Bonnie's PoV
"Are you sure there's a Starfish Drinks near the square?" asked Octavia. "We've been walking this way for hours."
"Via, it's only been five minutes," Bonnie replied. "Roy was able to find it after five minutes of running."
"Ugh, if you say so," she grumbled. Through the busy streets, the two inklings meandered through the crowd, still in search for the coffee shop. Bonnie was pretty positive that she would be able to find it. She has visited it many times, ever since everyone moved to the square to hang out.
A few minutes later, the bitter scent of coffee hit her nose, and she tapped on her friend's shoulder. "I believe we're here," she announced as soon as Via turned around to face her. She looked up at the sign above the glass entryway. In white bold letters, outlined in black, the words read 'Starfish Drinks'. Separating the two words was the well-known logo—a green circle with a stylized starfish inside.
"Hey, you're right!" Octavia exclaimed.
"See," she started, "that didn't take long at all."
They entered Starfish Drinks and then the line. It was the afternoon, and the lunch rush was already coming in. The line was long, as to be expected, and baristas everywhere were running back and forth to make the drinks everyone asked for. To past the time, Bonnie and Via had a rather simple chat, but soon enough, even Bonnie found her patience waning. She looked behind her. Many more people had come in after them, and the line would only get longer. Bonnie frowned, but decided to focus on the menu. They were getting pretty close to ordering by now.
Eventually, a cashier said, "I can help who's next."
"Finally!" Octavia exulted. She grabbed the blue-haired inkling's hand and ran over to that cashier. An amused expression came across the older woman's face. "Yes, yes, I'd like a black coffee, please!"
"And I'd like some iced tea," requested Bonnie.
"Alright." The cashier pressed some buttons, and a number came up on the screen above the cash register. "That will be 1,050 coins."
"I'll pay," the girl with glasses whispered to her friend. She pulled out her wallet, then the requested cash, and slid all the coins over to the cashier. "Here you go."
"Thank you. What's your name, sweetie?" the cashier asked.
"Bonnie," she replied.
"Okay, Bonnie," she started, "We'll call you once the drinks are ready."
"Sounds good." The two inklings went to over to the wall closest to the pick-up area, where they leaned against it.
"Wonder how long this will take," Octavia mused.
"It shouldn't take as long as the line," Bonnie commented, pointing to a group of inklings rushing back and forth between machinery. "They've got plenty of baristas." And, Roy might have already gotten a job here. She smiled. He would hate it if he was here right now.
After roughly ten minutes, one of the inklings at the counter called for Bonnie, sticking a ticket to the top of a white cup with the Starfish Drinks logo. The blue-haired inkling told her friend to wait, and walked up to the pick-up to grab their drinks. The other inkling wished her well, and she returned to Via. She gave her the steaming cup, and she promptly ripped off the ticket and stuck it onto the wet cup. The two teenage inklings sat down at a table to chat.
Once she set down her drink, Bonnie ripped off the ticket and read it. "They spelled my name 'Bonny'," she said blankly.
Octavia snorted. "This is Starfish Drinks, what do you expect? They always mess up names!"
The beige-skinned inkling sipped her iced tea. "I guess you're right."
"So… You think telling Roy to get a job here was a good idea?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "He's always been kind of a sports guy. But." Bonnie paused. "It doesn't hurt for him to try."
"He seemed interested last time I talked to him about it," the bronze-skinned inkling commented. She pulled out her phone to show him the latest conversation they had via text. Basically, it detailed all the ways Roy could mess around with the flow of customers coming in and out of Starfish Drinks, such as purposefully misspelling their names. That is, if he does decide to work here.
"That's actually really interesting," Bonnie said in regards to the texts. "Nothing about long lines?"
"Nothing. He hasn't even mentioned it."
"Maybe he came here when traffic was light," she joked, and then giggled at her own remark.
"Maybe," Octavia repeated. They paused to drink, but then the other inkling's eyes lit up, causing her to wave her hand to get her friend's attention. "Oh, oh! Want to see this new outfit I came up with?"
"Sure," she replied.
"Alright, give me a sec." The wavy-haired inkling set her coffee down on the table to look through her phone. She smiled upon finding it, and turned the phone around to show the contents of the screen to Bonnie. It depicted a dark-skinned inkling wearing a sun dress with floral patterns, alongside a sunflower pin stuck through her hair. She wore ivory sandals. "Pretty, right?"
Bon-Bon took the phone and held it in her hands, examining the image on the screen. "Right," she agreed. She looked up to face Via's orange eyes. "How did you make this? It looks 2D."
"A dress-up game," she replied. "I downloaded it a few days ago, and it's so much fun!"
"What?!" someone suddenly cried. The two inklings stopped their conversation abruptly, looking between each other. Bonnie then looked behind her to see what was going on. A male inkling slammed his hands against the counter, lips curled into a snarl at another employee. "My name is not Sigh-mund! It's Simon!"
"Woah, woah, sorry there," the employee tried to calm him down. He had a side ponytail. "Just an honest mistake. Trust me."
"An honest mistake?!" Simon retorted. "You Starfish Drinks baristas mess up my name all the time! Seriously! My name's so simple. Simon. S-I-M-O-N."
"I'm sorry, sir, but-" The older inkling slapped the employee. His cheek seemed to glow red now. "Ow!" Octavia and Bonnie exchanged glances with each either. This is not going to end well, Bonnie thought. The other inkling touched his hand to his headset and yelled, "Security!"
At that moment, two police officers rushed into the coffee shop. They grabbed Simon, one arm each, and began dragging him out. All in the while, the older inkling was screaming expletives, and he threw his drink to the ground, and immediately did brown liquid spill. The drink tumbled onto a child's foot. The young inkling grabbed his bare foot and began to cry. His mother scooped him up in his arms.
"Now look at what he's done!" the mother cried. "Little Johnny's foot is starting to swell thanks to that coffee!" She ducked under the stanchion and stormed out of the coffee shop, while everyone simply watched in awe at the scene. Once it was done and over with, business went back to normal, and everyone kept chatting and ordering drinks as usual.
Via's orange eyes looked over at Bon-Bon. "What now?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee in the process.
She lifted herself up from her seat, eyes drifting towards the doorway. "I think we should leave." I don't want to hear anything like that for the next month, she silently added. The whole scene that just happened had been a headache for her.
"Good idea." The two inklings stood up and exited the coffee shop, spilling them back onto the streets. They made their way back to the square. By the time they got there, they had finished their drinks, so they threw the cups into a trash can. Octavia leaned on the wall of a shop, while Bonnie held her hands, watching her.
"Do you want to do a turf war?" she asked.
"Do you wanna see the dress-up game I was talking about?" she countered.
"Actually, I do." Bon-Bon went by her friend's side, now getting a look at her phone screen. It was on the loading screen of some game. "Is that it?"
"Yeah." The game finished loading, so the bronze-skinned inkling held out the screen in front of them. "You see, if you press this button…" She pressed the aforementioned button, bringing up a screen with an inkling model, who was only wearing a bikini. "…You can dress up this inkling! Pretty fresh, right?" The blue-haired inkling simply nodded in agreement as Via went on to demonstrate.
Afterwards, Bonnie asked, "…Now can we do a turf war? Please?"
"Sure."
And thus, the two girls walked off towards the tower to play.
A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. I promise Bonnie will get a longer one next time. Well, I don't have anything else to say here, so Branchwing, out!