now she's thinkin' 'bout me every night, oh
Lydia B. Kollins hated her job. She hated the early morning starts, she hated the stupid uniform and most of all, she hated how much she relied on the paycheck to quit. Moving from Pittsburg to Boston had taken a toll on her bank account and she really needed all the means possible to support herself.
At least she had Suzie, a silent-film era obsessed girl who was in most of her classes and happened to live on her same floor. They had clicked instantly, and Lydia was grateful for her everyday. She was especially grateful that she managed to hook Lydia up with the job, despite her hatred for it. She was just meant for more than making coffees, a belief that was further cemented every time she had to deal with the rude customers during the morning rush.
After an especially snobby encounter, Lydia handed over a remade dirty chai latte and melted into the counter. The machine hissed from being overworked, and Lydia felt sympathetic to the hunk of metal next to her. Me too, girl.
After three deep breaths, she pulled herself back together, adjusted her uniform headband — an ugly navy thing with white frills — and checked her phone. She only had one more hour until she could finally go home and try and finish her assignment. She guessed the one silver lining to her whole situation was that she had a college major that she loved. Film and cinema were her love language, her absolute passion. All the mishmash of juggling her studies and work and the occasional homesickness wasn’t for nothing, Boston University’s film major was the top one of the east-coat for a reason and she was going to soak everything in while she had the opportunity.
Lydia was ambitious, she had big plans for herself. She wanted to be a film maker more than anything and show the world how her mind worked. Yes, her art was subjective and not always so early understood, but if she just had the opportunity to express herself the way she wanted to, she was sure she could make other people see what she saw.
That’s why she got along so well with Suzie. The other girl had a unique point of view as well and Lydia respected her for it. People and concepts were rarely two-fold.
The bell above the door chimed and Lydia sighed — her moment of rest was over. She could daydream all she wanted, but for now she was just another art student stuck in a hospitality job.
She looked up from the coffee machine to see a group of college students walk through the door. They laughed loudly as they gathered at the till, and poor Suzie gave her a quick look of horror as she tried to get all their orders down admit the chaos. Suzie, bless her heart, was an introverted soul like her.
“No, girl!” one of them screamed to another. “You’ve got it all wrong!”
“Really, bitch?” Another one squawked. “Tell me how it goes then, since you know everything.”
The first one proceeded to go into a chant, clapping and stomping and all ‘Let’s-Go-Terriors’. Lydia noted their white sneakers and matching duffle bags over their shoulders — cheer-squad. She had nothing against them, she admired their spirit really, but it wasn’t really her scene. She had yet to go to a game all semester.
The cliche advice of “put yourself out there!” ran through her head. She quickly pushed it back. It wasn’t like she was going to find love at a college football game, that just wasn’t her vibe. Plus, she came to Boston University for the education, and that was what she was going to focus on. Finding someone was not in the forefront of her mind.
Suzie finished their orders and walked over to the machine, handing Lydia a list everything to make.“Good luck, girl,” the auburn hair girl wished, before heading back to the till.
Lydia looked at the list and sighed. Guess the morning rush wasn’t quite over yet.
She made the coffees and called out the orders with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, which wasn’t a whole lot but at least it was something. Whilst she was a quiet person, she wasn’t a bitch and hated that her reserved nature could sometimes come across as rude or stuck up. She poured coffee over the ice for the last drink and called out the order as sweetly as she could. “Iced vanilla latte?”
The last of the girls let out a little whoop and strutted over, hips swaying as she reached the counter. Lydia couldn’t help but be transfixed as she made her way to the counter, taking in her curves, her dark glowing skin, her honey-blonde hair. Lydia didn’t know why, but she felt an unexpected pull towards her. It was like she was magnetic.
“Oh, this is going to be too good,” the girl said, reaching out to take the drink from Lydia’s hand. Their fingers bumped together and Lydia tried to ignore the shock of electricity from the contact. The girl was tall, taller than Lydia, and had to peer down slightly to meet her eyes. Lydia suddenly felt a bit flustered.
She had never seen this girl before, but she guessed they probably ran in different circles. If they had bumped into each other, Lydia definitely would have remembered her. She had a certain presence about her that was hard to ignore.
“Hurry up, bitch!” One of the cheerleaders called, breaking Lydia’s train of thought. “We gotta get outta here.”
The girl in front of her gave out a playful scuff and rolled her eyes, shaking her drink as she took a first sip. “I wanna say sorry for them but I don’t want to be, like, hypercritical.”
A long legged cheerleader jokingly let out a “oooh, big word.”
Lydia adjusted her headband and tried to give her best reassuring smile. “It’s fine. At least you’re not a group of yoga moms yelling at me for getting their order’s wrong.”
The girl laughed. “Speaking from experience?”
Lydia nodded. “There’s a yoga studio across the road,” she gestured to the building on the other side of them, where there was already another group of middle aged ladies going in for a class. There was a dance studio next to it that she assumed the girls practised in. “Those ladies do not play about their dirty chai lattes.”
The girl shook her head in exaggerated sympathy. “Yoga moms. They are far too much.”
Lydia laughed. “Completely. You don’t run into them leaving your studio?”
The girl tilted her head before realising the question. “Oh! No, that’s not our studio. We normally practice in the one closer to campus but Lana let it get double booked.”
Lydia tried to push down her disappointment.
“Kori!” The same cheerleader from before yelled, southern drawl elongating the syllables. “Stop flirting with that poor girl and get your ass over here!”
The girl, Kori, turned back to Lydia with a shameless grin. “Okay, maybe I’ll apologise on behalf of Sam only. She doesn’t get out much.”
“And you don’t get out, period!” Sam yelled back.
Kori flipped her off and turned back to Lydia, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Really, I am so sorry for her. We’re leaving now, I swear.”
Lydia stopped herself from shouting no! and played it super casual instead. “No, it's totally cool. You guys have probably been my favourite customers all morning.”
Oh god, Lydia thought to herself, foot in mouth.
Kori grinned and leaned on the counter, drawing closer to Lydia. Everything about her was commanding, from the way she tilted her head to the way she flicked a stray hair behind her ear. “I mean, I’m clearly your favourite, right?”
Lydia ignored the heat rising to her cheeks. “Right.”
Kori’s friend, Sam, suddenly appeared behind her, giving the cheerleader an exasperated look. “Did you suddenly become deaf?”
“Oh girl, save it.” Kori replied, but let herself be dragged by her friend back to the group. She gave Lydia a final once-over and a little finger wave. “Thanks for the coffee!”
With that, they all left the store, chaos leaving with them. The door gave its final chime as it closed behind them and Lydia let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“Girl.” Lydia agreed, body nearly giving out against the counter. “Who was that.”
“Lydia, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she was flirting with you. Big time.”
Lydia didn’t respond, her mind still buzzing from the brief encounter with Kori. There was something about her that drew Lydia in, that made her want to get to know her. No one had captured her attention quite like that in a long time, nevertheless give her that kind of attention back so unabashedly. It left Lydia… Confused? Excited?
“Oh my god,” Lydia said suddenly. “I didn’t even give her my name.”
Suzie patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. “Or your number.”
Lydia dropped her head in her hands, words coming out muffled. “No, I couldn’t have. I don’t have the time for a fling right now.”
She could feel her friends inquisitive look boring into her. “Oh, so you think it could turn into a fling, do you?”
Lydia refused to answer. Her once somewhat tight-proof plan of studying her degree distraction-free suddenly had a hole in it. An energetic, charismatic, cheerleader shaped hole. Deciding that this would not be something that she would be acting on, Lydia forced herself to clear her mind from any bubbling feelings about Kori.
And plus, it wasn’t like this was their usual coffee shop. Lydia could probably get through the rest of her degree without running into her again. Right?