Florentine

four

Chapter Four:

Guts, Florentine. Get some guts.

I stared at the mass of hands grabbing at food items, waiting for the tiniest break to nab a bagel. My hand twitched in the air, having inches from the plate. It was barbaric that I had to fight for my food like a wild animal. I wasn't confident enough to grab it on my own, not wanting to risk getting yelled at for taking something I wasn't supposed to.

I was afraid of these people. Not only did every single one of them look like they could crush me with one finger, they were ruled by a beast of a man, whom I doubt taught them to play nice.

I was right about Phoenix. He is not a morning person.

I ruled out chickening and crying for his help, as my instincts told me that if I didn't want to get punched in the face, I'd better keep my mouth shut. I looked to the person to my right, seeing as I had never met them before. She was strikingly built, her jawline almost as sharp at the Beast man's.

She sunk her teeth into a bagel, something I was yearning to do also. As she chewed, she frowned however, looking at her bagel as if something wasn't right. With lightening quick speed, her arm shot out and grabbed a small container of cream cheese right out of the hand of a man taking it. He growled at her, angry that she stole that.
She glared at him, warning him to back off. She then carefully applied a thick coat of the substance and tossed it back at the man impatiently waiting. I felt like my jaw was grazing the floor. She didn't even look up when she took that, it was like she had a sixth sense for all things breakfast.

She cleared her throat, "Do you want something?"

I took a glance around, trying to see who she was talking to. When I didn't see anyone, my lips pursed. Was she talking to me? "Me?" I asked humbly, pointing to my chest.

"Who else, dimwit? You've been staring at me for the past two minutes like I'm some graced angel." She snapped, turning to me with a less than pleasant expression on her face.

"Oh my, n-no- I wasn't being creepy, I swear. It's just, I'm new around here and I don't have the guts to grab food because everyone takes it before I can even try." I.say with defeat, sadly confessing.

She snorted, "That's pathetic."

"I know." I whisper, looking back at the food. "How do you do it?"

"Gotta be quick. Take what you want, don't be afraid to make people mad, they won't do shit." She replied, talking to me like I was a weakling.

I turned back to facing forward at the food, sensing the conversation was over. I glam ed around, seeing some people do the same, but with much more confident faces. They all grabbed the food they wanted with no problem, making it look a million times easier than it felt.

Jeez, Florentine. It's a bagel. Man up.

I went for the shot, narrowly missing getting my arm whacked off by another person. My fingers grabbed onto a bagel, pulling it out of the basket as quick as I could. I retracted my hand, cuddling the bagel close to me like it was the only thing I owned.

I breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to enjoy my bagel. I bit into it, hungry after only eating once yesterday. However, something was missing, and now I realized why that girl next to me had frowned at her bagel. It was extremely plain.

I sighed and felt like banging my head on the table in frustration. I glanced at the open container of cream cheese just waiting to be layered on my bagel. With more confidence than last time, my hand snapped out, latching onto the tub.