Caffeine Blues

Sloane stepped up to the counter, ordering a simple coffee, something that wasn't even on the menu, so she had to call it a "Hazelnut Cappuccino."  She sighed as she eyed the not so crowded room, a man in a suit ordering some complicated equation of a drink, the poor barista looked like a deer in headlights.  She looked to the second one, pouring the cup adding what seemed like meager flavoring to the mix.  The barista took a glance at the name, a look of confusion ran across her features and Sloane internally cringed.  The woman turned her head to the store, opening her mouth and loudly calling to the echoing shop "Slloanay?"  She went from an internal cringe to a full on physical cringe.  It was an odd name, sure, but how could so many people butcher it, especially this terribly.  

She sighed as she moved her hair from her eyes and marched up to the counter, grabbing the cup and rolling her eyes.  She didn't even want to bother with the name anymore, it's happened more times than she could count.  She moved to a small table in the middle of the shop, putting the cup down in the middle of the table and puling a chair out and taking a seat.  She tapped her fingers on the table, looking at the chair in front of her, grabbing the cup and putting it to her lips.  She took a small sip, enjoying the warmth making it's way down her throat and into her stomach.  She smiled as she absentmindedly scratched the bandage on her neck, tapping her foot on the ground...did she really need caffeine?  Maybe it was just the taste of coffee now, reminded her how she spent time with her dad, waking up every morning and having a cup of Joe with him.

She raised the cup again, sighing lightly as she looked back into the small group in the shop, some ordering a matrix of a coffee or buying a slightly overpriced pastry or just enjoying the smell of coffee beans and the sounds of a workplace with their devices.  She pulled out her own, plugging in an earbud and putting one in her ear, starting up Pandora and letting the Classic Rock station take her to a Pat Benatar song.  She chuckled as the first chords began, raising the coffee once again to her lips, her tongue beginning to numb to the heat.  She didn't know why she came to get coffee now that she thought about it, maybe she was going for some precious ground coffee beans, or maybe she thought she might meet some new people.  Sometimes her impulses got the better of her and this was one of those times, an unknown reason, but she was here now, so might as well enjoy it!

Rosebury provided a certain allure to Elisa. She had never really lived somewhere that wasn't busy and constantly crowded, big cities leaving hardly any room for intimacy or privacy. With a village directly next to the school that was already in the middle of the mountains, she found she preferred it to the city, a quiet place where there was no noise from the freeway, no lights interrupting the dark of her room at night, no worrying about the safety of herself or her family from walking along the streets. Rosebury was fascinatingly quiet.

She found herself there, wandering the streets, simply looking in windows and enjoying the sunshine. She hadn't even considered the cafe until she was approaching it, the smell of coffee drawing her in. Growing up in her family, she had grown accustomed to the smell of strong coffee at almost all hours of the day. It provided her with a comforting feeling as though she were home. Her spirits high from her walk and from the familiarity of coffee, the blonde stepped into the cafe, pausing just a moment to take a deep breath. Ambient noise filled her ears and the coffee smell filled her nose.

Happily, she approached the counter and ordered, hardly paying any attention to the other customers in the small cafe. Elisa glanced around while she was waiting for her drink, taking note of the others enjoying their own drinks. There seemed to be several people with laptops or tablets out, completing work over their break, and a few others simply drinking their coffee in a leisurely fashion. Just as a girl with one headphone in caught her eye, the barista called her name and she retrieved her cup, the name "Eliza" written in a mess of black letters. Ah, well, she couldn't win every time. She turned from the counter to find a seat. Directly in her line of sight was the girl she had noticed before.

Despite not being one to go out and make friends on her own, Elisa started walking to the table the girl was at, clutching her coffee cup as though it could save her. With a deep breath, she smiled at the girl and in a voice that was not her own said, "Hello! Can I sit here?"

Sloane held the small cup in her hand, looking at the special little sleeve the shop put on it, their pretty generic logo right where her palm was just sitting.  A sigh escaped her lips as she rested her forehead on her hand, looking at the song next on the list, Tom Petty's American Girl.  She sighed, she loved that song, but it was playing when He was about to get with her, it was like he disappeared off the face of the Earth after the teddy bear debacle though, which was nice, the only reminders of how close he got to her being Steve Miller and couple others and that incessant band-aids that barely covered the teeth shaped red marks on her neck.  Her story changed every time, "My friend's puppy was too rough," "I was messing with my buddy and he got me with a switch," or "I fell into a rose bush."

The questions never stopped though and it continued to get worse as it kept freaking itching.  It was as if the thing became a target for itching and now it she did it absentmindedly which brought attention to it and questions came up and-agh.  Her hazel eyes moving up from her phone to look around once again to see if she saw any new faces.  There was one, a girl with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair in a ponytail.  She seemed quite cheery as she ordered, although Sloane noticed a look of confusion sweep across her face when she looked at her name on the cup, Strike two random barista, Sloane thought as she suddenly noticed her and began walking towards her.  

The other girl stepped up to her and offered a smile as she spoke.  Sloane guessed she could go with worse company and this girl seemed nice enough.  She offered a warm smile back as she nodded lightly when the last chords of American Girl finally ended in her ears, raising her own cup to her lips, enjoying the heavy coffee and hazelnut blend dancing on her tongue.  She then put it down after a small breath and said "Sure, why not?"  She looked down as a popular Mellencamp began melodiously in her ears, adjusting how she was sitting.

Beaming politely, Elisa took the spare seat, setting her drink and expertly turning it so the messy misspelling of her name faced her rather than this new person. There was no point in getting off to a bad start with a wrong name. If someone called her the wrong name, she wasn't sure she would be able to say something about it, opting instead to either never see that person again or simply to pretend that was her name and legally change it when she got home. Oh, if her parents found out, she would never hear the end of it, letting someone butcher her name like that--

But this wasn't that situation. She was letting her mind run away with her thoughts, and she refused to have it. Ever since that night with the girl called Kaya, the blonde was determined to shape herself into someone new, someone who would be more confident and forward with people. Looking at where she was seated now, Elisabeth was sure it was working so far. She smiled at the girl as her confidence immediately fell flat. Maybe she had made it far enough to sit with someone she didn't know, but now she had no clue what to say, and things could get sticky fast. Maybe it was that situation.

"I'm Elisabeth," she said, her voice soft but full of a cheery charm she was only half faking. It was a good start. Her full name slipped of her tongue in the same beautiful way her mother would say it, the th with a slight hard sound to it. It wasn't a very special name, she knew, but she enjoyed the way her mother would speak it, as though it were almost a song. It filled her with warmth and she felt her strength coming back. "Are you a student at the school?"

Sloane tapped her fingers on the table as the girl sort of zoned out.  She had the thousand yard stare as some kind of deep thought jumped through her head.  Her eyes looked right over Sloane's shoulder and she had some type of conflict going on in her head.  Then her piercing blue eyes locked with Sloane's soft hazel and she could tell some type of decision was just made, even with the cheer.  She had a rather odd accent, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was different than what she heard around here with the harder th at the end of 'Elizabeth.'  Sloane had distinct accent for the area, but this girls was...foreign.  The girl relaxed a bit as she said her own name, asking her about her attendance to Beata.  

Sloane offered a small smile as she nodded slightly before raising the cup to her lips, taking one more good swig and letting out a breath.  She moved the cup to the side, turning her actually accurately spelled name towards the girl "As the barista would say, Sloanayy, but you can call me Sloane."  The Spring chuckled lightly at her little joke, examining the features of the other girl, a small smile on her face.  She wasn't that bad looking, slightly sharper features and her smile seemed a little forced, but she was just trying to impress, Sloane could empathize for some moments.

Elisa studied the girl a moment, wondering if she had ever seen her on campus. She was sure she would've remembered seeing someone like Sloane, yet she couldn't recall any particular event, anything that would make the moment stand out, and so she brushed it off. There wasn't any reason she would see the other girl unless they had classes together or were in the same house, and it wasn't something to fret about. The blonde took another drink of her coffee, waiting for the warmth to fill her chest before speaking again.

"I haven't seen you around before," she started. "What house are you in?" The question was one of genuine curiosity; The Winter didn't know a lot about the other houses, unsure of how to go about making friends when her house had a strong reputation as being somewhat standoffish. It was in the pause between their talking that she became away of her phone in her pocket, vibrating violently as someone attempted to call her, someone whose contact name showed up as "Mom". As surreptitiously as she could, Elisabeth ignored the call, shoving the device back in her pocket and focusing her attention on Sloane.

Sloane tapped her fingers on the table as the other girl took a sip of her drink.  She looked back to Sloane, asking her what house she's in.  Sloane offered a small smile, saying "Spring."  She held her smile as she heard the girls phone go off.  The thing was vibrating for attention and the girl gave it prompt, but she took one look at whoever it was and shut it off.  The whole attempting to keep it secret was kind of cute considering they were a few feet from each other.

She raised an eyebrow for a second before shrugging whatever weird feeling came from her rejecting the call, gesturing with her chin as she asked "What abaht you?"  She could go for a guess on this girl, maybe Autumn?  She heard they were pretty friendly and were probably ones to try to talk to new random people like Sloane.  This girl did just walk up from whoever else in the coffee shop and there were certainly plenty of empty seats and tables.