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“Hurry up, we gotta run!” Frank yelled, already half jogging down the corridor. The teacher had let them out about two minutes late which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it didn’t threaten their coffee-buying ability. The sprint for coffee was risky on good days when they got out on time and didn’t have to wait long - it was near impossible when they didn’t get out on time. So he was already guaranteed to be at least a bit late for his next period. The things one does for coffee.
Having finally grabbed all his things, Ray quickly ran after him to catch up - not that Frank noticed in his caffeine-deprived haze (he’d had a coffee just an hour before). “It’s not my fault Mia had to ask a question right before the bell” he answered, slightly out of breath.
“Yeah, what was that?” Frank complained, “she knows just as well as we do that woman can’t answer a question briefly to save her life, we were doomed the moment she opened her mouth”
“If she’d at least answered the question…”
“Nothing we can do now. Hurry up, we’re gonna be so late”
“Yeah, yeah… you know, this wouldn’t be a problem if we just went to the school cafeteria”
Frank stopped immediately - then realised they didn’t have time for dramatic breaks and kept walking - “You’re joking, right? First of all, the cafeteria coffee tastes horrible and second of all, there are children there. Break time is when all the small annoying monsters come out to get their sugar fix, it’s horrifying and I’d rather be late to every single class than suffer through even a minute of break time in the cafeteria”
“You’d also be a lot less broke if you went there, just saying…”
“And I’d probably lose the last of my will to live. I’m not risking that Ray, not even to save my wallet”
“Well, maybe you should. Or you should stop complaining about being broke, but it’s gotta be one of the two”
“Sorry, can’t hear you…” Frank replied, walking into the small café they had finally arrived at with his hands over his ears, completely ignoring Ray’s statement.
The small corner (not really. more like, next to the corner) café was about two minutes of walking away from the school grounds. It really only took them this long because they had to walk through the whole school building since all of their classes were on the other side of the campus. Combine that with the wait time and the time it takes to actually make the coffee and their 15-minute break started to get real short. Thankfully there was no queue today, not even other students on the same mission - those would probably shuffle in in a minute, Frank and Ray’s small sprint had more than made up for their late start. There was, however, a new barista. Coming here every single day during break time had perks - one was filling out loyalty cards very quickly, another was knowing all the baristas. Not that they actually talked all that much, they all had better things to do and Frank didn’t have the time during his coffee sprint, but it was enough for them to recognise him as one of those “caffeine-addicted-schoolkids” that probably made up over half of the café’s profits.
The new guy had… interesting hair. It was mostly black with bright blue (normal blue? cyan? teal? Frank didn’t really know his colours all that well) roots. He wasn’t sure if it was a desired effect of the byproduct of a failed dying session but it didn’t look all that bad - not that he was an expert on dyed hair. It didn’t really matter if it was planned though, the guy looked pretty good with it anyways.
“One caramel latte, please. Extra large” he ordered, getting out his loyalty card and cash. The blue-roots-guy took his money but didn’t seem to realise he had to stamp the card too - not that big of a deal but Frank’s was nearly full and he wanted his free coffee. “Sorry, could you stamp that for me?”
“Oh… right, yeah, I forgot. Sorry” the guy replied awkwardly. “Sorry, it’s my first week here”
“It’s fine man, don’t worry about it”
After he had stamped the card, root-guy started making his coffee while Frank waited with Ray. Even though Ray almost always came with him on his coffee sprints, he rarely bought anything himself, displaying a level of self-control Frank clearly didn’t have. He spent his short waiting time chatting about the last class with Ray while stealing some short glances at the cute barista. He looked very concentrated on the coffee machine. Just a minute later his order was done. He thanked the guy, grabbed his coffee and the two of them hurried back to the school, trying their hardest not to be late for their next class - considering how fast he had gotten his drink there was still a chance of being on time.
The next day, the blue-root guy was at the counter again. Frank wasn’t as fast this time and had to wait in the queue but somehow, magically, the guy still made all the coffees fast enough that it was Frank’s turn in no time and made it to class on time. Silently thanking the barista for his coffee-making skills which saved him from his teacher's wrath, he walked into the classroom before the bell rang.
Over the next few days of the week, the new guy was always working when Frank did his second break coffee sprint. On day 3 Frank got his free coffee even though he only had 11 out of 12 stamps - blue hair man had forgotten to stamp Frank’s card on the second day but remembered the order so he got the free one anyways.
Frank didn’t go to the coffee shop during the weekend for obvious reasons (no stupid teachers driving him to drink) so when he returned on Monday he wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the cute barista still be there? Or was he only there for the week as a trial or something? But when he ran in during his break after being let out of class way too late, with basically zero chance of making it there and back on time, the guy stood there, already preparing a coffee.
“I saw you running here, I figured you’ll take the same thing as always?” he said, not looking up from the cup he was preparing. “Caramel Latte, extra large?”
“I- Yes!! Thank you!” Frank answered, probably way too enthusiastic about it - but screw it, it’s coffee. He quickly counted out the money and handed it over. The barista had already finished the cup and handed it to him. “Good luck making it on time. See you tomorrow” he smiled.
On any other day, Frank would’ve taken the chance to talk to him more. Maybe chat a bit, get to know him or something? but today he had to run, so he just grabbed the cup, and started running again while yelling over his shoulder. “Thank you so much man, you just saved my life!”
The next day Frank had an unexpected free period. His history teacher was sick and he didn’t care if it made him a bad person cause he was delighted. Having the fourth period off meant that he didn’t have enough time to go home but had more than enough time to go get some coffee and actually drink it in the café instead of running off to his class. That alone was enough to make this day great - combined with the cute barista (that he’d be able to discreetly stare at for about 30 minutes) and the day became absolutely awesome. He nearly sprinted to the cafè only slowing down when he came close to it, not wanting to seem too eager. There was no queue at all which made sense, unless they also had a free period no student was at the café during class time and regular people only really went to cafés in the afternoon. There was no one inside the place either - apart from the blue-haired barista. When Frank walked in the guy looked up from the paper he was scribbling on, seemingly surprised when he recognized him.
“This is… so not your usual time” he commented.
“Class was cancelled so I guess I’m getting coffee instead”
“Sounds logical to me. The usual?”
“Yeah. Just… for here this time? I’ll sit somewhere inside”
“Oh, sure - no one's here so just choose whatever table you want. I’ll bring your coffee to you in a minute”
“Awesome, thanks”
With that Frank made his way towards the seating area, picking a table close to the counter and setting his bag down. He should probably get a headstart on some homework or work through the material his history teacher had left for the class to make up for her absence but he’d much rather observe the cute barista. Currently, he was steaming the milk for his latte before very artistically pouring it into the mug. As per usual, it didn’t take him very long to finish the drink and he brought it to Frank very quickly. “Here you go,” he said with a smile while placing it in front of him. The coffee looked amazing - not just because it was coffee but because the man had put some seriously awesome latte art on top of it. Not the regular heart or flower, no, he had created a small bear face in the foam and it was absolutely adorable. “Oh my god, thank you so much! That looks so cute!” he replied before he could stop himself. So much for not being weird. Thankfully the barista didn’t seem weirded out at all, he actually looked very happy.
“I’m so glad you like it! That was actually my first time trying that one, I’m still learning how to do these” he replied with a bright smile. “It’s only my second week so I think I’ll be able to learn a few more patterns soon”
“I’ll have to sit here more often then to see them all, this is really awesome man”
“I’d be happy to have you here”. Before Frank could process this reply, the man started walking back to the counter. Holy shit, what did that mean? It took Frank a solid minute of staring at his mug to restart his brain enough to form thoughts again. Did the guy want to see him again? Or was that just a line he said to keep the business going? That would make more sense, right? Cause why would he want to see Frank again? He shook his head, trying to clear it, before taking a sip from his coffee. It tasted as great as always, but he wasn’t as focused on it as he usually was. Cause from back at the counter, he could see the barista scribbling on his paper again. Only from this angle, he could see what exactly he was doing. On the bottom of the paper was a small, unfinished sketch of some form of animal. But the top part was the more relevant bit - on there was a small (also still unfinished) sketch of a face. His face. The cute barista was sketching him.
Before Frank had any time to process that, the guy looked up at him, probably to get some guidance for his drawing and caught his eye. He immediately looked away, blushing. “Sorry, I- … Sorry. This must be so weird for you”
For a second Frank was too startled to respond. Then he realised that the cute barista was probably waiting for a reaction so he quickly said “No, it’s no problem at all. It’s not weird… well it kinda is, but I don’t mind. Looks pretty cool so far”. He himself didn’t know what possessed him to say his next words but he continued with “If you wanna continue it you can come sit with me, get a better look at your reference”
A moment of silence followed before the guy grabbed his pen and paper and came towards Frank's table, the invitation making him seem much more confident. He sat down opposite him. “Thanks. It was kind of an awkward angle to watch you from anyways”
“So you admit to watching me, huh?” Frank replied jokingly
“Well, considering I’ve been sketching you I figured that was a given. Would be kinda hard to do it without seeing you. I’m Gerard by the way” the barista - no, Gerard - replied.
“I’m Frank. Nice to put a name to the coffee” he chuckled.
“Nice to finally meet my favourite customer”. Gerard continued his sketch. It looked pretty rad, even from Frank’s upside-down perspective
“Awww, I’m your favourite?” he asked teasingly, taking another sip from his coffee. The coffee art sadly wasn’t visible anymore but he wasn’t too hung up on it - Gerard would make him another nice coffee next time. And there would most definitely be a next time.
“I thought that was obvious, I don’t just draw every customer that comes in here”
“I’m the only one here, that could’ve also been the reason”
“But it wasn’t. You’re just kinda nice to look at”
That was. Interesting? Frank hadn’t even considered that he might’ve piqued the barista's interest too, he didn’t really consider himself to be the most interesting guy to look at and Gerard probably saw many people in a day. Knowing that his attraction potentially wasn’t one-sided gave him some seriously unexpected confidence. Was that how attractive people feel every day?
“Thanks? I guess? You aren’t half bad yourself. But - and please don’t take this the wrong way - I gotta ask. That hair, was it an accident or not?”
Gerard laughed loudly. “It was an accident that turned into a fashion statement. It was supposed to be all blue but that didn’t really work out and I was stuck with teal roots. But they kinda grew on me, so now they’re just. There”
“Sounds fun, looks pretty cool too if you’re asking me”
They continued chatting for Frank’s entire free period, nearly forgetting the time - he barely made it to his next class on time. Before he left Gerard had handed him another cup of Coffee (refusing to let him pay) and the rolled-up sketch of him. After Frank had settled into his class, he opened it up, staring at the pretty detailed and lifelike sketch of him. But what was even more interesting was the little note that was next to the sketch.
Call me
XXXX-XXXX-XXX
xoxoG