Chapter 4 – Invitation Ove Spilt Coffee

xx

I felt suddenly tired as I sat down at the table we decided to take. I wasn't really that surprised, considering the amount of thinking I had done over the past hour or so. And a coffee was all I wanted at that point.

"You alright Gwen?" Zoey asked as she sat down on the couch opposite.

"Uh… yeah, I guess so." I replied with a laugh, looking up. "All that thinking has done my head in a bit."

"I started thinking about the other girls a bit too, but I should probably stop before I get a headache."

"Oh yeah, you don't really want to go where I did." I snickered, then looking up at Izzy, who seemed to be talking to one of the guys working there. "Since she's taken that long, I'm guessing that they know each other?" I wondered.

"They probably do." Zoey said with a shrug. "I hope I do get to meet some new people too though! It was kind of boring seeing the same people every single day for weeks on end… and I was only there for two months or something…"

"Well whatever's happening right now, I hope they're having fun doing boot camp without us."

Izzy then flopped down in the couch by the window, a small plate with a caramel slice on it in hand. "So, whaddaya think so far?" She asked, then taking a bite of her slice as she put the plate down.

"What do we think of… what, all this?" I gestured to… everything around us, it seemed. What did I actually think of all this anyway?

"Well… I think that it's great, and so much better than being… well, locked up in that horrid mansion." Zoey replied.

"What she said, I guess. I can't be bothered to even think about something as simple as that."

"Alright, okay!" Izzy laughed, then sitting back slightly as a short, pale girl with silvery blonde hair put a cappuccino down in front of her. "Thanks Dawn!" She said, giving the girl a thumbs up.

"You are welcome." The girl, Dawn, replied with a slight bow of her head before going back to behind the counter.

A minute later, a slightly taller girl came over with a latte – she was also blonde, but had fair skin and teal eyes, as well as a pretty obvious beauty mark underneath her right eye.

"Oh, thank you!" Zoey exclaimed as the latte was placed on the table in front of her.

"Whatever." The girl said, stalking off.

I stared after her in shock – this girl was working at a coffee shop with that attitude?

"What's her deal?" I said in a low voice, turning to Izzy.

"Oh, Amy just gets annoyed about pretty much everything all the time." Izzy shrugged, laughing. "You might get used to it, if you start coming to this place often."

"Okay, I guess I'll keep that in mind." I looked to Zoey, who was just quietly stirring her latte. "Why is she that annoyed?"

"Because she's got a younger sister – twin sister – that's… slowly starting to stand up to her, and get better than her in some things. I dunno the whole story."

"Wait… standing up to her?"

"Yeah, that's a bit of a long story… Izzy might tell you guys that later."

I suddenly heard a bit of commotion, and I looked over to the counter, where the two girls were darting in and out of the kitchen, and the guy – who had a cowboy hat on his head – was checking underneath the counter for something.

"You guys alright?" Izzy called to them, standing up.

"No milk left!" Dawn frantically replied before going back into the kitchen.

"Aw, no! Hold up, Izzy can get some if ya need it!"

"Huh?" The guy popped up from behind the counter with an empty milk bottle in hand. "Oh, no worries, we got an order coming in… uh, twenty minutes?"

"But Izzy's still gonna get some! Be riiight back!" Izzy sprinted out of the room, leaving her half-drunken coffee behind.

I could only sit there and wait for the entire time she was gone, which ended up being about fifteen minutes. Within that time, an extremely tall, dark skinned girl stopped by to get a sandwich, and a blond guy who looked to be twelve or thirteen got himself a cookie and an apple juice.

It wasn't until a couple of guys (who seemed to be having a bit of an argument) came in that Izzy bounded into the cafe, a bottle of milk in each of her hands. "Got some!" She shouted, putting the bottles on the counter.

Cowboy hat guy burst out of the kitchen, a huge grin on his face. "Oh man, thanks so much dudette!" He said, picking both bottles up. "We got milk!" He yelled over his shoulder. "Now time to make this coffee!"

"No problem!" Izzy darted back to the table and sat down, sighing. "Phew, that was easy! Izzy thought it was gonna be hard, because this place gets so busy on a Saturday. But it was fine!"

"How do you know so many people when you've been out of the mansion for... uh, a month or something?" Zoey asked, putting her teaspoon on the saucer.

"Owen knows a lotta people, so I got to know them all through him! There's so many that you'll get to meet – that's Geoff there." Izzy pointed to cowboy guy. "Oh yeah, Amy's sister works at the supermarket where I got my milk from, so... yeah, don't get confused when you see her!"

"Does she look any different to Amy?" I asked.

"No, they're pretty much identical twins! But Sammy doesn't have a beauty mark."

"Heard that! It's Samey!" Amy shouted from the counter.

"No one cares, bye!" Izzy stood up and threw her screwed up serviette at Amy, getting a perfect hit on the forehead. "Just ignore her. She's weird."

"I am not!"

"Anyway, that's another story that's part of the really big one that I talked about before, but yeah!"

"Okay..." I looked to the counter, just as Geoff came out with my cappuccino. "There we are."

At the same time, the two guys who had come in earlier got up, pushing and shoving each other on the way to the counter. One of them – a chubby guy with ginger hair – crashed into Geoff, which caused him to lose his balance and nearly drop the cup. He caught it in time, but the coffee inside splashed all over the floor and his shoes.

"Aw, dudes, really?" Geoff complained, looking over his shoulder at them with a stern glare.

"He started it!" The other one – slimmer and dark skinned with shaggy black hair – snapped, pointing at the ginger guy.

"No, you did, slimeball!" Ginger guy retorted, shoving him backwards.

"Dudes, I'm gonna have to get you to leave if you're gonna be like this." Geoff told them, putting the cup down and turning to face them.

I just looked between the mess on the ground and the three guys as the conversation went on, until Geoff eventually went back behind the counter, and a rather satisfied looking Amy went out.

"Come on losers, get out!" She ordered, pushing skinny guy towards the entrance with both of her hands. "Don't make me use my boot!"

Ginger guy bolted out as soon as she said that, seeming to not want that much pain. Skinny guy quickly followed, looking over his shoulder as he ran around the corner.

"Well that just happened." I said, still looking towards where the two guys went.

"Yeah, those guys are stepbrothers, and they hate each other so much!" Izzy laughed. "Sometimes it's kinda funny."

Geoff then came out of the kitchen with a wet cloth, dropping down to the floor once he got to the puddle of coffee. "Dudettes, I'm so sorry that happened!" He said as he wiped up the mess. "I wasn't really looking behind me, I guess..."

"Don't worry, you did nothing at all." I told him, standing up. "Those guys just need to learn a thing or two."

"And stop hating on each other." Izzy added.

"Yeah, probably. Oh man, I'm so sorry though! I thought it was gonna be all good once we got the milk... but I guess not. You want a free cookie for... well, all this mess?" Geoff paused what he was doing to look up at me.

"You don't really need to worry about that – I'm fine with just another coffee." I replied, shrugging and smiling.

"But I feel like I still gotta give you something! I'm just gonna feel bad, whatever happened."

"No, no, it's alright! But if you really want to... then I guess I could think about it for a few minutes."

"Alright, s'all good! I just don't wanna be feeling bad!"

I sat back down on the couch and looked over at Izzy, who seemed to be thinking. She looked up as if a lightbulb had flashed in her mind, and she grinned.

"Hey Geoff, you got any apartments free in your block?" She asked.

"Uh… I dunno if we do, but there's a free bed in the apartment next door to mine." Geoff replied as he wiped up the last of the coffee. "You looking for some new digs?"

"Oh, not me, it's for… one of these guys!" Izzy gestured to me, then Zoey. "Probably Gwen, cuz she's in Eva's room at the moment, and she comes back on Monday!"

"Ooh, dang… uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure my girlfriend won't mind another person in her apartment! She is looking for one anyway… so yeah!"

"Alright, coolios! What do you think Gwen?"

I thought about it for a couple of minutes – it did mean probably bunking with people I barely knew, which would be awkward. But at the same time, I felt like I did need a fresher start than this morning, even though it was still nice.

"Well… I guess I wouldn't mind that, if you're okay with offering that for the spilt coffee." I said eventually, nodding. "I don't exactly have any money to pay for rent or anything though."

"No money?" Geoff repeated, looking confused.

"Uh… yeah… can we go over there for a minute?" Izzy asked, pointing to a hallway which lead to the toilets. "There's a bit of a story to go with it."

"Alright, gotcha. I'll just get one of the girls to make another cappuccino first."

I looked up, and all of a sudden Dawn was standing there, the empty cup in hand.

"Amy is on her break now, but I can make another one." She said, startling Geoff.

"Wha- oh! Right, okay!" He said hurriedly, then starting to laugh. "Oh man, every time…"

Dawn just laughed slightly and walked off, Izzy then standing up. "Be back in a minute!" She said with a grin before running off to the hallway.

I sat back and turned to look out the window, watching shoppers walk past with armfuls of bags, trolleys, kids, and all other things in between. It still felt a bit surreal – to be finally out of the mansion that I was pretty much chained to for nine months. But then there were consequences. I'd still need some more clothes, most likely. I had no money, which possibly meant that I would have to get a job somewhere – and with recent history like mine, I had absolutely no idea how I'd do my resume.

"I don't know where I'll end up going." I heard Zoey say quietly, accompanied by a sigh.

"You'll find somewhere eventually." I told her, shifting back around so that I was facing the table. "I had no idea what I was going to do, and even though I've pretty much found a place now, I don't know if it'd end up working out or not."

"Well… I guess I'm also a bit worried about if I end up with the wrong people. I… really don't want to have that to happen."

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. You might end up striking lucky, and maybe even find a nice guy."

"Yeah, I might." Zoey giggled, then looking over her shoulder towards the toilets. "I hope everything's going okay in there."

"I'd be… pretty surprised if it wasn't."

And almost as if it was on cue, Izzy and Geoff walked out of the hallway, both laughing about something. "You're all good!" Izzy called, leaping up in the air.

"So I'm okay to move in?" I asked.

"Sure are, dudette!" Geoff replied with a grin and a thumbs up. "You can move tomorrow if you wanna."

"Oh… well, I guess I'll see how I go. It should be fine, but at this point I don't exactly know."

"Alright, s'all good!"

Dawn then came over with a fresh new cappuccino in hand and put it down in front of me.

"Thank you." I said with a slight nod of my head and a smile. "So I guess we'll be going back to your apartment once we're finished here?" I asked Izzy.

"Yep-yep, we should probably go back then." Izzy replied, laughing. "Today's been crazy."

"I know, right?" Zoey nodded in agreement. "Oh, that was one of the best lattes I've ever had."

"Well I did say they made the best coffees!"

I looked down at my own coffee and slowly picked the cup up, bringing it to my lips and taking a long, slow sip.

"Is it good?" Izzy asked as she watched in anticipation.

"Yep. Best I've had in a long time." I replied.

xx

Well… I know, these first few chapters aren't that exciting, but it's pretty much the beginning, really, so there's still quite a few characters to be introduced… one of which tomorrow…

Anyway, that's the end of the first part! Hope you enjoyed reading c: