Alter ➳ h.s

o n e
coffee shop blues
ember

The ‘Commerce Creamery’ sign blinked in and out of consciousness. The last letter was ready to give out and the small amount of electricity was encouraging the act. Julia, one of my co-workers and also a waitress, sat on the table I was cleaning. “I think we can go now,” she stressed. “Business is slow today, you know this. Let’s just leave.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” I finished wiping off the table and threw my apron behind the counter, making sure it was okay to leave. Kristie, our boss, allowed it. Sundays were the slowest but Monday through Saturday was when business was in. Commerce Creamery was at its peak selling millions of coffees and drinks a day worldwide, and I happened to be one of the waitresses for the joint. It pays okay, I guess. Enough to live. Although I don’t need to really pay anything since I still live with my parents.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that!” Julia would tell me, “Lots of people still live with their parents with no problem.” Only there was a problem. I don’t like being nineteen with seemingly no future. I don’t go to school, I haven’t applied for any other job, and my parents are in perfect shape, I am too. So there is no reason for me to still be living there. Yet, Julia would always intervene with, “But it’s okay. You’re okay, I’m okay, they’re okay, everyone is okay.”

I pressed the button to unlock the car and both of us got in. “I want to move,” I told her on my way to drop her off home.

“To where?”

“I don’t know. Anywhere out of my parent’s house and away from Michigan.” She frowned a bit, “Sorry. I mean, you could come with me. I’m just tired of watching all this shit going on that I either don’t care about or it’s too sickening to listen to. I want the bright lights and the beaches and the hot guys,” I elbowed her playfully.

“You want California.”

“I want California.” I sighed, “But not yet. My parents have enough money but they wouldn’t fund that and I’m not making enough money right now to move to somewhere expensive like Cali. But Commerce is such an annoying and lifeless town, I just—I need somewhere with excitement. I need somewhere fun.”

“Yeah. It’s good you realize that now so we don’t move and run out of money.”

“I bet you’d be a stripper first,” and we argued on that until I pulled up at her house. She told me to call her later, then she called me a bitch, gave me a hug, and left. When I got home, only one car was in the driveway. Dad had left again. My parents have this sick, twisted relationship where in the morning they love each other dearly but near the night everything seems to fall apart. They’re the model family, the one that must be perfect and hides the cracks with tape and glue. We all know it falls apart eventually.

That’s why my brother and I expect a divorce sooner rather than later, and we already have our sad crying faces ready. Mom was in the living room watching TV, as usual. Gossip, she watches everything. She was shaking her dark brown curls in sadness, “Poor boy.”

I jumped on the couch next to her. “Catch me up on the world, Mom.”

She does this daily because she knows I don’t pay attention to celebrities. “Well, someone got out of rehab, someone went to visit an ex-boyfriend drunk, and that poor Styles kid. Everyone thinks he’s losing his mind. Going to therapy and all. It’s sad.”

I nodded, only because I realized I didn’t really care. Harry Styles has a pretty face and seems nice through a few interviews that are on TV but I see nothing past that. No real friends, no real close family, it seems he zones everything and everyone else out. The TV continued to talk while I continued to not listen. I decided to keep not-listening while I walked upstairs to my room. Our house is cozy, large yet small. Too large for four people but too small to hold all the secrets and fighting. I feel like the house and I might burst at the same time. It’s not terrible but it’s not the best.

The walls are paper-thin but hold like rubber, soon to break. Of course, I wouldn’t say anything. I love yet hate this house. It was were my childhood grew and died all at once. Like a person dying on impact, my childhood lasted for a mere ten years, then I learned to grow up. Obviously not enough if college still isn’t on my back and the job I do have barely pays. Jase, my brother, tries to stay out late at night so he doesn’t have to come in during the fighting but he still seems to get lucky and jammed in the middle. Mom asking him questions like, “Aren’t I right, Jase?” Or Dad saying, “You can’t do that! Jase is my child.” Then Mom saying, “Oh, so now he’s your child?! Last time I checked, you wanted a DNA test on both of our children.” And the bickering continuing.

Jase came into my room, “You left your cell downstairs. Ben’s calling you.” He threw the phone at the bed and walked out, closing the door behind him. Ben Waterson is my boyfriend of nearly a year. He calls and texts everyday, even though he lives down the street. Alone.

I called him, “Hello, Ms. Knight. Ben Waterson cannot come to the phone right now, please leave a message after the beep, beep.”

I smiled and rolled on my back, “Okay. Tell Ben Waterson that he needs more people to talk to if his voicemail automatically says my name.”

“Ah, you got me.” I laughed. “How’s it today, babe?”

“It’s good so far. I wanted to come over but I can’t. Too much stuff to do,” I lied.

“Like laying in bed and watching TV all night? Yeah, you sound highly busy. Don’t worry, I’m in your kitchen, I’ll be up in a second. Need anything?”

I scoffed at his whereabouts, “Water, please.” When he did arrive at my door, I was forced to let him in because he refused to break the ‘knocking and not-entering-until-I-open-the-door’ rule. Ben is cute, adorable. His eyes are blue, oh how they are blue. They are as blue as the sea on a stamp from someone that loves you but not enough to stay. I love colored eyes. I know all eyes are colored but I like vibrant ones. Blues, hazels, greens, and sometimes super light browns; they’re just stunning to look at.

The night was no longer young. The stars; I’d never seen so many stars in the sky at once while we stood outside. They all looked so close together yet so far away. We see the sun in the morning and the moon at night, each millions of miles away. But these, these stars looked like nothing I’d ever seen. They were magnificent. Ben wished me a goodnight and planted a kiss on my lips. It was fairly enjoyable.

When returning to my room, I noticed Dad still wasn’t back. I figured he was just having a meeting, and I found out that he was once he got back later. He came into my room late at night, his hair tightly greased and lathered. He looked important. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Can you help out at the school again? Not enough parents volunteered and I need you.”

“Sure, Dad.” Dad’s the principal at Oakwood Elementary, and the best one they’ve ever had. “Get some sleep, we can talk more in the morning.” He kissed my forehead and left out, I went to sleep. The next morning proved to be okay. Ben came over and made the family breakfast (he’s all about impressing my parents) and we all ate together. It wasn’t terrible but we made sure to get Mom to sit next to me and not Dad. It was hard at first to be inconspicuous but we made it. The rest of the morning ended well. Ben left afterwards for work and I told him I might call later.

The pain in my lower back increased while I hunched farther over and stayed engrossed in a very captivating novel. The woman, burning her life away in the ashes of aging, is getting too old to conceive. She finds someone, a man. He’s slightly handicapped but able to do the job. I’m in the middle. The part where they fall in love and then the story ends soon. I shut the leather and returned the book on the shelf. The small library was nothing shy of amazing. Books and books and more books scatter along its walls and shelves. Tammy the librarian whispered to me, “Enjoying that one, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Just check it out, darling. Or buy it,” she smiled.

“Then there’s no point in coming for the peace and quiet.” I found another book, one I’d been eyeing for a long time and started it.

“It amazes me how many books you can read at once.”

“I pay attention a lot.” She left me to continue reading.

Notes

tell me what you think.. I really think you guys will like this story x