Ashley : Humane
6 Hours and twenty minutes. That's how long I had to wait until my date with Spencer. I was excited. I was in a good mood. I was floating. Literally. Donating blood just an hour ago had made me somewhat dizzy and delirious. I glanced down at the band-aid in the crook of my left elbow. It made me smile. I haven't done this in a while.
I know what you're thinking – no, I'm not some sick perverted person who gets off on needles poking my skin. I was more the kind of person who got off on doing something good for humankind. Kyla never understood me, she never understood why I did these things, and despite desperately trying for years to get her to accept me as I am – weird things and all – it suddenly didn't matter anymore what she thought of me. Only one person's opinion of me mattered now. One particular blonde who made my knees weak just at the thought of her.
I couldn't help it. Spencer just made me want to be a better person. I was already studying hard and working hard at making the coffee shop work. But sometimes I felt that I wasn't giving something back to humanity. So I spent this entire morning doing things that made me feel worthy to be on this planet. I donated blood – which I used to do before going to jail, I signed up to a beach-cleanup group, I visited a charity organization to donate some of the money the coffee shop was making to at-risk teenagers.
I enjoyed the psychological impact that Spencer had on me. And in return, it made me want to have a good psychological impact on someone else – indirectly, of course.
But that was not the only reason I did all of these things.
The coffee shop was starting to make a lot more money. The bad tasting coffee beans I'd imported was for a specific reason. Apart from Spencer, who obviously had an agenda to drink the terrible coffee, all my regular customers stuck with me – despite the bad batch of coffee. I'd kept the price the same, but now, when I received my proper coffee beans again, I was able to increase each cup price by a couple of cents, without losing any customers. In fact, they gladly paid more for better coffee. I even gained some new customers.
What I've done wasn't a practical assignment for school, but because I had the coffee shop, I was able to test everything I'd learned and see if it worked in the real world. It also helped me remember things better when I wrote midterms. I knew I was going to ace it.
My concern was what to do with all the additional money. Kyla wasn't the only Davies who could hide things. And even though I wouldn't mind having more money of my own, I yearned to do something good for less fortunate people. Hence the reason I visited the charity organization. I was going to start sending them a cut of the profits after I managed to break even. In return, they would send customers my way. I thought that was quite reasonable.
I smiled as my phone vibrated and I saw who the text message was from.
13: 50 – Spencer : Can't wait to see you tonight xxx
6 Hours and ten minutes… I couldn't help counting down.
13:51 – Ashley : I'm counting down the minutes xoxo
And I was. Spencer made me feel like I existed on this planet. It wasn't just all about racing and cars to her. I mattered – really mattered. I was going to show her tonight just how much she mattered to me too.