The Fall Time Barista

Never in a million years would Willow expect a coffee shop in her small town. "No one even lives here, who would want their coffee shop HERE??" said Willow, sarcastically. She was tempted to head inside but didn't want anyone at her school to see her in public so she decided to head home.

As soon as she got home, she checked the coffee shop hours on her phone. Surprisingly the shop was open till 11 PM, so she chose that she would go then. When the time came for her to get on her bike and head over, she was stopped by her alcoholic mother. Willow didn't want to deal with her when she could tell she was pretty hung up on the 2 bottles of champagne she had the night before. Her mother started saying "Honey don't spend too much-" but Willow had closed the door on her halfway through her sentence. Willow had so much built up anger on her mother because she never showed Willow how to properly live out in the real world, so Willow never expected much from her as she got older.

At 10:56 PM, she arrived at the shop with a couple of dollars and a raisin in her pocket. She was greeted at the door with the store manager. They stared at each other for a quick minute, like they had known each other for years. Eventually, the manager spoke up, "I- um, you've caught us at the wrong time. I'm so sorry, we're just starting to close." she had a weird panic in her eyes, Willow could see it. "Oh I just came to check out the shop, I see you guys are new here so I wanted to know what this place is about if that's okay!" Willow with a nervous smile coming across her face. The manager looked at her with relief, "Oh yeah that's fine! We close in 3 minutes so be sure to make it quick."

As Willow toured around the shop she saw all the beautiful artwork hanging on the walls, the shiny marble counters across the extremely large room, & colorful cushioned chairs. She didn't expect this nice of a place. She loved it. As moved her gaze from a piece of artwork from 1864, Willow picked up her phone and saw 5 missed text messages all from her mother. Willow didn't even bother to open the messages since she knew that they would be apology notes that have no meaning. She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't even hear the manager calling for her. Eventually, she had a tap on her shoulder which alerted all her senses. She jumped and almost let out a scream until she saw that it was only the manager but now she had noticed a name tag..." Katree" she read out loud. "Yes?" Katree replied with. Willow started to stutter "O-Oh I-I- just saw your n-name tag." Katree looked confused but she decided to move on from it, "Anyways I just wanted you to offer a discount if you want to stop by the shop tomorrow, I'll be on my shift at 10 am if you want to stop by and purchase something from the fall menu!" Willow started to overthink. She didn't like the idea of being in a public place but Katree seemed nice so she said yes.

Willow was excited. Her dad greeted her at the table early in the morning with a newspaper and tall glass of orange juice. As soon as he saw Willow he had a concerned look on his face, he wasn't used to Willow being this peppy. She immediately started to feel a glare on her back and decided to turn around but instantly regretted it. "So who's that special someone?!" her father said loud and proud. Willow had a confused look on her face, "What do you mean? There's nobody." Her father glared at her, she knew that look from anywhere. Flashback to 2 months ago when her father called her out for having a slight smile on her face because of a certain someone at her school, now Willow never shares anything with him. "I'm late dad I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow." Willow said as she ran out packing her backpack with money and crystals. As she got on her bike and started to pick up speed, she thought about her mother. "Where was she this morning? Why was it just dad by himself? And why was he reading a newspaper?" So many thoughts flooding her head. As she was about to turn the corner onto 5th street where the shop was located, a sports car full of jocks and frat boys passed her screaming "It's never too late to stop being a weirdo." It wasn't the first time something like that happened to her, she was used to it.

`When Willow got to the shop it was quiet and not too many people were there. She saw Katree at the counter talking to another girl with a big smile on. Willow's heart dropped, she didn't know why she was so upset to see Katree talking to someone else. As Willow started to head back towards the door it caught Katree's attention. "Hey!! It's so nice to see you, I didn't know you would come." said Katree excitedly. Willow looked at the door and back at Katree then said "Yeah. I'm not gonna stay for long, I just wanted to try out your new line of fall drinks." the smile on Katree's face shortened but was still there. "Oh yeah come over here and let me know what you want!" She said looking down at the menu she handed over to Willow. She wanted to say something but didn't want to be awkward. She built up the courage to say "There's so much to chose from, what are your favorites?" Katree looked up from the register into Willow's ocean blue eyes, "I really prefer the pumpkin spice latte or the chai tea latte, I always get those." She said while still gazing into Willow's eyes. Willow's words could hardly come out of her mouth "I- um I'll have the c-chai tea latte" she stuttered. Katree took her order with a slight grin on her face. "Okay that will be $2.05 with the discount" She managed to say. Willow paid and added a kind tip, then decided to sit down while waiting for her latte. "What..just..happened" Willow kept repeating those three words in her head. She nervously sat down and picked up a book from off the shelf. She heard people talking behind her but decided not to look over. A couple minutes later she felt a tap on her shoulder, and slightly turned her head to see some high school friends from freshman year. She instantly regretted coming to the shop into the first place. One of her old friends decided to speak up "Hmm, I see that nothing's changed with you Willow. Still the same old weirdo." The group started to laugh and make fun of her. Willow gave them a nasty glare and turned back to her original position. The group of girls continued to talk about her, loud enough so that Willow could hear everything they were talking about. Willow wanted to do something, but she couldn't. As the girls got louder, Katree walked over and gave the girls a nasty look and said "Excuse me but I need to kick all 4 of you out of this shop for being disruptive and rude. Willow is a good person and you guys fail to see that. I don't want any of you walking in here ever again with your negative energy." Willow was in shock. Katree walked over with Willow's chai tea latte and decided to sit down with her. "Those girls are a waste of time and breath, I didn't believe a word they said and neither should you." She said while she handed Willow her latte. "Wow Katree that means a lot thank you, I mean it." Willow spoke out. Katree's face glew up "Of course." Then they talked for hours and hours at the shop, laughing and having a good time.

But that was only the beginning.

THE END.