Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Twenty-One- Hold the Peppermint Mocha

"I told Tom I had a thing for him," Ada informed Britt as she dropped herself into the chair across from her at the cafe. After hours of tests, Ada was not in the mood to be working. Lucky for her, few people seemed to be in the mood for coffee that night.

Britt poked at her Frappuccino with her straw and stared back at her as if Ada was a martian. "The fuck you do that for?"

"He asked a question that I couldn't answer without admitting to it."

"So you tell him to fuck off."

Ada tossed the circular tray on to the table and leaned back in her seat. "I did. He wasn't having it."

"Does he have a thing for you, if you know what I mean?" Britt asked with a wink.

Even thinking about that created a blush to take over Ada's face. "I didn't ask, but I can't imagine he would. He didn't cringe when I admitted my crush, so I'll just consider it a pathetic win."

"So you really have a crush on Mr. B, huh?"

Hearing her best friend call him that made Ada's stomach turn, even though it was a name she'd always called him until recently. "Apparently."

"Sweet, perfect, straight A Ada wants something she isn't supposed to have. I gotta say, I'm impressed."

"Oh yeah?" Ada asked with a smile.

"You're doing something exciting, even if it all bites you in the ass. I'm proud of you. Speaking of Mr. B," Britt continued, "Did you hear what that man of yours did today?" Britt's voice came out more like a song, confirming she knew something interesting.

Ada shook her head, her body stiffening. "What hell did he do?"

"Got Luke and Jake kicked out of graduation and pretty much everything else leading up to it. People came forward saying they saw you getting harassed by them."

Ada ran her now shaking fingers through her hair and looked up as if to plead to the heaven's to make this all go away.

She'd gotten an entire day off from everything with the power outage, and when school returned that day, everyone seemed so frantic as they were nearing the end of the tests that no one seemed to notice her.

The populars were going to rain hellfire on her ass over this one.

She somehow knew it was Tom who opened the door to the cafe when the small bell to chimed.

The only other people in the coffee shop were Creeper and some woman who was semi drunk and quite possibly passed out on the table.

"Did you get Luke and Jake kicked out of graduation?"

Tom stopped dead in his tracks. "Yeah, why? Was I not supposed to?"

Ada shook her head, trying to overlook she was seeing him in a fitted t-shirt two days in a row, again without his glasses. It wasn't easy to ignore, and she was failing miserably at it. Still, she had to at least appear strong. "Things were getting better."

Tom began walking toward them again and sat in a chair between Ada and Britt and tossed his ascot cap on the table. "Your alarm went off in your book bag yesterday morning," he spoke in a hushed tone, making sure drunker'd and Creeper couldn't overhear. "I went to turn it off, and I found the notes."

Ada's mouth went dry. She'd kept the notes from him for this very reason, knowing he'd react and make it his mission to bring everyone to justice, as if he was some sort of savior. Ada wanted to be angry with him, but knew in her heart that Tom didn't intentionally go through her things.