Can I Get Some Coffee?
Psychic Silver

Hey there! Yet another series for me to start! My muse is really weird, I gotta tell ya! First she sleeps on me when I'm writing, then she sings to me at the most inconvenient of times (aka, when I'm supposed to be in bed, in the middle of class, ect) and when she sings, boy does she sing! I'm still going to do updates for The Priestess And The King so don't worry about that!

I don't own the characters. I only toy with their feelings, attach strings to their bodies and make them act like marionettes for my own amusement. It's quiet enjoyable and therapeutic.

Chapter One

It was an ordinary day when I saw her.

The Starbucks I usually go to was closed down for repairs so I really had no choice but to go to another one farther away from my office. I needed my coffee if I was going to survive another painful three hours with my co-workers. They weren't the easiest people to handle, especially when they all had contradicting personalities.

I walked inside and immediately felt at peace. There was just something about coffee shops that does that to me. The usual coffee shop atmosphere-

"Get your dirty hands off her ass you bastard!"

...Did apparently not get the memo that I needed peace and quiet.

A girl, probably a year or two younger than me, had tackled an old man to the floor while painfully twisting his arms behind his back. A young woman was crying into the arms of another woman who was comforting her. My guess is she had been molested and the employee there had seen it.

Well this was certainly a way to wake up my afternoon.

"Ow!" The old man screamed in pain. "Is this any way to treat a customer?"

"Not when you behave like a pervert to other customers!" She growled. Her sapphire eyes glinted dangerously. She lifted him to his feet, dragged him to the door and threw him out of the shop. I had to step aside to avoid the old man's flailing legs. "Now stay the heck out of here or next time, I'll call the police!" And she slammed the door in his face. Nodding to herself, she clapped her hands like she had just finished some chore. She turned to her audience. Some were cheering, some were wary. I was part of the wary crowd. "Sorry about that folks. We'll get your orders right away." And she took off to do her job.

Meanwhile, I had half a mind to get out of there. The crazy nutcase acted like what just happened happened every day! For all I know, it really does happen every day.

"Next in line please!" Oh boy. I carefully walked up to the counter. She greeted me with a smile. The tag on her apron said her name was May.

A cheerful name for a crazy girl. Wonderful.

"Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you this afternoon?" I gulped. She noticed and rolled her eyes. "Relax Grasshead. You're safe so long as you don't disturb the other customers."

I was still a bit wary, but ordered my regular and quickly made my way to a table far away from the counter.

While I was walking, my hand accidentally brushed a woman's side. I guessed she was still hyped up on what just happened because she immediately yelled, "Pervert!" and tried to slap me. I caught her hand before she could get a hand on me, but May had already made her way over to where we were.

"Is there a problem?" She asked calmly.

The woman yanked her hand away from mine and pointed at me. "This man tried to touch me!"

May shook her head. "I'm afraid you might be mistaken miss."

The woman flushed. "How in the world am I mistaken? He touched my side!"

May was still calm. So far so good. "Because he was almost next to me when I apprehended the pervert earlier. He's been looking at me warily, which means he is nervous. He was also nervous around me while he was ordering his coffee, because he knows what I could do. Anyone in here with a half a brain won't cause any trouble, because they've seen what I can do to them. And he is definitely smart."

The woman was getting desperate. "How do you know he is smart?"

She looked at the panicking woman like it was simple math. "Look at his clothes. They're obviously well made. That shows that he has a high position at work that pays well. His hair is nicely groomed," She looked skeptically at my hair. "Strange color aside, which means he uses nice and expensive products. His briefcase is leather and so is his wallet. Not to mention the logo on there is the symbol of a high-end modeling agency I've heard about in the newspapers."

The woman gulped and reluctantly turned her gaze to me. "Well...it appears I was wrong. I am sorry." She turned to May. "Thank you for helping me straightening that out. I'll be sure and leave an extra nice tip."

May nodded. "That would be appreciated. Thank you miss."

The woman nodded and left. The waitress turned her attention to me and I took the opportunity to talk to her. "Thank you for helping me out. My name is Drew and I'm sorry I was...wary of you earlier."

She waved away my thanks. "My name is May. It's no trouble. I have a...habit of helping people out."

I grinned. "I think I noticed. But I have to thank you anyway. How about I treat you to lunch?"

She shook her head. "I don't take lunch breaks."

Well that was odd. "How about when you get off?"

"I leave at eleven to go to my other job."

...This is insane. "Do you ever sleep?"

"Only on weekends. And on the occasional day off." Well that explained the bags under her eyes.

"May!" She turned to see a girl her age calling her name and waving wildly, just barely avoiding a teenage boy. "C'mon and get your butt over here! Lyra just checked out and Misty isn't coming in for another hour. I need all the help I can get!"

"Coming Leaf!" May tuned back to me. "Sorry. Maybe some other time." And she walked off toward the counter.

Later that night, I couldn't help but think of May. She seemed so fragile, and yet she proved to me and a ton of other people how strong she was. Yet, when I thought of how sad her eyes seemed when she talked about her other jobs, I just couldn't help but think something had happened to her.

Thats why I found myself outside Starbucks at eleven at night.

I nearly banged my head against the steering wheel. Why the heck is she doing this to me? I was usually the one who was pursued instead of pursuing. It's been that way since I was a teenager. I guess I just wasn't used to girls avoiding my charms. I was tall, not exactly dark or mysterious, but still handsome. My chest was an easy six-pack from going to the gym for five years. Strange green hair color aside, I looked like a model. What woman wouldn't run after me?

...May apparently.

At around half past eleven, I saw her coming out from the door of Starbucks with the brunette from earlier. It gave me a minute to observe her. Her brown hair was down from her pony-tail earlier, which showed she had natural pigtails. She was petite, but you could obviously see the muscles she had. Most likely from training. And in the street light, she looked beautiful.

After she hugged the girl, she waved and headed off into the opposite direction. I snapped out of my day-dreaming and pulled my car up beside her. Rolling down my window I greeted her. "Whats up?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I really don't need to deal with this right now. I'm already running late."

I smirked. "Then get in. I'll drop you off to wherever you need to go."

She hesitated for a second before finally shrugging and hopping into my car. As I turned onto Main Street, she ran her hand over the posh leather of her seat. "Nice car. Ashton?"

I nodded. "The latest model. A little...present from one of my admirers."

She raised a brow. "Admirers? Oh, turn here." I complied. "Go down this road until you see Cherry Street. Then take a right. So...admirers huh? And what would they think of me sitting in a car alone with you at night."

"Oh nothing much. Just imagine running you through with a butcher knife."

"...I think I changed my mind. You can let me out here."

I laughed. "It's okay. I was just kidding...mostly."

She shook her head. "I'm going to have nightmares thanks to you. Take a left. It's the building at the end here."

I pulled up to an expensive looking place. The name was Club Explosion in big, flashy, cursive letters. There was quite a line outside, all adults dressed to go clubbing. I raised a brow. "Are you sure you work here?"

"Someone has to serve the rich folk."

I laughed. "Okay then. Just don't be surprised if you see me sitting at a table."

She rolled her eyes and opened the door on her side. "Why would you want drinks at," She glanced at the dashboard. "Eleven thirty at night?"

"To let loose?"

She shook her head. "Whatever. I'll see you later."

And see her later I did. The club was one of those exotic clubs for the rich to spend their money. A multicolored glowing dance floor and a DJ, putting on some of the latest music. The girls were so scantly dressed they flashed everyone whenever they moved. The boys were mostly wearing their pants low with baggy shirts. The place smelled like booze and sex.

I managed to score a seat at the bar where I saw May working. She was wearing a black belly-top with low-waisted, embroidered jeans and ankle boots. Her brown hair was tied in a single ponytail. With her face pulled out of her hair, you could see the multiple piercings she had on both ears. At least six on each ear. Her make-up wasn't as caked on as most of the girls in this place. More of a mysterious, smokey look.

She came over to me before I could call her name. "What are you doing here?" She hissed.

I was confused. "I told you I would see you later."

"I thought you were kidding! Look," Her hold up a hand and starts to speak lower. "Nobody here knows my real name. They all call me Sapphire because of my eyes. So whatever you do, don't say my name."

I sighed. "If you have to hide your identity, why do you work here?"

She shrugged and started mixing some drinks. "So long as I can pay my rent, I'll do any job."

"Even be a prostitute?"

She stopped pouring something. I recognized that dangerous look in her eyes. "Are you suggesting something?"

I quickly shook my head. "Not at all. But-"

"I'm not a prostitute. I have never slept with anyone for money and I intend to keep it that way, even if some of these assholes try and change it."

As if proving her point, a fat, balding man came up to her and patted her shoulder. But I could see his fingers linger a little longer than they should have. "Sapphire! Good to see you're working so hard." He turned to me. "And who is this?"

"Drew." I introduced myself before she could. "Drew Hayden. I'm a friend of Sapphires."

His brows shot up. "I've heard about you from the newspapers! It's a...pleasure to meet you." His voice strained as he said pleasure, like meeting me was anything but.

May quickly turned the conversation back to her. "W-Was there something you needed sir?"

As he turned his attention away from me, I couldn't help but mentally sigh in relief.

"Ah yes!" He dug into his pockets and pulled out a thick envelope. "A customer came by and asked my to give this to you. He said your drinks were delicious and he felt your service was excellent. Keep up the good work Sapphire." And he walked away.

Her eyes lit up like fireworks as she opened the envelope to reveal a stack of fifties and a note. "Sweet! I can get my rent in with just this!" She noticed a note sticking out of the pile and read it. The smile turned into a scowl and she slammed the note down. "That asshole!"

I picked up the note and read it out loud. " 'Thanks for your excellent service Sapphire. You certainly gave me the time of my life just by talking to you. If you'd like to do a little more than talk, here's my number. Call me soon.' He didn't even offer his name?"

She massaged the bridge of her nose while she stirred something. "I really hate this place, but unfortunately most of the tips are like this. I usually ignore them."

I shook my head, disgusted. "How can you stand this?"

She shrugged and handed me my drink. "I have to live somehow. And we live in an expensive world Drew. The only thing I got my degree in was bar-tending and that just opened doors to places like this. We can't all have perfect jobs. Some of us just have to do what we have to do to survive."

What scared me most wasn't what she said, but how she said it.

It was like she had seen the world go up in flames and it was her fault.

Hours later I was waiting for her, again, while she packed up and came outside. It was currently five in the morning, I felt like crap and I was tired as hell. The three drinks I had probably didn't help.

I had stayed in the same stool for the past six hours to fend off the guys who tried to miserably flirt with her. She mostly shooed them away, but when they tried to touch her, that's when things got a little ugly. There were security guards there so whenever some punk felt brave enough to try and touch her, a guard was usually there to put a stop to it. Usually the unlucky guys were either drunk or stupid.

She spotted me and ran up to me with an amused look on her face. She had changed out of her work ensemble to Uggs and sweats.

"Tired?"

I nodded and yawned. "I respect you so much right now. How do you stay awake?"

"Lots of coffee, lots of energy drinks and a ton of loud music." She looked skeptically at me. "You know you're in no condition to drive right?"

I yawned, probably for the tenth time that minute. "But how will you get home?"

"I'll drive."

"No way." I immediately shot her down.

She pouted and it took all my will not to fall over right there and then. Thankfully she had changed out of her work outfit so it didn't look as seducing. "Why not? I'm certainly more capable of driving than you are. You look like you're about to collapse."

And I felt it too. "Yeah, but how will you get home if you drive?"

She shrugged. "I'll walk."

"And if you live far away?"

"I'll take the bus or the train."

"There is no bus station near my house and the train operates during daylight hours only."

"...Curse you." She sighed. "How about I drive to my apartment and then you can drive yourself home?"

"Deal." At this point, I was so tired I could barely keep myself standing up. It was a nice relief to lay down against the nice interior of soft leather. Then a thought struck me. "You do know how to drive right?"

She stared at me.

"Right. Just checking."

She rolled her eyes and started the car. I couldn't help myself any longer and fell asleep listening to the sound of her muttering about what an idiot I was.