October, 2018

"Nice going Cole." Kaden muttered as him, Kendall, Cole and I were carefully cleaning up at least a half a gallon of coffee he had split.

"I blame Ken."

"What! I literally wasn't even in the room when you did this!"

"I know, things just usually are your fault."

"All of you shut up!" I yelled, growing annoyed with their bickering.

"But-" They all said simultaneously before I interrupted them.

"No buts. We don't have time to sit here and argue, so just clean." I really wasn't having it today and I think everyone could tell.

The world's way of telling me good morning was causing my cars battery to die. I had called Kaden and asked him to pick me up, making us both late. I got a C- on my Physics test, which I had basically spent all night studying for and now I'm plowing down towels to clean up the pool of spilt coffee on the ground.

Having to take orders, I quickly rung out the towel, put it in the hamper and washed my hands before rushing out to the main area.

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. Welcome to Mugs, how may I help you?" I could tell immediately that the woman I was serving wasn't one of our usuals. She wore expensive clothing and way to much poorly applied makeup. It was a struggle to keep my smile steady when all she did was scowl.

"It's poor service to leave a customer waiting." Her voice was cold and judgey. Just great.

"I sincerely apologize for that. We take our customer service very seriously. May I ask what you would like?" I managed to stay polite, but the woman didn't look pleased.

"Is that all you have to say? I would expect an explanation."

"Unfortunately I am not required to disclose the situation."

"I wouldn't call that "taking your customer service seriously," would you?" The way she spoke was bitter. I didn't understand what she was attempting to gain from being rude. Kaden walked out from the back and I turned to him with pleading eyes. He gave me a reassuring smile and nod before walking over to the counter, standing besides me.

"May I ask what the problem is?" He asked kindly.

"Avery-" She had obviously read my name tag.

"Left me waiting here for two minutes, we don't all have that kind of time you know, without an explanation." She spoke with disgust hinting her tone. I opened my mouth to say something but thankfully, Kaden stepped in. I had never learned how to handle disrespectful customers, so it was most likely for the best.

"With all due respect, in the amount of time you have spent trying to make Avery feel like a bad employee, we could have had your order ready along with those who are behind you. So if you want to order, than order. But if you want to continue to insult our staff, than I have to politely ask you to leave." Kaden's voice remained calm, but his words caused the woman to scoff.

"Fine, I'll take my business elsewhere." She replied before promptly leaving the shop.

Before I could thank Kaden, another customer approached the counter, a friendly smile covered her face.

"Hi, welcome to Mugs. How may I help you today?" After telling me her order, she apologized for the actions of previous customer, which I appreciated greatly.

Kendall took over for me after that, causing me to head to the back.

"Are you okay?" Kaden asked about thirty seconds after I entered the room.

"Yeah, this is just not my day."

"I remember my first encounter with a bad customer. I gave him the wrong order so he split what I gave him down my shirt. Definitely had some anger problems." Kaden expressed in a non serious tone with a small laugh.

"Oh my God, I would've lost it."

"If Kendall wasn't there, I would've. She kicked him out before I came back from changing my shirt."

Before Kaden and I could continue our conversation, I noticed that we were the only ones in the back. Which meant Cole and Kendall were out there together.

"Kade, one of us should go out there before Cole and Kendall start screaming at each other."

"Definitely, I can manage in here if you want to go out there."

"Sure." When I got back to the main area, Kendall's eyes filled with relief.

"You can go in the back, I'll take it from here." I gave her a warm smile that she returned with a grateful one, before leaving me in the front with Cole.

"Why'd you switch?" He asked.

"Leaving you and Kendall out here alone? We might as well say bye to all of our customers." We both laughed at my reply.

Suddenly, a group of four girls walked into Mugs.

I recognized two of them, Laura from Calculus and Lacey McClain. The looked like your cliche group of pretty mean girls, however none of them had ever been rude to me, Laura had even invited me to a party once. Their arrival caused Cole to smirk.

Here we go.

"How may I help you?" Cole asked them, basically gushing confidence. The two brunettes I didn't know laughed as if Cole had said something funny, Lacey returned his smirk and Laura turned in my direction, giving me a small smile.

They ordered ridiculously complex drinks, changing and replacing almost everything about each of them. As I made their requests, Cole took the cups I had set aside and wrote what I assumed to be his number on the sides of each of them.

"Wow, each of them? Keep it classy, Cole." I remarked sarcastically, earning a laugh.

"No need to be jealous Avery, you can have my number too, all you have to do is ask."

"Yeah, I'll pass, but thanks."

"Your loss."

By the time the girls left, it was almost time to close up. Kaden and Kendall had already come out with supplies to clean the tables and floors and I was beginning to turn off the machines.

"Hey Ken, need help with sweeping? It definitely looks like it. I mean, you're seriously the only person that can make it look like rocket science." Cole asked with a sarcastic tone while Kendall struggled to sweep.

"Screw you Cole, you're just lucky I haven't hit you with this broom yet."

"As intimidating as you are Ken, I think I can handl-" Kendall interrupted Cole by harshly hitting him on the shoulder with the broom.

"Ow!" Cole basically shrieked, causing me to burst out laughing while Kaden looked incredibly amused.

"You asked for that." Kaden said honestly, taking the broom from Kendall.

"Now you can sweep the floor bud." He smiled, getting a glare in response from Cole.

"Dude! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Actually, I'm on Averys side."

"Avery doesn't have a side!"

"Exactly."

I smiled at his statement.

Conversations varied as we continued to close up Mugs. It went from global warming to the Puppy Bowl to Gordon Ramsay and all the way back to Cole being annoying.

"I don't know why I still work here, everyone hates me." Cole faked a sad tone, causing me to laugh and Kaden and Kendall to roll their eyes, you know, the usual.

"Cole, you know we don't hate you." Kaden's reply was filled with annoyance, which earned yet another laugh from Cole.

"You're right, Avery doesn't. She basically laughs at everything I say."

"Cole, Avery laugh's at everything. I could go up to her and tell her my dog died and she'd laugh." Kaden replied.

"It's kinda true." I agreed with Kaden. Cole huffed.

"Fine, Molly's my new favourite."

"Wait, I was your favourite?" I questioned.

"Yep, but not anymore."

"Okay the only reason Molly is nice to you is because she's intimidated by you." Kendall pitched in.

"I'm being attacked!" Cole threw his hands up in the air.

"No, you're being dramatic." Kendall remarked.

When the day came to an end, Kaden and I walked quickly to his car, attempting to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

"Jesus Christ, it's freezing." I complained, crossing my arms.

"You're not in California anymore Ave. Welcome to Maine."

"I've lived here for over a month, and I'm still not used to it. It's unfair."

"Life's unfair." He stated, provoking me to roll my eyes.

When we finally reached Kaden's car, the interior wasn't any warmer than the outside. I look over to Kaden, who is wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans. He doesn't even have a jacket.

"Kade, aren't you freezing!"

"No, it's forty-eight degrees out."

"That's cold!"

"I've lived here my whole life, I'm used to it." He shrugged, starting the car.

"You're insane." My tone was obviously sarcastic, but I could've sworn I saw him flinch slightly. When he immediately smiled in amusement, I came to the conclusion that I had imagined it.

"Give it another four months, you'll get used to it too."

"If I don't get hypothermia by then." Thankfully, the heat in Kaden's car finally began to blast warm air.

❦ Psychotic ❦

"Can we watch Netflix?"

"No."

"Can we go for a walk?"

"No."

"Can we go to Mugs?"

"Neither of us are working today, and no."

"Can we-"

"No."

"You don't even know what I was gonna say!"

"Does it involve calculus homework?"

"No."

"Then no." Kaden repeated for the hundredth time. I sighed, laying dramatically at the foot of Kaden's bed while he sat at his desk with my calculus homework.

"Ave, do you want to fail physics and calculus?"  He questioned bluntly.

"Gee, thanks for being a real motivator."

"This is easy once you get the hang of it."

"Oh! Oh! I have an idea!" I exclaimed, basically jumping off his bed.

"And what would that be."

"You can do my homework, while I go next door to visit Helen!"

"Nice try, but no." Kaden responded, rolling his eyes.

"I don't know how to do it Kaden." I expressed, falling back onto the bed.

"Come here and I'll show you." His voice expressed slight annoyance. Taking my time, I got up and dragged my feet over to the desk, pulling a chair besides him.

"Fine."

Kaden attempted to explain the equations in front of me, and I was beginning to understand. It was important for me to get at least an A- in this class, since I was running out of time to straighten my GPA.

My previous years in high school, I had at least a 3.8 at the end of a semester and right now I had a 3.4, which was still good, but if I didn't get it up, my hopes of getting into a good university would crumble.

"Thanks Kade, I know I'm not the easiest person to work with."

"You're definitely not, but I didn't have anything better to do." He joked in response.

We finished two pages before I tapped out, I didn't think my brain could handle any more of this.

"Well, you got most of it right." Kaden said, checking over my work.

"Which did I get wrong?"

"Three A, nine E and eleven B."

"Okay, well that's better than last time." Kaden sighed at my response, but got up from the desk and motioned for me to follow him.

"We can finally leave!"

"You're being really annoying today." Kaden rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was holding back a smile.

"That's what you get for making me do calculus on a Saturday." I yelled because Kaden had already left the room. I went to catch up with him, but he was already waiting outside of the door.

"Come on Ave, I don't have all day." Kaden called out while going down the stairs at a rapid pace.

"Yeah you do." I responded, attempting not to fall.

"It's a figure of speech."

"I know." As I reached the bottom, I heard small taps on the floor. Suddenly, a Siberian Husky comes running towards me. I smiled, bending down to pet him. I had just recently met Owen, since the first time I came here he was at the vet, and the second time he was at Helens.

"Kade!"

"Yeah?"

"If we leave, who's gonna watch Owen?"

"He'll be fine alone for an hour."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Avery you've done nothing but complain for two hours about wanting to leave, and now that we are, you're taking years. Come on or I'll push you out this door myself." I could tell he was attempting to be serious, but it was obvious that he was restraining himself from laughing.

"Okay, okay." Walking towards the door, I slid on my Adidas and followed behind Kaden.

"Wait, where are we going again?"

"You'll see."

"Way to be specific." My answer caused Kaden to laugh.

Hoping in the passenger seat, I immediately turned on the heat. It was midday, and it was sixty degrees, but I was still a little cold since I was only wearing a mustard sweatshirt and leggings.

Kaden was a good driver, which was partially why I made him drive me to school a good portion of the week.

He was very observant, not just when driving, but in general. When I saw him talking to people who weren't Kendall, Cole, Molly or Me he knew exactly what to say. I asked him about it once, but he gave me a really complex answer as to how he did it, and I didn't really pick up on it. But I know it was something about observation.

"This is the most quiet you've been all day." Kaden spoke, his eyes focused on the road.

"I know, I've said all I have to say."

"Wise words."

"Wait actually, can you tell me where we're going?" I asked teasingly.

"You seriously had to ruin it."

"Yep."

After another ten minutes, Kaden parked his car on the side of the road.

"We're here."

"Very funny." I remarked, before I noticed Kaden actually started to get out of the car.

"Wait, you're serious?" I added, stepping out of the car.

"Yep, now come on." Kaden motioned me to follow him. I raised my eyebrows, but began walking in his direction.

"Uh, Kade? You didn't take me here to kill me, did you?" I asked sarcastically, standing besides him.

He laughed. "No."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay." We walked for maybe a minute before a large rock, looking over the ocean appeared. The crash of waves echoed through my ears.

It was beautiful.

"Oh my god, how did you find this?" I gasped in awe.

"Long story for a different time." He replied, taking a seat on the large rock. I sat next to him.

"Why'd you take me here?"

"It seemed like you needed a break." I turned to Kaden, my face questioning.

"I could tell you were worried about your grades. You were basically shaking just filling out the first page of your homework, which by the way, you didn't do bad at." Kaden turned to look at me too.

"You're really observant." Was the only thing I could think to say, but it earned a smile from him.

"So I've been told."

"By who?"

"Kendall." Now I was laughing.

"Of course she did." Both of our gazes went back to the ocean, before I spoke again.

"But you were right, I did need a break. Thank you."

Authors Note

wow i am updating so frequently i'm actually proud. so i'm sorry this chapter isn't great but this was an important chapter for the future of this book.

i was trying to build on avery and kaden's friendship in this so i'm sorry if this chapter bored you to death. i hope you have a great rest of your day!