Princess

I got myself home before I started completely crying. I felt like an idiot, he was an insignificant piece of dirt and yet what he had said had upset me so much. Every time I managed to calm myself down, something would set me off crying again. Whether it was what Gerard had said or it was memories of my parents that the flow of tears had triggered.
I knew I’d be in trouble for skipping school but I honestly didn’t care. At some point I must have cried myself to sleep because I was woken up by someone knocking the front door. I jumped and searched around the room for my phone, my instant thought was that I was late for work. I pulled myself out of bed and ran down the stairs as the knocking got louder.
“I’m fucking coming,” I shouted, grabbing a hoodie and throwing it over my small vest top. I opened the door to see Bob standing there staring at me.
“I didn’t think I’d get you to say that for at least an hour.” he said, scooping me into his arms and hugging me. I hugged him back and inhaled his smell, he smelt like home.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I squealed as I let go of him. He walked into the house and headed straight for the kitchen.
“Well, I lost my job so Claire gave me a job there. I got there this morning and she said you hadn’t been sleeping well. I went to pull you out of school and they said you hadn’t shown. I told them you had a doctors appointment.” he sat on the kitchen surface and watched me for a while. I nodded and began looking through the cupboard for food. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?” I pulled out some pasta and putting it in a pan.
“Nothings going on, I just don’t sleep well.” I shrugged. He was still staring at me, his eyes were a piercing blue that I could constantly feel on me. He sighed and took the food off of me and began preparing it himself. The rest of the afternoon felt slightly awkward until about three when I had to leave for work.

I climbed into my car and sighed. Today had been horrible so far and now I had to face an evening of work at the coffee shop. It was Thursday, which meant poetry night. The work would be steady, just not busy enough to keep my mind occupied.
It was empty when I got there, Bob had been following me on his bike so that we could both get ourselves home after the shift. I went straight to the kitchen at the back of the store and started cleaning the pile of dishes whilst Bob went to do the sound check for the poetry reading. I worked slowly, my body was exhausted and I wanted to avoid being put back on the till.
By the time I’d cleaned all the dishes I began to clean every part of the kitchen. Bob came into the kitchen not long after I finished wiping down the floors.
“Your needed upfront.” he said, taking the mop out of my hand. I nodded and walked away without looking at him. Our relationship had never been like this, we had always been best friends. There was nothing we couldn’t talk about and it was never awkward. He didn’t stop me from going but I could feel his eyes watching me. I pulled on an apron and took over the till from Claire.
“Hi what can I get you?” I said, forcing a smile and looking up at the person in front of me. Frank was watching me curiously.
“Coffee.” he grunted, I tried not to laugh at him. He normally avoided places like this, he could stay home and make coffee just how he liked it.
“What type of coffee?” I asked him, he looked stumped by my question.
“The type I drink.” he said, running his hand through his hair, he’d had the sides cut short but the middle was still long, like a sleeping Mohawk. I turned round and began making him a latte.
“So, what are you doing here?” I asked as the machines started to work.
“New drummer wanted to meet here, the guys are all gonna be here soon, I came a bit earlier.” I turned round and handed him his drink.
“Sugars over there. What’s he like?” I asked, I had spotted Ray’s fro coming through the door and guessed the two brothers would be here soon.
“Dunno, only just moved to the area.” he shrugged, moving to one side to I could serve his friend. Ray leant over and hugged me. My brain slowly ticked, it made sense for it to Bob, he had just moved to the area and he wanted to make friends with Frank.
“Mocha please.” he asked, patting Frank on the sofa. Frank was pouring hundreds of sugars into his drink. I made the drink and listened to their conversation, it was boring. They were just talking about possible covers they could do. I handed him his drink and they both walked away to an empty table. I served a few more customers and listened to the poetry being read out, some was good and some was bad.
“I want to be served by someone else.” The next customer shouted, I groaned.
“I’m sorry that’s not possible.” I told Assface as he glared at me.
“Well I wont drink anything you’ve touched.” he spat, trying to make himself seem taller.
“Out.” a voice from behind me shoulder spat back. I recognised it as Bob, he had placed his hand on the small of my back to try and be supportive.
“I’m not leaving without my coffee.” he said, that annoying smirk back on his lips. “Now, I want to be served by someone else.” he said, his voice was calm, almost sweet now. Instead of finding someone to serve him, Bob tackled him to the floor and punched him the face.