Ren didn't know what he expected walking into his favorite coffee shop, not a mile from his dorm.
Scratch that. He knew exactly what he was expecting.
He was expecting the same barista that was always working at 2 AM. A dark-skinned, shaggy haired, theatrical arts major with the body of a greek god; despite Jonas telling him it would be someone else tonight. What he got was a girl with a striking resemblance to the usual barista, but with bright blue hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Not that he was complaining, she was equally, if not more, attractive than Michael.
He recognized her from his studio art class. She sat pretty far from him in that class but it was hard to miss a girl with hair so bright it's practically glowing. When he walked in, she had been leaning on the counter, half-asleep presumably, but the second the bell on the door rang she was standing upright and smiling.
"What can I get you, sir?" For someone who was practically sleeping on the job not a minute ago, she sounded pretty lively.
"Just one, uh, one large cinnamon-walnut coffee cake," so maybe he was a little dazed.
Usually it was just a coffee run on Thursdays, but in this case it was a munchies run. The girl raised an eyebrow at him and smirked before turning around.
"Munchies?"
"Uh, uh huh," Ren heard her chuckle before replying, "Reginald, right? From Mrs. James' class?"
He nodded, "Just Ren, please."
"No problemo, Ren," he could hear the smile in her voice, "I'm Alex."
She turned around, without the coffee cake. Was she making it from scratch or something? He didn't really want to take longer than necessary, his roommate, had a bad habit of accidentally breaking things when alone. Alex cleared her throat, distracting him.
"So, do you normally go out for munchies at 2 AM when there's big exams the next day? Or is this just a one time thing?"
Fuck, he knew he forgot something.
He groaned, but Alex chuckled again, "Don't worry, if we fail, we fail together."
He let out another groan and laid his head down on the counter. Ren felt Alex patting his shoulder, "Sorry this is taking so long, by the way. Michael took the last ones with him when he left for his date earlier."
Moving so he could look up at her but keep his head down, Ren raised an eyebrow, "A date on a Thursday at 2 AM?"
"Well, it's more of a going-away party for one of his girlfriends," she was probably not going to elaborate, but Ren sitting up with a puzzled expression pushed her to do so.
"Nona's like, going study abroad or something for a while. So, Michael and Clarissa are just going to be spoiling her until she leaves tomorrow. And apparently the cinnamon-walnut coffee cakes are her favorite or something, so he took the last four."
The timer went off behind her, "I didn't expect anyone, let alone some cute stoner to come in looking to buy anything, so I didn't make any."
She faced him now with a small box for the pastry, she smiled when she caught his faint blush, "Oh."
After getting the receipt and paying, Ren hastily left, waving back at Alex as the door shut behind him. She was smiling brightly. He looked down at the receipt and saw a phone number scribbled on the back
'Text Me 3 - Alex'
Hopefully his blush would go away before he was at the dorm, because god forbid Jonas find out that he's got a crush on the new barista at the coffee shop.
Much to Ren's hopes, his face was no longer flushed from the encounter. But when he walked into the dorm, Jonas managed to grab, not only the pastry box, but the receipt as well.
He smirked down at Ren, "Barista gave you her number, huh? How cute was she? I bet she was taller than you."
Ren's face was in his hands, "Oh my god, Jonas."
"Oh, you totally dig her back, don't you?"
"She's in my studio arts class. The one with blue hair that's practically friends with everyone?"
"Alex? She's in my intro to film writing class," Jonas made eye contact with Ren, "You should text her. Like right now."
"What? No!"
"Yeah, dude. She gave you her number and there's a 98% chance she's not going to have anything else to do until her shift's over."
"It's like almost 3 AM now, I'm not texting her, Jonas."
Jonas shrugged, snatching Ren's phone out of his pocket, "Fine, then I'll do it for you."
Ren tackled the taller of the two, "Jonas, no!"
He was practically cackling, out of all the people to have a knack for figuring out his passwords, it's Jonas.
"Hey...Alex...it's...Ren...what's...up...smiley face," Jonas read out the text as he typed, holding the phone just out of reach for Ren.
"Oh my god, Jonas!"
Before Alex replied, Jonas started typing a new message, Ren jumping trying to grab the phone back.
"Wanna...catch...a movie...some...time...winky face."
He gave the phone back to Ren, who sighed as he read the messages. The phone went off and startled him, he nearly dropped the phone. Jonas peered over his shoulder, "What'd she say?"
Ren just stared at his phone screen, Jonas smiled again, "Looks like you got a hot date Saturday."
"As thankful as I am of that, Jonas," Ren turned to face his roommate, "Don't ever fucking do that again."
Jonas shrugged again, "I'm not promising anything."