Ellie was done serving a customer coffee and turned to the side only to see Sydney coming into the shop with Roman. "Roman" She called his name in delight, quickly dropping the tray on the counter and rushing to embrace him.
"Hey, little man. What are you doing here? No school for you today?" She carried him in her arms and asked as if she wanted him to be in school today. It's a good thing he's taking a break from school today, so he doesn't go and end up getting involved in another fight again.
It's highly obvious he's very magnetic to fights.
"No, Auntie, I'm going to stay with you and Mommy today" Roman let out a pretty smile that melted Ellie's heart, letting her know now he'll be staying with them in the coffee shop today. He's super excited about it because everyone would have totally turned on him in school today if he had gone there.
No one wants to be friends with the kid who has hurt almost half of his classmates.
"Aww, isn't that so sweet?" Ellie placed a kiss on Roman's forehead and shifted her attention over to Sydney.
"What happened? He's going to be staying with us for real today?" Ellie questioned, though having known the answer already. Sydney never brings Roman to the coffee shop with her after getting him ready for school. She takes him straight to school without wasting time.
"I just figured out he needs a little break from school and I have made up my mind to have him homeschooled. I didn't want to do that in the first place because I wanted him to be able to make friends, but Roman here is clearly allergic to making friends"
Sydney didn't let Ellie know one of the reasons she changed her mind to having Roman homeschooled, despite their conversation last night, was because of the bullying he has been receiving from his classmates lately. Especially Ray, the kid who he fought with yesterday and did a lot of damage to.
Barry's the cause of it and talking about Barry during work is certainly going to put her in such a bad mood this morning. Which she doesn't want to happen, Barry has done more harm than good and now it's affecting their pup too. Her pup to be precise, Sydney likes to refer to Roman as her pup only.
"Woah, I think that's too fast, what made you change your mind again? I thought we agreed on letting him be homeschooled when he's much older" Ellie was surprised that Sydney changed her mind so suddenly to homeschool Roman. She didn't seem to like the idea of that even when she was the one who actually brought it up yesterday.
"Nothing, I just want the best for my little man" Sydney ruffled Roman's hair, playing with it and he gave her a big pretty smile.
The little conversation she had with him early this morning while bathing him, made her put into consideration everything that she and Ellie talked about last night. Having Roman homeschooled is probably the best thing they could do for him and themselves now.
To help reduce the number of casualties that happen in his class every day he goes to school. Sydney can't keep up with visiting his school with apologies to the parents of the kid her pup hurt.
She's tired of it and finding out that Roman has been going through bullying is just the worst part of everything.
"Would you like some cookies? Auntie would like to make you one" Ellie asked, willing to do anything for Roman as long as he gave her one of his special cute little smiles. His smile is one of a kind.
"Yes! Cookies, they are my favorite" Roman gave Ellie a positive answer with the cute little smile she needed from him. Sydney watching the lovely act he and Ellie were putting up smiled. The two of them are the best definition of best friends. Nothing can ever come between these two.
Ellie took Roman away to serve him the cookies they talked about, while Sydney went about serving some of the customers flooding into the shop. She continued with the job until she noticed a familiar unwelcome presence in the shop and stopped abruptly.
Moving back slowly to the table she walked past where the familiar presence was seated, she saw Shane.
"Shane?" She called in a low manner, yesterday's visit was a surprise and might have been a wonderful one but today's own isn't. What is he here for this time?
What type of excuse is he going to make up? That is going to make her believe he just came to see her and not spy on her since they have rarely seen each other for years now.
"Hi sis," Shane waved at Sydney, who tried returning her lit face to how it was before Shane made an appearance in her shop out of nowhere and without warning and got her pissed.
"What are you doing here?" She asked in an angry whispering tone.
"What else do you think I'm here for? I came for coffee" Shane took notice of the changes in Sydney's face and had a feeling it was because of his presence here. Since she had a smile on her face not too long ago before she just discovered him here.
"There's a lot of coffee shops out there, why don't you go find one right now and never come back here again?" Sydney requested sternly through gritted teeth. Seeing Shane here makes her have a really bad feeling that he might not be the next family member to show his face to her soon.
"Take it easy, Syd. I just came to have coffee, that's all" Shane shrugged with innocence to prove to Sydney he was only telling her the truth, but she didn't buy it.
"I don't care about that, just go somewhere else, Shane. I don't need you here and I'm not serving you any coffee" Sydney doesn't intend on treating Shane like a customer, so he can leave her coffee shop. If he's that desperate for coffee, then he should go somewhere else.
Her shop isn't the only coffee shop around.
"You are being rude to a customer, Syd. And if I were to raise my voice about it here. I don't think that would be convenient for your other customers here. Come on, I just want to have a cup of coffee only, please" Shane requested with a smile after threatening Sydney, thinking it would make her change her mind about not serving him coffee.
However, she just scoffed at his threats, this was one of the reasons she ran away from home.
Her family doesn't know when to leave one to be. "You know you can go scream to the entire neighborhood that I don't want to serve you, but before you do that. You should know I still won't change my mind. Now please leave"
Sydney pleaded humbly, hoping Shane would listen and do as she said this time. But she was disappointed when he didn't, so she sighed and then tried to leave.
"I'm not spying on you, Syd. I came here because of Mom" Shane dropped the words that made Sydney pause in her tracks. She should have known he was here to convince her to come back home again, which is still not going to happen so Sydney turned, saying.
"I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say it to you before you get it that I'm never going back home. This place is my home now" She made known to Shane and attempted to leave again when he dropped the words that got her undivided attention back on him again.
"Mom, she's separating from Dad"