Part 1 of 6

Saturday, November 17.

“Hey, Jerry, why am I scheduled for the Monday morning shift?” I asked my coworker while looking at the colorful schedule for next week. My shift was ending so I was getting my things in order in the back room.

“I don’t know, Matty, must have been a mix-up. Ask Jenkins about it,” Jerry responded as the blender turned on.

I left the back room and headed to Jenkins’s office, knocking twice before entering.

“Hey Leroy, is there any particular reason why I’m on the Monday morning shift?”

He sat at his computer typing away, his thick rimmed glasses perched studiously on his nose. His desk was covered in papers and he had a store’s cup sitting next to his keyboard. He stopped typing to run his hand through his unruly blonde hair.

“I’m sorry Matty,” he sighed. “But I need you that morning. You’re my best barista and we have a critic coming in. You can leave right as eight am hits so you can still make it to your nine am class.”

I leaned on the doorway arms crossed against my work uniform. “How do you know he’s coming in that morning?”

“I have my sources.” He stretched and placed his hands behind his head as he planted his feet on his messy desk showing off his black Converse.

I looked at him in his casual Friday clothes trying to find some retort but coming up with nothing. “Fine Jenkins. I’ll leave you to playing your computer games.”

“See you bright and early on Monday!” He shouted back at me as I closed his office door behind me.

I dropped by the back room to put on my leather jacket and grabbed my shoulder bag full of school books and striped green motorcycle helmet. I was slinging the strap of my bag over my shoulder as I walked through the door to the main area of the coffee shop. Jerry was putting on the lid to a drink with whipped cream and chocolate chips on top.

“Here’s that peppermint hot chocolate, Bridget.” He set the cup on the table near the counter where a girl with a pink flower clip in her short platinum blonde hair stood dressed in a winter coat. He smiled as she grabbed the cup and sat down at one of the small tables by the window.

“See you Monday morning Jerry,” I said as I passed the counter to grab the pumpkin spice latte labeled Matty that I had made before I went to the back room.

“Bye Matty.” He waved lightly as I neared the door and helped the next customer that had just walked in.

I turned right outside the door towards the square parking lot down the block that held all the cars for this strip of buildings. A little exercise didn’t hurt. A cold breeze ruffled the dark brown hair that had fallen out of my long braid. I shivered lightly still not yet used to the sudden change in the cold November afternoons of Cambridge, Massachusetts. I sipped lightly on my latte, savoring the pumpkin flavors as the lukewarm liquid chased down my dry throat. And every so often I would awkwardly push up my light green rimmed glasses after a sip where they slid down my nose.

With the sun shining brightly in my direction, I saw my lime green bike sitting in the parking lot just ready for me to warm it up in this coldness. I took the last sip of my drink before tossing the cup in the nearest trashcan before pressing the button to cross the semi-busy three-way intersection.

 The cars slowed to a stop in the two lane road and the red hand changed to white and I took my step into the street. I made it safely across knowing all too well of the eyes in each car watching me. I kept walking along the sidewalk towards my bike on the first row.

I heard the tiny wheels before the shout, but either way I still fell to the mushy snow grass ground with a stranger next to me. My glasses knocked off somewhere.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t see you there until the last second,” he said as he pulled himself off the ground instantly. He held out a blurry hand and I took it getting to my feet as well. Everything was currently a blurry mess of colors and hoped that I could find my glasses in time. We both started brushing the mixture of grass and snow off of us.

“It’s fine. I’m not in too much of a hurry.” I said adjusting my bag so it’s not half strangling me.

“Is that your bike over there? The cool green one?” He asked as he handed me my helmet that matched the motorcycle.

“Yeah it is. Did you see a pair of green glasses in the grass?” I asked trying to see them but just getting a blurry mass of melted snow.

“That’s so awesome and… Oh! Here they are.” He handed them to me and I slipped them on with one hand, the world coming into focus. He checked his watch and mumbled something under his breath. “I’d love to stay and chat with the pretty girl I accidently bumped into but I’ll be late for work if I don’t leave. So…” He ruffled his brown mop of hair before picking up a worn down skateboard.

“It’s fine. I got to get going anyways. Maybe I’ll see you around?” I ask hoping he’ll say the magic word.

He put his arms wide, one of them gripping the skateboard. “Let fate decide.” He turned and walked down the road I had just come from getting lost in the new found crowd of people of rush hour.

I sighed hoping fate would let me see the boy again as I pulled on my helmet and started my bike up. I roared the engine once before taking off the opposite way of the tiny coffee shop towards the library at Harvard. All thoughts of the boy disappeared from my mind replaced by a history test that’s coming up.