Mended

Love is life,
and if you miss love...
You miss life.

I.

I stared at the plastic tip jar in front of me, chin resting on my hand. The lined notebook paper taped to the front of it was on the verge of peeling off and floating to the ground.

Tearing my eyes away from the barely filled jar, I continued to spray and wipe down a booth until my concentration was broken by someone calling for a waitress. Mentally groaning, I reluctantly trudged my way over to a table that consisted of high school girls snickering and whispering to each other. The typical gaggle of mean girls.

"Hi, my name is Sakura, and I'll be your server," I said in a sickeningly sweet voice as I reached for the pen in my apron pocket. "Can I start you guys off with anything to drink?"

Suddenly, the bells of the coffee shop rang violently. The person responsible for creating the noise had slammed the door open and broodingly stormed over to an empty table, not caring who stared. It seemed as if a dark cloud of rain would appear out of nowhere and hover over his head menacingly.

"Well," one of the girls began, "forget bringing me a drink, bring me that guy!" she told me, giggling. I must have missed out on the punchline because while her group of friends joined in on the laughter, I stood, unamused.

"Can I start you guys off with anything to drink?" I repeated through my gritted teeth, noting how these girls reminded me of the bitchy girls I went to school with last year.

The same teenager that made the joke pursed her lips when I interjected in on her fun.

"Three low-cal cappuccinos," she said snootily.

Nodding, I turned and started to head back to the counter, grateful that the whole interaction was over with.

I dotted my 'i' in 'cappuccino' before sticking the note among various others, both new and old from today, on a spindle. I voiced the order to the chefs in the back and let my eyes scan over the shop. The guy who slammed the door still hadn't gotten his order written down, and my coworker, Tenten, was nowhere to be found.

She's probably in the bathroom again... I thought, grabbing the hazelnut coffee that came out of the kitchen window. Quickly reading the order note attached to the front of it, I dropped it off at the 3rd table on my way to the gloomy man.

"Hi! My name's Sakura, is there anything I can get you?" I chirped in an overly sweet voice. Boy, was I getting tired of asking that.

He ignored me. The man didn't even respond once I repeated my question, and I furrowed my eyebrows, annoyed.

"Order up!" Ring-ring.

"Uhm, when you're ready you can..." my statement trailed off when I noticed that he wasn't listening to me, fixated on the laminated menu.

I tapped my pen on my notepad before sluggishly walking over to the order window. I took the three cappuccinos that were placed neatly on a black tray and made my way back over towards the group of teenage girls.

"Here y'go," I said, voice polite just like the smile on my face, but they didn't notice or care because they didn't thank me when I placed their order on the table. They were too focused on the broody guy.

Rolling my eyes, I walked over to the man once more and asked if he was ready to order just as Tenten appeared out of the corner of the worker's room.

"Black coffee, nothing else," he told me, curtly.

Blinking, I wrote down his order and booth number as I went over to the counter and stuck the note on the spindle, voicing the order as always.

"Who's that guy?" Tenten inquired, opening the cashier. I didn't even have to ask who she was talking about because I already had an idea.

"How should I know?" I shrugged, glancing back at the man for a moment. "He's kind of a jerk anyway..."

She snorted. "I mean, he's hot, Sakura." Tenten's hands reached under the table for the quarter rolls, grabbing a few of them. "The stereotype says that all hot guys are jerks," she joked, starting to undo the flaps of the skinny cylinder sticks

"That's stupid," I said.

"You're stupid."

"Your face is stu—"

"Order up!" Ring-ring. "And stop fighting, it's annoying."

I glowered at Tenten before laughing and nudging her playfully.

The bells of the entrance door rang again, and I nearly did a double take when a bunch of teenage boys stampeded their way into the coffee shop, shirts stained with dirt and grass. From what I could decipher, they were a football team and by the ecstatic look on their faces, they won a game.

"Good luck," I quietly muttered to Tenten as the team took a place in one of the large booths in her designated area. I snatched the mug with steaming black coffee from the order window.

While striding my way over to the lone man's table, I was oblivious to one of the football players that were walking backwards, talking to his team.

The boy bumped into me, his back crashing into my side and his legs tripping over mine. The coffee on the plate tipped side to side before it landed on the angry man's shirt. If possible, he looked even angrier.

"Shit!" the football player cried, hopping off me in an instant. He pulled me to my feet quickly enough that I felt a head rush coming on but waved it off in order to take care of the man who I just spilled coffee on.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I apologized with wide eyes, grabbing the napkins from the center of the table. I started dabbing the stack on the wet area, but it was to no avail because he stood up in a flurry, shooting me a hard look.

"Please, sit down!" I pleaded, standing with him as I placed a hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off with a scowl.

"Dude!" the football player snapped, puffing out his chest, "she said she was sorry, stop being such an asshole! It was my fault anyway."

I watched the man disregard our words and go out the door in silent, raging anger, as if the scalding coffee didn't affect him at all. The exit door shook as he shut it with a crash.

The cafe fell silent for a moment, and all eyes fell on me. The football player picked up the, thankfully, intact mug off the floor, side stepping the sticky drink.

"I apologize for crashing into you, I really didn't mean to," he told me sincerely, bending down again to pick up the black tray.

Muffled laughter and the scraping of chairs against the floor was heard behind us and I knew that it was from the girls. It was obvious that the only reason they stayed was because of the man that I spilled coffee on. Now that he was gone, they had no reason to linger.

Bells were heard as they left.

"I—It's okay," I replied shakily. My boss was going to give me an earful.

"No," he frowned deeply as Tenten walked over to us with a mop. She quietly gave me a pitying glance before she started mopping up the mess. "It's not okay. He shouldn't have treated you like that," the boy said.

Slowly, everyone in the cafe went back to their conversations, but I'm sure that I was a newly found topic for it. Taking the mug and tray from the boy, I pocketed the money the girls left on the table and went into the kitchen, ignoring the stare that the workers in there gave me. I placed the coffee covered objects in the sink before walking out.

The guy who bumped into me was sitting on a stool by the counter near the cash register, apparently waiting for me.

I rose an eyebrow at him and walked over to the register.

"I'm Kiba," he stated with a grin.

"Sakura," I said as I placed the money from the girls in the register. When silence fell between us again, I continued to restock the quarters that Tenten never finished.

"College tip jar?" Kiba asked, reading off the paper taped to the plastic jar. "Someone's going?" he asked.

Appreciating his effort at small talk, I gave him a barely perceptible smile.

"That'd be me," I said, getting the dime roll. "I'm in community college. I'm just trying to save up to go to a better one."

"I see."

There was the sound of coins being dropped and I looked over to see Kiba dropping a twenty dollar bill and change into the bucket.

He looked at me with another charming smile and my cheeks suddenly heated up. I looked away.

—

I waved goodbye to Kiba and Tenten as I walked out of the cafe. It was already the end of my shift, but I didn't notice until Tenten pointed it out. She said that Kiba and I were apparently "too into each other", but all we did was have short conversations in between the small breaks I got when taking and giving out orders.

With my right hand, I opened my car door, and with my left hand, I brought the mochachino that I ordered up to my lips to take a sip. It was already around six and the cafe closed at nine.

Soon, the engine of my old, worn-out car started up with a little bit of coaxing and I was on my way home.

After a few minutes, I pulled up into the driveway of my house and entered it not soon after. I kicked my shoes off in the hallway and took another sip of my drink.

"Mom, I'm home!" I called out.

"Oh! I'm in the kitchen, sweetie!"

The smell of cooked food wafted in the air and I inhaled deeply, following the scent.

"How was work?" she asked, grabbing spices from the cabinets.

"It was alright," I replied offhandedly. "Call me when dinner's ready, please."

I didn't bother to tell her about me spilling coffee on a stranger because to be honest, I didn't really want her to make a huge deal out of it.

Heading up the stairs, I opened the door to my room and fell on my bed, sighing contently when the plush fabric of the mattress sheets met the knots in my back.

My hand reached over to the dresser near my lamp, picking up a sheet of folded paper. I stared longingly at the college brochure but then my eyes landed on the tuition.

I rolled over in my bed and screamed into a pillow.

Slow start, but it'll get better. Stories ALWAYS start off slow.

Review so I'll continue!