⏤ a little complicated.

Tomasz didn’t necessarily like drinking, but it was one of the only things that made his guilt fade into the background when it became too much to handle. He didn’t drink often, but when he did, he tended to go overboard, and tonight was no different. He wasn’t drunk yet, but he fully had the intentions of getting so, even though he knew it wasn’t a “healthy coping mechanism.” He was barely on his second whiskey (on the rocks, of course!) when a scrap broke out between two actually drunk men. Sighing, Tomasz got up, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to intervene…

…only to find himself standing outside ten minutes later, holding a bag of ice to his nose. He looked at a person about to enter, nodding his head at them.

“I’d give it five minutes. Things are still pretty crazy in there,” he warned.

The only reason Arden was out of the house tonight was the fact that one of her coworkers from the coffee house had invited her out for drinks that night, only to bail on the last moment. It wasn’t ideal, but she was already out so it would be a waste to not go to the bar and at least get one drink. She deserved to get loose and have a nice time, even if she had to do it alone - at least she had some time to swipe through her Tinder. Approaching the bar, Arden felt nervous - the man standing outside with the ice pack didn’t give her a good feeling about what was going on inside, and she felt kind of sorry that the man had gotten caught up in whatever was happening. “Things look pretty crazy,” She laughed a bit, albeit forced because she was nervous about what happened. “Are you okay?”

H.T. was not a coffee person - he had never developed a taste for the stuff, and the one time he’d tried it, it had been at one of his foster families who seemed to have the oldest coffee-maker ever. It had made the whole house smell like burnt coffee beans whenever it made a batch, and the one time H.T. had tried it, he’d not enjoyed it one bit, so when he wandered it into the coffee shop that late morning, he had a very specific agenda.

“Morning,” he said, shooting (what he hoped was) a charming grin to the barista behind the counter. “So, I have a problem, and I think you’re just the person to help me with it. I’ve been told that not liking coffee is practically, like, a crime when you’re a real adult, so I’m here to be converted.”

Arden knew a lot of people weren't fans of coffee, so it didn't surprise her whenever someone came into the shop telling her that they weren’t a fan of it. It did surprise her that the man who had strolled through the door actually wanted to try something that she could make them. Those who didn’t like coffee generally wanted tea or some form of a smoothie, so this was going to be fun. “I feel like I could definitely help you with that,” She grinned at the man. Not to ring her own bell or anything, but Arden had been in love with coffee since she was a teenager and being able to share her love for the drink with anyone who would let her was a joy. 

“Let’s see.. I wouldn’t want to throw you off the deep end and knock you with an espresso or just a black coffee, even though our house blend is really good if you ever work yourself up to it,” She hummed, trying to keep herself from rambling any further, “So I could make you a latte? That has steamed milk in it along with the espresso.. Or a cappuccino, if you want some foam!” Arden bit her tongue after that, knowing that she was probably getting a little too excited about making him a coffee. She couldn’t help it - she loved her job, and she wanted to impress.

A pang of guilt seized Aly’s heart - this was why she didn’t associate with people – she always seemed to mindlessly say the wrong things. “Oh… I’m sorry. That was very insensitive of me, wasn’t it?” Aly replied, keeping her face blank for the last thing she wanted the other girl to think was that Aly pitied her. If anything, Aly felt a slight admiration for the woman who seemed to take such a heavy topic and talk about it so lightheartedly. “But you know… it’s never too late. I’m turning 24 this year and I’m still in college. I stopped for a while, but yeah…” Aly trailed off, not wanting to tell too much about the traumatic experience that almost made her quit school – and everything else in her life, actually. “It seems like you’re happy and less stressed where you’re at right now, though. At least compared to me.” The blonde said with a chuckle as she watched the other woman prepare her coffee.

Arden enjoyed the woman's company, she knew that she was only speaking to her to be polite but at least she was speaking and not just being another one of those customers who just ordered and then stared her down until she was finished making it. Or, one of the older men who came in to speak to her as if she was going to start dating one of the forty year old married men who spent most of their time staring at her ass and not listening to her as she answered their underhand compliments. “Yeah, you’re right,” Arden smiled, pouring the hot water into a mug and scooping the espresso into it. “I’m thinking about going back, but I don’t think I can budget it at the moment, you know?” Stirring the coffee, Arden sat it on the counter in front of the woman. “Honestly, I’m stuck between two jobs just trying to make ends meet. I guess I just handle the stress well.” She laughed a bit.

She’d been picking up extra hours between the Pit and Zap! so when the time came to take at least a day off to work on her portfolio and chill there was nowhere else she wanted to be besides her favorite coffee shop, it became a staple in her daily routine when she’d first discovered her love for coffee. With her sketchbook, that was severely lacking at the moment, clutched in her hands she approached the counter where the girl waited. “I’m just gonna get the regular black house blend?” It was her usual order, sometimes she added cream and sugar for the hell of it but she was a little more than stressed so the familiar bitter taste of the black would have to do for the day.  Sid retrieved some cash from her pocket, the exact amount for her order already folded and ready. “It’s not very busy in here today, gotta love those slow days.” She couldn’t help the sarcastic tone creeping into her voice, Pit and Land was worse in terms of business, sometimes she wondered how the store was still open. Unless people were just looking for records for their collection, she spent almost all of her time keeping the place dusted and the music organized. Just because it was easy money didn’t mean it sucked any less.

A familiar face was just what Arden needed to see; they weren’t anything more than a barista and a customer, but Arden always did enjoy seeing people whose orders she already pretty much knew by heart. “I can do that for you,” She hummed in response. Generally, it was the same order every day with the girl, very minimally with changes; Arden could never really prepare any further than the regular coffee staple - some days it was ‘this’ and others it was ‘that’. It seemed to be somewhat reflective of the girls personality when Arden saw her and that’s what she liked about it. After ringing up the order and obtaining the girls money, Arden stepped aside to grab a cup. She’d recently made up a pot of the house blend, so it wasn’t too terribly difficult to get it in the girls hands quickly. “Oh, you know how it can be sometimes,” She quite practically sighed, glancing around the coffee shop’s interior. Rarely anyone was left but the two of them, something not out of the norm but also not incredibly uplifting to see. “Slow days keep this place young, how else am I going to get incredibly detailed cleaning in so my morning rush can appreciate it in tomorrow morning?” 

Leighton was still regretting - just a little bit - that morning jog. She would have much rather been sleeping in, cozy beneath the confines of her cuddly covers for a while longer. However, coffee was a must, and since she was already out, decided to stop by her favorite place before heading home. It was well deserved, she’d justified. Paying a little extra was worth it for the quality, and it was very close to her place. She studied the menu, already settled on a drink while her bright eyes scanned the pastries. She shouldn’t… but she was going to anyway. “Sure. I’ll take a Caramel Macchiato and a blueberry scone.” The blonde didn’t look up until she’d fished her card out of her jogging belt to pay, a little astonishment present on her features. “Arden?  I didn’t realize you worked here too,” was the blonde’s greeting as she gave her a little smile. As a manager, Leighton didn’t always remember everyone from Strobe, quite honestly, but some stood out to her. “How’s your day going?”

Arden could spot Leighton from a mile away, and quite practically she almost did. Not that they were the best of friends, but they'd been working together - or Arden had been working under her - for awhile, and she liked Leighton quite a bit. She was pretty nice to her whenever they interacted at Strobe, but it was a bit unnerving to see her outside of their normal work environment unexpectedly. It was what came with food service jobs, though. “Gotta make ends meet when you aren’t getting drinks for VIPs, you know,” Arden said, smiling to Leighton as she finished off the transaction for her before moving further behind the counter to begin making the latte. Placing the coffee cup onto the counter before Leighton, she shrugged a bit before moving toward the pastries. “It’s actually going pretty well, I’ve had a good amount of customers come through so that’s generally what makes for a good morning around here. How are you doing?” Arden bagged one of the blueberry scones - the best looking one, of course, the least she could do - before passing it along the counter to Leighton. 

If he had to be honest, he hated coffee – just the smell of it alone made him want to gag and the taste… Even milk and sugar couldn’t mask it enough, and he loathed that whipped cream bullshit that was on every corner these days.  So why was he in a coffee shop? Besides a weakness for bagels he was hoping to get out of the sun for a while, cool off in a place with an AC blasting and get something on his stomach.  Inside, he removed his shades and looked around, finding the perky decor enough to make him want to throw up more than the smell.  Still, he toughed it out and sat lazily on a stool, the waitress coming by with an attitude perky enough to match the interior. “ Yeah, what y’all got to eat around here?” He half grumbled, rubbing his eyes as the adjusted to the light. “ Y’all got bagels? And can I get a glass of water or somethin’? It’s hot as fuck out there.”

Arden watched the man settle into the stool and began to speak, watching his movements before she turned her attention back to his face. He didn’t unsettle her, he just wasn’t like any of her other regulars. The majority of people who came into the shop looked like they were thrown up by an H&M, whereas he doesn’t fit the similar build. Arden always enjoyed seeing a fresh face, though, even if his initial introduction to her wasn’t the kindest. Or maybe that was just his way of being kind - practically being a hermit in high school, and even now as she lived in Vegas, made it hard for Arden to read people she didn’t live with. “Yeah, we have bagels,” She nodded, “Whole wheat, white, or blueberry?” Stepping aside, Arden grabbed a cup and filled it with water; she wasn’t sure whether he needed a lid or not, as he didn’t look like he was going anywhere in the ‘hot as fuck’ world outside, so she opted to just settle the cup in front of him. He seemed like he’d be content with that.

“God damn it,” Aly muttered under her breath, turning away from the ‘under renovation’ sign plastered on the door of her favorite coffee shop and study place. She had one last neuroanatomy finals to get through this week, and after that, she can fly off to god-knows-where and hide away until the new semester started and she entered her senior year. Dragging her feet, the blonde spotted a small, nondescript coffee shop and lugged her heavy backpack towards that direction, determined to finish this semester once and for all. The calm quiet in the shop helped ease Aly’s nerves and she managed to return a small smile to the woman behind the counter. “Hello. Can I have an Americano with a triple shot espresso please?” Aly asked mindlessly, before gazing at the ginormous book in her hands and feeling acid creep up her throat. “Uh, make that a quadruple shot, actually. It’s finals week,” Aly explained with a chuckle, meeting the barista’s kind eyes. “Hey, you look like you’re my age - even younger - don’t you have finals week to deal with yourself?”

The woman was pretty, that much Arden noticed, but she also looked pretty stressed. Once the customer glanced away, Arden allowed herself to steal a glance in the same downward direction - it made sense, the large book and the backpack meant she was studying. Something Arden should’ve been doing as well, if she had gone to school that is. She’d put in an application alongside her roommate to the closest university, and once she had gotten accepted, she got cold feet. Her smile became more forced once the lady asked if she was supposed to be studying as well; it just reminded her that she was supposed to do what her mother did. She should’ve gone to a university straight out of high school and guaranteed herself a spot in her family’s best thoughts, but instead she had packed up her things and dropped herself almost everyone’s radar. “I wish,” She laughed a bit to herself as she stepped away from the counter to measure out the amount of espresso beans she would need for the woman’s quadruple shot, “I don’t go to school.. I wanted to, but it’s just not in the cards for me right now, you know?”

It started with a whimper. The loud whine outside her bedroom door waking her up in the middle of the night. Half awake, she opened the to find a little bundle of black and brown fur standing on her back porch. Unable to locate the lost pup’s owners, a week later Cassidy Brooks is the owner to a German Shepard. She’s always wanted a dog growing up but never having a stable home and her current lifestyle stopped her from getting one. But, like most things in Cass’ world, life threw her in for a loop and she couldn’t be happier. Stopping at the local park, she gets out of the car with the quickly growing dog in hand. Setting him down, about to put on his leash, the dog goes dashing in the direction of a stranger. “Bowie! Bowie, no!” The blonde calls out, slamming her dog shut and running after him. “Sorry, he gets a little…excited around people.” Cass says, letting out a breath and bending down to attach the leash to his collar.

An iced almond-milk latte, a toasted bagel, and her early 2000′s rock playlist on shuffle was how Arden would categorize a beautiful morning. Sure, the sun was shining bright and she had the morning off before she had to get to Strobe for her shift, but the day was marked as wonderful due to the coffee machine her grandmother had sent her a few weeks ago finally working and there being enough cream cheese for her bagel before she set out to do a little window shopping. The walk from her apartment to the nearest shopping strip lead her past a small park, usually littered with mothers with their children, something that made her stomach twist and her head duck as she passed along the stretch of the park. Due to her head being down and her cheap earbuds blasting her music, Arden was not prepared for the ambush - if it could really be called that - of the dog that approached her. “Oh!” Thankfully her phone was in her back pocket as the coffee tumbler and the napkin containing the rest of her bagel dropped from her hands in surprise. Pulling out one of her earbuds, Arden glanced up to the woman who came rushing up behind the dog. “It’s okay,” She laughed, “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, you’re fine. Hi, buddy,” She bent down to brush her hands through the dogs fur before she reached out for her thankfully not leaking coffee cup and her now ruined bagel. Thankfully there was only a bite or two left, not much of a loss. It could’ve definitely been worse. 

It was what Fox called a “day off”, where he wouldn’t think about work or mark people as targets or worry about much of anything. Days like that were both good and bad, as they gave him time to regroup, but also let him mind wander. When he wasn’t focused on working, his mind would relapse into thoughts of his childhood, his family, and ultimately render him depressed. Thankfully, he knew that getting out of his apartment would keep him from breaking down, deciding to get strong coffee and a bagel and head to the public library. It was quiet and open, which was always a good thing, and though he preferred movies to books, he managed to find a worn copy of Moby Dick and parked himself on the floor in between the two massive shelves to begin reading, not even a page in when he heard footsteps getting closer and looked up to see who managed to need a book out of this lane among the dozens.

Arden tried to keep herself quiet as she maneuvered her way through the large shelves of the library; she was far too polite to the people she lived with, offering to grab a book for her newest roommate from the public library to help her with a paper she was writing. It came with wanting to build successful connections with people, and just trying to stay on the good side of those she didn’t know much about yet. The library itself was quiet, obviously, and peaceful enough that Arden believed she could manage to get in, check out the book, and get out for work before she could run into anyone or disrupt anyone’s time. Her eyes scanned the signs on the shelves, humming to herself as she found a sign pointing in the direction she sought after. Moving her way toward the titles, she paused momentarily as she rounded the corner and spotted a man reading toward the end of the aisle. “Hi,” She whispered quietly as their eyes met, “Oh, sorry. I don’t mean to disrupt. I just have to,” Arden gestured toward the shelf as she looked away from the man, eyes nervously scanning the shelves in an attempt to ignore him and allow him to go back to reading.