I sat by myself in the center of the local café musing over where my life had taken me. He had kept me waiting a total of twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three minutes of my life spent waiting anxiously for a man. I didn't want to sound too much like a feminist but lately my life had been spent waiting for men to show up. Boyfriends, friends, and fathers had kept me waiting for years. My last boyfriend had been a joke. Phil was about as exciting as his starched button-up shirts and his pathetic coin collection. He was fun to tease and get all hot and bothered. I smiled to myself remembering the last time we'd hung out. He had kissed me like it would be our last kiss. I remember thinking, are we breaking up? We did. No real loss.
"Hello, are you Jean?" I stood up and shook his hand, we sat back down. "So, uh, would you like anything to drink?"
"Um no thanks, I can handle dry mouth but money, I need." I smiled at my joke.
"Oh, so you have dry mouth would you like some water?" he seemed unnecessarily nervous; and he had missed my joke. At that point in time I knew I would have fun with this guy.
"No boss-man I'm solid, thanks."
"Ok," he took a deep breath and started the interview. What was my last job? How did I handle stress? Why do I like customer service? What was my favorite coffee beverage? Blah blah blah, cheesy fake smile, blah blah blah. Then came my favorite question.
"So, Jean, do you have any questions for me?" his name tag read Steve but I wanted to call him S-dawg to his face. I wanted to so badly that I had to bite my lip.
"I have several questions for you S-d, I mean Steve. First, what is your favorite color?"
"Uh, that's, um, blue, I guess." I nodded.
"Ok ok, that's pretty good. Like a navy blue or an electric blue?" I held my chin in my hand and tried to look studious.
"A navy blue I suppose."
"Nice choice, my second question, what is your favorite reality TV show right now?" I asked very seriously.
"What?" I waited patiently. "What does that have to do with-"
"A person's choice in reality TV says a lot about who they are. For example, people who watch The Real World are naturally dumb and slutty. Those who watch Survivor are probably scheming and lawyers. And those who watch The Bachelor are just looking for love."
"Oh. I don't watch reality TV." I almost laughed aloud.
"Come now Steve, I know you watch reality TV, everyone does." I prodded. Steve instantly looked guilty then a slow smile crossed his face.
"Ok, you are hired." He stood up and shook my hand. I knew he liked reality TV, I could always spot the Mole and Survivorman watchers.
"So, what's you poison? You never said." I saw Steve blush.
"Man vs. Wild." Oh! So close. I had him pegged as a Survivorman watcher for sure. I should have known.
Day 1: I forgot what waking up at 5:30am felt like. It felt like being kicked in the gut, and I was cold. I rolled out of bed and walked down to the kitchen. My aunt was still asleep, not surprising. I scrounged for food and found a box of bran flakes and some milk. It tasted like cardboard. I needed coffee, badly. Good thing I'd just gotten the job as a barista. I hopped on my bike and rode to the café, I put on my apron and became aware that I was squinting. I made myself a mocha and became aware that S-dawg was talking in my general direction. I held out one finger to him and took a gulp of the burning hot coffee.
"Ok, now I'm feeling more human. Repeat, please." I continued sucking down my cup o' Joe.
"Did you catch the Sahara episode of Man vs. Wild?" S-dawg happened to be my boss but I had him wrapped around my finger.
"Yeah it was super swell." I started sweeping to get my blood flowing and spread that caffeine through out my body. Our first customer of the day walked in. I smiled in his direction and continued sweeping. I was on back-up today and needed to keep things clean. The guy was acting strangely and staring at me awkwardly. Normally I had no problem with awkwardness, I was born acting awkward and making others awkward. Somehow this guy gaze was making me a little uncomfortable. I was already coming off my caffeine high and feeling cold still.
"Hey, buddy, like what you see?" I gave him a charming smile, I wasn't wearing make-up and I could practically feel my eyes drooping with sleep deprivation.
"Uh no." he said all embarrassed. I would have been offended if I hadn't caught him off guard and at 6am.
"Why don't you order a double chocolate mocha? Sound good?" I took his tanned arm and interlocked it with my own and led him to the counter.
"He'll have the double chocolate mocha." I ordered for the poor schmuck. He was wearing a messenger bag, jeans, and a plain white t-shirt that showed off his dark brown skin tone. Now that I was closer I recognized how attractive this guy was. I then realized with a startle that I was still holding this guy's arm. Shitard. I always did embarrassing things and the worst part was that this guy was still staring at me.
"Hi." He breathed. He smelled like toothpaste and the forest. Minty fresh.
"Don't you think we're a little past hellos at this point. I just ordered your way into this morning. I have officially started your coffee intake of the day. Welcome to the world." I smiled easily at him and he seemed to be thinking this over. "You see," I continued, "we now have a coffee relationship."
"Oh do we?" he raised one eye brow and I was jealous, I had never quite figured out how to do that.
"Drink up." I smiled and went into the back to make sure everything was in order for the day. The beautiful stranger filled my head with thoughts of romance and I had to remind myself that money was my first priority, not dating. Dating was expensive any way you looked at it. Boys had to pay for food, movies, activity, as is custom. But girls had the real expense. We had to pay for rad clothes, stunning/effortless make-up, sweet-smelling hair products, as is all custom. And for some especially 'active' girls the occasional prescription to birth control. Fun fun. Really we got the bum deal in the end. I sat down on a sturdy looking box and let my mind wander, if only for a moment. I had always been a drifter, from the day I was born probably until the day I would die. If I even died. I would drift and create adventures and memories. My aunt was the only stable thing in my life. My mom was off being a hippie smoking pot and running around without clothes. I shuddered at the memories. My dad drove off one day to go pick up dinner and just never came back. I'm still waiting for my order of fried rice and kung-pow chicken. I never looked at rice the same way. I went to the bathroom and checked myself in the mirror. Long and straight true red hair. I hated it, always had always would. Clear blue eyes, the color of robin's egg blue. My teeth were straight from my awkward days with braces and I was built well at a tall five foot eight. No red head is complete without a sprinkling of freckles, my greatest enemy beside my hair. A true ginger. I sighed, washed my hands and went back to work. To my surprise the tall, dark and painfully handsome guy was still there sipping on his mocha. I smiled at him and made myself an Americano. I would drink this café out of house and home.
"I really like this." He said and smiled eagerly at me. His caffeine had kicked in, I was happy for him.
"Good, if you come back tomorrow I'll pick you out something else." I winked at him and finished my Americano. I saw S-dawg approach. "Hey boss-man, what's kicking?"
"Kicking? Uh, I don't know." He was really bad at getting my humor. "Seth, shouldn't you get back to your paper route?" S-dizzle seemed annoyed with him and I couldn't imagine why. He was just kickin' like everyone else.
"Yeah, ok. I'll see you tomorrow." She seemed enraptured by me, I couldn't imagine why, and I'd always thought I had a great imagination. A paper boy, I laughed to myself.
"New girl is weird." Said the blond bimbo whose name I kept forgetting. It was something like Ashli, or Kelli, or Madison, or Brittni. I just couldn't remember. Not everyone could have stupid names like Jean. All I knew was the S-dawg started at her boobs a lot and seemed intimidated by her. It was almost comical. Almost. And if she wasn't such a fire-breathing hater I would have probably stared at her chest too. Perfect boobs are hard to come by and she liked to show them off.
"Weird is the new pink, so I hear. I also heard the black was the new pink, so I could be all messed up on that." She gave me a stuck up smirk and went back to making some kind of ice coffee. The line was practically out the door with customers so I took a deep breath and started taking orders.
"I'm home I'm home I'm home!" I sang as I walked my bike up the drive way. My aunt would be working late as she usually did. She had a long drive but she refused to leave La Push. I liked the town well enough but I couldn't see myself living there. Drifter at heart and drifter by nature. I walked in and downed a Diet Coke; I needed to keep my caffeine level at maximum. I plopped myself in front of the TV and started my daily regimen of vegging. I heard the phone ring and put TiVo on pause.
"Hulloooo?" I sang.
"Jean? Hello?" her connection was bad which meant she was on her cell phone. "How was your first day?" she was so motherly even though she was still young and single with no kids.
"It was chill-a-rific, if I do say so myself." I explained the parameters of my day, all my duties, and the various people the peppered the time spent with coffee. "I can feel a serious addiction to coffee forming."
"Well, as long as you are safe and careful." This was her usual response when it came to me. "So do they all have nicknames yet?"
"Oh, do they ever!" I exclaimed. "First, there is my boss S-dawg, second bimbo, and finally there was Roxie."
"Roxie? Is that her real name?" I never used real names, well in my head I never used real names.
"Oh gosh no, his name is Jared or something. He's gay as the day is long. He reminds me of Chicago the musical. He even has the eyeliner to match."
"For a moment there I thought you were actually using normal nicknames." She sighed. I knew that my strangeness could get to her sometimes but I didn't know how to be different. "Ok well I should be home in a few minutes." She came home and got out a wine cooler from the fridge. Aunty-A was a lover of wine and wine-coolers. She tried to limit herself, I knew she had had a hard day when she drank wine coolers.
"Rough day?" I tried to be normal for her on her hard days.
"Isn't it always for a lawyer?" Aunty-A or Audrey Cook and was working her way to be a partner at her law firm. She would be the youngest partner at her firm if/when she made partner. The problem with Aunty-A was that she had both a soul and a conscious. Basically, her life could be miserable at times.
"I'm sorry." And I really was. I hated how much of a burden I was. I'd been tossed around from family member to family member on both sides of the family. I felt a real permanence with Aunty-A. She was a real lady. "I love you, and I'm going to bed."
Seth
She was hot. Or was it beautiful? I couldn't be sure. I never said the right thing. I'd acted like a complete idiot, but who could blame me? She was hot/beautiful and it was really early. I'd drooled over girls before, like constantly, but there was something different about this girl. I couldn't be sure, but she felt permanent. I hadn't ever been so charmed by a person before. It have been five years since Bella left and life was much more normal. We'd had a few straggler vampires but nothing serious. For some reason we hadn't stopped being werewolves. I thought at least Sam or Jared or Paul might change back, but nothing had happened.
"How was your day?" mom asked over dinner. Leah was sulking and I didn't understand why.
"Awesome actually." I smiled to myself and Leah only looked more disturbed. "Geez! What's up your butt?" my mom gave me a sour look.
"Nothing!" oh yeah, something was definitely wrong. "I'll tell you later."
"What? I don't get to know? Is this because you are both werewolves and I'm not?" mom asked. She resented our strange bond. But really the two of us fought more than we had before we both changed.
"I doubt it; I dunno what's wrong with Leah. PMS much?" I knew she would hate me saying that.
"We need to talk." She said calmly to me. This caught me off guard; I was used to Leah being snotty, mean, curt, and sometimes sweet. I wasn't used to her being serious. After dinner we snuck off to her room. She shut and locked the door, I sat on the bed and waited for an explanation.
"I saw her." She said simply. "When were you going to tell me?"
"Uh, I'm not following the crazy train you're conducting…" I had no clue what she was talking about.
"Your imprint, hello!" We heard our mom approach, and we both kept silent until she walked into her room and slammed the door. She hated our special hearing abilities.
"What are you talking ab-ooooh." The café girl.
"Yeah! Who is that?" I didn't know exactly why she cared and why she though I had imprinted.
"I don't really know yet. What gives you the idea I've imprinted?" the idea seemed off-base. I didn't even know her. I was really attracted to her but I didn't know her at all.
"Ah how about when we were patrolling together, all I could see or think about was this-this redhead!"
"Sooo? You think about guys too, doesn't mean they are your imprint."
"It's different. It's just like with Jared and Sam and Quil. If anything I know a hell of a lot about imprinting. I was so madly in love with Sam when he imprinted. You were pretty young back then. I guess you don't remember. Look all I'm saying is that this feels so similar. You'll figure it out, eventually."
"Well, it's sweet that you are looking out for me." I gave her a sly smile.
"Shut up and get out." She was funny that way.