Coffee Shop Soundtrack

Screams filled Ryan's ears as he lifted his head from the ground in terror from the screams. A sticky red cherry sauce coated his left side of his face. The sauce was tangled in his short shaggy hair and stuck to the palm of his hands as he lifted his body from the ground and rested it against the dishwasher. Cassie stood above him with a freaked out look and held her hand over her heart. He laughed complaining that she scared him.

“I scared you?!”

Her shocked look turned into a large frown. She turned on the heals of her boots and stormed off out of the kitchen. The last glance he got of her was her hand grabbing her broom and angrily sweeping the floors. He had dropped the cherry filling on the floor and instead of mopping it up right away, decided to have a little fun. He laid right into the sauce with his tongue stuck out pretending as if he had gotten hurt. The sauce was clearly a bright red, so it didn't look like blood, so why was Cassie so mad?

He shook his head and quickly mopped up his mess before peaking his head out into the store to see the girl angrily batting the floor with the broom. He smiled and walked out from behind the counter wiping the sauce off of his face with a towel.

“Aw, come now. Why are you so mad? I placed a CPR dummy in one of the windows once and you just laughed.”

She didn't respond or made eye contact. She only turned her bouncy curled head back and forth from any attempt Ryan did to meet her eyes. This little cat and mouse chase lasted a few more seconds before he decided that this was going nowhere. Ryan only rolled his eyes and walked back to the kitchen to grab his keys, wallet and a stack of flyers for promoting their new monthly special.

“Well, fine, I'll be taking my hour lunch now. Be back in two.”

Cassie looked up from rearranging the same chair for the third time. She made a noise that sounded like she was going to protest this decision of his, but he already had walked out of the screen door. Ryan lived in Brandon that was located in the west, yesterday in his “hour break” he flooded every community board with his flyers. So getting in his car, it was time to make the same journey of all the community boards in Seymour.

For the last two years he had been taking these trips up and down the Brandon and Seymour city roads, and had memorized every location of a cork board in the towns. Weather it be City Hall, the public library, and The Grub Stop, Ryan was there placing up a flyer.

Ryan looked up from making sure that The Grub Stop's poster was centered and looked nice among the ads for a cars and upcoming middle school performances. He glanced over to his right when he heard some low murmuring and giggling from a table by a window. Since it was the middle of the week, not many people stayed and hung out at The Grub Stop for food. The diner was more of a dinner spot in Seymour, known for their greasy fries and large burgers to fill any man up.

A young married, the woman was dressed in black and the man dressed in an army shirt. The couple sat at the table across from each other talking and being all lovey dovey. Ryan couldn't help but be disgusted on why would anyone act like that at the old diner. He turned to the fat sweaty fryer and saluted to him before he left back to his car.

He had one more stop to East High School before heading back. Part of him wanted to skip that one, but the high school population of both East in Seymour and West in Brandon was the most of the Ground's clientele. Pulling into the crowded two story high school, Ryan breaked suddenly at the appearance of some Senior last class skippers who gave him insulting gestures about watching where he was going. After telling himself not to get rallied up from the morons, Ryan pulled his Honda into the visitor spot and started his way to dreaded school where teenagers treaded.

“Well, lookie here,” the friendly woman from the office said as Ryan walked through the glass doors, “Isn't it Ryan Halkias. Been a while since I've seen you!”

“Hi, Kathy,” Ryan gave a half smile.

He held up the poster for the shop and gestured towards the community board just outside the glass office space. She waved him over so that she could get the principal's approval mark to see if it was safe for school grounds. As she walked off a girl with car grease stains on her pants and long hair thrown into a ponytail walked into through the glass doors. Ryan eyed her black oiled hands which she attempted to wipe off with a dirty rag. She gave the man a nasty look when she noticed his staring, which made him quickly turn away. He had hardened cherry sauce in his short shaggy hair, so he had nothing to complain about.

Kathy came back with the poster and a big smile on her dimpled face, “Oh, now here you go Ryan. Feel free to put it on up.”

“Thanks.”

She quickly asked about how his family was doing, but dropped the conversation when more kids started to show up in the room. Ryan waved goodbye and squeezed through the hormonal teens that crowded the door. After placing his poster on the community board, oil hands poked her head over to see the new poster. He left the school at that and made his way back to the shop, forgetting that he never ate lunch.