Time to study...or just talk to random people (Map)

[Leigh (DELETED 5751)]

Leigh pulled her jacket tighter around her as she hosted her heavy back pack up onto her shoulders. She might be stronger now but the damn thing still felt like it weighed more than she did. It was the price you paid for wanting to be a medical student. She placed her headphones in her ears and hit play on her phone. The sweet sweet voice of Brandon Boyd and Incubus filled her head. She found herself humming in tune with them as she made her way from the classroom.

She passed by a number of other students and some professors as she made her way out of the building and into the cold night air. Her phone goes off, interrupting her music. She pulls it from her jacket pocket. It’s a text from Aiden. He’ll be working late and thus won't be home till late. She had free time now. She shrugged to herself as she thought what to do. She could just go home and do her studies though she didn’t have much else to do to there at the moment. She did not wish to be in the large home by herself or worse, his other childer could be there and she did not wish to be with her either.

She huffed as she thought of something to do. Most people that had been in her classroom had talked of food as they left. The idea was a good one. She looked up where a good coffee shop around. It seemed like a good enough place to do some studying or just kill some time.

She entered the coffee shop as the delicious smell of the fresh coffee surrounded her in it’s warm embrace. She quickly ordered her something tall, hot and chocolaty before finding a nice table to sit at and enjoy it. She pulled her backpack off and opened it, removing her laptop and one of the anatomy books for her class. She moved her headphones from her cell to the laptop as she started to move from typing to reading the next part of the book.

[MAP (DELETED 5421)]

His fingers drummed against the styrofoam cup he held within his grasps. Impatient. All he felt was impatient, desperately wanting to get back to his table. It wasn't that he had a deadline or anything, but he wanted to be able to submit something to Harper Rock Sun sooner rather than later. He wasn't hurting for money; no, the pizza gig was helping him back ends meet. He didn't require much to be honest to live. The last submission, though, awarded him five hundred dollars, whose benefits he was still seeing to this day. It gave him a good cushion in his bank account and it put food in his mini fridge and in the cabinets of his motel room. Now, as he stood in the line, he wanted nothing more to continue to live 'above' his means for just a little while longer. But that required work. That required finding a good story to submit to the paper. A paper that would be worth publishing.

He glanced over his shoulder only to realize he couldn't see much from where he was standing. Or it may have been the fact a large man was standing behind him. The gentleman eyed him, looking quite annoyed. Moreso, his face told Mikey if he didn't turn back around, there were going to be problems. Perhaps he was just reading into his body language too intently or focusing on his body more than anything. No, that wasn't it. He gave an uneasy smile and retracted his head back to its original position: looking forward. His fingers continued to drum to keep himself distracted; so he wouldn't worry about his things being unattended too long. Not that his laptop would walk out on its own or if people would actually let someone swipe it up without voicing their concerns. It wasn't as if people hadn't been watching him punch at the keys for almost an hour now.

Mikey saw himself inching closer and closer to the counter until he was actually able to touch the edge of it with his stomach. He held his cup out, clearing his throat, "Just a refill." Cash was exchanged and he was moving along right back to his things. He fiddled with the top of his coffee, being horrible with his hand eye coordination while walking.

Plus, he was visibly distracted by his own thoughts. What story could he use? He had a few ideas of what he could send in but none of them had that umph to it. At least not the umph he felt like the paper really deserved. Why he was working so hard for this paper, he didn't even know. From what he read of it, it had a mixture of truth and fiction all wrapped up into a chaotic ball filled with...well, everything. But the five hundred dollars still sounding incredibly appealing. "Maybe aliens," Mikey muttered to himself, shaking his head. His hand continued to fiddle with the top. Hissing, he glanced down in order to get a visual in order to properly seal his coffee in. Instead, the tip of his right foot ended up colliding and getting momentarily caught by the leg of a chair he was passing by. The surprise of this collision caused him to stumble and his hand missed the opportunity of putting the top on his coffee.

The hot coffee sloshed toward the right, spilling out of the cup onto his hand and onto the open anatomy book of this innocent girl studying right beside at the time of the accident.

"****, ****, ****!" He yelled, dropping the cup immediately and watching in horror was the rest of the contents spilled on the floor. Mikey shook at his hand, reaching across to a nearby table and grabbing for the pile of leftover napkins with his non pained hand.

[Leigh (DELETED 5751)]

The pages in front of her go from there nice, white, crisp and clean self to being brown, wet, and slowly wrinkling. A look of horror quickly comes over her face as the last bit of work she needed for this semester was changing in front of her face. She grabbed her laptop quickly and moved it out of the way of the flow of the lava that was the coffee. She quickly looked the computer over and sighed with a relief as it had not been hit by the coffee and was, there for safe.

She sat it in a chair next to her as she got up and grabbed some more napkins. She placed them on the floor before she turned to the man that had dropped his coffee. “Are you okay?” She said just as a general concern before she saw his hand. “Holy ****! Your hand! Are you okay?!” Now she moved form generally to genuinely concerned for the man.

She ran to the bathroom and grabbed some paper towels and ran the cold water and put the towels under the water. She rang them out and quickly ran back out to that man. As she gently took his burnt hand and wrapped the towels around them, patting them gently to try to get the coffee off and pull the heat from the burnt area.

[MAP (DELETED 5421)]

He dropped the napkins on the floor and planted his foot on them, sloshing the paper around to soak up most of the spilled coffee. He cradled the now red hand close to his body. He continued to sloshing the paper around even as the woman dropped a bit more onto the floor. All he could do was silent string a slew of curses together. ****. ****. ****. ****. Damn it Damn it. Mikey looked up and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I'm alright," he finally answered, shaking out his burned hand before cradling it close to his body once more. It didn't matter though; she had seen it. The woman made a big fuss and it only made the young man feel a bit more sick in his stomach. He felt as if everyone's eyes were on him. Some may have laughed at his misfortune. Others may have though he deserved it.

He himself thought he deserved it since he hadn't paid attention to where he was going. Though, he rather that the consequence hadn't been burning himself with hot coffee. He wrinkled his nose. Holy ****, though. His hand did hurt a good damn bit. Mikey considered just hurrying up and finishing the cleaning of his mess then ducking out. His table was near the entrance anyway. But the woman came back just before he could finally make a decision. Before his lips could confess through protest, she had taken his pained hand, wrapped it up, and put a cold compress on it. His eyes glanced up at her before a second before he averted his gaze. Any other guy would have loved this opportunity gifted to him. The woman was beautiful and obviously, she was a caring individual as well.

But he didn't feel lucky; he felt awkward. He felt very awkward as she held his hand and he couldn't bring himself to tell her he appreciated the care but didn't want it. So he took it because that's what Mikey did. He took things because he rather be uncomfortable than to make someone else uncomfortable or feel bad. "Thank you," he finally managed out, sighing softly while shaking his head. "I don't know what the hell happened. I was just trying to put the top on my coffee..."

His eyes averted to the chair and ran into, grumbling darkly, but continued to ramble, "And I hate the chair. How the hell did I not see that coming?"

He frowned, peeking at the coffee stained anatomy book. "I'm sorry," he offered, an apologetic smile tinted his lips, " Are you borrowing that book or did you buy it? I can pay you back for the damages. I feel shitty."