Pt 2 - 15

Adrienne, Zach and Raven were almost home when Zach decided he needed coffee. The closest Starbucks was a twenty-minute walk, but it was a pleasant evening and they could usually find their friends at the coffee shop. Adrienne texted Matty, who would text Rhys and Libby. Many other school kids hung out at the coffee shop after school, drinking creamy coolers and sharing chocolate twists. Not many of the teenagers drank actual coffee, but Raven had been frequenting the independent cafes with her mother since birth and had developed the taste earlier than most of her peers.



Oversized posters hung inside the glass outer wall, announcing the arrival of the latest drinks and sandwiches, none of which interested Raven. Her eyes went past the advertisements and scanned the seats for Connor. Obsessive watching—described as stalking by some—had revealed that Connor usually sat in the corner sofas with a group of mostly guys she did not recognise from school.



“Hey,” Connor shouted as they entered, his face lighting up. “This is the guy I told you about.” He moved to make space for Zach on the sofa, before smiling up and saying hi to Raven. An afterthought.



Raven had never felt so out of place or been so happy to have Adrienne by her side. The confident girl scrapped a heavy looking round table from the adjacent wall before rolling over a couple of round, cushioned stools as Zach filled Connor's friends in on the gory details. They hung on to his every word, eyes hungry, as though the story was feeding the dark part of their minds; the bit that revelled in the suffering of those more fortunate. They were your typical unpopular kids, so the story of the takedown of Cedar Park High School’s most popular student was received as a triumphant tale, rather than what it was. Raven could see the justice in it but did not find enjoyment in Alissa’s suffering.



“So, what are you going to do to her next?” the female in Connor’s friend group asked. She leaned in so close to Zach that she was practically sitting in his lap.



“Nothing,” Zach replied, much to Raven’s relief.



“But you said if she didn’t eat the yoghurt you would make her regret it,” Connor pestered in an almost whining tone.



‘Why does he want to see Alissa punished so badly?’ Raven wondered. ‘Yes, Alissa has always been bitchy to his friends, but no more so than she was to anyone else.’



“I was just winding her up. If she leaves me alone, I will leave her alone,” Zach shrugged. “Who wants drinks?”



“Double chocolate for me,” Adrienne tried with a big smile and fluttering lashes.



“Fruit smoothie for you,” Zach smiled back and nodded as Raven asked for an espresso. He went to order and returned empty handed.



“She’s gonna bring it over,” Zach explained.



“Table service? That’s a first,” Adrienne scoffed.



A young and pretty barista strolled over with a tray full of drinks, cakes and snacks. She placed them on the table, tucking long dark hair behind her ear as she bent over. “Anything else?”



“No,” Zach smiled at her. She paused for a moment, eyeing the group with what Raven took for confusion before returning to her place behind the till.



“How can you afford all this?” Adrienne asked, frowning at the buffet laid out on rounds black trays.



“It’s free,” Zach said.



“How?” Raven wanted to know, as did the others gathered around the tables.



“She put in on a tab,” Zach said, as though that explained it all. Raven was the first to point out that he did not have a tab, and Adrienne added that tabs had to be paid for eventually.



“She thinks my dad is the manager. I put it on his tab,” Zach said and shrugged, as though it was no big deal.



Raven thought it was a big deal.



“What if she realises? She might call the police,” Raven hissed as quietly as possible



“No, she won’t,” Zach said with a smile.



“What did you do?” Connor asked Zach, eyes alight once more.



“Nothing she wouldn’t do,” Zach said cryptically before shushing Connor, not wanting the girl to overhear anything.



Raven spotted Kenny walking past the window with Kendal, hand in hand and smiling. She looked carefree, wind blowing her floral wrap-dress as she ducked under Kenny’s arm to enter. Raven had never seen Kenny hold the door for a girl—or anyone else for that matter. The couple said hello before grabbing the only available seating—the uncomfortable hard wooden stools of doom.



“The waitress is hot, and she keeps staring over at you,” Connor said to Zach. “Are you fucking her? How old is she?”



Raven blinked in shock, stunned not only by the fact he called another woman hot right in front of her face after asking her to prom, but also the vulgarity of the word ‘fucking’.



“She’s a barista, not a waitress. And I would guess in her mid-twenties,” Raven intoned, trying to gently remind Connor that she, his date for prom, was sitting right here.



“She’s 23, and she has a boyfriend,” Zach corrected. Connor and his friends noticed Zach had failed to answer the most pressing question but met further lines of enquiry with sly smiles and winks.



The conversation soon veered back to Alissa and the revenge plot. Connor was pushing for further cruel pranks even though Zach had already said no a few times. The guy wouldn’t take a hint. Raven could tell by the look on her stepbrother’s face he was becoming irritated. Luckily, the entire group became distracted by Kenny’s antics. He had slipped off one of Kendal’s oversized Dr Martens and was running around the tables with it as she hopped after him, drawing the attention of other customers and the staff. The other patrons glared angrily, except for one mother whose two little children ran after Kenny, giggling and jumping. The tired-looking woman pushed an overgrown fringe out of her face, stifling a laugh as she half-heartedly told her little ones to calm down.



“Please, could you tell your friends to simmer down,” the young barista asked Zach, looking up at him through thickly caked black lashes. When she returned to her co-worker, it looked to Raven as though they were discussing Zach. Raven caught Zach’s eye, and they exchanged worried glances. She nodded her head in the direction of the door.



“Come on guys, let’s go to the park instead,” Zach called loud enough for Kenny to hear. As a group, they departed and made their way to the park, but Raven just wanted to go home, to lock herself in her room. Spending time with Connor had been eye-opening, and the more she got to know him, the more Raven preferred her imaginary version of him. She had kept him on a pedestal in her mind for so long it was hard to accept all of his glaring imperfections.



Raven slipped away quietly, and as she looked back to see if Connor had noticed—a part of her still prayed he would step up and pay any small attention to her—she saw the barista running down the street. Stepping into foliage, she observed as Zach told the others to carry on.



“You owe two hundred and fifty quid,” the girl stated, thrusting a receipt up into Zach’s face.



“No, you do,” Zach calmly corrected her.



“Excuse me? You lied to me! I will probably lose my job because of you. I need that money now.”



“You gave me all that stuff for free. Is it my fault you’re stupid?”



The girl cried, “I didn’t just give you stuff!”



Zach laughed at her.



‘He actually laughed in her face,’ Raven thought.



“Why are you doing this?” she continued to cry.



“I’m not sure what you mean,” Zach told her.



“Don’t say that,” she cried, shaking her head. She made an odd whining sound, like a kicked puppy.



‘What did he do to her?’



As the couple continued to talk in hushed tones, Raven found herself desperate to find out what was going on between the pair. Zach had been here for only a few short weeks and had somehow managed to get into cause problems for both Alissa and this older woman. It was weird, and Raven couldn’t help but feel sorry for the crying woman, but all she wanted to do was shrink down, grow wings and become a fly on the wall. Something intriguing was happening, Raven knew it instinctively. It was probably something she could ask Zach about, but whether he would indulge her nosiness was another question.