Holly pushed open the door of a local coffee shop- "Clouds In A Cup Coffee". The bell in the corner of the door that chimed for every costumer didn't make her smile.
Usually Holly came here for school or when she wanted to work on a story, when she did come she was happy, the warm presence of everyone in the shop, the nice employees, a steaming hot cup of coffee with foam art on top. She'd walk up the stairs that led to the library and stand their looking at the books that were folded so they looked like they were flying. But this time was different, her heart sank deep into her gut, her left eye hurt like hell from a headache, and to tie it all together the usual employees had left, or were fired. The usual buzz of gossip wasn't there. The cute girl that sat in the corner every morning with her coffee and book wasn't there, if she was Holly didn't realize it.
Everyone was wearing masks.
Holly walked forward, pulled a chair out of a table set and sat down. She unfolded her laptop, leaned in close so no masked strangers would see her type in her password- " IhateJimmySmith ".
"Are you going to order?" Holly looked up at a lady, she was most likely an employee, but it was hard to notice since Clouds In A Cup Coffee was old school and all the workers brought there own masks, aprons and things, no one had uniforms.
"U-uh, yeah.. Did they fire John?" John was the guy that knew everyone's regulars, even the new customers were baffled by his ability to know what they wanted.
"He'll be back in Fall, is there anything I can get you?" The lady held her notebook and pen ready. Did she think Holly was that hungry that she had to write it all down?
"Just a latte." Holly was still crouched in a territorial way around her laptop, she realized this and loosened up.
"What kind? Green tea? Chai? Black tea? Lavender-." Holly didn't need her to tell her the menu by memory, she would just interrupt her and get the woman to back off.
"A L-A-TT-E. Coffee." The woman nodded, a little scared of Holly now, she turned around and walked to a table by the window where two men sat - the front of the whole store was plexiglass.
Holly drowned out their conversation and got onto her class. She didn't want to go to college today but she wanted to become rich enough to leave something to her daughter, so she had no choice.
