Tweetie

6

Hazel stood, her hands fumbling and fingers clumsy.

She was a girl known for her mystery. And more often than not, people would associate mystery with the word grace. They would see something unknown and they would think about all of the intricacies and grace it would take to keep those secrets.

Hazel was fully prepared to prove every person who ever thought that mystery was graceful wrong.

She almost dropped a single cup three times, and that was within five minutes.

While her actions were almost never graceful, her mind was. Most of the time... some of the time. It was graceful in a careful way, taking care to remember the smallest details. Remember how to pour the milk, how to stir things so they mixed properly, how Stewart wordlessly added an extra teaspoon of sugar to a mug of coffee, making it three teaspoons that went into the drink ordered by the silver-haired boy with the cut on his left cheek.

From the side of the room, Archie watched the pair at the table not far from him, his gaze switching every now and then from them towards Hazel then towards Roderick. His lips parted, speaking hushedly to Roderick in place of Hazel, and she turned back to the scene caused by the only other customers in the cafe who thankfully hadn't fully noticed her yet. If she recalled them, they might recall her too.

What would she say then?

"-Dude, it wasn't my fault."

"Ryan quit denying it. If you hadn't called him a dumbass, he wouldn't have tackled you."

"I call everyone a dumbass, dumbass!"

Stewart sighed from beside Hazel, shaking his head slightly as a small chuckle escaped his parted lips from the sounds of the two boys' conversation. The way Stewart acted towards them, knowing their orders, knowing their names and habits, it became more obvious that they spent a lot of time within the cafe. Enough time to get Stewart to know them so well. Enough for him to bail them out of trouble when they were caught by police. And from the way Roderick didn't really say much but watched and listened, he was familiar with them too.

Stewart turned to face Hazel, receiving a warm smile from her as he took the empty mug she almost dropped for the fourth time and set it down. Her warm smile shifted, turning into a sheepish grin which he returned a smile of his own to before he took the tray of coffee he made and walked around the counter.

"What'd you do this time, Ryan?" Stewart questioned on his way towards the silver-haired boy with the injury and the scowl stained on his face.

"Nothin-"

"He called Ricky a dumbass after getting into an argument with him about money." Leo, the ashy brown-haired boy announced, earning a cold glare from his friend. Though, from his eye-roll in response, it was obvious that neither were taking their actions too seriously.

"What're you telling on me for!?"

"Because you were an idiot."

"It's not like you never get into fights."

"Yeah, but I don't get into fights for dumb reasons."

"Ricky? Again?" Stewart shook his head. "When will you learn to stay away from him?"

"...Seriously? It's both of you now. I at least trusted you to just tell me to shut up, Stewart. Not give me a lecture. Leo gives me enough of 'em."

Hazel listened carefully as she rested against the counter, her arms crossed and body slouched forward. Though, a small whispering sound caught her attention as hushed voices reached her ears from the other side of the room. Still, the silver-haired boy hadn't noticed her and she was overly grateful for that fact.