player ♚ lrh

01 - he's back

Elise Halder desperately needed a job.

She told herself this over and over, nearly everyday. Even as she was on her way to the little café, her white waist apron in hand and her short legs rushing uncharacteristically fast; it was always in the back of her mind.

If there was one thing Elise was good at, it was failing to be on time for anything, no matter what. She could never quite turn up at the suggested time, despite how carefully she tried to plan her steps. Mapping out when to leave, when to wake up, and when to walk in did her no favors, though she tried her best, each and every time. She was always too late, or too early—but never on time.

She actually quite liked being early—it kept her calm, and sane. Yesterday had been the day for that, as she had heard the bell chime above her head with nearly 17 minutes to spare. Those days were rare, unfortunately, and today was not the exception.

No, for Elise was late today. The girl knew it, and that's why she was speed-walking down a sidewalk that she felt was unnecessarily busy for a Tuesday morning. She ignored the judgmental glances from each walker she squeezed past, for everyone else strolling down residential LA seemed to have nowhere to be, and no responsibilities to keep up with. Elise wished she could say the same, that the only thing plaguing her thoughts could be which smoothie bar to try out that day, but it was far from the truth.

Elise had somewhere to be—6 and half minutes ago, to be exact—and she had enough worries to last a lifetime.

The girl chose to ignore the burning sensation in her calves from the exercise her body wasn't prepared for, instead choosing to focus on multitasking. Half of her was occupied with tying her hair up, with her keychain hanging from her teeth and her hands frantically taming the mass of dark hair with a small band—which was way out of its' league for the task at hand. The other half of her was busy trying to come up with an excuse; something of worthy explanation for why the girl wasn't on time, again.

The part that made her frustrated was that she had actually left five minutes earlier today from yesterday, giving the girl a false sense of security under the notion that she could walk at a more leisurely pace, if she wanted to. And Elise didn't like to visibly catch her breath once she got to her destination, so of course she chose to move slower. But, clearly something had let the time slip away from her. Maybe she had spent a little too much time brushing her fingertips along the lavender bushes she couldn't help but touch everyday, or maybe the crosswalk sign actually had taken 20 minutes to change, like she'd exaggerated in her head at the time.

Whatever the reason, Elise was late, and she hated being late. She didn't like the attention, and she certainly didn't like disappointing people.

She also hated negativity, as she'd been raised on the opposite. But, when she glanced down at the white material in her hands only to see that she had forgotten to scrub out yesterday's coffee stains, she couldn't help but feel like today was simply not her day.

When she finally walked through the familiar door, the delicate chime over her head signaled that she had arrived just over 13 minutes past her scheduled time, and the busy atmosphere was doing nothing to calm her stress levels.

"14 minutes, Lisi? I had my money set on 20."

Elise only had to scan over the bar for a quick second before the boy behind the voice came into view, an amused grin on his lips and a hand brushing away the shaggy mess of hair that threatened to fall over his eyes.

She only frowned, already feeling guilt creeping in at her untimely entrance. "I don't know how it happened," the boy gave her a skeptical look and she frowned deeper. "I'm serious! I left so early."