I'm back with another cute story. I hope you guys will like it? Remember to tell me what you think!
Eren works part-time at the local smoothie bar after school and on weekends.
He serves annoying, whiny customers and the occasional flirtatious girls with long, pretty hair and nice curves. He hates working there, but it was located close to his school, Recon College, and offered a high enough salary per hour. The Freiheit Smoothie Bar is popular among the people in the area, and was always crowded, except during closing time at ten where Eren gets to bring home leftover fruits that aren't too fresh anymore but were still edible. Eren loved that part about the job, and usually brought home fruits for Mikasa and Armin, his two housemates who were also his childhood friends. All three of them went to Recon College.
On a particularly sunny Monday afternoon, Eren rushes in, adjusting his black-rimmed glasses and pulling on the green apron after he shrugs off his black jacket and throws it hastily on the chair in the storeroom where the workers had small lockers to keep their belongings. All workers were required to wear a black shirt and a black pair of pants or jeans, and were also allowed to store their clothes in the lockers. His locker had his name on the white card stuck on it, and next to it was a small idiot scribbled on it, thanks to Jean. Jean's locker was no better, though - Eren had scribbled horseface next to his name.
He bumps fists with Connie and smacks Jean lightly on the head as a greeting. Connie is busy trying to chat up a brown-haired girl at the side counter while the blender works slowly. Jean was checking his phone after every ten seconds. Eren supposes that he and Marco had a fight again. Those two were always disagreeing when it came to Jean having to juggle studies and work. Marco was a student at a private, more expensive college, studying to become a veterinarian. Jean attended Recon College with Eren, and majored in Aerospace Engineering.
Eren takes orders for the next customer, a girl with blonde hair and icy blue eyes, and quickly slips on a pair of plastic gloves, then chops up a pear and drops it into the blender, along with a little water and some ice, and presses the blend button and waits patiently. Jean hands the customer her change and watches as she grabs a blue straw and waits patiently at the side counter, just behind the girl who Connie was currently handing a cup of honey lemon crush to. The brown-haired girl had left after she had received her drink, it seemed, but Eren guesses from Connie's wide smile that he had finally gotten her number.
The three continue to work and nothing eventful happens, but Eren finds a tip at one of the seats and happily places it into the white tip box at the counter.
It is Tuesday morning, and Eren is at the smoothie bar as usual, seven in the morning, and already serving a few customers at the counter. He is in charge of taking orders and the cash register today, while Reiner was in charge of the drinks. It was not a very crowded day, and Eren was glad that he had some time to finish his music homework before his twelve p.m. class, where Jean would take over his shift. Mikasa and Armin had already stopped by for a strawberry smoothie and a green apple crush respectively, and had left for their eight a.m. class.
It was just then that Eren looks up and sees a customer walk in, and he smiles and greets the man - who was at least a few centimetres shorter than him, and was dressed in a neatly ironed white formal shirt and black pants. If it was not for the fact that he looked very intimidating, Eren would have gladly accepted the fact that this stranger is attractive.
"One apple and celery smoothie," he orders, and hands Eren the money without waiting, tapping his shoes against the marble flooring impatiently as Eren fumbles with the cash register, which seemed to have the habit of not responding when Eren was using it. Finally getting it to open the cash drawer, he slips in the ten dollar note and pulls out a five dollar bill and a dollar coin and hands it back to the shorter man, who accepted it and moved to the side.
"May I have your name?" Eren asks the man, holding up the cup and a permanent marker in his hand.
"Levi," the man replies, while looking at his expensive-looking watch. Eren scribbles down the name, hoping that he had spelt it right, and draws a cute smiley face next to it.
It takes a minute for Reiner to blend the chopped apple and celery up, and when he finally pours the drink into the cup and hands it to Eren, Eren turns back to the side counter to see Levi impatiently looking at his watch again.
"Here," Eren says as he hands the drink over. "Have a nice day, Levi!"
"Thank you, brat," the man - Levi - says, before grabbing the drink and rushing out of the door.
Eren smiles absent-mindedly and wonders why Levi hadn't called him by his name - they all had white name tags pinned to their apron - but looks back down at his music homework when he sees no one else enter the shop.
Wednesday classes were always fun. Eren had classical music studies in the morning with Petra Ral, a sweet and kind lecturer who was rumoured to be dating one of the other lecturers in the Information Technology section, and then one of his electives, Essential Japanese, which was also a class that Armin and Mikasa took. Armin majored in Historical Research and Travel while Mikasa majored in Creative Writing and Language. Eren had sat at his usual place in the lecture hall, with his two best friends seated on his left and right, and had unknowingly zoned out, thinking back to the short, black-haired man he had served at the smoothie bar on Tuesday.
It was four in the afternoon when he is finally freed from class, and was walking to the Freiheit Smoothie Bar when he bumps into someone. Eren bends down quickly and picks up the fallen papers, and when he looks up to hand the stranger the papers, he sees Levi staring back at him.
"Levi, right? Sorry about that," he says, embarrassed, and hands the papers back to the shorter male. Levi glares at him but say nothing as he slots the papers back into the plastic folder.
"Watch where you're going, brat," Levi says after that, and walks away, his green coat flapping majestically behind him.
"It's Eren, not brat!" Eren shouts back, and Levi simply waves with the back of his hand and continues to walk away.
Eren muses and decides that Wednesday was indeed a good day while he serves two regular customers – Ymir and Krista – their low-fat mango smoothies.
Thursday morning found Eren at the bar, manning the cash register with a very happy Jean blending drinks, which probably meant that he and Marco had solved whatever issue they had. Eren grins and bumps fists with Connie who had approached the counter with an even wider smile on his face.
"Dude, Sasha and I are meeting during break for lunch!" Connie announces, and Eren laughs and tells him not to screw up on his first date with the brown-haired girl who Connie had been crushing on for weeks since she first entered the Freiheit Smoothie Bar. Connie grins, and the trio work in comfortable silence for the next three hours.
Levi enters at noon - lunch break for Connie, who had slipped out of the green apron and asked Eren to help cover for him. Eren smiles at Levi who walks to the counter, a frown on his face and in his hands a black leather wallet.
"Hey Levi," Eren greets with a smile, heart pounding a little too quickly for his liking, and Levi nods in acknowledgement. "What would you like to have?"
"Apple and celery smoothie," Levi says, and hands Eren the money. Behind him, Jean sets to work while Eren hands Levi his change and writes his name on the cup, a smiley face next to it again. Eren thinks about trying to talk to Levi to get to know him better, but a regular customer – Bertholt – walks up, and Eren gets back to work.
Levi walks out the door after he gets his drink, before Eren can even talk to him.
It's Friday night, and Eren is fiddling with the speakers, turning up the volume when the laptop wired to it plays out sweater weather, and he hums to it unconsciously and sways to the music. Jean takes a Snapchat video of it and sends it to everyone in his contacts list. Armin sends back a video of him laughing, and Marco sends back a video of him singing the line so let me hold both your hands in the holes of my sweater, and Jean blushes bright red. Connie sings along and both he and Eren have a little dramatic dance party with the mop while other customers watch in amusement, and Jean facepalms but smiles as he sings softly under his breath as well.
Levi bursts in a minute later, dressed in a black sweater and black jeans, and Eren blushes bright red and continues mopping the floor, face burning. Levi narrows his eyes, and seemed to be preventing a smile from showing on his face, but says nothing.
Connie catches on with the situation and laughs for the next ten minutes while Jean hands Levi his apple and celery smoothie.
"You have a crush on that guy," Connie says on Saturday, while they were at the counter. Eren is taking a half an hour break behind the counter, busy studying for his music theory test that he has next Tuesday, and Jean is busy blending drinks using all three blenders, occasionally letting out a curse at Eren for taking a break to study at such a timing. Eren nearly spits out the green apple and pineapple ice crush he's drinking, and Connie grins from ear to ear and resembles the Cheshire cat from a minute as Eren tries to explain that no, he does not have a crush on Levi, how could he have a crush on someone who liked celery in his drink?
The little bar is crammed with customers while the air conditioner is blasting at the lowest temperature. It is hot outside and Eren feels the heat seep in every time a new customer enters. He fiddles with his black-rimmed glasses again while Connie continues to take orders from the customers, and it is not till an hour later when the crowd dissipates and there are a few empty tables. Eren is manning the counter again, and looks back down at his notes when there are no customers around.
Sasha walks in confidently and approaches the counter, her brown ponytail swishing behind her and her black creepers making little thumps, drops in a two dollar bill into the blue box next to the white tip box, and uses the laptop to find a song that she likes. They charge two dollars per song, and five for three songs to be played in the bar on the speakers.
She switches on Last Friday Night, and grins as she walks away to talk to Connie who immediately dumps the mop aside to give her a long hug. Eren remembers Friday night with him dancing with the mop and Levi walking in on it, and slams his face into his notes, embarrassed.
Jean, Connie and Sasha laugh for a good twenty minutes this time. Damn Connie must have told Sasha about last Friday night.
"Apple and celery smoothie?" Eren asks when Levi is there at the counter again - Jean and Connie had pushed him to the order station when they saw Levi walking in. Eren was positive that Jean was smirking behind him, and he could hear Connie's excited laughs that he covered up with fake coughs.
Levi nods, and places the money in Eren's outstretched right hand. His fingers brushes against Eren's palm lightly, and Eren swears he is blushing like a hormonal high school girl now. His face is hot and his fingers tremble a little, but he manages to keep up a smile while he writes Levi's name on the cup, a customary smiley face next to it. Connie sees the smiley face and laughs again before coughing, because it was definitely the first time he had ever seen Eren draw a smiley face on a cup.
Levi lingers at the side counter, and Eren adjusts his glasses again (Connie called them geeky glasses, to which Eren replied saying that he had really bad eyesight and it was not just for show.)
"Here," Eren says as he hands over the cup to Levi. This time, the other man does not leave immediately, but instead sits at one of the tables near the counter, sipping from his red straw while he fiddled with his phone. Eren could faintly see the outline of an Instagram page, and laughs when he thinks about Levi posting cutesy selfies. Almost as if Levi had read his mind, the black-haired man had turned around to scowl at him, and Eren immediately gets to work again.
The routine continues. Eren wakes up, goes to school, rushes his assignments and mugs for the occasional test at the bar, and serves whiny, impatient and indecisive customers.
It was a Monday morning when Levi bursts through the doors again, and Eren turns bright red and adjusts his black-rimmed glasses, greets the other man with a smile and blends together an apple celery smoothie.
Connie laughs at him from the back, and Jean is sniggering as Eren hands Levi the drink, fingertips touching again. Levi smirks this time and asks Eren for his number, and with trembling hands, Eren writes his number down on a white napkin with the permanent marker he always uses to write names on cups with.
Eren hated serving whiny, impatient customers at the Freiheit Smoothie Bar. He used to think that bringing home leftover fruits was his favourite thing about the job, but now it's that he gets to see Levi every day when he's on his shift. Levi sticks to apple celery smoothies, and Eren sticks to writing love songs for his music assignments behind the counter.
And damn right he liked working at the Freiheit Smoothie Bar.