"Eyyyy Olive, how've you been?" asks a large man pouring coffee beans into a grinder.
"It's been awhile, sorry- you know how finals are George." Olive sighs as she leans up against the counter. She taps the cash register, "can I get two large black coffees and a vanilla been latte? No caffeine in the last one, as usual." The man grins.
"Hey Lukus, get your slow rear over here." George pronounces each syllable trying to make rhyme smoothly. A young man around Olive's age steps out from the back cringing, he looked like he came from the morgue.
"…Are you okay…?" Olive asks tilting her head, "I can… Buy you coffee, if you need it- you look like you could use some brightening up…" this makes the boy look like he's going to cry.
George pats him on the back almost making him fall over and walks over to the cash register, "The doctor told him no more coffee until three months is up." He stage whispers, Olive grimaces.
"you're not being very quite you know…" he grins and she rolls her eyes, " the no caffeine life isn't so bad you know! I'm sure you will be fine." She gives him a cheery smile and he visibly wilts.
"Says the lady who just ordered two black coffees." Luke replies rolling his eyes, "at that rate I don't think I'll ever understand why you went decaf on the vanilla bean…"
"The black coffees aren't mine, they for my two friends. Anyways, you must be new, I haven't seen you around yet." George hands her the bill and she hands him the money, she's done this enough times to have it memorized.
"Did someone say Sean?" Drawls a tall red head as he peaks out from behind the back wall.
"Sean! Where have you been! I've missed you, why did you leave for so long?" Olive hops the counter causing Luke to jump back a scald himself with hot coffee making him look like a kicked puppy. George just sighs as Seans picks her up and swings her around.
"Is she allowed to do that?" Luke hisses in astonishment, he quickly looks around to see if theres any other costumers that might be a witness; there's none.
George nods hesitantly, "sort of, she used to be the manager but she quit to go work at this plant nursery on Lilly St. But she still helps out on busy days, she knows everyone that works here (making it a point to befriend the newbie's), and is a consistent costumer… Basically as long as theres no one else around we generally give her free range.
"hmm, I guess…" George elbows him with a smile
"Cheer up kid, half the time she ends up doing our job for us." He says with a wink.
They both look towards Olive and Sean chattering away like a pair of birds.
"As I said, half the time."
"Well, I have to get to class, it was good seeing you Sean." Olive walks through the gate like how people are supposed to and grabs the coffee holder containing the two black teas and the vanilla bean, "see you guys around!" she says smiling as she walks out the door, the bell attached to the door jingles.
Luke looks at Sean, "are you to dating or something?" he asks as he pulls out a container of ungrounded beans and starts grinding them. Sean raises his eyebrow and snorts
"im already in a relationship, nah, were just good friends." He walks over to Lukes and pinches his cheeks, "doews sowmbdy neewd a goowd fweind?" he coos in his face.
"uhg off, now… over grown lobster…" Luke mutters slipping out of his grasp, Sean laughs.
"wow, never heard that one before! I mean, I know my hair is red but wow. Although…" he eyes Lukes suspiciously and leans down with an evil grin, "as your senior, that would make you a little crawdad! His eyes flash and he wraps his arm around Lukes neck and nuggies him furiously.
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Olive sighs, while talking to Sean did help get her mind off things she couldn't shake off the bad feeling she had felt since whatever it was she dreamed about. Normally she would brush it off but it felt so real, it didn't help that her family was superstitious anyway. If only she could remember what it was about, perhaps then she could make sense of it. She sighs again and looks down at the cobblestone path, it was well worn but clearly taken care of. She loved taking this route to her school, up ahead there was a clear river with fish and lush plants growing around it. Her family often would sit on the big rocks lining it and have a picnic.
"oof."
Olive barely manages to catch the coffees in her hand before they spill everywhere.
"I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention," she exclaims offering her hand out to the stranger. He was wearing a black polka dotted suit with a top hat tipped down to color his eyes. He didn't react and the longer Olive stared at him the more she felt like she was in danger. She casually shifted her stance to be ready to fight, but kept her hand out as not to give anything away.
"Heh…" The strange man snorted, "That won't stop me. Either way, you are not my prey." She felt a hand on her shoulder and chucked the coffee at the man in the suit, spilling the scalding liquid all over him. Before she could turn to punch the owner of the hand he stood up.
"Hey!" he exclaimed. First her eyes noticed the stretch abnormal way his mouth moved, and then she noticed his lack of eyes, if the person behind her was anything like the one in front of her she knew she wouldn't win. She opened he mouth to scream.
"Don't you want to know about your dream?" the man asked still dripping coffee, she felt the hand on her shoulder tighten and could feel their nail digging into her skin and causing her to bleed. She glanced down to find that they were grey with long black nails.
Oh no… Please no…
She knew whose hands those where.
She knew what her dream was.
"The show starts now doesn't it…" she whispered. The man started cackling and his hand slid off her shoulder. She twirled to punch him but upon seeing his face she opted to snap his nose in half. When she went to try though a tentacle wrapped itself around each arm stopping her. She knew it was futile to fight but she tried to squirm her way out anyways. The harder she tried to escape the tighter the tentacles became, with each movement the little bells on the end jingled. When olive cried out the grey clown man stopped laughing.
"LET HER GO- She MINE" He screeched out sounding like nails on a chalk board. Olive took a second to examine her arms only to find that they were already bruising, and then she screamed fire as loud as she possibly could. Both of the men (if you could even call them that) covered their ears and winced. She took the opportunity to run away as fast as she possibly could.
"Wait!" the clown man screeched again, " get back here!" he sounded frustrated and Olive could here his footsteps as he chased her, so she did something unexpected; she jumped into the rushing river and swam with the current. She had the feeling that even if he could win it would be slowly and his heavy clothes would probably drown him anyways, she looked over her shoulder to see if they were still following. The… man… was gone, but the clown was racing along the shore quickly losing ground- he looked furious.
"Laughing jack!" he exclaimed, "that was the deal wasn't it!" he stopped running and eerily stared at her until he was out of sight.
Strange, but it fits.
Olive floated on her back for a long time, class was pointless by now, she didn't have anything for her friends, and her shoulder and arms hurt a lot.
I guess ill just go home, no one would believe story about a grey clown and a man with tentacles, but they would probably believe a story about harassment from a man in a black polka dotted suit and cosplay… yeah, that would work. I guess I'll go to the police station then…
Olive rolled over in the water and got out; she tried to flick the water off of herself to no avail.
Oh well… better than death by any means.
She walked to the police station which was luckily nearby and ignored all the funny looks she got along the way.
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This chapter hasn't been edited, I still need a Beta reader "^-^
So there you have it, splendor man- Is he in it to win it? Lol, keep reading to find out!