Phoebe came in.

Last night wasn't a dream she was sure of it, but she wasn't sure what she saw. Then there was her parents' reaction to her telling them. But how could she explain that animal, and that man not being injured anymore? Tapping her foot on the chair, she sipped her latte as a thought began forming in her mind about looking it up. She knew she may get some crazy answers, but any answer was better than nothing.

"Hey Val, I am so sorry I'm late I got caught up talking to the professor," Phoebe said rushing in through the door.

Valentina snapped out of her thoughts looking at her friends' apologetic gaze and red cheeks. Phoebe must've rushed over right after class.

"Its fine, I ordered a latte while I waited. Is everything okay with your teacher" she worried.

"No, I just wanted to know how I could get ahead on some credits. The more I can get now before med school the better" her friend said in a huff sitting in the chair, and reaching to drink some of Valentina's latte.

Phoebe wanted to go to med school, so she could be a pediatrician since she loved kids. It explained why she was so great with Valentina's little brother Mateo whenever she came over, despite not having her own younger siblings. She even babysat when she had the time.

"Putting that aside though I wanted to apologize for last night. Thank you so much for covering me, did you have to do everything alone?" Phoebe asked eyes wide and pleading.

"Heather left as usual and Terry had to go to another store," Valentina said.

She recalled last night again and wondered if she should tell Phoebe. I mean why not tell her best friend, but she wasn't sure if she would believe her. Phoebe watched her friend concerned, but Valentina didn't want the whole conversation on her.

"What was your emergency last night?" she asked going through her bag for her notebook.

"My mom called the police on my dad, just another argument but it wasn't serious. She was drunk" Phoebe said shrugging.

Her parent's arguments were common, and Valentina was used to helping her through them. They never got too serious, just a lot of disagreements from what Valentina heard. In turn that meant Phoebe spent a lot of time at her house to get away from the noise.

Phoebe began telling Valentina about the two early morning classes she regretted scheduling while Valentina flipped through her notebook. She had a thought stuck in her mind that she wanted to write out, along with two papers to do. It wasn't a big deal for her since he was an English major after all, but writer's block sucked when she had something to do. The whole time they talked Valentina debated what to do, or think about the situation.

Finally, she settled on telling her friend to get it out the way, no harm could come from it. Leaning forward she worked to say it when Phoebe looked up past her squinting.

"Isn't that the same guy from the Café Nook?" she asked pointing behind Valentina.

She turned and saw that Phoebe was right. It was the same guy, he was with another dark-skinned guy she's never seen before, but from the way, they talked she thought they were friends. He was standing in line ordering when he saw her and gestured to his friend. Realizing her staring was weird Valentina turned back around quickly.