I went inside the pantry and leaned my face at the table. I felt so exhausted from yesterday since I didn't have a nice sleep last night. And now, the girl just came out from nowhere and grinned at me like we knew each other. I didn't recall her from anywhere so it's impossible for us to know each other.
"Hey, Good morning Mia!" I jolted out when Justin banged his hands on the table. I glared at him and hit his head.
"You stupid, Jus! I'm trying to rest!" I hit his head again before walking out of the pantry.
"Where were you going?!" He yelled from the pantry but I ignored him. Theodore, on the other hand, gave me a cup of coffee without looking at me. I attempted to peek at him but he kept looking away.
"What's wrong?" He sighed as he turned to face me. My eyes went wide when his face had a big bruise and a wound at the edge of his lips.
"What happened to your face?" I asked as I pulled him out of the counter and sat on the chair. I went to the pantry to get the first aid kit. I walked back and sat in front of Theodore.
"This was going to hurt. Just tell me if it's too much." He nodded. I put some povidone-iodide to the cotton before cleaning his wound.
"Justin! Give me a pack of ice!" I yelled before continuing to clean his wounds.
"You didn't tell me what happened to your face."
"There are some guys outside and they insulted Justin from being gay. I know that he can fight with them but I didn't expect that he was just walking away. I got mad at myself if I didn't help my boyfriend so I smacked the guys, who humiliated him." He explained while playing his fingers.
"Did Justin know about this?" He shook his head, admitting to my question.
"Don't do this again, Theo." He sighed and nodded.
"Mia, there you...go." Justin stopped when seeing Theodore had a bruise.
"W...what happened to your face?" Theodore didn't reply and just looked away. I gave the cotton to Justin to continue my work and I left to give them space and went to the pantry to bake some pastries.
After an hour of preparation, I opened the shop when seeing the customers waiting outside. I gave them a smile and welcomed them.
"Why are you late for opening your shop?" A middle-aged woman inquired as she came to me and gave me a peck on my cheeks.
"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Robinsons. We're kind of late preparing the pastry," I explained as I walked with her to her favorite spot.
"That's fine. I know it's very hard to manage the shop when you are very young. Anyways, give me my drinks." She said while smiling at me.
"You got it, Mrs. Robinsons." I bowed at her before stepping back at the counter.
"Drinks for Mrs. Robinsons," I instructed Justin the order, who's checking all the equipment and the beverages.
"Mrs. Robinsons?" Justin asked as he looked around to see her. He gave a smile to Mrs. Robinsons before creating her order. I continued Justin's work as he did her order.
"She's very early," Justin said while placing berries at her drinks.
"I know," I said while doing all the work.
I excused myself to them since I needed to buy all the ingredients needed for the shop. I went out of the shop and strolled to the road but I noticed that someone was following me. "Again? Why didn't just leave me alone?" I whispered.
I strived to avoid my intuition and wandered faster to reach my destination. I went inside the store without any problem and bought all the needed for the shop.
"There's someone at the door." One of the customers said to the owner. My body froze when the woman from the morning was at the door, like waiting for someone or me. She kept looking at my direction and the smile never left to her face which freaked me out.
"I need to get out of here," I whispered and went to the cashier to pay my things before walking out of the store.
I kept looking around when hearing the heavy footsteps behind my back but no one was there. I'm very exhausted from being uneasy when I'm roaming the sidewalk, alone. I stopped walking and took a deep breath and said,
"Who's there!?" I looked around but no one was there.
"Oh, now you can't show yourself! Try to be braver next time and not to follow me from where I'll be going and it's not funny!"
I shook my head when no one was appearing from anywhere. "She can follow me but she can't show herself. What a good game." I whispered and went back to the shop. Justin and Theodore were looking at me when I entered the shop.
"What happened to you? You're… I don't know… Distress?" Justin asked as he grabbed the bag.
"Someone was following me and when I challenged that person, it didn't show up but she had the guts to look at me" I mumbled as I leaned myself to the table and looked out. My heart jumped when I saw Christian step inside the shop. "This is a nightmare," I whispered while looking at him.
He smiled at me before walking to the counter. "His smile...really made my day." I smiled while looking at his back. I raised my eyebrows when realizing that I'm very captivated by him.
"Nope, I'm not!" I shook my head vigorously when I attempted to eliminate his face out of my head.
I bit my inner cheek when he strolled in my direction. "Coffee." I smiled and nodded before accepting the coffee.
"Are you okay? You're like stress."
"It's...Nothing. I'm just exhausted." I sighed as I sipped my coffee.
"Did something happen?" I just shook my head while looking outside. He just nodded and looked around."There are no customers." He opened the topic but I ignored it when I noticed again from outside.
"Christian, wait a minute. I'll check something," I glimpsed at the girl again, who's standing in front of the shop, staring at Christian. I ran my head through my hair as I stood up and when she noticed me walking out of the shop, her eyes widened and suddenly walked out. I tried to reach her but she ran away.
"Who was that?" Christian asked as he walked out of the shop. I gaze at him and shrug.
"I don't know who she was but I need to investigate her. She kept following me wherever I went."