There was a brief moment of silence between everyone, but as I watched the man I’ve seen before walk into a simple little coffee shop he looked at me for a brief moment. Gazing into my eyes he raised his eyebrows in surprise, and by his raised eyebrows I knew he was surprised as much as I was, although almost immediately captured the attention of the older women who was sitting across from me. Which I didn’t know her name, yet.

He curled his lips into a faint smile and scratched the back of his neck as he approached a table and sat down awkwardly; being unaware of my presence, mumbling a soft “hello” to her. Turning my head around I glanced at her, she furrowed her brows and stood up, approaching Gerard.

“Someone’s in a good mood I see.” She said with a bit of a sarcastic tone in her voice, watching her move into the back of the counter she prepared some coffee. Although I stayed silent and sat back against my seat, playing with my empty cup of coffee, but honestly I didn’t know what to say or do. To me it seemed like they both knew each other, especially by the way she women had greeted Gerard, but it also seemed like Gerard wasn’t exactly in a good mood either.

“I just want some fucking coffee, Anne.” He mumbled bitterly and rested his head into his hands, brushing his hair back and ruffling them a little, then rubbing his eyes; clearly he was trying to wake himself up, or trying to shake himself out of whatever he was onto or into.

Lifting my head up I gazed once again at the women behind the counter who was currently walking towards Gerard with his cup of coffee, and clearly I knew her name was Anne by the way Gerard had said her name; obviously it wasn’t a nickname, right?

“That’s Anne-Marie to you, mister I drink too much.” She replied with, but despite to what she had said I clearly had no idea what they were on about, obviously I was a stranger and I didn’t know them. But I hoped they weren’t going to just ignore me and leave me here all alone.

“Sorry honey.” Anne had suddenly realized she left me out here alone, as I lifted my gaze up I captured her gaze and she gave me a soft warming smile, which of course I smiled back at her. As I saw her current gesture I knew she was gesturing me to walk over to her, although I wondered why but I didn’t hesitate.

Getting up from my seat I stood up and walked over to her, and followed her behind the counter to where she made her coffee. But as I walked behind the counter I quickly captured Gerard’s attention and looked to what he was doing, but he was doing nothing but drinking his coffee and minding his own business. To be honest he looked absolutely horrible, but as curious as I was I didn’t dare to ask anything.

But despite how curious I was knowing why Anne wanted me right now I looked at her and kept silent, she kept giving me this warm smile and I couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“You know how to make coffee, right?” She looked at me as she asked me a simple question.

I nodded my head and answered back, “of course, I can’t live without it. I used to make my mom and my step dad coffee in the morning so I’m pretty aware to how make it.”

In the corner of my eyes I saw Gerard lift his head up as he sipped his coffee, currently watching me and Anne with simple curiosity. I tried to ignore it but I couldn’t help but have the sense of someone watching me.

Anne smiled at me and nodded her head, “that’s all I needed to know.” She said with a smile.

After that I knew she didn’t want anything else from me, so I turned around and before I walked back to my booth to where I sat before I flashed Gerard a quick smile. I wanted him to notice me and to actually interact with me and not ignore me since we met that one night, but I honestly hoped that he would actually remember me.

Although Gerard just kept watching me and kind of smiled back at me as he mumbled a very faint “hi” to me, and of course in response I mumbled him the same thing and sat down.

“I’m guessing you have seen each other before or met, because I can see that Gerard keeps staring at you like you’re some animal at a zoo.” Anne said as she grabbed a cloth and began to clean the counter.

“Yeah, I know her, it’s just Nichole.” Gerard mumbled tiredly under his breath, his voice cracking as he took another desperate sip of this coffee.

“It’s not just Nichole, it’s just Nichole.” I answered back a little more bitterly, as if I was offended by it; honestly I wasn’t, I guess it’s the lack of human interaction I had throughout these years had turned me into his humorless creature.

Gerard cackled under his breath and Anne told him that he should stop being such a smart ass, I didn’t understand why this was so funny to him because neither was Anne or me laughing about it. Gerard shook his head and set his cup of coffee down on the table.

“I’m not trying to be a smart ass..-- just ignore it.”

But the silence in the air had caused great tension between each other, I turned around and shrugged my shoulders as I started to play with my fingers mindlessly. I jumped slightly as I felt a hand on my shoulder, as I turned my head around I caught Anne’s attention, she was looking at me with a very concerned and worried look; furrowing my brows I kept watching her for a moment, waiting until she’d say something.

“Tomorrow I want you to be here at eight in the morning, alright? You start working tomorrow.”

I nodded my head and gave her a small smile, I was actually kind of glad knowing I will have a job here and I’ll get paid with real money. With this money I’ll probably survive by living in motels and eat cheap food, or perhaps I could just survive on coffee, alcohol and cigarettes‘.

Within that second Gerard turned around and asked very clearly, “she’s working here?” He was confused, and by the tone of his voice he was very surprised.

Anne looked at him and nodded her head, “she is now.” She answered him with a very simple response.

Gerard raised his eyebrows and looked at me through his messy hair that was right in front of his face, furrowing his brows and glancing at me very curiously as if he was surprised, by my best guess he was. I shrugged my shoulders and stared back at him without saying anything. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but either way I turned around and glanced back at Anne and watched her to whatever she was doing.

“I didn’t know you were going to work here, when and how did this happen?” Gerard clearly was confused, as he turned his attention back at Anne she looked at him a little curiously, maybe she was also curious to know why Gerard was so eager to know. Actually I was also quite eager to know why he was so curious.

“It happened today, just a few minutes ago. Clearly she needs a job and I offered her one after I heard her story, she needs it.” Anne responded quickly and clearly, there wasn’t any other explanation but it seemed like it satisfied Gerard. He nodded his head and turned back around to where he was currently sitting and kept sipping on his coffee.

“So how did you and Nichole meet?” Anne asked as she tried to break the tension in the air, as both of us lifted our gazes at her we looked at each other for a brief moment in silence. Gerard stayed silent and he looked at me as if he waited for me to speak, but honestly I didn’t know what to say, personally I think it would ruin my reputation if I said I met him by asking him if he could buy a minor an alcoholic drink. I shrugged my shoulders and lowered my gaze at the ground for a brief moment as I tried to telepathically tell Gerard how I wanted to lie for him.

“We just met at a gas station, she happened to be in line with me, then we kind of smoked together because I offered her a light and that’s about it; including a conversation, although it didn’t last too long since both of us didn’t say much to each other.”

I was suddenly relieved as I heard Gerard lie for me, and thankfully he understood how I didn’t want him to say how he bought alcohol for me; not only would Anne think that I’m some kind of alcoholic, but she might even change her mind about me working here. Lifting my gaze back up I looked at Gerard and curled the corner of my lips in a thankful smile, and since Anne wasn’t watching us he nodded his head and mouthed a ‘you’re welcome’.

Anne smiled and did her own thing as she rearranged things on the counter and cleaned things up, even though it was already clean.

The night didn’t last too long and everyone eventually went home, while Anne went to her own home she asked Gerard to walk me to a motel just so I could be safe. We walked together and I followed him as he walked me to the nearest motel, but we didn’t talk or say much to each other. I knew that whoever this guy was, wasn’t the type to talk at all. But even though he looked tired and I could already tell he wasn’t enjoying this with me, and perhaps I was just wrong. He was a little mysterious and I didn’t know anything about him, just his name but that’s about it. He walked me to the motel and wished me a goodnight, I took that as a hint that he didn’t hate me and that I was just being paranoid.

But before I fell asleep, surprisingly Gerard wasn’t on my mind at all.

Notes

Sorry for such a long chapter update. I had quite the stressful month and I was quite busy, and when I wasn't busy I was dealing with family, drama and more stressful things. But I finally updated the chapter, sorry if it's not as good as the other ones.

I'll try to get better!