Jean gave a sigh of relief as the lunch hour rush began to die down. His feet ached, his brain was frazzled, and he needed a cigarette. He called over to his coworker, currently picking at a muffin she would have to pay for later, that he was going for a smoke break and he'd be back in fifteen. He went out the front door to sit on the bench by the little smoker's outpost they had planted outside. It was usually surrounded by hipster college students smoking their fancy, organic cigarettes and talking about the latest indie record. Thankfully, it was void of such occupants today. Probably due to finals week or something.
Jean lit his own cigarette, and took a long drag, letting the smoke out slowly at first, so it drifted from his lips in swirls before blowing it out in a huff. He watched customers mill out of the cafe` in groups of three or four. A few more walked in with a book or a laptop or sketchpad. The people with laptops were less likely to actually buy something and probably just there for the free wifi. The people with books and sketchpads would order tea or coffee, but only drink half of it before it got cold and gross. The lunch rush was officially over for the most part. There were still people like him, who worked weird hours and didn't get lunch until three sometimes.
He was nearly done with his cigarette when another customer walked in with a book. Jean caught a glimpse of the cover title, "Dungeons & Dragons" which was not the typical reading material they saw in the coffee shop. Jean's eyes followed the man through the door before he smirked and put his cigarette out, "Fucking nerd." he mumbled without malice.
He went back inside and returned behind the counter to relieve his coworker, Sasha, for her own break. She smiled at him and grabbed another large muffin out of the cabinet, "Could you take care of this order for me?." She said cheerily as she handed him a slip of paper with a simple order of green tea with honey. "Table six." She added, pointing to Nerd Guy sitting off by himself, next to the window.
"Yeah, alright." Jean said, turning to start the order.
He approached the table after a few minutes, mug on plate and packets of honey in hand, "Here's your tea." He said in an even tone, a half-fake smile painted on his face.
Nerd Guy turned his face up from his book to regard Jean, brown eyes holding an infinitely more genuine smile than Jean would have ever been able to manage while on the clock. "Oh, thank you." he said, placing his book face down on the table so that he could take the tea. Jean piled the honey on the table, "Just let me know if you need anything else." He said politely as he turned and walked away.
Thirty minutes past and no new costumers had come in. Sasha had seen fit to simply remain seated and scroll through her phone, though she did move closer over to Jean so that they could make a bit of small talk without having to yell across the room. The whole place had quieted down, with only a few patrons still seated and chatting or sipping their drinks. Nerd Guy was still there and, to Jean's mild surprise, had actually finished his tea and ordered a second cup with a scone this time. Jean would periodically glance over at him, just to make sure he didn't need his tea refilled or another scone or something. Just being a good waiter and what not. He noticed he had tan skin with dark hair and freckles that sprinkled over his cheeks. Wide, brown eyes rarely ever left the pages of his book.
Jean propped his chin up on his hand, leaning on the counter and looked back over at Sasha, who was currently rambling about some post she saw on Tumblr. She looked up at him, clearly waiting for a response. Jean hadn't really been paying attention so all he could manage to come up with was a neutral, "Huh." That seemed to satisfy her and she launched back into her one-sided conversation. Jean glanced back up after a moment and noticed that Nerd Guy was no longer sitting at his table. Jean glanced at Sasha still sitting in her seat, scrolling through her phone before rolling his eyes and moving to clean the freshly vacated table with a rag they kept beneath the register.
He stopped for a minute when he saw a five dollar bill sitting on the table and stared at it. He glanced around, not really knowing how to react to getting a decent tip. Or a tip at all, for that matter. For some reason, hardly anyone felt they needed to tip their waiters here. But Jean hadn't been overly enthusiastic with Nerd Guy. He hadn't made periodic stops at his table to make sure he was satisfied with his food or tea or if he wanted anything else or asked if he'd like to try their new special. How was it he had gotten a five dollar tip?
With a slight scowl, he picked up the bill and pocketed it before wiping down the table and picking up the empty mug and taking it back to the kitchen. "Guess who just got a tip?" Jean bragged to Sasha when he returned to the front.
"Uh," she said, thoughtfully, "No one?"
Jean smirked and showed her the bill, "Nope."
"Bullshit!" she yelped out before covering her mouth, remembering profanity wasn't exactly professional. "How did you get that?"
"Must be my natural charm." Jean said with a shrug.
Sasha made a face, "You've got about as much charm as my aunts toe wart."
Jean raised a brow, "That's gross."
"You're gross." she shrugged.
Jean scowled for a second and put the five back in his pocket, "At least I'm not on my phone constantly." Sasha stuck her tongue out at him and looked back at her phone, completely ignoring him afterward. Jean turned his own attention to the clock on the register and waited for his lunch hour to roll around.
A day or two went by. Business was unusually slow. Jean had been running the morning shift that day and had seen a grand total of five customers. This sort of thing happened from time to time and not nearly often enough to cost the cafe` that much money, so Jean wasn't worried about being let go and having to find another source of income to pay his half of the rent to his shitty apartment. He and his roommate made enough money to pay rent and buy groceries. If they scraped together their leftovers, they could probably afford a nicer couch or maybe cable TV. But alas, they weren't exactly good at coordinating for the greater good.
Jean was at the cafe` by himself, currently. The one who was supposed to relieve him for lunch had called in, so he had simply bought a muffin and ate behind the counter, clocking out for about half an hour. Though, he never actually left, he did have to close the cafe` for a bit since his boss would get pissed off if he worked during his lunch. He had about an hour before Sasha started her shift. The lack of costumers made him a bit too comfortable, so he wasn't exactly trying his hardest to be quiet as he sang to himself, wiping down the tables for the umpteenth time. "Do you wanna build a snow man? Come on let's go and play!" He sang, slightly off key and giving a little twirl as he moved to the next table, "We use to be best buddies. And now we're not. I wish you would tell me whyyyyyyyyy! Do you wanna build a snow man?"
"It doesn't have to be a snow man."
Jean jumped and let out an embarrassing yelp at the sudden voice behind him. He turned to see the same freckle-faced nerd from the other day, standing their with a laptop case, strap slung over his shoulder and an amused smile on his face. Jean felt his face heat up as he cleared his throat, ready to defend himself with a well thought out reason a nineteen year old man would be singing a song from Frozen.
Freckles gave a low chuckle, "Slow day, huh?"
"Uh, yeah." Jean replied, and after a short pause, "What can I get for you?" he asked as he made his way back behind the counter.
"Hmmm..." Freckles hummed thoughtfully as his eyes swept over the menu. "Maybe...just a mocha cappuccino and...a blueberry muffin."
Jean nodded, giving the total and letting Freckles swipe a credit card. "Alright, I'll have that right out for you."
He watched for a moment as Freckles took the seat by the window again, and busied himself with the coffee and muffin order. It didn't take long and Jean was taking the lone costumer his order in about five minutes. "Here you go." He said, placing the food and hot beverage on the table.
"Oh, thanks!" Freckles said, looking over his laptop first at the food, then Jean, and smiled warmly.
Jean hesitated for just a second too long before replying, "Uh, yeah, no problem." He stole a quick glance at the screen and noticed something that just looked like an online book. Jean felt his lips quirk up into a smirk before he realized standing over a customer while they were doing something on their computer was creepy and promptly turned and went back behind the counter.
Staring at people while they ate was weird and creepy and Jean was definitely not staring at the guy at the window table. He was, however, stealing the occasional glance over in his direction. Nerd guy seemed to have a habit of biting his bottom lip while reading or concentrating or whatever. One half eaten muffin and a drained mug of coffee later, Jean decided to pipe up, "So, what are you doing."
Freckles looked up at Jean then around the cafe` then back at Jean, "Uh, oh, I'm...Uh, just reading up on this campaign I'll be DM-ing in a few weeks."
Jean's brow furrowed, "A what? You'll be what?" Freckles was throwing jargon around expecting him to pick up and understand it immediately. Big mistake, that was.
"Like, you've heard of Dungeons and Dragons before, right?" He said, attempting to clarify, Jean assumed.
He still really didn't know what Freckles was talking about, giving a blank stare as response. He knew the name and that it was some sort of board game. Also for nerds. But that was about it. "No." he said after a moment.
"Uh, well, it's like...like World of Warcraft only table top."
That helped a little, "Oh, so it's like, make a character and fight shit."
"Yeah, pretty much! I'm gonna have to figure out a way to dumb down the enemies though. We don't have a full party."
"You can do that? Just, like, make the bad guys weaker?"
"Oh, yeah. It takes a bit more math but it's not too terribly complicated."
"Huh." was all Jean could say to that. He wasn't a super huge gamer nerd. He didn't play table tops or a lot of online games. The only reason he got the comparison to World of Warcraft was because of all the advertisement and the fact that he had given it a shot a few years back. He had been pretty into it at first, but burned out quickly and never really picked it back up.
"Uh," Freckles began, attempting to fill the awkward silence that had fallen between them, "Are you, like, interested in playing or...?"
"Oh, uh, no not really. That stuff's not really my cup of tea." Jean said, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"Oh. Well, if you change your mind, or if you just wanna come watch or something, we're playing at that game store a couple blocks from here."
"That place? I've never actually gone in there."
"Really? You should sometime. It's pretty nice. We've got a lot of inventory to look at."
Jean blinked at him for a second, "You work there or somethin?"
"Yeah. Just part time. While I'm going to college."
"Huh. Full plate." Jean said, raising his brows with mild surprise.
"Tell me about it." Freckles commented as he turned back to his laptop.
It fell quiet again, and no one tried to break the silence this time. Jean busied himself with doodles on scrap paper behind the counter. Things he would draw more seriously later and add to his portfolio. He was almost confident enough to start showing it to people. A faint buzz sounded from the window table as Freckle's alarm on his phone went off. Jean looked up and watched him pack up his stuff. They waved at each other and Jean was left alone in the cafe` once more.
He went back to his drawing until Sasha Came in to work, shouting out a greeting and then, "Wow, this place is dead." she commented, looking around at all the empty chairs and tables. Her eyes fell on the one by the window. "Only one customer today?"
"No," Jean said, "I just haven't cleaned that one yet. Didn't really see a point to it, ya know?" he shrugged.
"I feel ya." Sasha agreed. "Has Marco been in?" she asked, then added, "The guy with the freckles."
"You know him?" Jean asked, watching her as she tied on her apron.
"Yeah, Connie hangs out with him a lot. He's ridiculously nice."
"Huh, well, yeah he did come in earlier. I think he was on his lunch break or something."
"Probably. He works at that game place down the road."
"Yeah, he told me."
"Oh?" Sasha said, suddenly interested. "You guys talked?"
"Uh...yeah?" Jean gave her a side glance. "Why?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing." She said, making herself busy with gathering the dishes still on the recently used table.
Clarity slowly began to show in Jean's face, "Sasha, don't you dare."
"What?" She asked, seemingly confused and genuinely offended.
"You know what. Fucking quit it."
"I have no earthly idea what you could possibly be talking about." She replied, making an extra effort to sound overly innocent.
Jean rolled his eyes. Sasha had a habit of trying to set him up with random people. She watched him like a hawk whenever he said two words to a guy or girl. It was his own fault, he supposed. Mentioning his bad luck with significant others made Sasha determined to administer her own brand of kindness. Meaning: Jean was constantly invited to a variety of social gatherings and asked to take several tables with relatively attractive men and/or women. He had a slight, nagging feeling she had sent him over to Marco's table a couple days ago for that exact reason.
With a sigh, Jean removed his apron and clocked out, "The new girl called in today so I had to cover her shift and basically didn't get a lunch. I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, alright. See ya." She waved and disappeared into the back room.
Jean's apartment was only about twenty minutes from the cafe` so he was home in no time and rummaging through the kitchen for something easy to make. "Christa?" he called out while he was looking in the fridge, "Christa you home?"
"Yeah!" A gentle voice called back, followed by a muffled, harsher sounding one.
Jean could quite make out what they said but the sound of their voice made his head pop up immediately, "Is the bitch here too?" He asked, without any real malice to his tone, though he didn't sound pleased either.
"Shut up horse-face!" the harsher voice called back from Christa's room.
"Fuck off, Ymir!" Jean retaliated before returning to his quest for food. There was laughter from the room but no more insults flew through the apartment. Probably because Christa was play referee behind the scene. Ymir was Christa's girlfriend and was here far more often than Jean could stomach most days. It wasn't that they didn't get along well enough. Really, the two had a healthy respect for each other. But Ymir and Jean's personalities were just not that compatible.
There was a point where Ymir had stayed with them for just over a week. The constant close contact between the two put a strain on there kinda-sorta-friendship. It was only a matter of time before the two of them pissed each other off. They got into a screaming match about something. Jean couldn't really remember what it had been. Probably Ymir drinking the last of the milk or Jean teasing Christa a bit too harshly. Long story short, the three of them learned that Ymir probably shouldn't stick around the apartment consecutively for more than a few days.
Thankfully, the freckled girl had gotten her own place a few months back and now the two alternated. Sometimes, Jean had the apartment to himself for an entire week. He liked this arrangement. Really, Christa was great and nice and the two of them got along well, but their were just certain things a guy couldn't do while rooming with a lady. And there were certain things a lady couldn't do while rooming with a guy.
Jean finally decided to settle for a hot-pocket and stuck it in the microwave. He flopped down on their crappy futon and grabbed his laptop up off the floor next to the side table. He flipped it open and scrolled through the internet, waiting for his food to be done. The microwave beeped and he moved to get up but was met by a small, blonde girl, just a little too close to his face to be considered socially acceptable.
"Hey, Jean?" She said, voice sweet and innocent.
"Uh, Yeah?" He asked, suspicious.
"Could you...maybe make yourself scarce tonight?" she smiled brightly up at him.
Jean looked at her for a moment, confused. Then realization dawned on him, "Oh. Oh! Oh, gross. Yeah, okay, I'm gone."
Christa's expression brightened even more, "Thanks!" she patted his shoulder roughly before scurrying back to her room to tell Ymir the good news.
Jean pulled out his phone as he walked to the kitchen to grab his hot-pocket. It rang twice before being answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Reiner. You wanna hang out tonight? Christa's got Ymir over."
"Oh, yeah man. No problem. You wanna just come over to my place? Berdtold's here too. "
"Yeah, that fine. Just gimme a minute to get ready. I'll be over in a sec."
"Alright, see you in a bit."
Jean hung up the phone, devoured his food, and changed into more casual, non-work attire. He thought for a second before grabbing his sketchbook for a just-in-case scenario. If they decided to sit down and watch a movie or something, Jean was going to draw during the boring parts. He headed out the door and sent Reiner a quick message that he was on his way.