+A Cup of Milk Tea+

Coffee V: Price of Coffee

Bastien fumbled with the lid of his two to go cup as he tried to secure it before spilling coffee over his mittened fingers, the annoyance clearly shown in the deep creases between his eyes as he tried to tighten the push down top. White steam whifted up from his cup as well as his mouth in the cold air. He shrugged his messanger bag up higher on his shoulder, struggling to keep his bag on while still failing to tighten the lid on his second cup, the first seeming to finally cooperate. He continued down the snow peppered path back to the dormitories, the drinks held in both hands, wondering why no one had yet invented an easier way to carry these hot liquids when familiar voices made him slow his step to glance around with wary and alert eyes.

"...you." Two figures were treking over the snow covered ground, ignoring the paths that other students and staff had already broken in. A taller form had his head bent forward, blue patterened beanie pulled down low over ears as his hands swung and waved expressively, adding in to whatever the conversation was, the cold air filtering most of it from Bastien. It was the shorter person next to him that had his focus, slips of hair and bangs showing under the fur trimmed hood that fell forward, covering all but the tiny bits of cheek and lashes and nose peeking out when the dusky light hit the skin.

She was smiling, not a laughing full-out smile, but a smile nonetheless, the cold burning a pink across her cheeks where he could see them. He said something and then waved his arms, bringing them up to his head almost like some confused land mammal and swinging them around started making some sound. The sight made her start and then start laughing, mittened hand held up to her mouth as she tried not to lose her hood while walking.

He watched, unconcsciously stepping to the side of some trees that bordered the path, ignoring the random pedestrian here and there, watching as the two disappeared into the campus coffee shop he'd just exited some minutes earlier, watched the tinted windows and imagining in his head the boy buying her a drink, holding her hand to lead her up to the counter, brushing the loose strand of hair out of her face. He stood there until his cups of coffee had gone from steaming hot to lukewarm.

"Excuse me sir? Can I help you?" A goodwilled student with a splatter of freckles mismatched with dark black hair tied in pigtails pulled on his sleeves. He looked down without seeing and then blinked, pulling back to where he was, standing covered in windblown snow, two cups still in his hand.

Without a word of thanks or acknowledgement, he turned and returned down the path he'd been walking down. The cups of coffee for himself and Capri he flung with the last bit of controlled anger he had into the first trashcan he came by. One cup made it in, the other bouncing off the edge, cold brown coffee splattering all over the metal canister, styrafoam cup bouncing lightly to drop to a sad resting place at the side of the trashcan. He didn't even spare it a glance as he passed by, hands clenched tightly in his pockets.