counting stars again

He didn't want to do this. He was having a hard enough time in school and holding it together at home without the added stress of a job. It had been his mother's idea and though Hayden knew his father didn't really want him to work, he wanted his good boy at home where he could keep him safe from everyone, but he had agreed to it nonetheless. To make things even worse, he had gotten a job at Starbucks, of all places. So for at least eight hours every other day or so, he would be surrounded by food and drinks and people. Hayden really wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it. He'd never really had a job before, had never needed one, still didn't need one, but he was trying to stay positive. This meant he could buy that pretty pink saddle pad for Killer now without having to ask his parents! And he could get away with it being pink since Killer was a mare, a girl, and pink was a girl color. But that didn't stop his cheeks from turning pink as he opened up the door to Starbucks and tripped over his own feet while walking in, causing the people sitting at one of the small tables nearby to snicker at him. Already he could feel his anxiety getting to him. He looked over his shoulder, looking back in the direction of his father's car, but he had already driven away. He looked forward again, walking forward a few steps, arms curling protectively around his own body as he looked around, the door closing behind him. He was unsure of what he had to do. Did he have to talk to someone? Did he just go up to the cashier? He was so scared, so nervous. There was a line at the counter. Maybe he could just... wait there...?

ivy nora crane ; my poor baby boy

credit to nat of adoxography.

we read the maps and signs

She didn't hate her job, but that didn't mean that she liked it. She didn't like being treated the way that the general public treated people in her current profession and she sure as hell didn't like being told that her silly little job wasn't a real job by people who didn't matter to her. The only reason she was in this job was because she had to get money somehow and being a barista while at college was a common thing to do - though she really wished she could have gotten a job that was more like the kinds that she wanted once she had finished her degree. Fashion design, that was what she was working towards. She had a small portfolio of designs that she had worked on over the past however many years (they weren't all from her college days, in fact she had been sketching designs since she was a high school freshman). She hoped that one day she would design something that would catch the eyes of everyone important - none of which were around now to see that she was once a lowly Starbucks barista. 

As she made drinks for people - both basic and fancy - she did her best to be observant of what was going on around her. She noticed when the little old lady approached and took a few sugar packets, she noticed when the sickly sweet couple in the corner engaged in a face battle, much to the dismay of those around them, and she noticed when the shaky boy entered and tripped on his own feet, she noticed that the nearby table snickered at him - which she found to be quite rude but if she had to be honest she would have done the same thing. For a few moments she wondered whether he was the new employee that she was supposed to be training, as she wondered she finished making one drink, placed it on the counter and called out the name, glancing at the shaky boy as she did so. Yeah, she was sure that was him - her supervisor had told her that he was a little shy and that she'd probably have to be gentle with him, which was something that she didn't really know how to do, to unlock his full potential. 

She waited until she had finished making the next two drinks before leaning over to the other barista on, letting them know that her trainee was here and that she was going to get started there. They nodded and she made her way out from behind the counter and walked up to the boy. "Are you Hayden?" She asked, both her tone and her face near emotionless. She looked him over, in her opinion it looked like he was trying to protect himself - from what she had no idea. She was sure that she was not going to have a good time training this one.

[attr="class","threadlinks"]490 words for hayden chrystian sherwood

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