"Hey, Nico? Are we busy tonight?" Rachel asked, stirring her cereal. Her hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, and she was wearing a pair of flared jeans with an orange flannel shirt.

"I've got work today, but nothing after 4. Why?" He looked out the window, where tiny shoots of grass were shooting up in the window box. It was a warm March.

"Well, we've been invited to a barbecue with some people from camp. Do you want to go?" She took a bite of her cereal, Lucky Charms.

"Hmm." Nico weighed his options. He could avoid all the camp kids- well, adults, forever, or he could suck it up.

"I don't know, Rach," he said, looking purposely away from her and staring uncomfortably at the plant. It shriveled up a little (he did that to plants) and he panicked, seeing Rachel eyeing him warily. He looked away, and she made eye contact.

"Damn." He muttered, realizing that he couldn't avoid the question. "Why don't I make you something instead?" he pleaded, grabbing her hands. She rolled her eyes and pouted.

"But Nico," she batted her eyelashes at him, "I don't want your food today! You feed me all the time! I want someone else's food."

He sighed, and got up. "Ok. Where is this place?" He asked her, giving in to her commands, as she knew he would.

"Just meet me here after work. We'll take the subway to the party, then we can shadow travel back."

Nico nodded. "Ok. If I get bored, though, I'm leaving."

"Of course you are. See you later." She blew him a kiss and he just waved at her as he walked outside the apartment door and slammed it shut.

Rachel waited a minute, then cheered. "PAARRTYY!" She got up and started to dance in her kitchen. A shadow began to form in the corner, but she didn't notice.

"Umm… Rachel?" Nico looked from the corner he'd just traveled into at Rachel doing some freaky happy dance.

"Oh." She blushed, and sat down. "I'm just excited. I never go anywhere."

"Ok." Nico nodded. "I'm just gonna grab my wallet, then I'll go… again."

"Ha… Ha." Rachel tried to laugh, but it just sounded like an animal was stuck in her throat trying to escape.

"Yeah. Bye, Rach. See you later." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and shadow traveled back out of the apartment.

As soon as he left, Rachel looked around.

"Whoo." She whisper yelled, lifting her arms so that her fists were level to her face.

Line

"Hey, Rhonda." The bells on the door jangled as Nico made his way into work, and he pushed the hair off his face before Rhonda could even give him a second glance.

"Well, hello, Nico," Rhonda smiled, and she beckoned for him to come behind the counter with her. "How's it been?"

"Pretty crazy," he answered truthfully, grabbing an orange apron and pulling it over his head. With his black clothes underneath, it seemed as he were one of those Halloween enthusiasts, and he occasionally would wear a different color shirt, such as grey or some other dark shade, to dissuade enthusiastic freshmen or high school anime club members from bothering him as he worked.

Ever since his attempt to work the cash register, Rhonda had demoted him to just preparing the drinks, though the pay remained minimum wage and tips.

"Well, you are not gonna believe what just came in today!" Rhonda shouted, even though they were 5 feet apart.

"What?" Replied Nico, knowing perfectly well that it was the fancy espresso machine she'd been talking about for the past couple months.

"It's the EspressoPlux 3000! It finally came! Nico, this deserves a Frappuccino, on the house! Whooee mama!" She yelped, and bustled back into the freezer to get the special whiskey they'd put in the doublemint frappucinos when it was employees only. There were only two employees.

"Rhonda," Nico shouted back to her. A moment later, her head poked out of the freezer door, a layer of frost mysteriously covering her dreads. "I'll pass on the whiskey right now. I'm going to a get together later, and I have a feeling that I don't need any more alcohol today."

Rhonda nodded slowly and came out from the freezer, slamming the heavy door shut behind her.

"I get it, and I support your decision… but you realize that it just means more for me, right?" Nico nodded. "There's no going back now, no asking for more, because if you do, it'll be too late. I'll already have drunken it all. You hear me?" Nico laughed at the seriousness on her face.

"Yes, and I support your decision to become intoxicated at 9:30 AM." She sighed and slipped the glass bottle under the counter with all the other flavored syrups.

"I guess I can wait till after 4…" She moaned, and Nico gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

Just then, the first customer walked in, a young man with sandy blonde hair and a goatee, signaling the beginning of a new day.

Line

"Order UP!" Nico shouted, pushing the freshly made sweet&salty frappuccino onto the bar, where it was quickly snatched up and taken by a thirsty/hungry person.

"So… are you, like, barista?" A slightly nasally voice broke the machine silence of Nico's morning.

He turned around to see a girl in a blue wig (it was that obvious) drumming her hands on the counter.

"Yes." He went back to his current order, a children's chocovanilla hot cocoa. He poured milk into a smallish mug and put it in the microwave, pressing the 1 minute button as he forced the teeny door closed.

"But isn't that a girl?" She asked, straightening the wig on her head. Nico looked up at her, and she was also wearing a slightly slutty 'schoolgirl' outfit. What was that word again… cosgame? Cos, umm, party? No, it was, umm… Cosplay!

"No. A barista is a male or female." Nico busied himself with wiping off the machines.

"Oh. So, what grade are you in?" She asked, leaning over the edge to try and see Nico a little clearer, but her wig slid and she jerked back up, only to have it fall behind the bar and onto the floor. Her hair was an over-dyed black, with the roots a mousy brown.

"I'm a sophomore at NYU." He picked up the wig and handed it back to her. She blushed, and took it back with one hand while covering her mouth with the other.

"Oh." (insert giggle here) "I'm a sophomore too. I go to Steiner." She batted her eyes at him a little, and the microwave beeped, so she took the time of him turning his back (not that he was actually talking to her or even looking at her) to put the wig back on.

"Isn't that the high school a couple blocks over?" He asked, realizing that he recognized the name. Meanwhile, he was also grabbing the chocolate powder from under the counter and mixing it into the drink.

The girl nodded eagerly, and in her excitement, her large bag with the obnoxious cartoon character on it fell behind the bar and hit Nico. He was putting a hand down to grab the vanilla syrup when the bag hit him, and in his distraction, he grabbed the whiskey, not the vanilla, and hastily poured it in the drink before topping it off with a generous serving of whipped cream and shouting to the patrons of the coffee shop.

He handed it back to her, and she blushed. He, on the other hand, was not amused.

"Listen, kid, are you gonna buy anything? Cause if you're not, I'm gonna ask you to leave."

She looked up at him, trying for that innocent puppy look, but with the eyeliner, it looked more like evil raccoons scavenging for food.

"I was hoping you'd buy me one, you know…" She closed her eyes dramatically, and Nico guffawed at the blatant, naïve, and 'oh-so-high school' approach the girl was taking.

"Listen, kid. You seem nice, but I'm an adult, you're a kid, and I've got a girlfriend. It was nice to meet you, but get the heck out of the shop if you're not buying anything." The girl huffed, and shuffled out of the store in her too-big 'combat' boots.

"Nico, vanilla frappuccino!" Rhonda broke his reflection with an order. He mixed the ice and the milk, and was about to pour in the liquids from the bottle left on the counter behind the bar when he realized that it wasn't the vanilla, but the whiskey. He made that discovery, actually, when a kid puked all over the floor not too far from the bar, causing patrons and employees to cringe.

"Whoops."

Line

Once the people had been cleared out, the mess cleaned up (by yours truly), and the floor and surrounding surfaces disinfected, Nico sat down, mop in hand.

"Rhonda, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to. It was just, that one really annoying girl was distracting me, and I didn't realize it until it was too late."

Rhonda took a deep breath and crossed over to where Nico was.

"Now, I'm not mad, but I think we've got to be more careful next time."

She sat down next to him and placed a hand on his knee.

"Nico, I'll see you tomorrow. 9:00, ok?" He nodded, and took off the apron. He slung it on the bar and gave a haphazard wave as he stepped out of the store, grabbing his hoodie.

He went out into the sunlight and flipped his hood up. He ran into the shadows of a tree on the edge of campus and disappeared.